• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Big Baybee said:
Is the i7 920 worth the 300 bucks, or should I just go with the i5 750 for $100 less?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you're using it for. If its just gaming then go for the i5.
 
Big Baybee said:
Is the i7 920 worth the 300 bucks, or should I just go with the i5 750 for $100 less?
Click to expand...
I went i5. i7 was way too expensive, and I won't be doing any encoding with any kind of regularity. Bought a Hyper 212+ with it and made it up to 4ghz without breaking a sweat. Arctic Silver is starting to kick in and I'm idling at 36 on the highest core and 68 after a few hours of Prime95. Anecdotal evidence, but I'm very happy that I went i5.
 
Romance Pie said:
That is a good PSU and still plenty of power for your system.

Is anything OCed in your compy? I've found that my rig doesn't like running at 3.8 and would do random shut downs. The same would happened with a friends PC.

Or it could possibly be a overheating issue. Try running realtemp or speed fan and see what your thermals are if your case is cramped.
Click to expand...
Everything in my system is running at stock speeds, haven't had any crashes/shutdowns at all for over a week now.

These are the results of running RealTemp tests with Prime95

CPUTemps.png
 
Holy shit guys!

Thanks to a miss pricing of a 24" 1920x1200 monitor in Comet I now have one for £150, no way I could skip on it.

Its a hp w2448hc

2zs2m3q.jpg


ITS HUGE!!!!!
 
Big Baybee said:
Is the i7 920 worth the 300 bucks, or should I just go with the i5 750 for $100 less?
Click to expand...

If you are going to pay 300 for an i7 get the 930, its at newegg for a little under 300. Ordered mine yesterday, the overclocking results on it have been very good. If you arent going to overclock it runs 133mhz faster than the 920 stock for the same price.
 
Gowans007 said:
Holy shit guys!

Thanks to a miss pricing of a 24" 1920x1200 monitor in Comet I now have one for £150, no way I could skip on it.

Its a hp w2448hc

http://i45.tinypic.com/2zs2m3q.jpg[IMG]

ITS HUGE!!!!![/QUOTE]
I have HP w2338h. I guess that makes you better. But, holy shit, yeah. I absolutely love this monitor. You got a great deal on yours.

I'm assuming that they're at least a little similar.
Click to expand...
 
I'm looking for a new monitor... in the $250 range.

Checking around on Newegg... not sure what to go with.
 
For most of the games yes.

More and more games thanks having a tri or quad-core. For that the Athlon II X4 630 is one of the best cpu price/performance out there.

For a bit more the Phenom II X4 945.


If you search the best bang for buck then the Athlon II X3 435 2.9Ghz.
 
I tell a lie when I said my performence went from 30fps in GTA IV before. I've just looked at the log file from my backup xp data and it was 22fps:

old:

Statistics
Average FPS: 22.19
Duration: 33.12 sec
CPU Usage: 90%
System memory usage: 81%
Video memory usage: 81%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 24
Detail Distance: 36

Hardware
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 3
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4770
Video Driver version: 6.14.10.7028
Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+

New:

Statistics
Average FPS: 60.27
Duration: 37.18 sec
CPU Usage: 74%
System memory usage: 75%
Video memory usage: 90%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 32
Detail Distance: 100

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Video Driver version: 196.21
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor

Holy shit :lol .
 
Odious Tea said:
I have HP w2338h. I guess that makes you better. But, holy shit, yeah. I absolutely love this monitor. You got a great deal on yours.

I'm assuming that they're at least a little similar.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can't get over the size, quality and rez. I love it already.

Best deal ever.
 
So GAF, Im in the process of putting together a cheap-ish HTPC set up. I already have a case purchased, any recommendations for a mobo and processor ( MATX ) that'll handle HD content ( both from disc and from the HD )? UK stores btw.
 
my display inexplicably turned black and white (hp 2009m), so i switched it to vga and it's fine now. strange thing is that it would start up briefly in color then revert back to b/w. was my dvi cable bad or is this monitor gonna die (plz noooo)?
 
