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[longdi]

Ugh @ Gigabyte... there like the Abit of the modern era... if you go gigabyte then get those RMA's ready. I only give a motherboard maker two chances to make chances to make things right (I gave Abit four) but Gigabytes deffective-ass runs of X58 in the late 2009 when the X58s lauched left such a bad taste in my mouth I paid a full $80 more with the Asus and that worked on its first try. I'm not much for brand loyalty but I freely excersise brand hate caution.

gigabyte is better now. their new ud5 boards look awesome and their uefi bios is fully capable, still not as well organised and snappy as asus but competitive.

 

[chaosblade]

I think the relatively small jumps for Ivy Bridge and Haswell are more to do with the fact that Intel is focusing on reducing energy consumption rather than improving performance at the high end. Their strategy used to be defined by their competition with AMD, now it's defined by their competition with ARM.

That Anand article was pretty good, and it did a good job explaining that.

If you've got a SB or IB CPU, you're probably good for quite a while. AMD is also focusing on other market segments and is just playing catch-up to Intel. Both know that the desktop PC isn't going anywhere, but it's also not the market to be stuck in down the road.

 

[teh_pwn]

That Anand article was pretty good, and it did a good job explaining that.

If you've got a SB or IB CPU, you're probably good for quite a while. AMD is also focusing on other market segments and is just playing catch-up to Intel. Both know that the desktop PC isn't going anywhere, but it's also not the market to be stuck in down the road.

Yep, I agree.

I'm still going to build a Haswell desktop and use experience I got from OCing to get the 40% per core performance we all deserve. Though Ivy's thermal issue concerns me about Haswell's ability to OC. :/

 

[Impeccable]

I figure this is the best place to ask...

I'm in the market (or will be soon) for a new wireless router, I need it to have a large range, be able to stream HD stuff easily and to obviously be the best it can be at gaming.

Keeping in mind I'm Canadian(some makes and models aren't available here), what is the best option?

 

[mrklaw]

If it isn't, it should be. Because the problem will only get worse with time. 4K resolution will probably arrive in the late 2020s (in a mainstream sense), and Moore's law is going to fall apart in about 5 years. Looking at Haswell, I'm somewhat concerned that we're looking at barely faster than Sandy->Ivy jump for desktop PCs. I was hoping for a Westmere->Sandy jump (tock), but I think per core performance is hitting a wall. Hopefully we can OC it to 5.0 GHz with liquid.

Just stop wasting silicon on IGPs that nobody uses, and give enthusiasts meaningful 6-8+ core CPUs. Seems the logical place to scale

 

[teh_pwn]

Just stop wasting silicon on IGPs that nobody uses, and give enthusiasts meaningful 6-8+ core CPUs. Seems the logical place to scale

If you have a discrete video card, does Intel auto-disable their GPU to improve cooling?

I want to OC to 5.0 GHz on liquid cooling with rock solid stability. I need to study up on all of the configurable items beyond Vcore, LLC, & Core ratio.

If Intel wanted to annoy us further, they could throw us under the bus and merge desktop iCore series with Xeon and make just Xeons for Desktops. "Get last year's performance for tomorrow's cost TODAY!"

 

[Smash88]

I got a two hour lecture on this last night that made me switch out my closed loop liquid cooling solution for a fan based solution. The gist of how it was explained to me was that because of the lack of a pump, closed loop solution really don't cool effectively until the system is hot and they suffer from a higher than average idle temp. I was told if I really wanted to do proper liquid cooling, i need a solution with a pump that actively moves liquid through the radiator rather than waiting for the liquid in the closed loop system to gradually raise to a uniformed temp.

Whoever gave that lecture has no idea what he/she is talking about. Whatever they told you is wrong and you should immediately forget what they said.

You don't have a higher than average idle temp... wtf is that about anyway?

The closed loops have pumps.

They are for people that want the aesthetics and the cooling of a water cooling setup, without building a whole system with watercooling as the centralized basis of their machine and the hassle as well.

 

[Unorthodox]

I think my HD is dying.. check disc runs everytime I boot it up, I have "bad sectors".. if I reformat y'think the HD can be saved? Also, should I invest in a SSD? I'd appreciate some opinions..

 

[t-ramp]

I think my HD is dying.. check disc runs everytime I boot it up, I have "bad sectors".. if I reformat y'think the HD can be saved? Also, should I invest in a SSD? I'd appreciate some opinions..

