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[Naked Snake]

Help!

I'm putting together my first PC from scratch. When it was time to connect the 12v 24-pin power connector I noticed that one of the pins is missing. It's either Pin #15 (Ground) or Pin #22 (+5 VDC) [I can't tell apart the two connectors on this page?]... Curiously, the one pin that is said to be optional is there.

Is this Ok? Should I continue putting the PC together or return the case (PSU built-in) to the retailer? I really hope it's not the latter as it was the only small case I found in town and it was the last one in stock.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

It's fine.

 

[Curufinwe]

Just picked up this beast. was gonna go GTX 580 but I'm getting a 27" cinema display and needed a card with native mini display support. Will be getting another 6970 since I want to run games natively at 2560x1440.

That is one awesome looking box, and I bet the card's pretty good, too.

 

[Naked Snake]

It's fine.

*sigh* thanks!

 

[Hawk269]

Being a noob in the PC realm, I decided to spend about a week reading everything I can about overclocking my GPU and WOW was it not only easy, but results were pretty impressive.

Nvidia EVGA GTX-580

Stock
Core Mhz - 772
Memory Mhz- 2004
Voltage - 1000
FPS in Furmark (1080p with no MSAA) = 77 FPS after a 30 Min Run
Max Heat - 69c

Overclock
Core Mhz - 950
Memory Mhz - 2100
Voltage 1125
FPS in Furmark (1080p with no MSAA) = 93 FPS after a 30 Min Run
Max Heat - 75c

I think that is a pretty good jump in performance for such little work to be done. Most time consumming is running the Stress test. I don't want to go much higher in the temps since I am running on stock air. Next up is running some addtional Stress tests, longer period to ensure I am stable...but damn was it easy once you read up on it and do some research. 2 Months ago, I would of never of thought of it worrying that i was going to melt the card.

 

[knitoe]

Hey guys, a friend of mine is building a HTPC, I'm not really knowledgeable about HTPC builds, so posting here to see what you guys think of his build.

I would go Sandy bridge 2500K or 2600K CPU even with MB problem since the performance are so much better. And, he's only using 2 data ports so it should be fine until he can switch out the MB once the fix free replacement comes.

 

[Naked Snake]

Crap. The PSU only has one SATA power connector (wtf??). I have two SATA HDDs

It has two useless IDE connectors though.

Is there anything I can do about this?

*sigh*

 

[TheExodu5]

Crap. The PSU only has one SATA power connector. I have two SATA HDDs

It has two useless IDE connectors though.

Is there anything I can do about this?

*sigh*

What PSU, out of curiosity?

You can just get Molex -> SATA connectors.

 

[antonz]

I would go Sandy bridge 2500K or 2600K CPU even with MB problem since the performance are so much better. And, he's only using 2 data ports so it should be fine until he can switch out the MB once the fix free replacement comes.

Problem is you have a better chance of getting Megan Fox in bed right now to blow your mind then you do to find a Sandy Bridge Board in the wild.

 

[knitoe]

Crap. The PSU only has one SATA power connector. I have two SATA HDDs

It has two useless IDE connectors though.

Is there anything I can do about this?

*sigh*

Guess, buy sata power splitter or molex to sata power converter cable.

 

[Naked Snake]

What PSU, out of curiosity?

HK CP-350 (350W PSU that comes in this case). It's thin and narrow shaped and I wouldn't be able to find a similar sized one locally.

You can just get Molex -> SATA connectors.

Oh really? I didn't think that would be possible since the Molex is 4-pin while SATA is many more.

 

[knitoe]

Problem is you have a better chance of getting Megan Fox in bed right now to blow your mind then you do to find a Sandy Bridge Board in the wild.

I just google "buy Asus P8P67" and found a few places you can order one.

 

[antonz]

I just google "buy Asus P8P67" and found a few places you can order one.

Alot of places are letting you order them and not actually having them in stock. I knew one place that actually had boards in stock and within 2 days of finding the place they were gone. In fact almost all of the listings when you click through say backordered,pre order etc.

 

[n0n44m]

Problem is you have a better chance of getting Megan Fox in bed right now to blow your mind then you do to find a Sandy Bridge Board in the wild.

not in Europe lol (and that's not cause Megan Fox doesn't live here)

all the retailers in .nl are basically like "fuck consumers lol" as always, so they have started selling the boards again less then a week after the Intel announcement.