Wow! this thread popped up in a timely fashion :D Hopefully some of you tech junkies can help an imbecile like myself. So heres the deal, I've been wanting to get a HD capture card for a while because my Hava unit wasn't cutting it(only does 480i) so i picked up an AVerTV HD DVR. Since its less than half the price of other HD capture units I thought Id give it a shot.

212576898.jpg


The problem I've encountered is that capturing anything above 720 by 480 results in significant stuttering which makes it look like stop motion. The specs required to run it are

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz or Equivalent AMD CPU
Graphics Card VGA card with 128MB memory supports DirectX 9.0c or above
Memory 1GB RAM or above
Operating Systems Supported Windows 7/ Vista / XP (32 and 64 Bit)
Others 200MB Hard Drive Space
Sound Card

My CP specs(please dont laugh :lol )

AMD Athalon 64 X2 4200+
Asus 8ANE 939
2 GB Ram
160 GB HD ATA
HIS 4670

My question is do you thinks its one or all the above that is causing my problems and if so what would be the cheapest CPU/MB/RAM I could get to fulfill me needs. I don't game on PC and mostly use it for video capturing purposes so If I need to build a new PC I want the cheapest solution possible. Since I live close to Tiger Direct thats where I would be getting the parts - http://www.tigerdirect.com/

Please GAF, help a poor technically challenged gamer in his hour of need :D
 
ntropy said:
my display inexplicably turned black and white (hp 2009m), so i switched it to vga and it's fine now. strange thing is that it would start up briefly in color then revert back to b/w. was my dvi cable bad or is this monitor gonna die (plz noooo)?
Click to expand...
I'd jiggle and double check your cables.
 
MiniDitka said:
Wow! this thread popped up in a timely fashion :D Hopefully some of you tech junkies can help an imbecile like myself. So heres the deal, I've been wanting to get a HD capture card for a while because my Hava unit wasn't cutting it(only does 480i) so i picked up an AVerTV HD DVR. Since its less than half the price of other HD capture units I thought Id give it a shot.

212576898.jpg


The problem I've encountered is that capturing anything above 720 by 480 results in significant stuttering which makes it look like stop motion. The specs required to run it are

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz or Equivalent AMD CPU
Graphics Card VGA card with 128MB memory supports DirectX 9.0c or above
Memory 1GB RAM or above
Operating Systems Supported Windows 7/ Vista / XP (32 and 64 Bit)
Others 200MB Hard Drive Space
Sound Card

My CP specs(please dont laugh :lol )

AMD Athalon 64 X2 4200+
Asus 8ANE 939
2 GB Ram
160 GB HD ATA
HIS 4670

My question is do you thinks its one or all the above that is causing my problems and if so what would be the cheapest CPU/MB/RAM I could get to fulfill me needs. I don't game on PC and mostly use it for video capturing purposes so If I need to build a new PC I want the cheapest solution possible. Since I live close to Tiger Direct thats where I would be getting the parts - http://www.tigerdirect.com/

Please GAF, help a poor technically challenged gamer in his hour of need :D
Click to expand...

The Athlon 4200+ is a 2.2Ghz CPU, which even if it were clock for clock equal to the Intel (which it isn't), it still falls short of the 2.4Ghz requirement. That's probably one of your problems for sure.

I'd recommend posting the question on their forums if they have active forums, otherwise, you should only need CPU + adequate HDD speed to capture video. Chances are your HDD is fast enough, but you could always run Crystal Mark to find out, since you're running the OS on the same drive as you're doing the capturing, it might affect performance a little, but I'd think not enough to matter. Chances are, it's just your CPU, since it's below the required specs.
 
Minsc said:
The Athlon 4200+ is a 2.2Ghz CPU, which even if it were clock for clock equal to the Intel (which it isn't), it still falls short of the 2.4Ghz requirement. That's probably one of your problems for sure.