Time for a new drive, I'd say. How much space do you need? A ~256GB SSD would be a nice replacement and they aren't too expensive.

Also, yes, closed-loop liquid coolers definitely have pumps...

 

[mhayze]

I think my HD is dying.. check disc runs everytime I boot it up, I have "bad sectors".. if I reformat y'think the HD can be saved? Also, should I invest in a SSD? I'd appreciate some opinions..

In a vast majority of cases, no, it can't be saved, other than by buying a new HD and copying everything off to the new HD ASAP. My advice is do not buy a 'green HD' (from WD or Seagate) these have a long track record of worse than average re-seeks and bad sectors. SSDs are great for the OS drive, but for mass storage, you probably need a spinning disk as well. The Samsung 830 is a great deal for an SSD, and a recent 1TB/platter 7200rpm drive will do well as mass storage.

 

[Unorthodox]

You think the HD is completely toast? I mean.. I'm still using it, a reformat should fix it up no?
Oh, I also forgot to mention I have a Samsung 2TB drive...

 

[mkenyon]

Just stop wasting silicon on IGPs that nobody uses, and give enthusiasts meaningful 6-8+ core CPUs. Seems the logical place to scale

That's what the -E procs and X79 is for. There's no reason they can't do both. If you read that Anand article or listen to the recent TechReport podcast about Haswell, it's actually really cool stuff that means a lot for the overall computer industry. Here's hoping that we can eventually have videocards the size of the 640 that are top-tier in performance with a whole system draw of 100W. That would be so amazing. You could liquid cool an entire computer with a single radiator.

If you have a discrete video card, does Intel auto-disable their GPU to improve cooling?

I want to OC to 5.0 GHz on liquid cooling with rock solid stability. I need to study up on all of the configurable items beyond Vcore, LLC, & Core ratio.

If Intel wanted to annoy us further, they could throw us under the bus and merge desktop iCore series with Xeon and make just Xeons for Desktops. "Get last year's performance for tomorrow's cost TODAY!"

Chip lottery or getting a good 2500K/2600K/2700K is how you get there. You certainly can't force IB there unless you are dumping LN2 on it.

gigabyte is better now. their new ud5 boards look awesome and their uefi bios is fully capable, still not as well organised and snappy as asus but competitive.

I've recently came around on Gigabyte. Their boards are really really well crafted with a lot of cool features that they don't gouge you on. They seem to either hit a home run or strike out with a new motherboard series release. Z77 and X79 (after the vdroop correction) are certainly home runs. Dat UD7.

 

[kennah]

You think the HD is completely toast? I mean.. I'm still using it, a reformat should fix it up no?
Oh, I also forgot to mention I have a Samsung 2TB drive...

Why would a reformat fix it? That noise you are hearing is physical damage to the drive. Back up your data immediately, the drive is going to fail and stop working.

 

[Unorthodox]

Why would a reformat fix it? That noise you are hearing is physical damage to the drive. Back up your data immediately, the drive is going to fail and stop working.

There is no noise though..

 

[t-ramp]

There is no noise though..

Have you monitored the SMART data? If the amount of reallocated sectors is increasing that indicates something physically wrong with the drive.

 

[Unorthodox]

Have you monitored the SMART data? If the amount of reallocated sectors is increasing that indicates something physically wrong with the drive.

How do you do that?

 

[t-ramp]

How do you do that?

I use CrystalDiskInfo mostly.

 

[beje]

There's a chance I can get a really cheap Sapphire HD 7850 (but just 1GB) at 156€. Should I go for it? Most cards from that model are 190€+ around here... and even though I have to stretch the budget a bit, it's much more future proofed that the 7770 I initially thought about. Also, I don't think the 1GB will hurt much as I don't plan on gaming at more than 1080p or going multi-monitor.

 

[golem]

Finally got around to a bit of upgrading from my trusty Core 2 Duo 3ghz to:

i7-3770K
ASUS P8Z77-V LE Plus
16GB RAM
Corsair H100 CPU Cooler

Now just waiting for the Samsung 840s to release... gained 20fps in Sleeping Dogs!