Spoiler

Oh and replacing affected boards can only happen within the warranty period when your sata ports have actually become defective. So basically the problem doesn't exist for them.

 

[antonz]

not in Europe lol (and that's not cause Megan Fox doesn't live here)

all the retailers in .nl are basically like "fuck consumers lol" as always, so they have started selling the boards again less then a week after the Intel announcement.

Spoiler

Oh and replacing affected boards can only happen within the warranty period when your sata ports have actually become defective. So basically the problem doesn't exist for them.

Yeah I imagine in some areas its probably easier. I got really lucky and after days of searching found a US Retailer who had some. Went ahead with it because ASUS is having a solid program for replacement.

Half the companies want you to return your board before they will even ship a new one out. Asus will place a hold for the amount on a card and send board out so you have little downtime.

 

[Salaadin]

Having an odd issue that Im not sure how to track down.

If I play Dragon Age Origins and I alt tab out to my desktop and leave the game open, I hear very, very feint ringing...almost like a glass bottle vibrating coming from my PC case.
If Im in game, the sound isnt there and if Im at the desktop without a game in the background, the sound isnt there.

ANy ideas?

EDIT. Err maybe not. I cant figure out where this noise is coming from.

 

[dimb]

Any good tips for aligning the motherboard in the case to screw it in GAF? I can't seem to get mine right for the life of me.

 

[Hazaro]

Having an odd issue that Im not sure how to track down.

If I play Dragon Age Origins and I alt tab out to my desktop and leave the game open, I hear very, very feint ringing...almost like a glass bottle vibrating coming from my PC case.
If Im in game, the sound isnt there and if Im at the desktop without a game in the background, the sound isnt there.

ANy ideas?

EDIT. Err maybe not. I cant figure out where this noise is coming from.

If you can hear it from the case it might be a resistor on the GPU.
If you hear it from speakers it might be some audio whine from the onboard.

Any good tips for aligning the motherboard in the case to screw it in GAF? I can't seem to get mine right for the life of me.

Set it nicely in then shove it left into the I/O slots. Just screw one thing at a time in opposite corners.

 

[Salaadin]

If you can hear it from the case it might be a resistor on the GPU.
If you hear it from speakers it might be some audio whine from the onboard.

Set it nicely in then shove it left into the I/O slots. Just screw one thing at a time in opposite corners.

ANything I can do to troubleshoot/fix this?

I just got another person to listen in. Theres a definite ring when I alt tab out but that goes away the moment Im directly in the game or out of the game completely.

 

[Hazaro]

ANything I can do to troubleshoot/fix this?

I just got another person to listen in. Theres a definite ring when I alt tab out but that goes away the moment Im directly in the game or out of the game completely.

I'd guess that it's some issue where your card is going into low power mode and causing that. You can try bumping your idle/2D memory clocks first, then the core speed. See if that helps.
Otherwise no, RMA if they even accept it.

 

[Salaadin]

I'd guess that it's some issue where your card is going into low power mode and causing that. You can try bumping your idle/2D memory clocks first, then the core speed. See if that helps.
Otherwise no, RMA if they even accept it.

Ill give that a shot, thanks.
Is this something that could cause problems down the line?

 

[Darkatomz]

I was thinking about it. I'm loving the AV40's paired with the ST though. I was thinking of getting a sub but don't really think I need it. The clarity and "punch" of the speakers with the card is fantastic. I don't think I will ever go back to onboard sound.

You a student? Some of the op-amps you should be getting would be free with a .edu account.

 

[Vanillalite]

Hey GAF do you need an external amp for higher end headphones on your pc if you have a dedicated soundcard?

 

[BigBlackGamer]

You a student? Some of the op-amps you should be getting would be free with a .edu account.

nah but I will look into it.

 

[Hazaro]

Ill give that a shot, thanks.
Is this something that could cause problems down the line?

Not to my knowledge.

Hey GAF do you need an external amp for higher end headphones on your pc if you have a dedicated soundcard?

Some soundcards have amps on them. If it's loud enough I wouldn't both with an amp, but that is my non audiophile opinion. I have a Xonar DG that has an amp on it ($20) and the difference between it and my old soundcard is negligible except that the DG is 1400% louder.

 

[nib95]

6970 vs GTX 570. What's the verdict?

