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[Hazaro]

I know the paste supplied with the 212 is solid (which I'll be getting), but I'd still rather get a 3rd party thermal paste that I know will be better at doing it's job for the cpu and gpu. I know the difference is small, but for the price, I'll be a little anal about it.

Could only find one place that sells the MX-4 in the US right now.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=29276


While we're on the topic of thermal paste, what's the best method for application for i7 chips? Some use the line (vertical or horizontal?), the dot in the middle, the spread, etc.

MX-2 is great and so is ICD7. Plus it's made of diamonds. And you can polish metal with it! And it's cheaper!

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=26060

I've currently got 2 8800 GTS 640MB.
I'm thinking of replacing one with a GTX 460 768MB or 1GB.
My question is can the second 8800 be used for physx? Or do they have to be the same card?
Should I just get one 1GB 460 and ditch both older cards?

A 8800 can be used for PhysX with your 460. However, every hour you are not gaming with physX it will be using at least 40W in power so keep that in mind.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Fresh replacement for my faulty GTX 460 came in today, the MSI Cyclone (Newegg let me change cards and upgrade to a 1 GB). In the 3 games I play the most at the moment (WAR, GTA4, BFBC2) performance has dropped significantly in all three. We are talking 10-20 fps less across the board. Not what I expected upgrading from a fucking 4850!

System:

E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
4GB DDR2 1066
7200 RPM HD
GTX 460 1GB (factory oc'd to 725 core, 1800 mem)

I removed all traces of ATI using Driver Sweeper, installed latest Nvidia drivers, etc. Dunno what else to do.

Seriously it's times like these that remind me why I quit PC gaming a few years back. Oh well at least the card is nice and maintains a fantastic peak temp of 50C while gaming.

 

[Philthy]

Currently using an ATI 4670 1GB with Arctic cooler S2 heatsink (no fan). It's been fantastic for pretty much everything and QUIET. Has anything else been released that this would be worth replacing this for? Massive heat sink isn't a problem, but it has to be fanless, or at the very least almost entirely silent even under high loads. Also low wattage.

 

[Darkatomz]

MX-2 is great and so is ICD7. Plus it's made of diamonds. And you can polish metal with it! And it's cheaper!

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=26060

From what I dug up a few hours ago, it's indeed cooler, but it's a PITA to spread. As for cheaper, it's $7/1.5g, as opposed to $10/4g

The Shin-etsu's a good choice too, but I can't seem to find it either.

 

[Hazaro]

From what I dug up a few hours ago, it's indeed cooler, but it's a PITA to spread. As for cheaper, it's $7/1.5g, as opposed to $10/4g
The Shin-etsu's a good choice too, but I can't seem to find it either.

1.5g is enough for 10 years so I am ok with that amount
It is hard to spread so I just put a small BB sized blob and lets the HS do the work.

Once you get into that range of pastes it is all preference. Some of them stand out, but it is only by 1 or 2 C.

 

[blackMamba1187]

If I want to get 5.1 optical output from my computer to my HT receiver do I need to get a dedicated sound card? My comp uses integrated SoundMax audio, but I've had no luck getting it to output 5.1 from games, dvds, etc.

 

[n0n44m]

If I want to get 5.1 optical output from my computer to my HT receiver do I need to get a dedicated sound card? My comp uses integrated SoundMax audio, but I've had no luck getting it to output 5.1 from games, dvds, etc.

it should do DTS 5.1 or DD 5.1 from a DVD movie soundtrack with the right settings (for example select spdif output at filter configuration in Media Player Classic), but unless it supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect it will not do 5.1 "on-the-fly" for games

so if you want optical 5.1 for games you need a soundcard that supports either of those techniques

(because optical connection only supports 2 channels uncompressed and 5.1 with DD or DTS compression, it needs those extra techniques to encode gaming 5.1 sound on the fly into DD or DTS for transmission per optical cable)

 

[teiresias]

...Ever bought a case where there was a hole on the bottom?

The Silverstone Fortress 2 (and Raven 2) has 3 180mm fans sucking air in from the bottom of the case through three filtered vents:

The motherboard is rotated 90 degrees from its traditional orientation so that your graphics card connections and IO panel are on the top of the case.