 

[scogoth]

Ugh @ Gigabyte... there like the Abit of the modern era... if you go gigabyte then get those RMA's ready. I only give a motherboard maker two chances to make chances to make things right (I gave Abit four) but Gigabytes deffective-ass runs of X58 in the late 2009 when the X58s lauched left such a bad taste in my mouth I paid a full $80 more with the Asus and that worked on its first try. I'm not much for brand loyalty but I freely excersise brand hate caution.

I agree had 2 x58s doa and a p67. Never will buy gigabyte again

 

[Deleted member 22576]

I just realized this is the first device I've ever owned that uses an HDMI cable, lol.
Getting *really* pumped having this thing on my desk. Doing a full on reorganization of all my possessions and getting rid of tons of stuff today to really seal in the "new era" feeling my life is about to enter. Aside from mobile devices, I haven't got a new computer since 2006.

 

[mkenyon]

Not much like a full reorginzation and new build to start anew in an office. Feels fresh.

 

[bro1]

If it isn't, it should be. Because the problem will only get worse with time. 4K resolution will probably arrive in the late 2020s (in a mainstream sense), and Moore's law is going to fall apart in about 5 years. Looking at Haswell, I'm somewhat concerned that we're looking at barely faster than Sandy->Ivy jump for desktop PCs. I was hoping for a Westmere->Sandy jump (tock), but I think per core performance is hitting a wall. Hopefully we can OC it to 5.0 GHz with liquid.

Look for 4k sets to be on the market by next year and 4k media to be out by 2014. Too much retail pressure right now. 1080p sets are cheap with slim margins and blu ray has hit mass market.

 

[Hazaro]

Finally got around to a bit of upgrading from my trusty Core 2 Duo 3ghz to:

i7-3770K
ASUS P8Z77-V LE Plus
16GB RAM
Corsair H100 CPU Cooler

Now just waiting for the Samsung 840s to release... gained 20fps in Sleeping Dogs!

Don't bother. Just grab a cheap 830. Proven, reliable, cheap as dirt. The improvements are super minimal for daily use.

There's a chance I can get a really cheap Sapphire HD 7850 (but just 1GB) at 156€. Should I go for it? Most cards from that model are 190€+ around here... and even though I have to stretch the budget a bit, it's much more future proofed that the 7770 I initially thought about. Also, I don't think the 1GB will hurt much as I don't plan on gaming at more than 1080p or going multi-monitor.

If you can stretch it it's not a bad option. 1GB on 1080p for a majority of games is enough if you don't pack tons of AA on it.

I just realized this is the first device I've ever owned that uses an HDMI cable, lol.
Getting *really* pumped having this thing on my desk. Doing a full on reorganization of all my possessions and getting rid of tons of stuff today to really seal in the "new era" feeling my life is about to enter. Aside from mobile devices, I haven't got a new computer since 2006.

Hope it goes well!

 

[Ryoma-Echizen]

There's a chance I can get a really cheap Sapphire HD 7850 (but just 1GB) at 156€. Should I go for it? Most cards from that model are 190€+ around here... and even though I have to stretch the budget a bit, it's much more future proofed that the 7770 I initially thought about. Also, I don't think the 1GB will hurt much as I don't plan on gaming at more than 1080p or going multi-monitor.

AIB's are adjusting 7700/7800 prices.

7850 1GB 149€ ($169)
7850 2GB 169€ ($189)

Finally got around to a bit of upgrading from my trusty Core 2 Duo 3ghz to:

i7-3770K
ASUS P8Z77-V LE Plus
16GB RAM
Corsair H100 CPU Cooler

Now just waiting for the Samsung 840s to release... gained 20fps in Sleeping Dogs!

That was a BIG waste of money.

The wise choice:

i5-3350P
same mobo
2x4GB
HD7850 2GB
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

IB oc like cr*ap, don't bother getting liquid cooling for it. I can tell you, you'll get a lost of fps with that setup. With current pc's, cheapo quad-cores do the job, gamer? get a nice gpu.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Hope it goes well!

Thank you! I'm sure I'll need it, but in general I'm a good problem solver and have a knack for building things so I'm actually feeling very confident even though its my first build. Just gotta perceive any setbacks as just another challenge to tackle. I was 13 the first time it really occurred to me that building your own computer was something you could do. But being 13 my parents were obviously footing the bill so they wanted something with a warranty, and then I switched to a Mac when I was 18.. so in a way this is almost like something I've been wanting to do for 12 years. Which is almost half my life. Now I feel weird. I'm very very into the spirituality of computer enthusiasm.