I'd recommend posting the question on their forums if they have active forums, otherwise, you should only need CPU + adequate HDD speed to capture video. Chances are your HDD is fast enough, but you could always run Crystal Mark to find out, since you're running the OS on the same drive as you're doing the capturing, it might affect performance a little, but I'd think not enough to matter. Chances are, it's just your CPU, since it's below the required specs.
Click to expand...
I thought that might be a problem, unfortunately it doest seem like you can upgrade a 939 socket unless you want to pay exorbitant prices so it appears I might have to build a new PC. Sooo, any suggestions guys on cheap(and I do mean cheap) CPU/MB that can do the job?
 
Is there any reason why loading in games would be longer going from XP to Win7 64-bit?

L4D2 is taking 1-2 minutes to load a map, whereas it used to take about 20-30 seconds
 
Minsc said:
The Athlon 4200+ is a 2.2Ghz CPU, which even if it were clock for clock equal to the Intel (which it isn't), it still falls short of the 2.4Ghz requirement. That's probably one of your problems for sure.

I'd recommend posting the question on their forums if they have active forums, otherwise, you should only need CPU + adequate HDD speed to capture video. Chances are your HDD is fast enough, but you could always run Crystal Mark to find out, since you're running the OS on the same drive as you're doing the capturing, it might affect performance a little, but I'd think not enough to matter. Chances are, it's just your CPU, since it's below the required specs.
Click to expand...

I would also imagine that you would be CPU constrained as it's not likely that the capture device uses GPU acceleration. At least when you upgrade your PC down the road the capture card will still be a nice add-on.

MiniDitka said:
I thought that might be a problem, unfortunately it doest seem like you can upgrade a 939 socket unless you want to pay exorbitant prices so it appears I might have to build a new PC. Sooo, any suggestions guys on cheap(and I do mean cheap) CPU/MB that can do the job?
Click to expand...

If the card is indeed CPU driven you'll easily want to go with an i5 or i7 chip based. Phenom II's are great for the vast majority of people out there but for encoding they'll fall pretty far behind.

Bebpo said:
Is there any reason why loading in games would be longer going from XP to Win7 64-bit?

L4D2 is taking 1-2 minutes to load a map, whereas it used to take about 20-30 seconds
Click to expand...

I don't recall if XP stored frequently used data in your memory but Windows 7 does require some time to learn and adjust what it keeps stored in RAM 'just in case'. Give it a couple week and you should notice marked improvements.

Edit: It looks like XP does not have the superfetch feature but gaming performance should be on par from XP -> 7. Seems like something fishy is going on. Is it possible that there is something happening in the background such as disk defrag or some sort of synch that would be holding up your harddrive?
 
Odious Tea said:
Is that including a monitor? If it's not you can have a relatively high-end system. Otherwise, knock $250 off that, so you can treat yourself to a decent monitor.

Have you decided between the i5 or the i7? If you already have a build rolling around in your head, post it here and we'll tweak it for you.
Click to expand...

No that's not including monitor which I already have. Also I think I would go with the i7 860 after reading up on it for a few days. As for a build in mind something like this:

i7 860
SSD
TB HD
8GB RAM
5870/GTX 480

As far as case, motherboard, power supply and other things I'm missing I have no clue. Also I said 1.2k, but I'd be willing to go up to 1.5k but not any higher than that.
 
Shambles said:
I would also imagine that you would be CPU constrained as it's not likely that the capture device uses GPU acceleration. At least when you upgrade your PC down the road the capture card will still be a nice add-on.

If the card is indeed CPU driven you'll easily want to go with an i5 or i7 chip based. Phenom II's are great for the vast majority of people out there but for encoding they'll fall pretty far behind.
Click to expand...
There goes my cheap solution :lol Thanks for the info.
 
MiniDitka said:
There goes my cheap solution :lol Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

It also appears that the card does not support HDCP which means no captures from Blu-rays and possibly other devices through HDMI. You also have to have a harddrive setup that can handle the write speeds as well. For 720P encoding you're looking at 1.3Gbps=About 165MB/s (Depending on the colour depth/encoding scheme). A traditional HDD will not write that fast and could be more of a bottleneck than your CPU.
 