I'm considering getting this case, but I'm debating between it and the Antec P183. Trying to figure out which one would cool my proposed build the best with the least amount of noise. Having been using an iMac for three years I'm sure I'll have to get used to the amount of noise inherent in a PC again, but I'd still like to get it as quiet as I can manage. Does anyone have an opinion on these two cases or at least have experience with either one? My proposed build is as follows (some ambiguities right now):

i7-870
Gigabyte P55A-UD4P
SLI 2 x Gigabyte GTX460 (might change depending on what AMD does in the next few weeks)
8GB RAM (2 x 4GB) (haven't picked actual sticks yet)
Some brand of 80GB-120GB SSD (would like to see if I can get away with only having this drive for a while)
Corsair AX850
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (will likely replace the stock fan with a Scythe fan)

Haven't decided on optical drive yet. I'm toying with the idea of not having an internal one, but just getting a USB optical drive for when I need it (pretty much means Steam, Steam, Steam and no games that require a disk to run).

 

[toastyToast]

Stuff

One of the PCI connectors might be loose. At least that was what happened to me when I installed a 5850, had a jump of around 30% once I pushed it in a little.

 

[SapientWolf]

Fresh replacement for my faulty GTX 460 came in today, the MSI Cyclone (Newegg let me change cards and upgrade to a 1 GB). In the 3 games I play the most at the moment (WAR, GTA4, BFBC2) performance has dropped significantly in all three. We are talking 10-20 fps less across the board. Not what I expected upgrading from a fucking 4850!

System:

E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
4GB DDR2 1066
7200 RPM HD
GTX 460 1GB (factory oc'd to 725 core, 1800 mem)

I removed all traces of ATI using Driver Sweeper, installed latest Nvidia drivers, etc. Dunno what else to do.

Seriously it's times like these that remind me why I quit PC gaming a few years back. Oh well at least the card is nice and maintains a fantastic peak temp of 50C while gaming.

Sounds like it's idling.

 

[Sanjay]

Sounds like it's idling.

Doubt it, my GTX 460 1GB (oc'd to 890 core, 2000 mem) idles between at 31/33C

 

[reggieandTFE]

So I just got a new HP Envy 14 notebook with an ATI 5650 card and I've been Dragon Agerigins. The textures have been phenomenal. All of a sudden the game crashed on my while I was in the mage tower. Ever since I jumped back into the game the textures have been set at low. Moving the slider doesn't change their quality whether they're on high or low. Any ideas?

 

[Spiderjericho]

Maybe you can try updating the drivers and see if that fixes it. Not much maintenance you can do with a laptop, except opening it up (and hoping you don't jack it up when you put it back together). The smaller the laptop and the jerky the manufacturer makes this more difficult.

 

[flyinpiranha]

My current system is:

4850 512MB
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
8GB OCZ Platinum (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
E8400 3. Ghz at stock (I know I know ... )

My question is, is the 460 a decent upgrade? I'm not really ready to build a whole system yet (will be in about 8-12 months as I try and make my systems last for 3-4 years before mobo/proc upgrades).

I was looking on Newegg and they had ones for $250 for a 2Gb model. I figure that would be pretty future proof for when I do upgrade my complete system in a year or so.

But if there is some new card coming around the $250-300 range OR if there is something better out there I'm willing to look. I won't be getting it for a month or so I'm in no hurry.

 

[n0n44m]

Fresh replacement for my faulty GTX 460 came in today, the MSI Cyclone (Newegg let me change cards and upgrade to a 1 GB). In the 3 games I play the most at the moment (WAR, GTA4, BFBC2) performance has dropped significantly in all three. We are talking 10-20 fps less across the board. Not what I expected upgrading from a fucking 4850!

System:

E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
4GB DDR2 1066
7200 RPM HD
GTX 460 1GB (factory oc'd to 725 core, 1800 mem)

I removed all traces of ATI using Driver Sweeper, installed latest Nvidia drivers, etc. Dunno what else to do.

Seriously it's times like these that remind me why I quit PC gaming a few years back. Oh well at least the card is nice and maintains a fantastic peak temp of 50C while gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/177?vs=156

should be the other way around

download nvidia beta drivers from their official site & install as they had some BFBC2 fix if I understood correctly

download MSI Afterburner tool

run a game/benchmark and check in the MSI afterburner logs (you can detach them from the main screen and make them larger/wider) if the card is running at the correct speed when under load, and whether your GPU usage is close to 100% on extreme settings (high res, lots of AA)

 

[TheExodu5]

Yeah the GTX 460 would be a nice upgrade.

