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[scogoth]

An idling PC costs me less than $0.30 a day and also gives me the ability to stream videos to my iPhone or other devices whenever I desire, so I just leave it on at all times.

Electricity in Canada is cheap.

Maybe in Alberta

 

[MisterAnderson]

It doesn't

As in it isn't nearly as good or it's way better?

 

[Q8D3vil]

so two of these or to of these

i have thermaltake series v full tower, very good air flow.

 

[TheExodu5]

so two of these or to of these

i have thermaltake series v full tower, very good air flow.

If you have a board and case that can actually house those two 3-slot Asus cards, then go for it. I'm not sure how easy that is though...

edit: I think as long as you have a full sized Sandy Bridge motherboard, you should be okay. The Gigabyte and Asus boards, at least, have their PCI-E x16 slots 3 apart. As long as they're 3 apart from each other, you should be good to go:

 

[Leucrota]

Is this card compatible with the $600 build components? I heard it is a little big. Any thoughts on this card?

MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Advice needed: do I wait for the Vertex 3 drives to hit in a couple of weeks and pick up a 120GB, or just watch the Vertex 2 prices drop like a rock and pick up one of those? I'm using SATA 3Gbps, not 6.

 

[Hawk269]

Hey All-

Well I have just found out that my yearly bonus will be in much earlier than normal and that it is much higher than normal as well. So my master plan to upgrade to a second 580 and a new Sandy Bridge and Motherboard looks like it will be a go alot sooner that I had thought.

With that in mind, I need some serious help in putting together the right parts for my upgrade. What I really need the most help with is the Motherboard. GPU, Processor etc. are pretty simple, but I am not a big time PC user and need this help in selecting the proper motherboard.

So what I need is the following:

A motherboard that is Sandy Brigdge compatible, it must also be SLI Compatible. I am looking at dual SLI and a slot for my Physx card as well. My current AMD build uses an ASUS board that I have been happy with, so I would prefer to stick with them, but am open to recommendations. I have a standard ATX case, so teh MB is not for a full size or for a small case.

Lastly, is there special memory that the new MB need to use or can I use what most have been buying whic is the G-Skill Ribjaws?

Thanks in advance to any suggestions, links. Also, I dont want to buy the most advanced/expensive board. I do plan to overclock the CPU a bit, but nothing massive/extreme.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Absinthe]

Looks awesome, let us know if it works out alright.

Definitely let us know how it works out.

Worked out great.

Just unlocked my 6950 to a 6970 and waiting for all my steam games to dl. Probably time to sleep for the night and leave it to hopefully finish by morning.

The stock CPU fan is a little louder then I want though, so it looks like a new one is in order.
Any suggestions?

 

[Q8D3vil]

If you have a board and case that can actually house those two 3-slot Asus cards, then go for it. I'm not sure how easy that is though...

edit: I think as long as you have a full sized Sandy Bridge motherboard, you should be okay. The Gigabyte and Asus boards, at least, have their PCI-E x16 slots 3 apart. As long as they're 3 apart from each other, you should be good to go:

this is my mobo
http://www.evga.com/articles/00438/

there one time i put 2xgtx 295 inside + 8800 gt and soundcard and they fit ok but one of the gtx 295 was too hot ( old version, its hot anyway).

 

[Kenka]

OK it says in the POST screen (American Megatrends thingy) that it recognizes 2 SATA devices; one is a DVD drive I guess, the other a WD hdd

you're installing windows from DVD?

1:turn on pc and go into bios (mobo menu) by pressing the delete during POST (aka immediately when you power it up)

2:select advanced (top right), then go to the tab with "boot options" or something like that (most right tab or the one before it) and select your Samsung DVD drive to be 1st boot device

3:select exit (save changes) -> pc should reboot and then start the windows install from DVD

Just quoting this to thank you. I didn't see your post orginially while I was busy tweaking my computer.