Shambles said:
It also appears that the card does not support HDCP which means no captures from Blu-rays and possibly other devices through HDMI. You also have to have a harddrive setup that can handle the write speeds as well. For 720P encoding you're looking at 1.3Gbps=About 165MB/s (Depending on the colour depth/encoding scheme). A traditional HDD will not write that fast and could be more of a bottleneck than your CPU.
Click to expand...
Actually my card does support HDCP - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161287

so at least I have one thing going for me :D Time to break the piggy bank : ( Thanks again.
 
woodsey1982 said:
So GAF, Im in the process of putting together a cheap-ish HTPC set up. I already have a case purchased, any recommendations for a mobo and processor ( MATX ) that'll handle HD content ( both from disc and from the HD )? UK stores btw.
Click to expand...

Athlon II X2 245 2.9Ghz / Athlon II X3 435 2.9Ghz
Any Asus / Gigabyte 785G AM3

ChoklitReign
Good deal on that rig!

MiniDitka
An Athlon II X4 630

Then you just can upgrade to the Phenom II X6 Thuban if needed. I would consider buying a 890GX mobo (they'll probable provide support for the next generation AMD Bulldozer cpu's).
 
Shambles said:
It also appears that the card does not support HDCP which means no captures from Blu-rays and possibly other devices through HDMI. You also have to have a harddrive setup that can handle the write speeds as well. For 720P encoding you're looking at 1.3Gbps=About 165MB/s (Depending on the colour depth/encoding scheme). A traditional HDD will not write that fast and could be more of a bottleneck than your CPU.
Click to expand...

Well if you capture directly to H264 or MPEG-2 at high bitrates, you'd be at more like 40-50Mbit/sec, so no problems... that's only 5-6 Mbytes/sec. I doubt even an core i7 could do realtime H264 though, at 1080p... so perhaps a MJPEG based codec would work better, if you can choose.

I'm not sure if that's an option, but I'd defintely look at a capture card that captures to a near-lossless solution, even most professional HD Camcorders don't use anything close to 165MB/s for 1080p material (that'd be 600 GB/hour).
 
Ryoma-Echizen said:
MiniDitka
An Athlon II X4 630

Then you just can upgrade to the Phenom II X6 Thuban if needed. I would consider buying a 890GX mobo (they'll probable provide support for the next generation AMD Bulldozer cpu's).
Click to expand...
I'll have to go check that out pronto! Thanks. BTW, who makes that motherboard?


Minsc said:
Well if you capture directly to H264 or MPEG-2 at high bitrates, you'd be at more like 40-50Mbit/sec, so no problems... that's only 5-6 Mbytes/sec. I doubt even an core i7 could do realtime H264 though, at 1080p... so perhaps a MJPEG based codec would work better, if you can choose.

I'm not sure if that's an option, but I'd defintely look at a capture card that captures to a near-lossless solution, even most professional HD Camcorders don't use anything close to 165MB/s for 1080p material (that'd be 600 GB/hour).
Click to expand...

I'm mostly going to be using it to capture gaming footage that will go to YT so 720P is probably good enough. Hard to believe I've built 4 computers and know nothing about them :lol BTW, the Aver card captures up to 1080i.
 
Easy_D said:
Everything in my system is running at stock speeds, haven't had any crashes/shutdowns at all for over a week now.

These are the results of running RealTemp tests with Prime95
Click to expand...

Those temps are fine, and good to hear that your comp is running fine now.
Still wonder what may have caused them in the past. Did you install anything new like drivers that may have corrected the issue?
 
Odious Tea said:
Yeah. I ended up coming into some extra money with the tax refund and figured "What the hell?" I was using MSI Afterburner before to get the 5770 to 960/1320; looks like I'll be getting some crazy performance if I can get it the core to 1ghz. What's your memory currently clocked at?

It was either that or get another 5770 and Crossfire them, but then remembered possible compatibility headaches. Newegg graciously let me return without restocking fee. They've been really good about it.
Click to expand...

It can go that high for sure. Ive got mine at 875/1125. Get a nice increase over stock and i dont need the fan set too high, which by the way sounds like 2 vacuum cleaners strapped to a jumbo jet!
 