I personally prefer this one over the 2GB model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7518&cm_re=gtx_460_1gb-_-14-127-518-_-Product

The MSI is very overclockable, and has a much better cooler than stock. I doubt you'll see much benefit from 2GB. GTA IV comes to mind, but most games take a lot less than 1GB, at 1080p or under.

 

[n0n44m]

I was looking on Newegg and they had ones for $250 for a 2Gb model. I figure that would be pretty future proof for when I do upgrade my complete system in a year or so.

But if there is some new card coming around the $250-300 range OR if there is something better out there I'm willing to look. I won't be getting it for a month or so I'm in no hurry.

decent upgrade as the anandtech link above shows

but with the new Ati's being introduced right into this price/performance segment in the upcoming month or two, you might want to wait out a bit longer (especially since their introduction will inevitably drop the price of the 5850 which is slightly faster than the gtx460 but has been relatively expensive)

2 GB is definitely futureproof, but personally I doubt the GPU is powerful enough for games/situations requiring such vast amounts of memory ... save the money and get a 1 gig version

(2 gig might be interesting for SLI usage at extreme resolutions, but with a 2 card maximum even that doesn't make much sense unless you like horrible framerates ... guess its for Flight Sim enthusiasts or something)

 

[TheExodu5]

Or people that really like GTA IV.

 

[n0n44m]

they should buy a SR-2, two xeon 980x equivalent cpu's and run it watercooled with fresh tapwater at 5 ghz given the amount of cpu scaling that GTA4 displays :lol

at that point you can probably afford to toss in some gtx480s as well

Spoiler

I'm just bitter it runs crappy on my Athlon II x4 3.6 =[

 

[Jim Stark]

Hi GAF,

Hazaro advised me that I could get away with a small upgrade to my current rig if I didn't mind playing on very low settings, but suggested getting a quad core. I've decided I should probably pay the extra $40 and get the AMD Phenom II 945 instead of the 640. My current rig is just sad, but I'd like to keep most of my stuff. This is my current motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...131608&cm_re=asus_760g-_-13-131-608-_-Product

I have 4GB of DDR2 in it right now, I've looked up benchmarks and the performance gains from DDR3 are really pathetic. I don't do anything heavy duty besides gaming so I don't need to make that jump yet. It says that it is compatible with the 945, but I'd still like to hear your opinions on the matter... is it worth dropping a 945 in there? According to Newegg the bus supported by that motherboard is much lower than the 945's, will I see big performance decreases? I'm going to replace my weak PSU and video card for a Corsair 650w and a 6770 to go with my new processor. I still don't care about playing with AA or max settings, but after some reflection I've decided it would be nice to play at higher than 1280x800 resolution. :lol

The games I'm looking forward to playing are Heart of the Swarm, Diablo 3, Witcher 2, Alice 2, and Grim Dawn. I was going to skip the CPU upgrade until I realized that Civilization V will be severely bottlenecked by my dual core.

Thanks for any advice

 

[Spiderjericho]

Yeah the GTX 460 would be a nice upgrade.

I personally prefer this one over the 2GB model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7518&cm_re=gtx_460_1gb-_-14-127-518-_-Product

The MSI is very overclockable, and has a much better cooler than stock. I doubt you'll see much benefit from 2GB. GTA IV comes to mind, but most games take a lot less than 1GB, at 1080p or under.

Wait a lil bit to see what the performance of the 6770 is, since it's supposed to be => 5850.

Hopefully, it'll be in the same price neighborhood.

 

[Hazaro]

My current system is:

4850 512MB
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
8GB OCZ Platinum (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
E8400 3. Ghz at stock (I know I know ... )

My question is, is the 460 a decent upgrade? I'm not really ready to build a whole system yet (will be in about 8-12 months as I try and make my systems last for 3-4 years before mobo/proc upgrades).

I was looking on Newegg and they had ones for $250 for a 2Gb model. I figure that would be pretty future proof for when I do upgrade my complete system in a year or so.

2GB is pointless. Save your money can buy a nice 460 that is on sale.