Again, thanks. I didn't expect that level of commitment. You're awesome guys

 

[EatChildren]

Pulled back my drivers to the ones on the disk, and the problem still exists. I think I spotted some shadow problems in Mass Effect 2 as well .

Nothing ever goes right for me when buying hardware. Its so unfair. There's always something wrong with it, or it never works exactly as it should.

I dont really know what to do. I dont know if it's a driver problem, some setting somewhere causing conflicts, or the GPU itself busted.

 

[opticalmace]

Pulled back my drivers to the ones on the disk, and the problem still exists. I think I spotted some shadow problems in Mass Effect 2 as well .

Nothing ever goes right for me when buying hardware. Its so unfair. There's always something wrong with it, or it never works exactly as it should.

I dont really know what to do. I dont know if it's a driver problem, some setting somewhere causing conflicts, or the GPU itself busted.

If I were you I would clean out the old drivers with driver sweeper (I think that's the name) and try a few different drivers. If you still have the problem (and you don't wanna test a clean reformat--which I might do myself because I do it frequently anyway) then it's probably hardware. I had similar problems to what you're describing when my video card was overheating, so if you're sure the temps are good then it's probably faulty, imo.

 

[EatChildren]

If I were you I would clean out the old drivers with driver sweeper (I think that's the name) and try a few different drivers. If you still have the problem (and you don't wanna test a clean reformat--which I might do myself because I do it frequently anyway) then it's probably hardware. I had similar problems to what you're describing when my video card was overheating, so if you're sure the temps are good then it's probably faulty, imo.

I did a clean install with the roll back. Uninstalled the drivers, rebooted, then used Driver Sweeper to clean out the remainder, rebooted, and installed the release that came with the disk.

Under load the card gets to ~78 degrees. Hasn't hit 80 yet. But the problems happen straight away, regardles of how long the card has been running, so I doubt it would be a heating issue.

Blaargh.

 

[deathberry]

GTX 590 blowing up with certain driver!?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=26690525&postcount=1

Edit: Mo Info...

267.52 drivers

http://www.legitreviews.com/news/10352/

Blew up our Zotac GTX 590 using 267.52 as well.

http://tbreak.com/tech/2011/03/zotac-gtx-590-review/3/

 

[Kenka]

I did a clean install with the roll back. Uninstalled the drivers, rebooted, then used Driver Sweeper to clean out the remainder, rebooted, and installed the release that came with the disk.

Under load the card gets to ~78 degrees. Hasn't hit 80 yet. But the problems happen straight away, regardles of how long the card has been running, so I doubt it would be a heating issue.

Blaargh.

As someone who just went through a sea of shit while building his computer, I can only say that I deeply share your anger/sadness/hatred. Sorry to not being able to help.

And that's still not the end : my monitor refuses to go to any higher resolution than 1600 x 900 (while it's a 1080p monitor), my Windows 7 copy is a 32bit OS that I have to clean and on top of that, my 560 Ti seems to be pretty underperforming on Dead Space 2.

Building one's PC is not for pussies.

 

[Lime]

I did a clean install with the roll back. Uninstalled the drivers, rebooted, then used Driver Sweeper to clean out the remainder, rebooted, and installed the release that came with the disk.

Under load the card gets to ~78 degrees. Hasn't hit 80 yet. But the problems happen straight away, regardles of how long the card has been running, so I doubt it would be a heating issue.

Blaargh.

It's obviously software-related (the heat level is quite normal). Is it Nvidia or AMD? Either way, check your 3D settings in Catalyst Center/Nvidia control panel and play around with the settings. Reinstalling, doing rollbacks and so on won't do any good if the default 3D settings always are in conflict with the particular game's settings (vsync, triple buffering, type of AA, etc.).

And please do not use the drivers that came with the disc. This isn't 2003. Drivers on disc are always outdated. Instead, just get the latest stable update from the Internet.