I just transplanted my new build into this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216&cm_re=CM690-_-11-119-216-_-Product

Picked it up from Microcenter today on sale and with 3.5% sales tax it came to $95. Between the feature set and price I'm very happy.

Just a few more tweaks/upgrades...


Gowans007 said:
Holy shit guys!

Thanks to a miss pricing of a 24" 1920x1200 monitor in Comet I now have one for £150, no way I could skip on it.

Its a hp w2448hc

http://i45.tinypic.com/2zs2m3q.jpg

ITS HUGE!!!!!
Click to expand...
Congrats, that's a great pick up. You'll get used to the size surprisingly fast, though.
 
Minsc said:
Well if you capture directly to H264 or MPEG-2 at high bitrates, you'd be at more like 40-50Mbit/sec, so no problems... that's only 5-6 Mbytes/sec. I doubt even an core i7 could do realtime H264 though, at 1080p... so perhaps a MJPEG based codec would work better, if you can choose.

I'm not sure if that's an option, but I'd defintely look at a capture card that captures to a near-lossless solution, even most professional HD Camcorders don't use anything close to 165MB/s for 1080p material (that'd be 600 GB/hour).
Click to expand...

I'm definitely interested to see what kind of encoding scheme this uses, where the bottlenecks are and what kind of CPU could reduce the HDD throughput. Glad to hear the newer revisions do include HDCP support. Most of my information came from initial reviews of the device that apparently did not support it.
 
Romance Pie said:
Those temps are fine, and good to hear that your comp is running fine now.
Still wonder what may have caused them in the past. Did you install anything new like drivers that may have corrected the issue?
Click to expand...
Only thing I can think of is going from the second February RC release of the ATI drivers to the final release.

Not sure if it has stopped or not because it usually happens once a week, but yeah, it was probably caused by the RC's.

Edit: Anyway, in this day and age, would I benefit much at all going from my E8500 to a Q9950? My mobo only supports Socket 775, or should I save some money and get a new mobo with comptability with newer CPU's?
 
Hey guys, I'm going to be upgrading my monitor soon, as some of you might know, and I'm planning to upgrade my PC soon accordingly. If anyone could help me out with some suggestions for parts, that would be great. Essentially, my current monitor is 1440x900, and my new monitor should be around 1920x1080.

My current specs:
  • Mobo - Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
  • CPU - Phenom II X3 720 @ ~3.2 GHz
  • GPU - Radeon 4870 512MB
  • RAM - 4GB DDR2-1066
  • PSU - Antec EA430W
At this point, I can run every game at max, and I don't have any problems at all. Obviously, with the upgrade of resolution, I'm going to need to spend some cash to keep all my games maxed out. How much will i need to upgrade?
 
Smokey said:
No that's not including monitor which I already have. Also I think I would go with the i7 860 after reading up on it for a few days. As for a build in mind something like this:
i7 860
SSD
TB HD
8GB RAM
5870/GTX 480
As far as case, motherboard, power supply and other things I'm missing I have no clue. Also I said 1.2k, but I'd be willing to go up to 1.5k but not any higher than that.
Click to expand...
If you're going i7, you may as well get a 920 or 930. If you have a Microcenter nearby, I think they're having an amazing sale on them. As far as a motherboard goes, you're gonna have to find one that fits your system and features that you'd like. Newegg ratings are a good barometer, most of the time. Case-wise, I'm absolutely in love with the Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced. But, a case is something that's really up to personal preference. Just make sure you have good airflow. It's a pretty solid build otherwise, if you need to cut corners you could abstain from an SSD, but if you've got the money, go for it.

FromTheFuture said:
Hey guys, I'm going to be upgrading my monitor soon, as some of you might know, and I'm planning to upgrade my PC soon accordingly. If anyone could help me out with some suggestions for parts, that would be great. Essentially, my current monitor is 1440x900, and my new monitor should be around 1920x1080.