Hi GAF,

Hazaro advised me that I could get away with a small upgrade to my current rig if I didn't mind playing on very low settings, but suggested getting a quad core. I've decided I should probably pay the extra $40 and get the AMD Phenom II 945 instead of the 640. My current rig is just sad, but I'd like to keep most of my stuff. This is my current motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...131608&cm_re=asus_760g-_-13-131-608-_-Product

I have 4GB of DDR2 in it right now, I've looked up benchmarks and the performance gains from DDR3 are really pathetic. I don't do anything heavy duty besides gaming so I don't need to make that jump yet. It says that it is compatible with the 945, but I'd still like to hear your opinions on the matter... is it worth dropping a 945 in there? According to Newegg the bus supported by that motherboard is much lower than the 945's, will I see big performance decreases? I'm going to replace my weak PSU and video card for a Corsair 650w and a 6770 to go with my new processor. I still don't care about playing with AA or max settings, but after some reflection I've decided it would be nice to play at higher than 1280x800 resolution. :lol

The games I'm looking forward to playing are Heart of the Swarm, Diablo 3, Witcher 2, Alice 2, and Grim Dawn. I was going to skip the CPU upgrade until I realized that Civilization V will be severely bottlenecked by my dual core.

Thanks for any advice

Well you've tripled your budget :lol

A 635 with a solid GPU will be great if you still want to not spend as much. GPU is where the frames gains are. What PSU are you on now?

 

[Jim Stark]

Well you've tripled your budget :lol

A 635 with a solid GPU will be great if you still want to not spend as much. GPU is where the frames gains are. What PSU are you on now?

That I did, haha, thanks for replying again Hazaro!

I'm okay with spending a little, I just don't want to replace the whole thing. I found the Corsair 650w for $80, I'm hoping the 6770 will be under $200, and the 945 is about $130. So it's an increase but I'm still not spending $900, which is what I wanted to avoid. Right now I have a no name 420w PSU, it won't be able to handle any decent GPU. I bought this cheap computer last year:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002QEBK7A/?tag=neogaf0e-20

The Raidmax case has some bad ratings but it has been holding up okay for me. I have an Antec 300 a friend gave me if that case is too shitty to drop new parts into. The PSU is weak, the 9500GT can't handle new games very well, and the dual core is obviously going to bottleneck me if I drop a 6770 in. The difference between the 635 and the 945 is $30, I'm okay with making that jump if that motherboard will support it okay. Your thoughts?

Edit - Also, the reason I was thinking about making the jump to the 945 was that I've heard L3 cache helps a lot in games like Civ 5 where there's a lot of strain on the CPU as well. Is that true?

 

[Swag]

Back with more question!

I have a Radeon 4890, that I believe is a bit defective. It has really bad coil whine, so I manually turn the fan on and leave it between 30-40%.

I don't turn my computer off much, if ever. I was wondering if having the fan run at this speed indefinitely would somehow be a bad thing.

Not in the mood for purchasing another GPU right now :lol

 

[Kadey]

Gonna go shopping for a new HD today. I think I've settled with a WD Caviar black edition.
Somebody said it takes 24 hours to format it via Vista though.

I actually don't have a complete comprehension on what I'm supposed to do. I thought I just had to hook it up and reinstall Vista and my other programs.

 

[Yazus]

Hi guys, I have just ordered this build

Phenom II x4 955 B.E.
Gainward GTX 460 Golden Sample 1GB DDR5
4GB Mushkin Stiletto DDR3 Ram
ASRock 880GMH/USB3 AM3 M-ATX
HARD DISK 3,5'' WD 500GB SATA 7200rpm 32MB
THERMALTAKE Lanbox Lite with Window
Scythe Big Shuriken Rev.2
CORSAIR 550W
LG DVD Writer

all of this for 600€...!

I bought a Micro ATX in pair with the Lanbox because I think they are the best deal/combo... the mobo is awesome with usb/sata3 support + phenom ii x6 ready. The case is great for lan parties and for space problems I had to get a m-atx.
The Big Shuriken... well... a friend of mine has this mounted on its build for one year (995 overlclocked to 3.9ghz) and it runs cool and quiet.
The graphic card... I was tempted to get a 5830... but seeing some benchmarks the gtx460 is averagely better and has physX. Also the GW Golden Sample version sounds like awesome.