 

[EatChildren]

I've had a look in the settings and I cant find anything that might be causing the problem, and I know to use updated drivers. I'm not that stupid. I rolled back to the drivers on the disk just to see if there were any differences. For what it's worth, the drivers on the disk were the release prior to the most upated, so it wasn't far back.

Anyway, the problem that I thought I saw in Mass Effect 2 turned out to be not a problem but just a shitty art asset. Whoops .

I still have no idea what's causing the Warhead stuff.

 

[mrklaw]

I've had a look in the settings and I cant find anything that might be causing the problem, and I know to use updated drivers. I'm not that stupid. I rolled back to the drivers on the disk just to see if there were any differences. For what it's worth, the drivers on the disk were the release prior to the most upated, so it wasn't far back.

Anyway, the problem that I thought I saw in Mass Effect 2 turned out to be not a problem but just a shitty art asset. Whoops .

I still have no idea what's causing the Warhead stuff.

crysis 1 didn't like AA at all for some reason, so have you tried with AA completely off? Even turning it off in your GPU control panel thing?

 

[n0n44m]

Blew up our Zotac GTX 590 using 267.52 as well.

http://tbreak.com/tech/2011/03/zotac-gtx-590-review/3/

how much V was it at when it blew?

I have a feeling that instead of going for massive amount of phases/vrm-circuits for power hungry chips (480/580) they have now decided to go with far less phases out of a cost/size point of view (570/590) :/

which basically means that a chip like that is unable to run stuff like Furmark or even regular 3D apps above a certain voltage without a (software) power limiting feature that cuts performance when hitting the edge

I mean my 480 and the 580s as well can do 1.2v with a bios flash. Not healthy (especially without extra cooling) but they won't blow up either unless after days of Furmark ... hell I've heard a lot of engineers from Nvidia/ATI complain about Furmark and its craaazy power draw, but until now cards were always engineered to handle it -> seems like now you just have to hope the software limiter works *yay* :\

bit disappointing for the 590 especially, I mean if you shell out €650 for a card you would hope it at least has the same quality VRM components as a €420 580 :/

 

[deathberry]

how much V was it at when it blew?

I have a feeling that instead of going for massive amount of phases/vrm-circuits for power hungry chips (480/580) they have now decided to go with far less phases out of a cost/size point of view (570/590) :/

which basically means that a chip like that is unable to run stuff like Furmark or even regular 3D apps above a certain voltage without a (software) power limiting feature that cuts performance when hitting the edge

I mean my 480 and the 580s as well can do 1.2v with a bios flash. Not healthy (especially without extra cooling) but they won't blow up either unless after days of Furmark ... hell I've heard a lot of engineers from Nvidia/ATI complain about Furmark and its craaazy power draw, but until now cards were always engineered to handle it -> seems like now you just have to hope the software limiter works *yay* :\

bit disappointing for the 590 especially, I mean if you shell out €650 for a card you would hope it at least has the same quality VRM components as a €420 580 :/

Ahem, the GTX 590 was set at 125mV above stock voltage. Nvidia suggest 12.5 to 25mV using stock cooler and current drivers after GTX 590s starting blowing up all over the place.

Anyways, the GTX 590 has 10-phase controllers powering the two GPUs and 2 more for the memory chips which should be able to handle the voltage increase tbh.

On contrast, the GTX 580 has 6-phase for the GPU and 2 more for the memory. We got an MSI N580GTX Lightning, the review for which should be going online shortly. Anyways, this card has 12-phase for the GPU and 3 for the memory modules. That card was overclocked to 985Mhz (from 772MHz Nvidia speeds) on Core with voltage increase of 135mV over stock. Quality components do go a long way.

 

[Lime]

I've had a look in the settings and I cant find anything that might be causing the problem, and I know to use updated drivers. I'm not that stupid. I rolled back to the drivers on the disk just to see if there were any differences. For what it's worth, the drivers on the disk were the release prior to the most upated, so it wasn't far back.