My current specs:
  • Mobo - Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
  • CPU - Phenom II X3 720 @ ~3.2 GHz
  • GPU - Radeon 4870 512MB
  • RAM - 4GB DDR2-1066
  • PSU - Antec EA430W
At this point, I can run every game at max, and I don't have any problems at all. Obviously, with the upgrade of resolution, I'm going to need to spend some cash to keep all my games maxed out. How much will i need to upgrade?
Click to expand...
An upgrade to ~5850 should be all you really need. Maybe a larger PSU to sport it. But, otherwise I think you'll be good for a little while to come. If I'm wrong in that, please, somebody correct. Not too familiar with AMD processors.
 
MiniDitka said:
I'll have to go check that out pronto! Thanks. BTW, who makes that motherboard?
Click to expand...


Gigabyte MA890GPA UD3H
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

All the flavors

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...A=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=890GX&x=0&y=0


Users test:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=58


FromTheFuture
For gaming, HD5850 is the only thing that you really need to buy. HD4870 is a decent card but with only 512MB it can get bottlenecked with recent games at 1080p.

HD5850 need two pci-e 6 pin connector, verify that in the PSU. If not just a good PSU should be the OCZ Modstream 500-600w.


When the X4 965BE 3.4Ghz 125w gets cheapo, it would be a sweet upgrade. If the X6 Thuban is not backwards compatible with AM2+ mobos, 965 should be the most powerful option for your 770.
 
Ahh :S 5850's are expensive! Thanks a lot, guys. Now I'm going to go think up some justifications/excuses to tell everyone on why I need buy this thing. :lol
 
Odious Tea said:
If you're going i7, you may as well get a 920 or 930. If you have a Microcenter nearby, I think they're having an amazing sale on them.
Click to expand...


Oh wow, I thought the 860 was replacing the 920. I didn't even know there was a 930 until you said something. Looks like it's only $20 more than the 860 too.
 
Ryoma-Echizen said:
. If the X6 Thuban is not backwards compatible with AM2+ mobos, .
Click to expand...

It is.


FromTheFuture said:
Ahh :S 5850's are expensive! Thanks a lot, guys. Now I'm going to go think up some justifications/excuses to tell everyone on why I need buy this thing. :lol
Click to expand...

Honestly, 5850s just aren't worth it atm. With 5870s at $380, you'd be foolish to spend $330 on a 5850. GPU prices are horrible at the current moment in time though I don't expect it to change much any time soon.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161301&cm_re=5870-_-14-161-301-_-Product

If you're not going to make te leap up to a 5870, I'd just hold out with the 4870. It handles most games @ 1080p just fine.
 
brain_stew said:
Honestly, 5850s just aren't worth it atm. With 5870s at $380, you'd be foolish to spend $330 on a 5850. GPU prices are horrible at the current moment in time though I don't expect it to change much any time soon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161301&cm_re=5870-_-14-161-301-_-Product

If you're not going to make te leap up to a 5870, I'd just hold out with the 4870. It handles most games @ 1080p just fine.
Click to expand...
Well, the thing is that I'm really liking the experience I have so far on my 1440x900: I'm running most games at max with around 60 fps. How much of a hit would I take from not upgrading my GPU? Are GPU prices expected to fall by a significant degree by the end of this year?
 
FromTheFuture said:
Well, the thing is that I'm really liking the experience I have so far on my 1440x900: I'm running most games at max with around 60 fps. How much of a hit would I take from not upgrading my GPU? Are GPU prices expected to fall by a significant degree by the end of this year?
Click to expand...

There's no point trying to predict where GPU prices are headed, they've been on a steady stream upwards in the last 9 months with no end in sight. Very few expected that to happen so it'd be foolish to predict what the next 9 months bring.

Your performance will probably drop by about a 1/3 on average depending on what is the bottleneck in each particular engine. Upgrading to a 5870 will net you better performance at 1080p than your 4870 managed @ 1440x900.

You always have the option of outputting 720p of course and most modern 1080p monitors will scale that really well..
 
brain_stew said:
There's no point trying to predict where GPU prices are headed, they've been on a steady stream upwards in the last 9 months with no end in sight. Very few expected that to happen so it'd be foolish to predict what the next 9 months bring.