I game on a 24" IPS panel (1920 x 1200) and will be using the card with the following games.

Shogun 2: Total War
Crysis 2
Mafia II
Starcraft
RAGE
DIRT 3

What do you guys think?

 

[antonz]

6970 vs GTX 570. What's the verdict?

I game on a 24" IPS panel (1920 x 1200) and will be using the card with the following games.

Shogun 2: Total War
Crysis 2
Mafia II
Starcraft
RAGE
DIRT 3

What do you guys think?

6970 Has a 5-8% performance advantage over the 570 overall

 

[nib95]

6970 Has a 5-8% performance advantage over the 570 overall

Out of the games above, is Mafia II the only one that does/will support PhysX? Also, which card runs more power efficient and cool?

 

[antonz]

Out of the games above, is Mafia II the only one that does/will support PhysX? Also, which card runs more power efficient and cool?

5970 is more power efficient. cooling wise they are about equal. For now Mafia II is the only one from that list. One thing worth mentioning is some games just run alot better with Nvidia. Dirt 2 for example has a 20+ FPS difference between the 2 cards in Nvidias favor

 

[dimb]

Out of the games above, is Mafia II the only one that does/will support PhysX? Also, which card runs more power efficient and cool?

Please don't make any purchasing decisions based on Mafia 2.

 

[Veal]

6970 vs GTX 570. What's the verdict?

I game on a 24" IPS panel (1920 x 1200) and will be using the card with the following games.

Shogun 2: Total War
Crysis 2
Mafia II
Starcraft
RAGE
DIRT 3

What do you guys think?

Either one should steamroll all of those (don't know about Crysis yet.) Go with the cheaper one or go 6950 bios flashed.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

Does HDD affect framerates?

 

[Veal]

5970 is more power efficient. cooling wise they are about equal. For now Mafia II is the only one from that list. One thing worth mentioning is some games just run alot better with Nvidia. Dirt 2 for example has a 20+ FPS difference between the 2 cards in Nvidias favor

Not trying to be aggressive or anything but I can run Dirt 2 maxed out with 2xAA, 16xAF, at 1920X1080 at a constant 60 fps on a 6870. Seriously doubt either of cards are going to be a bad buy. The cheaper option will still give more than enough performance for what he wants.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Either one should steamroll all of those (don't know about Crysis yet.) Go with the cheaper one or go 6950 bios flashed.

Crysis 2 should be much better optimized based on the suggested specs that are not final. I'm not sure how extreme the high end settings will push things but the 2GB in the 6950 will pay off at a higher res. Price too, one is slightly cheaper but if you got the money then it's a flip of a coin.

 

[antonz]

Not trying to be aggressive or anything but I can run Dirt 2 maxed out with 2xAA, 16xAF, at 1920X1080 at a constant 60 fps on a 6870. Seriously doubt either of cards are going to be a bad buy. The cheaper option will still give more than enough performance for what he wants.

Oh i dont mean to say that either performs poorly. Its just programming likely that the Nvidia cards max frame rates higher well beyond the noticable 60.

Have a good comparison of the cards here

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/292?vs=306

 

[nib95]

Am I also right in thinking currently only ATI offers MLAA?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Am I also right in thinking currently only ATI offers MLAA?

I know they do but without having a recent NVIDIA I can't answer that all too well as I've been mainly entrenched in ATI pieces recently.

 

[nib95]

I know they do but without having a recent NVIDIA I can't answer that all too well as I've been mainly entrenched in ATI pieces recently.

Well, I read several articles over the last 6 months about Nvidia's more aggressive unscrupulous tactics to gain market share or intentionally sabotage things for ATI, I did say then that I'd keep away from supporting Nvidia, so I guess I'll stick to that. But the MLAA thing just seals the deal. I do hear the GTX 570 is a cooler card though, that is tempting in itself.

One last question. Does an unlocked 6950 (to a 6970) have the same OC'ing capability as a stock 6970 (one that was always a 6970 and not flashed from a 6950 2GB)?

 

[antonz]

Am I also right in thinking currently only ATI offers MLAA?

Right now thats correct. Nvidia will be releasing SRAA but not sure on the timeline. Supposed to be MLAA basically but better optimization leading to less hit in performance

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Well, I read several articles over the last 6 months about Nvidia's more aggressive unscrupulous tactics to gain market share or intentionally sabotage things for ATI, I did say then that I'd keep away from supporting Nvidia, so I guess I'll stick to that. But the MLAA thing just seals the deal. I do hear the GTX 570 is a cooler card though, that is tempting in itself.