Anyway, the problem that I thought I saw in Mass Effect 2 turned out to be not a problem but just a shitty art asset. Whoops .

I still have no idea what's causing the Warhead stuff.

Sorry I didn't mean to come across as demeaning. Have you tried turning of AA and AF? Sometimes the AA solution will interfere with the game settings. For example, in DOW2: Retribution textures become completely black if the Catalyst settings are not set to MSAA.

 

[Shadowhaxor]

Guys sorry to bug you often: for gaming and future SLI/Crossfire, and some like photoshop graphic work:

Which of these 3 or other would you recommend:

(Going with asus 1155 Board Deluxe and i7 2600K)

So graphic card:

XFX Radeon HD 6950 800MHZ 1GB 5GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Video Card for 235.99, after MIR it's 204.99

XFX Radeon HD 6950 XXX 830MHZ 1GB 5.2GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Video Card for 229.99 after MIR, it's $200?

So same card, just one slightly over clocked and is cheaper??

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Video Card for 279.99 (Is it worth 80 bucks more for a 1 gig step up?)

XFX Radeon HD 6950 800MHZ 2GB 5.0GHZ DDR5 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card for 279.99, after MIR 245.99

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Fermi 850MHZ 1024MB 4104MHZ GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E Video Card for 249.99

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr OC 880MHZ 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card for 249.99

Or better yet, is better to go with 460 GTX priced lower, for the better value, ultimately in the end I'll want to do SLI/Crossfire with the card, so want to get a decent/good card now...but nothing too crazy or expensive...250 range is my top limit I believe.

If you are wanting to do Crossfire or SLI, keep in mind that even though you are getting two cards with 1GB of Vram, it doesn't add up to 2GB. That said, you can't go wrong with either of those cards, though you can get the 6950 and mod it to a 6970, so if you did it with a 6950 with 2GB of Vram, you'll be set for higher resolution gaming / work.

Totally up to you, but all of those cards are good.

Forgot to add... If you get the XFX 6950 2GB card, make sure you either already have two 6 pin power adaptors or your power supply has them, they don't include any in the box. I'm rather disappointed with XFX on that. Every card I've purchased up to my 5850 included them.

 

[mrklaw]

totally go for the 2GB versions. If you're crossfiring that means you want serious performance. You'd be pissed if you ended up with games cutting back on texture detail or AA just because you skimped on RAM

 

[Moobabe]

I'm tired of using my tv as a monitor so the time has come - I'm looking for something that's 22" - 26" and, ideally, with HDMI input. So far I've found this -

http://www.dabs.com/products/viewso...tft-with-2ms-vga-dvi-d-hdmi-monitor-77T8.html

Good? Bad? SHOCKING?

Or this?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168144

 

[TOAO_Cyrus]

Now that the 590 has released and I have a release date for the C400...it may be that time. How does the 590 compare to SLI 580?

Its slower or comparable to SLI'd 570's or xfired'd 6970's, but much hotter and louder. If your budget is 700$ go for one of those setups.

 

[Vyer]

Looks like Microcenter is having a sale on the new SB processors again. i5 2500k for 179.

 

[MisterAnderson]

What is the better program to use for managing an nvidia card? MSI's or EVGA's?

 

[iNvid02]

What is the better program to use for managing an nvidia card? MSI's or EVGA's?

i've used both and prefer msi afterburner even though i have evga branded cards, its great

 

[TheExodu5]

this is my mobo
http://www.evga.com/articles/00438/

there one time i put 2xgtx 295 inside + 8800 gt and soundcard and they fit ok but one of the gtx 295 was too hot ( old version, its hot anyway).

You would need to use the top most and bottom most slots there, which means you'd need a bit of clearance space below your motherboard.

Sandy Bridge boards tend to have the PCI-E 3 slots apart rather than 2.

 

[mkenyon]

Hey All-

Well I have just found out that my yearly bonus will be in much earlier than normal and that it is much higher than normal as well. So my master plan to upgrade to a second 580 and a new Sandy Bridge and Motherboard looks like it will be a go alot sooner that I had thought.