 

[Grayman]

my friend picked up a cheap PC in it is in a smaller case / motherboard configuration and wants a better video card.

I cannot find a label for the case but the info I pulled with cpuz was:
core 2 quad q6600
Intel DQ965GF
PCI-E x16
4gb DDR 2 dual channel mode PC2-5300 333mhz Crucial technology
Ati Radeon 3450 256mb ddr2

I am guessing the motherboard can give someone the right sizing info? What graphics cards can fit into this?

 

[J0dy77]

Looking for new storage hard drives. I currently have to 1gb WD green's but they are horrendous. The sound is deafening and even worse they drag the machine to a halt any time the machine accesses them.

Are the recommended drives from the first page quiet? I'm looking for the most silent performance while still being able to run some games off of them. The reason for upgrade seemed to come after realizing that the 90GB SSD is not going to cut it for all the games I want to install.

 

[chaosblade]

my friend picked up a cheap PC in it is in a smaller case / motherboard configuration and wants a better video card.

I cannot find a label for the case but the info I pulled with cpuz was:
core 2 quad q6600
Intel DQ965GF
PCI-E x16
4gb DDR 2 dual channel mode PC2-5300 333mhz Crucial technology
Ati Radeon 3450 256mb ddr2

I am guessing the motherboard can give someone the right sizing info? What graphics cards can fit into this?

Depends on how much room he has in the case, and what kind of power supply he has.

Looking for new storage hard drives. I currently have to 1gb WD green's but they are horrendous. The sound is deafening and even worse they drag the machine to a halt any time the machine accesses them.

Are the recommended drives from the first page quiet? I'm looking for the most silent performance while still being able to run some games off of them. The reason for upgrade seemed to come after realizing that the 90GB SSD is not going to cut it for all the games I want to install.

Any HDD should be relatively quiet, if yours is "deafening" by any means, there is probably something wrong with it. But Greens are pretty slow to access since they spin down pretty quickly after being idle.

 

[Hazaro]

That was a BIG waste of money.

The wise choice:

i5-3350P
same mobo
2x4GB
HD7850 2GB
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

IB oc like cr*ap, don't bother getting liquid cooling for it. I can tell you, you'll get a lost of fps with that setup. With current pc's, cheapo quad-cores do the job, gamer? get a nice gpu.

Except different people want different things and it isn't always about maximum FPS/$?
Your config gives maximum FPS/$ dollar return (sans the HS on a non unlocked CPU) but everyone doesn't want that.

You don't know if this person wants to do some possible media editing / encoding / streaming / VM usage? That makes sense with a 3770K and 16GB of RAM.

Or the person just wants to have a water cooler despite knowing air coolers are much better value (as discussed last page). Looks, max OC potential, trying something new are all factors.

If you knew why the PC was built and what they wanted out of it, then you can make that case.

Looking for new storage hard drives. I currently have to 1gb WD green's but they are horrendous. The sound is deafening and even worse they drag the machine to a halt any time the machine accesses them.

Are the recommended drives from the first page quiet? I'm looking for the most silent performance while still being able to run some games off of them. The reason for upgrade seemed to come after realizing that the 90GB SSD is not going to cut it for all the games I want to install.

Unfortunately the only good HDD (Samsungs) were bought out.
WD Greens are slightly ok, but can have that spinup access time like you said.

The 1TB platter WD Blue in the OP is about the only safe (cheap) thing I'd suggest. Problem is it's 7200RPM and it is a newer drive so I'm not 100% on how reliable it is. The WD Red 2TB you have to change a setting on it and it's $150-$190 and hard to find in stock.

If it's a big concern to you I'd buy a used Samsung F4 2TB, or a legitimate one from somewhere. Current ones being sold are almost all Seagate Green's and are not great.

 

[Cindres]

I decided it wasn't a "new pc" topic, so I started a thread. If anyone is familiar with power line ethernet it'd be great if you could answer my queries

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494725

 

[mkenyon]

my friend picked up a cheap PC in it is in a smaller case / motherboard configuration and wants a better video card.

I cannot find a label for the case but the info I pulled with cpuz was:
core 2 quad q6600
Intel DQ965GF
PCI-E x16
4gb DDR 2 dual channel mode PC2-5300 333mhz Crucial technology
Ati Radeon 3450 256mb ddr2

I am guessing the motherboard can give someone the right sizing info? What graphics cards can fit into this?