One last question. Does an unlocked 6950 (to a 6970) have the same OC'ing capability as a stock 6970 (one that was always a 6970 and not flashed from a 6950 2GB).

As with any of these cards, if you're sensitive on noise, I would get an aftermarket cooler. I bought an Accelero Xtreme Plus for my Radeon 6950 2GB. Temps go down as much as 36C under load. From reading the reviews, it seems like even at 100% RPM it is about as loud as the 30% stock fan speed. That's very good and is the best solution for any of these cards. I did the bios flash with mine too and it's very stable.

Note that I did buy the GIGABYTE Radeon 6950 2GB and they are known to flash and OC well. Currently at 935/1435mhz with the shaders unlocked. Just doing a fan profile in MSI Afterburner changed my temps from stock 95C to 65C while running benchmarks and such. I level out at 75C while playing Crysis. This is without the aftermarket cooler too.

Right now thats correct. Nvidia will be releasing SRAA but not sure on the timeline. Supposed to be MLAA basically but better optimization leading to less hit in performance

Isn't MLAA basically the same in terms of load though? I really don't use it to be honest. I disabled it.

 

[RedSwirl]

Now that I've actually decided that I'm probably gonna get the HD 6850... WHICH ONE should I actually get?

Are they all relatively the same physical size and performance?

My Rig:
Dell XPS 420
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
8800GT 512MB
3GB RAM
425w PSU

 

[Jubbly]

Now that I've actually decided that I'm probably gonna get the HD 6850... WHICH ONE should I actually get?

Are they all relatively the same physical size and performance?

I like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353&cm_re=hd_6850-_-14-125-353-_-Product

Has an overclock out of the box, a custom cooler and a 3 year warranty. It is longer than a stock card however so check it fits in your case.

Edit: Maybe skip that, you can't overclock it further, which rather defeats the point of the huge cooler.

 

[antonz]

As with any of these cards, if you're sensitive on noise, I would get an aftermarket cooler. I bought an Accelero Xtreme Plus for my Radeon 6950 2GB. Temps go down as much as 36C under load. From reading the reviews, it seems like even at 100% RPM it is about as loud as the 30% stock fan speed. That's very good and is the best solution for any of these cards. I did the bios flash with mine too and it's very stable.

Note that I did buy the GIGABYTE Radeon 6950 2GB and they are known to flash and OC well. Currently at 935/1435mhz with the shaders unlocked. Just doing a fan profile in MSI Afterburner changed my temps from stock 95C to 65C while running benchmarks and such. I level out at 75C while playing Crysis. This is without the aftermarket cooler too.


Isn't MLAA basically the same in terms of load though? I really don't use it to be honest. I disabled it.

Overall MLAA and SRAA will be basically identical in terms of function. Nvidia just claims they have a way to make it work alot better to use less power from the GPU so smaller FPS hits enabling it.

 

[nib95]

Overall MLAA and SRAA will be basically identical in terms of function. Nvidia just claims they have a way to make it work alot better to use less power from the GPU so smaller FPS hits enabling it.

MLAA from what I have read already has a very minimal fps hit, so I can't imagine they'd be offering much improvement in the performance regard. IQ maybe.

 

[Jubbly]

MLAA from what I have read already has a very minimal fps hit, so I can't imagine they'd be offering much improvement in the performance regard. IQ maybe.

SRAA:

Subpixel Reconstruction Antialiasing (SRAA) combines single-pixel (1x) shading with subpixel visibility to create antialiased images without increasing the shading cost. SRAA targets deferred-shading renderers, which cannot use multisample antialiasing. SRAA operates as a post-process on a rendered image with superresolution depth and normal buffers, so it can be incorporated into an existing renderer without modifying the shaders. In this way SRAA resembles Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA), but the new algorithm can better respect geometric boundaries and has fixed runtime independent of scene and image complexity. SRAA benefits shading-bound applications. For example, our implementation evaluates SRAA in 1.8 ms (1280x720) to yield antialiasing quality comparable to 4-16x shading. Thus SRAA would produce a net speedup over supersampling for applications that spend 1 ms or more on shading; for comparison, most modern games spend 5-10 ms shading.

http://research.nvidia.com/publication/subpixel-reconstruction-antialiasing

Also, http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=163911

The last week has seen a lot of good progress with the Dreamworld technology version. The issues we mentioned last week with the poor performance of the anti-aliasing feature have been resolved with a little help from our friends at NVIDIA, and the introduction of a new form of anti-aliasing known as FXAA. The first versions with this solution have now been deployed to the test server and are being put through their paces.