With that in mind, I need some serious help in putting together the right parts for my upgrade. What I really need the most help with is the Motherboard. GPU, Processor etc. are pretty simple, but I am not a big time PC user and need this help in selecting the proper motherboard.

So what I need is the following:

A motherboard that is Sandy Brigdge compatible, it must also be SLI Compatible. I am looking at dual SLI and a slot for my Physx card as well. My current AMD build uses an ASUS board that I have been happy with, so I would prefer to stick with them, but am open to recommendations. I have a standard ATX case, so teh MB is not for a full size or for a small case.

Lastly, is there special memory that the new MB need to use or can I use what most have been buying whic is the G-Skill Ribjaws?

Thanks in advance to any suggestions, links. Also, I dont want to buy the most advanced/expensive board. I do plan to overclock the CPU a bit, but nothing massive/extreme.

Thanks again guys!

Why? You planning on doing 3D vision at 2500xwhatever resolution? I mean, sandybrige, sure, but 2 580s? Insanity.

 

[Shambles]

Sorry I didn't mean to come across as demeaning. Have you tried turning of AA and AF? Sometimes the AA solution will interfere with the game settings. For example, in DOW2: Retribution textures become completely black if the Catalyst settings are not set to MSAA.

If you're having to do a bunch of software tweaks to try to get something working on a clean windows install it means you have a borked piece of hardware. If I even start to run into significant problems I don't bother wasting my time trying to find a workaround anymore. I just start taking parts back and replacing them. If all your hardware was manufactured properly it would work near perfectly out of the box. I find having another machine to test components on is invaluable. My memory goes through memtest, the GPU goes into a machine I know works to test it out, I go through the HDD's SMART error logs or plug it into another machine if neccesary. MB/CPU is harder to figure out which is broken, but it's usually the motherboard. I find it's rare for a broken CPU to make it's way into retail. Oh and the PSU can be very important as well, a bad PSU can put all sorts of ghosts into your system, I prefer to put a PSU I know works into the machine to see if it works as putting the potentially bad one into another machine might not show the same problems if the machine doesn't pull as much power from the unit.

 

[oneironautz]

Alright Gaf, so after lurking this and the 2010 thread for quite some time I think its time to ask for some advice on a prospective build. My old Inspiron 9300 (yeah….) finally died on me so Im looking to try my luck at this. This is my first post and first time ever building a PC so bare with me.

Budget: Around $1200 US (variable but want to keep it around there).
Main Use: General use (word processing, 1080p playback, web surfing) and Gaming (I want to try out gaming in 3D as well)
Monitor Resolution: 1080p
List SPECIFIC games: Was going to build primarily for Guild Wars 2. But, I want to be able to try out and run a lot of games coming out this year decently well.
Are reusing any parts?: No
When will you build?: I would like to order everything this weekend so that I can start building late next week.
Will you be overclocking?: Most likely.

So this is what I’m planning on getting customized from the first post. Any advice would be greatly appreciated:

CPU: Intel i5-2500k (picking it up from microcenter)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
MB: MSI P67A-GD55
GPU: MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB)
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB
Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST
Monitor: ASUS VH242H
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W
SSD: Crucial C300 64 GB
Wireless: TP-LINK TL-WN722N IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0

With everything and after rebates it comes to about $1195. Any critiques or suggestions on improving the build?

A few additional questions:

-I want to leave the option open for trying out SLI in the future. I’ve read from a few places that a 650W is enough for 2 560’s but I wanted to check here to see what you guys thought.
-I’m also planning on getting a 3D tv down the road as well, and I want to try out Nvidia’s 3dtv play. Anyone have any experience with it?
-After installing windows 7, how much space would be left on a 64GB hard drive. Also, would going with the C300 be a good bet? I planned on the c400 but since its not going to be available for another month I decided to go with this one.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shambles]

I wouldn't bother getting the F3 with an SSD as a primary drive. You can double your storage for the same price range by picking up a 2TB 5900RPM model instead. 650W would be fine if you were running everything at stock but will probably limit your overclocking. I'd pick up a 750W to stay on the safe side, the TP-750 is a heck of a unit that I like. SSDs are going to continue to drop in price and increase in performance quickly over the next couple years, you just basically have to pick a point to jump in. Everything else looks pretty good to me.