I'll keep you updated when my parts arrive

 

[Hazaro]

That I did, haha, thanks for replying again Hazaro!

I'm okay with spending a little, I just don't want to replace the whole thing. I found the Corsair 650w for $80, I'm hoping the 6770 will be under $200, and the 945 is about $130. So it's an increase but I'm still not spending $900, which is what I wanted to avoid. Right now I have a no name 420w PSU, it won't be able to handle any decent GPU. I bought this cheap computer last year:

Edit - Also, the reason I was thinking about making the jump to the 945 was that I've heard L3 cache helps a lot in games like Civ 5 where there's a lot of strain on the CPU as well. Is that true?

An x2 and a 9500. Not exactly top of the line gaming grade.

The 650W is on newegg for $64 shipped after rebate and 10% coupon which is not bad.
Civ 5 I can't tell you but my dual core runs the demo just fine (Dunno how it holds up late game). L3 can make an impact, the 945 for $30 is not a bad choice. You might want to go for the 955 BE to get some extra mileage out of the clocks as well.
You are overclocking right

Back with more question!

I have a Radeon 4890, that I believe is a bit defective. It has really bad coil whine, so I manually turn the fan on and leave it between 30-40%.

I don't turn my computer off much, if ever. I was wondering if having the fan run at this speed indefinitely would somehow be a bad thing.

Not in the mood for purchasing another GPU right now :lol

Coil whine sucks :[
Haven't heard of it cropping on any ATi cards these past few generations. You'll be more than fine running it at those speeds.

Gonna go shopping for a new HD today. I think I've settled with a WD Caviar black edition.
Somebody said it takes 24 hours to format it via Vista though.

I actually don't have a complete comprehension on what I'm supposed to do. I thought I just had to hook it up and reinstall Vista and my other programs.

New install? Just run a quick format during setup and install. At least that's what I do :lol

Hi guys, I have just ordered this build

all of this for 600€...!

I bought a Micro ATX in pair with the Lanbox because I think they are the best deal/combo... the mobo is awesome with usb/sata3 support + phenom ii x6 ready. The case is great for lan parties and for space problems I had to get a m-atx.
The Big Shuriken... well... a friend of mine has this mounted on its build for one year (995 overlclocked to 3.9ghz) and it runs cool and quiet.
The graphic card... I was tempted to get a 5830... but seeing some benchmarks the gtx460 is averagely better and has physX. Also the GW Golden Sample version sounds like awesome.

I'll keep you updated when my parts arrive

Looks good!

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Just formatted my drive and that seemed to improve things a bit. I was playing BFBC2 and upped my AA and AF to 16x each and the frame rate stayed virtually the same. I guess that means my CPU is now a major bottleneck for certain games that are core/thread hungry? Shame that OC'ing is not an option since I've never had great temps with my E8400 (42-45 idle, 60+ load).

 

[n0n44m]

Just formatted my drive and that seemed to improve things a bit. I was playing BFBC2 and upped my AA and AF to 16x each and the frame rate stayed virtually the same. I guess that means my CPU is now a major bottleneck for certain games that are core/thread hungry? Shame that OC'ing is not an option since I've never had great temps with my E8400 (42-45 idle, 60+ load).

isn't BFBC2 one of the few games with a strong preference for more than 2 cores?

Athlon II/Phenom II/Core2Duo cpu's are slower than the i5/i7 as well at equal clockspeeds, so with a 3 ghz core2duo you're pretty much bottlenecked yeah =P

 

[Jim Stark]

An x2 and a 9500. Not exactly top of the line gaming grade.

The 650W is on newegg for $64 shipped after rebate and 10% coupon which is not bad.
Civ 5 I can't tell you but my dual core runs the demo just fine (Dunno how it holds up late game). L3 can make an impact, the 945 for $30 is not a bad choice. You might want to go for the 955 BE to get some extra mileage out of the clocks as well.
You are overclocking right

:lol :lol

I don't even know how to build my own computer, Hazaro. I will be paying some 17 year old at Microcenter to do it for me. I bought that computer for $450 when I was addicted to WoW and it served me well, but at this point I'd like to play something more demanding. So my motherboard would be fine with the 945? Even though the bus seems to be too slow? I'm just worried I will buy a processor and because of my poor motherboard it will be severely restricted.

