Building a new desktop PC, what do ya'll think?

[KicknAsphlt]

There is no such thing as 'written for nVidia instruction sets' - there are only two ways to code for graphics cards: DirectX or OpenGL. When you code a game, you write it with one library in mind - not both. As both ATI and nVidia cards support OpenGL and DirectX, the only difference is how these two differing architectures process the data (down entirely to the drivers you use). Some features will be supported in hardware on one card, that another might not have - nVidia took an age to get into the DX10 game, preferring not to concentrate on features, but simple brute force. nVidia really are making crap right now. The fermi architecture is hot, power hungry and not brilliantly efficient. AMD/ATI aren't the king of brute force with the current gen (although we'll see when the 69x0 series is released in a week or two), but they do provide 90% of the power, for less money. They also use less power, and run cooler. AMD/ATI have a much, much better midrange selection than nVidia currently, and a lot of nVidia's recent releases were merely renamed G92 GPU's (G92 = 8800GTS-512, 9800GTX, GTS250 etc) as they didn't have anything they could put on the table :/

I buy cards not for their brand, but the features they provide at a given price point, and the relative performance they offer. I'd rather buy a Radeon 6850 than an GTX460.

It seems I stand corrected then. I was always under the impression that certain games were written to take advantage of the Nvidia chipsets over the ATI cards, especially since a lot of those games (stating 'designed for Nvidia') got better performance with Nvidia cards than the ATI equivalents. I thought it had something to do with the games being written to utilize the specific instruction sets/card technologies.

Truth be told, I've usually been an 'ATI guy', but my last desktop build I got my hands on an Nvidia card for , so I built around that...plus I thought I'd try out the whole 'sli' craze...lol. I have heard though that SLI has been outperforming Crossfire (unless that's changed recently).

 

[honestabe]

Pics and final specs will be posted. Just gotta get my finances available for this.

 

[northwestsupra]

Pics and final specs will be posted. Just gotta get my finances available for this.

You gonna have to call me when you know what you want LOL

sent from my ultimate droid

 

[northwestsupra]

AFAIK, SLI and Crossfire are two completely different (but similar) technologies. They work the same, but the instruction sets are different, so I'm sure the boards aren't cross-compatible.

Thanks for clearing it up. LOL wasn't sure.

sent from my ultimate droid

 

[honestabe]

I'll update the 1st post as the components change.

 

[Kai]

The thing is, SLI and Crossfire are great ideas in theory - but they each require separate game profiles in the driver sets. If the profile doesn't exist - crossfire or SLI will either not be enabled in game, or it'll run like a pile of crap. You end up with microstutter on both technologies - which is basically lag between the GPU's. As it goes GPU #1 - Frame 1, GPU #2 - Frame 2, GPU #1 - Frame 3, GPU #2 - Frame 4 etc etc ad infinitum. You'll get some monster framerates with either system, but it's not as fluid as some might like, with minimum framerates taking a kicking because of GPU/Framebuffer transfer lag.

It depends entirely on the game. Some work better with SLI, some with Crossfire - it's really a toss-up.

 

[northwestsupra]

not even x4 sli is smooth?

 

[Kai]

Four way is the laggiest - as you have to synchronise all four GPU's, and transfer data between themselves.

Look up 'microstutter' - you'll find it's the biggest detractor of multiGPU setups.

 

[northwestsupra]

so if there is so much lag then why bother with even doing sli?

 

[GrimJack]

Most people don't. I don't know anyone who has an SLI / crossfire setup that would buy another one.

 

[3p141592654]

Since I am paranoid, I always go for redundancy. Why not buy another drive for $89 and run using the built-in RAID 1, or do nightly backups to the second drive if you prefer protections against viruses and whoops! errors.

Also, it is curious that you have no budget for the OS!:icon_razz

 

[northwestsupra]

I'm supplying him the os LOL windows 7 64 bit ultimate.

sent from my ultimate droid

 

[honestabe]

Meh, I'll add a 2nd HD later. Not that important at the moment

 

[3p141592654]

Well, it's tough to convert to RAID later after the OS is installed on it.

 

[northwestsupra]

i've always ran 1 HD or 2 seperate but never have i used raid or setup a raid config. but i've also never had a need to and i just stick to using hd1 for windows and hd2 for DL's and games, sometimes ill sneek a game or 2 onto hd 1 though lol.

---------- Post added at 04:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:12 AM ----------

and it sucks that these are only in a 1gb form cause they are bad ass lol
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148296
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzpCNJOWXB8

 

[northwestsupra]

never mind they do lol, had it set to filter to a certain price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148341
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148327

 

[honestabe]

Sooo what's the deal with those 3 items Trevor? I'm lost.

 

[northwestsupra]

haha they just cool, the only difference i think is the color of the leds on them, basically the lights flash when the memory is accessed so the more you use the memory the faster the lights start to flash "so thats the theroy at least" pretty cool stuff but as for performance i think they are just mid grade memory, but good enough for gaming, it also helps you know if your computer is frozen or not lol no light movement time to manually power down and back up. Also if the lights turn off on any of them then you know you have faulty memory "i think". I just like them cause of the light show it produces though

 

[SupraOfDoom]

I used to have a 9600 GT SLI setup and I have nothing but good things to say about it ( for games that supported it anyway ).

Some good news for you computer junkies ( for me anyway ): I bought a 480 GTX for my new i7 build on 8-10-2010 from EVGA. Turns out I made the 90 day "step it up" program by 1 day, to get a brand new 580 GTX which just came out for only $30! This is the best card on the market, is 20-30% more powerful than my 480, and best off all runs cooler and quieter. Could not be happier. I really recommend getting EVGA products from now on, as they seem to have the best warranties as well. There is a thread on overclock.net about what place you are in line for the 580 step it up, and most people are 500+. I'm #5 .

So excited / happy.

Also, I don't know about you guys, but from all my personal experiences and the posts on overclock.net generally nvidia cards have less problems. Whether its software or hardware. I could be wrong, but it's just from what I've noticed. That wasn't the reason I went with NVIDIA ( although I've had nothing but good experiences with them in the past ), because I had actually originally ordered a AMD card for this build. The reason I exchanged it at newegg was because I really wanted NVIDIA's 3D vision kit. This things is IMPRESSIVE!

 

[Kai]

nVidia cards have their fair share of hardware issues...G96 chips cracking for example, due to a faulty foundry process. The difference is - everytime nvidia have problems, they're glossed over as 'well, no-ones perfect' but everytime AMD/ATi have problems, it's made into a huge deal by the fanboys.