 

[mkenyon]

I wouldn't bother getting the F3 with an SSD as a primary drive. You can double your storage for the same price range by picking up a 2TB 5900RPM model instead. 650W would be fine if you were running everything at stock but will probably limit your overclocking. I'd pick up a 750W to stay on the safe side, the TP-750 is a heck of a unit that I like. SSDs are going to continue to drop in price and increase in performance quickly over the next couple years, you just basically have to pick a point to jump in. Everything else looks pretty good to me.

Highly disagree with this. Your games will thank you for being on a dual platter 1TB 7200rpm drive.

To the build, you'll want an aftermarkte CPU cooler if you're planning to overclock that 2500k. If you're not, don't bother getting the unlocked version.

SLI is simply not worth it to non-enthusiasts. There will be all sorts of little pains to work through that you can just avoid by keeping a solid single card.

For 3D gaming, you need a beast card like the 580 to get the most out of it.

Otherwise, the build looks good!

 

[Dinokill]

Looks like a good job. Is your CPU power cable too short to route through the case? How are the temps on your 212+?

My CPU temp is 29-33 idle.

I have a question

I have this RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 but when I tried to set the frequency to 1600 the PC will fail to boot.

This is the timing according to newegg 9-9-9-24-2N

My timing 9-9-9-25 1T

Any solution?

 

[Darkatomz]

Yeah that case will do fine.

I actually have an Intel X25-M. I wanted to go Intel again, but it's just so hard to ignore the sheer performance of the Vertex 3 drives.

[SSD charts]

...I wish they would do tests on the 120GB OCZ since I can see most people buying that one at the price point that it is. Kind of disappointed that pricing on these things haven't dropped much this generation either. Other than that, it looks pretty good for pre-release performance and firmware.

Any news on a Cruicial c400 or next-gen Intel X-25 SSD?

Spoiler

Or was the 510 technically the next-gen version of it...?

Not that I doubt that the OCZ is going to underperform once released, but I just don't know of what else is coming down the pipeline in terms of other new Sandforce SSDs these days.

 

[Omiee]

Need help before i make pictures of my setup, i just got my second 6950 and im about to put it in, do i need to do anything besides putting it in and put the crossfire bridge from card to card?
like download some other driver etc.

 

[Mr. Hyde]

I didn't get to order my build before the MOBO recall happened, so I ended up waiting a couple months and now I am ready to purchase.

Is there anything I should change or modify to make it a better value?

 

[Dosia]

Hello all I have a dumb question. My buddy has an asus P7P55D mobo. He has his internet working with a hardwire but cant get it to work wirelessly. Does he need a dongle of some sort or what? Thanks

Anyone?

 

[Stantron]

Can someone remind me when the new OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs are supposed to be released?

 

[mkenyon]

Anyone?

I don't think it has integrated wireless. You'll need to get a wireless PCI card or USB dongle.

Need help before i make pictures of my setup, i just got my second 6950 and im about to put it in, do i need to do anything besides putting it in and put the crossfire bridge from card to card?
like download some other driver etc.

You'll need to enable it in CCC.

 

[Omiee]

..

I don't think it has integrated wireless. You'll need to get a wireless PCI card or USB dongle.



You'll need to enable it in CCC.

where in the ccc ? because i have the new interface and its different from the old one.

 

[knitoe]

My CPU temp is 29-33 idle.

I have a question

I have this RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 but when I tried to set the frequency to 1600 the PC will fail to boot.