Thanks for the help as always

 

[Hazaro]

:lol :lol

I don't even know how to build my own computer, Hazaro. I will be paying some 17 year old at Microcenter to do it for me. I bought that computer for $450 when I was addicted to WoW and it served me well, but at this point I'd like to play something more demanding. So my motherboard would be fine with the 945? Even though the bus seems to be too slow? I'm just worried I will buy a processor and because of my poor motherboard it will be severely restricted.

Thanks for the help as always

Pfft.

Anyway your motherboard is a 760G chipset. That doesn't tell us much so go ahead and download CPU-Z, then go to the about tab and submit to online.

Paste the link and it'll tell me more about your system, mainly the motherboard. It should be able to support an x4.

 

[MikeE21286]

decent deal for those looking to upgrade GPUs?

ASUS Geforce GTX470 PCI-E 2.0 1280 MB DDR5 Graphics Card Amazon $220 (with MIR)

 

[Hazaro]

decent deal for those looking to upgrade GPUs?

ASUS Geforce GTX470 PCI-E 2.0 1280 MB DDR5 Graphics Card Amazon $220 (with MIR)

Decent deal if you need the extra power vs a 460.

 

[MikeE21286]

Decent deal if you need the extra power vs a 460.

I'm kinda new to even the idea of a SLI setup. But could you run a 460 with a 470? Or are they too different?

 

[Hazaro]

I'm kinda new to even the idea of a SLI setup. But could you run a 460 with a 470? Or are they too different?

Need same model for nVidia, same family for xFire (Cards need to be within each other, e.g. 5750/5770). Usually people go with same cards to have less issues.

 

[MikeE21286]

Need same model for nVidia, same family for xFire (Cards need to be within each other, e.g. 5750/5770). Usually people go with same cards to have less issues.

Thanks...kinda thought that the bolded parts were true

 

[Jim Stark]

Pfft.

Anyway your motherboard is a 760G chipset. That doesn't tell us much so go ahead and download CPU-Z, then go to the about tab and submit to online.

Paste the link and it'll tell me more about your system, mainly the motherboard. It should be able to support an x4.

I already figured out what motherboard it is, it's the ASUS M4A78L-M Micro-ATX:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...131608&cm_re=asus_760g-_-13-131-608-_-Product

According to that it would even support an x6, I just don't know if it will hold back the processor because of stuff like the bus being slower. The more I look into the parts the more I think it will be silly to drop new stuff into a budget build and I should probably just blow a couple hundred more to make sure I have all new high-end parts.

 

[Shambles]

I'm kinda new to even the idea of a SLI setup. But could you run a 460 with a 470? Or are they too different?

Editing wrong info:

You can mix nvidia cards if you set one to do your rendering and another to do physx calculations but you still aren't in SLI and the 2nd card generally goes to waste. It's a good idea for when you upgrade and have an older nVidia card that you don't want to have sit in a closet doing nothing, but it's not really worth purchasing a 2nd different GPU just for physx.

The other option is if you have a high end motherboard with a Lucid chip that allows you to combine GPUs that are different makes or models. It doesn't scale as well and again you'd be better off to use that motherboard price difference to simply buy a higher end GPU off the start.

Need same model for nVidia, same family for xFire (Cards need to be within each other, e.g. 5750/5770). Usually people go with same cards to have less issues.

Whoa, i didn't even realize you could mix ones as close as the 5750 and 5770. Does it just clock the 5770 down to the 5750?

CrossFire can be implemented with varying-GPU cards of the same generation (this is in contrast to Nvidia's SLI, which generally only works if all cards have the same GPU). This allows buyers who have varying budgets over time to purchase different cards and still get the benefits of increased performance. With the latest generation cards, they will only crossfire with other cards in their sub series. A 5850 will crossfire with a 5830, 5850 or a 5870, and a 5770 will crossfire with a 5750, but a 5850 won't crossfire with a 5770.

 

[Wes]

Quick question as I'm about to order my parts!

How does the:

1GB MSI GTX 460 Cyclone, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, Shader Clock 1350MHz, 336 Cores, 2x DVI-I/ mHDMI

compare to the:

1GB Gigabyte GTX 460 OC, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 715MHz, Shader Clock 1430MHz, 336 Cores, DL DVI/ mHDMI

I was going to the the Gigabyte but they're sold out. The MSI Cyclose is a little cheaper and is apparently very quiet too? Just wanted to see if anyone here had any advice to give!