Your performance will probably drop by about a 1/3 on average depending on what is the bottleneck in each particular engine. Upgrading to a 5870 will net you better performance at 1080p than your 4870 managed @ 1440x900.

You always have the option of outputting 720p of course and most modern 1080p monitors will scale that really well..
Click to expand...
Ok, so then where is the middle ground? I'm not a graphics whore or anything, and I'm sure I'll be able to deal with having to turn down my graphic settings no problem (I planned to have the monitor for a little while before buying a new GPU anyways), although I would still be disappointed. Anyway, if a 5870 can allow me to play games on max at above 60 FPS, which GPU would allow me to play at 1080p at 60 FPS? Is it not worth going for that?

Also, by the GPU price point question, I was referring to how current market GPU prices might drop. Is there a trend that the market seems to have been following? I don't really keep up with all things PC unless I'm in the market to buy new parts and such, which is the reason why I asked.
 
FromTheFuture said:
Ok, so then where is the middle ground? I'm not a graphics whore or anything, and I'm sure I'll be able to deal with having to turn down my graphic settings no problem (I planned to have the monitor for a little while before buying a new GPU anyways), although I would still be disappointed. Anyway, if a 5870 can allow me to play games on max at above 60 FPS, which GPU would allow me to play at 1080p at 60 FPS? Is it not worth going for that?

Also, by the GPU price point question, I was referring to how current market GPU prices might drop. Is there a trend that the market seems to have been following? I don't really keep up with all things PC unless I'm in the market to buy new parts and such, which is the reason why I asked.
Click to expand...

The 5850 was supposed to be the middle ground but its price has risen by $70 since launch making it crappy value. Honestly, unless you have the cash for the 5870, there's no GPU uprade I could recommend you, I think you may be surprised just how well your 4870 handles the resolution increase.

The current GPU pricing trend is upwards, and it has been for more than 6 months now. GPUs at the same performance level are much more expensive now than they were 12 months ago. It is assumed that this trend will reverse at some point, but who knows when that will be.
 
Uh, I need a little help.

I got my system working very nicely. New Athlon Pehnom II Quad, mobo, RAM and 600 W power supply. For once, everything was smooth. Booted right up, smooth windows install and I've been playing games on it all day...

Until about fifteen minutes ago. The PC just cut off and now it won't turn back on. Pressing the power button results in fans starting and stopping (with blue lights coming on and off) with no post. Doesn't boot up. I've checked loose connections, and nothing inside of the case of touching the motherboard itself. No funny smell or smoke either.

Am I screwed? :lol I don't have another power supply to test with (as the older one wouldn't work with this mobo). =/ Unsure what's up.

Update: I've tried booting with one stick of RAM (alternating), trying to get a post without HDDs, without DVD room, without video card, switched to turning everything on with the reset switch just in case. Nothing has worked.
 
What do you guys think about this PC for gaming?

PC Nordic Advanced Gaming PCNI7-2
Price: 5,799 DKK ~ 1000 USD

Specs
  • CPU: Intel Core I7 860 2,8Ghz
  • Cooler: Intel Box Cooler, Low Noise
  • Moterboard: Asrock P55M Pro Motherboard
  • Ram: 2x2GB PC10600 1333Mhz DDR3 Ram
  • HDD: 500GB 7200 RPM 16mb Sata2
  • Drev: 22x +/-RW DVD Burner
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX260+ 898MB GDDR3
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PC games that are ONLY in a borderless window need to stop.
2
53
918
RoboFu replied
Do we even need a new consoles so soon?
Opinion  2
80
460
Three replied
Fallout New Vegas 15th Anniversary Edition Announced - $155
News  2 3
100
1K
KungFucius replied
FusionFix 4.0 Turns GTA IV on PC Into the Definitive Edition
2 3
100
7K
Windom Earle replied
PC Master Race, I need your help!
37
2K
lachesis replied
Top Bottom