This is the timing according to newegg 9-9-9-24-2N

My timing 9-9-9-25 1T

Any solution?

Load temp is way more important than idle. Run prime95.

As for your ram issue, have you tried setting it's timing manually in the bios?

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

I only just got the card, so no overclocking other than the factory overclock I have. I just got home so I can give some screenies now of the problems.

Two problems in Crysis Warhead;
- First one here. As you can see the ice at the start of this level is all funky, with black streaks through it. There also appears to be some strange anti-aliasing/blur on the wooden planks. It only appears at the start of this level, in this area. As soon as I exit everything is fine. I turned off all anti-aliasing, and the black lines mores or less disappeared. However, there was still some really strange blurring around those wooden planks.
- Second problem here. You can see that the draping moss and vines on the tree have strange pixel effects, as if the transperacy isn't working properly. Even weirder, they react oddly to the blur of movement. When I move, they create black artefacts that 'move' with the blur. You can see them here. They only appear on these specific trees.

I couldn't get a good shot from Crysis 2. The best way I can describe the problem there is to imagine that you're looking at one plane of glass through another glass, like looking through one car window at another, or one glass barrier to another. The one in the background with somewhat glitch with the one in the forground, cancelling out any decal effects.

So if the piece of glass in front of me is all cracked and smashed, and I'm looking through it to a piece of glass in the background, it wont display the cracks and what not on the front plane wherever the background panel is positioned.

I've reinstalled the drivers and it made no difference. I might roll back to the ones before and see if there's any problem there.

Anyone got any advice?

Not certain on the ice, but the tree thing is "normal", i think its something they never fixed in Warhead. Pretty sure that particular ice bit looks the same on mine too.

 

[mkenyon]

..



where in the ccc ? because i have the new interface and its different from the old one.

Not certain. Haven't messed with that since I had 4870s 2 years ago. Look around in CCC or use some google-fu. Hope you don't have any headaches with it, can be a serious pain at times.

 

[Omiee]

Not certain. Haven't messed with that since I had 4870s 2 years ago. Look around in CCC or use some google-fu. Hope you don't have any headaches with it, can be a serious pain at times.

i looked in the CCC and i couldent find it anywhere. google'd it but nothing conclusive.
anyone else who is running crossfire recently

 

[BloodySinner]

I hate being a PC enthusiast sometimes. It's this vicious cycle of always wanting more performance. Kind of like an automotive fan who's always buying parts to improve their vehicle. I just pulled the trigger o an extra 4GB DDR3 ram and a gaming mousepad.

 

[Omiee]

I hate being a PC enthusiast sometimes. It's this vicious cycle of always wanting more performance. Kind of like an automotive fan who's always buying parts to improve their vehicle. I just pulled the trigger o an extra 4GB DDR3 ram and a gaming mousepad.

what improvments did you see by getting an extra 4gb ram?

 

[Dinokill]

Load temp is way more important than idle. Run prime95.

Ran Prime95 for about 10 minutes(in fact, still running) and the temps seems to hoover between 49c and 50c. The 2500k is overclocked at 3.5(I know, this aint much but i'm just testing). Are these good temps?

 

[dangeROSS]

Hey guys. I am a relative PC noob and was wondering if I could ask for your collective advice.

I recently purchased a computer that I planned on using mainly for photoshop and art programs. I didn't get the most high end graphics card, but I did get one which I thought would be adequate. But I now realize that I would like to have a more capable one for gaming.

I have a:

Dell Vostro 230
2 Quad Q8400 w/VT
3GB DDR3 SDRAM
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 310m

I was thinking of getting a Galaxy GeForce GTX460 1GB. Is that a worthwhile upgrade? Or would the improvement not be worth it?

Follow up question, I paid about $900 for this computer. I sort of feel I paid way too much for what I got. Did I get ripped off? This is the first time I've ever bought a new PC. I usually just inherit hand me downs. And I am questioning if my choice was a smart one.

Thanks!