 

[Mr Nightman]

What is a safe load temp for a 9800gt video card, was wanting to overclock it a bit if possible

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Quick question as I'm about to order my parts!

How does the:

1GB MSI GTX 460 Cyclone, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, Shader Clock 1350MHz, 336 Cores, 2x DVI-I/ mHDMI

compare to the:

1GB Gigabyte GTX 460 OC, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 715MHz, Shader Clock 1430MHz, 336 Cores, DL DVI/ mHDMI

I was going to the the Gigabyte but they're sold out. The MSI Cyclose is a little cheaper and is apparently very quiet too? Just wanted to see if anyone here had any advice to give!

Dunno about the Asus but the consensus seems to be the MSI Cyclone is one of if not the best 460 card right now. I have it and it is super quiet. Stays very cool idling around 35C while handling heavy loads at around 50-55C. Lots of room for further oc'ing. Some folks report hitting 900 on the core clock.

 

[Wes]

Thanks for the prompt reply Outdoor Miner. Just what I was hoping to hear

 

[Hazaro]

I already figured out what motherboard it is, it's the ASUS M4A78L-M Micro-ATX:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...131608&cm_re=asus_760g-_-13-131-608-_-Product

According to that it would even support an x6, I just don't know if it will hold back the processor because of stuff like the bus being slower. The more I look into the parts the more I think it will be silly to drop new stuff into a budget build and I should probably just blow a couple hundred more to make sure I have all new high-end parts.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M4A78L-M&product=1

It's up to you. A simple CPU step up and a new GPU will go a long way. Bus speed irrelevant.

I'd say an overclocked 635 ($100 - It's easy, don't worry) + a 768MB GTX460 (~$150) is the best budget upgrade for you.

Whoa, i didn't even realize you could mix ones as close as the 5750 and 5770. Does it just clock the 5770 down to the 5750?

I think it simply downclocks.

Quick question as I'm about to order my parts!

How does the:

1GB MSI GTX 460 Cyclone, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, Shader Clock 1350MHz, 336 Cores, 2x DVI-I/ mHDMI

compare to the:

1GB Gigabyte GTX 460 OC, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 715MHz, Shader Clock 1430MHz, 336 Cores, DL DVI/ mHDMI

I was going to the the Gigabyte but they're sold out. The MSI Cyclose is a little cheaper and is apparently very quiet too? Just wanted to see if anyone here had any advice to give!

MSI is fine. Doesn't have a HS on the voltage regs, but the fan is nice and should provide deecnt airflow.

What is a safe load temp for a 9800gt video card, was wanting to overclock it a bit if possible

80C

 

[TheExodu5]

9800GT should be fine up until the upper 80s if need be. I know my first gen 8800gt ran at 95C...though that's the upper limit of most GPUs. A very good temp would be 70C or less, but it's all about balancing fan speed and heat. I run my GTX 275 at 30% fan speed and 88C just to make it inaudible. Bringing it down to 80C would make it very audible.

 

[Hazaro]

9800GT should be fine up until the upper 80s if need be. I know my first gen 8800gt ran at 95C...though that's the upper limit of most GPUs. A very good temp would be 70C or less, but it's all about balancing fan speed and heat. I run my GTX 275 at 30% fan speed and 88C just to make it inaudible. Bringing it down to 80C would make it very audible.

Yeah my first batch 8800GT ran at 93C load for 6 hours, but I got a cooler for it later before they fixed the fan in later revisions.

The 9800GT should run a bit cooler anyway.

 

[grap3fruitman]

Okay gang, I've got a budget of about $1,000 and here's what I've got picked out so far:

-i7-870 Processor $290
-GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 Motherboard $140
-GIGABYTE GV-R5876P-2GD-B Radeon HD 5870 2GB Graphics Card (is this any good or should I be considering something else?) $450
-CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W Modular PSU (should be fine, right?) $150
-Antec 300 Case $60

The problem is that I'm up to $1090 and still missing ram, which I can't find anything decent. I hate that the price of DDR3 ram shot up so much. Any thoughts or suggestions for this build?