Our Lead render coder Fred Richardson was happy to elaborate a little more about the new option:

"We are actually one of the first games to get access to this new solution. FXAA is a new anti aliasing technique developed by NVIDIA which provides highly effective edge smoothing, based on image luminance variations. It is designed to be extremely compatible with deferred engines, by avoiding the issues traditional hardware MSAA presents with regards to retrieving sub-pixel depth buffer samples. In addition it has much lower video memory requirements, while still producing extremely high quality results and avoiding slight image blurring which is common to other image based anti aliasing solutions."

That testing means we should now be in the last leg of testing for the engine update. We felt it was worth the few extra days to ensure that there was an Anti-aliasing option available when the update goes live. We have now checked through most of the important performance indicators, and are very pleased with the progress. Memory handling has vastly improved so that those running 32 bit operating systems should no longer suffer from out of memory issues. The DX10 version runs much smoother, and is in fact now slightly faster than it's DX9 counterpart. For it's part the DX9 version now has a far more fully featured visual suite of effects, which have been introduced with minimal impact (for most there will be no change, for lower end machines trying to run higher settings you may notice a slight dip in fps due to the enhanced visuals now available in DX9. Likewise the reaction from testers has reflected that improvement as we have worked through the versions, so we are looking forward now to the deployment stages of the update.

 

[Nelo Ice]

so would that get alot more build from the op be ok with a different card?
i want to build a dedicated gaming pc and atm i only have a logitech g5 mouse, a 1608x1050 monitor(hanspree) and a gtx 460 2gb(manufactured by nvidia)

besides the computer itself i also need help in getting a keyboard and a cheap copy of windows 7

also i may be building the new comp this month or next

 

[mrklaw]

Damn, NCIX got back to me fast. They are not expecting the new boards until April. I guess I'll tell them to ship me what I ordered. From the sound of it, this shouldn't effect me anyways since I only have one HDD and one optical drive.

What if I decided to pick up an SSD at some point in the future?

NCIX also posted this:

Put the SSD on SATA 6G, move the DVD to 3G. If the 3G fails down the line, you can always get a cheap SATA PCI card to continue to use the DVD drive. But your HDD/SSD will be fine.

 

[mrklaw]

As with any of these cards, if you're sensitive on noise, I would get an aftermarket cooler. I bought an Accelero Xtreme Plus for my Radeon 6950 2GB. Temps go down as much as 36C under load. From reading the reviews, it seems like even at 100% RPM it is about as loud as the 30% stock fan speed. That's very good and is the best solution for any of these cards. I did the bios flash with mine too and it's very stable.

Note that I did buy the GIGABYTE Radeon 6950 2GB and they are known to flash and OC well. Currently at 935/1435mhz with the shaders unlocked. Just doing a fan profile in MSI Afterburner changed my temps from stock 95C to 65C while running benchmarks and such. I level out at 75C while playing Crysis. This is without the aftermarket cooler too.


Isn't MLAA basically the same in terms of load though? I really don't use it to be honest. I disabled it.

Very nice. I'm hitting high 80s with my XFX 6950 running stock. Fan stays quiet slow due to stupid profile from ATI. What specific cooler did you use, and was it difficult to install?

I don't understand why manufacturers don't bring out one or two cards with good cooling built in, for a premium. Stock cooling seems quite poor in comparison

 

[bwtw]

Yep and the 2GB 6950 can have its extra shaders unlocked with a bios flash to make it basically a 6970

Last question!

There's both XFX and Sapphire versions of the card...from a bit of Googling the main difference seems to be XFX has better customer service? Given that they seem to be the same price in the UK, is there any reason to get the Sapphire?

 

[The Elite]

Put the SSD on SATA 6G, move the DVD to 3G. If the 3G fails down the line, you can always get a cheap SATA PCI card to continue to use the DVD drive. But your HDD/SSD will be fine.

Thanks for the tip.