I'm definitely getting the i7-870 and a better graphics card than a 5870 with 1GB of ram. I build my brother a computer last year with an i7-860 and a 1GB 5870 and I'm gonna give him a better CPU and GPU and take his current ones for my build since he does much more PC gaming than me.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Okay gang, I've got a budget of about $1,000 and here's what I've got picked out so far:

-i7-870 Processor $290
-GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 Motherboard $140
-GIGABYTE GV-R5876P-2GD-B Radeon HD 5870 2GB Graphics Card (is this any good or should I be considering something else?) $450
-CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W Modular PSU (should be fine, right?) $150
-Antec 300 Case $60

The problem is that I'm up to $1090 and still missing ram, which I can't find anything decent. I hate that the price of DDR3 ram shot up so much. Any thoughts or suggestions for this build?

I'm definitely getting the i7-870 and a better graphics card than a 5870 with 1GB of ram. I build my brother a computer last year with an i7-860 and a 1GB 5870 and I'm gonna give him a better CPU and GPU and take his current ones for my build since he does much more PC gaming than me.

Why not go with a gtx 460 thats priced around 165-200 dollar range, then you can get the ram.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Okay gang, I've got a budget of about $1,000 and here's what I've got picked out so far:

-i7-870 Processor $290
-GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 Motherboard $140
-GIGABYTE GV-R5876P-2GD-B Radeon HD 5870 2GB Graphics Card (is this any good or should I be considering something else?) $450
-CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W Modular PSU (should be fine, right?) $150
-Antec 300 Case $60

The problem is that I'm up to $1090 and still missing ram, which I can't find anything decent. I hate that the price of DDR3 ram shot up so much. Any thoughts or suggestions for this build?

I'm definitely getting the i7-870 and a better graphics card than a 5870 with 1GB of ram. I build my brother a computer last year with an i7-860 and a 1GB 5870 and I'm gonna give him a better CPU and GPU and take his current ones for my build since he does much more PC gaming than me.

do you need the hyper threading? why not go for the i5-760 instead? save close to 90 Dollars.

 

[·feist·]

Sandy Bridge overclocks to 5.2GHz?

Posted on 1st Oct 2010 at 12:36 by Richard Swinburne

Facebook is occasionally a wonderful thing. Gigabyte employee and extreme performance guru, Hi Cookie, posted a rather interesting and cryptic message today on the book of faces, claiming,

'Air cooling 4C/8T 3Dmark vantage Pass by 5.2GHz, hmm...interesting ^^'

The replies immediately alluded to and assumed Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs, as a "SuperPi sub 7 on air" would smash the current world leader on HWBot.

At this stage it's worth noting that nothing has been confirmed by Gigabyte, the Facebook post merely states that something has been overclocked to 5.2GHz and that it rips through SuperPi.

However, given that the GO OC competition is over and Gigabyte, like other motherboard companies, will be beavering away at optimising their LGA1155 motherboards ready for launch, things do certainly point in the Sandy Bridge direction.

Feel free to see the thread below, and chirp in with your own thoughts on the forums.

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/10/01/has-gigabyte-sandy-bridge-5-2ghz-aircooling/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Make of that what you will, but when you consider that Intel themselves have already shown a Core i7 2600K running at 4.9GHz with a simple 92mm HSF, 5.2GHz really isn't much of a stretch, particularly with a better air cooling solution.

Intel shows "Sandy Bridge" CPU at 4.9GHz

Intel has demonstrated one of its new Sandy Bridge enthusiast desktop CPUs overclocked to 4.9GHz, with air-cooling only.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23377351&postcount=14902

Unfortunately, though not at all surprising, the original video posted in the link above (which clearly showed that the cpu was a i7 2600K, even though Intel asked them not to) has been taken down. Here's the newer, edited version which blurs out the processor info:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKGnaTrxS_k

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

My computer is acting up all of a sudden. It just randomly locks the whole computer like 15-20 mins into playing a game. It doesn't matter what game I play, it still happens. I've also had it lock up the whole computer when trying to play a video file. Temps seem normal @ ~80C for each of my GPUs which has been the standard temp since I bought them 2 or 3 years ago. I tried reinstalling the video driver multiple times, but I'm going to try and older version in case it's the revision of the driver that's acting up.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? Is my GPU dying or is there a test to see if it is?