Unfortunately it's PCI-E 1.0 which means just about every card from the last 2-3 generations is going to be bottlenecked by the bandwidth. He could replace the motherboard with an inexpensive LGA775 mobo that has PCI-E 2.0 on it. Could find them used for under $50, I'm guessing.

Looking for new storage hard drives. I currently have to 1gb WD green's but they are horrendous. The sound is deafening and even worse they drag the machine to a halt any time the machine accesses them.

Are the recommended drives from the first page quiet? I'm looking for the most silent performance while still being able to run some games off of them. The reason for upgrade seemed to come after realizing that the 90GB SSD is not going to cut it for all the games I want to install.

The storage world sucks right now. WD Reds (with a flash if not used in RAID) would be my only personal pick for a secondary drive. If you can find a Samsung Spinpoint F3/F4 used, that's a decent option.

I decided it wasn't a "new pc" topic, so I started a thread. If anyone is familiar with power line ethernet it'd be great if you could answer my queries

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494725

I have them, but my house is fairly new with really good wiring. The quality of it is 100% dependent upon the copper in your walls. If it's good, then the connection is good. If it's bad, then connection is bad. Generally, I'll always recommend it over wireless.

That was a BIG waste of money.

The wise choice:

i5-3350P
same mobo
2x4GB
HD7850 2GB
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

IB oc like cr*ap, don't bother getting liquid cooling for it. I can tell you, you'll get a lost of fps with that setup. With current pc's, cheapo quad-cores do the job, gamer? get a nice gpu.

Just saw this.

For a ton of games out there, max fps is entirely dependent on the speed of your cores. If you aren't pushing 4.2-4.5, you can't achieve 60fps (and more importantly 120fps). Unreal Engine and Blizzard games are the main culprits. Going for a non-K i5 is a waste, IMO. The performance difference between them and i3's is negligible.

Despite IB not being able to OC well, it still gets into the 4.3-4.4 range fairly consistently, and that's helpful. The H100 is an aesthetic choice, and not everyone is skimping to save a penny here and there to reduce the overall cost of the build.

 

[StrangeADT]

Looking for new storage hard drives. I currently have to 1gb WD green's but they are horrendous. The sound is deafening and even worse they drag the machine to a halt any time the machine accesses them.

Are the recommended drives from the first page quiet? I'm looking for the most silent performance while still being able to run some games off of them. The reason for upgrade seemed to come after realizing that the 90GB SSD is not going to cut it for all the games I want to install.

There is an unfortunate realization you'll come to after you've installed and used an SSD for a while. Your external storage will most likely always slow the computer down, unless your external storage is an SSD. External HDD's sit in idle most of the time, so anytime you have to access them, the drive has to spin up and THEN it can grab the files you're looking to access. It sucks, I know. I'm always trying to access my external HDD's and unless I've used it within the last few minutes, I usually have to wait for it. It's pretty jarring when everything else opens almost instantly.

 

[Alienups]

Watched some SSD/HDD comparison vids. I didn't know it could speed up loading that much in some games. Load screens are one of my biggest peefs in gaming so i'm even more exited for my new pc now.

 

[Grayman]

Unfortunately it's PCI-E 1.0 which means just about every card from the last 2-3 generations is going to be bottlenecked by the bandwidth. He could replace the motherboard with an inexpensive LGA775 mobo that has PCI-E 2.0 on it. Could find them used for under $50, I'm guessing.

Thanks. I will talk to him about salvaging the CPU, ram, and drives vs keeping it as a non gaming and go all new.

 

[mhayze]

You think the HD is completely toast? I mean.. I'm still using it, a reformat should fix it up no?
Oh, I also forgot to mention I have a Samsung 2TB drive...

In normal operation, a hard drives firmware is automatically performing sector re-allocation in the background. Each time you get an error that means there are unrecoverable errors, and when you run a fix (I assume you are choosing to let windows finish running checkdisk) those sectors are marked permanently. I assume that you are also seeing this repeatedly. If this is happening, they your disk is in a state of decline. i.e. there is a problem that is causing an ever increasing number of bad sectors. And that decline is unlikely to stop. So if you care much about the data and having a stable OS install, the best option is to copy data to another drive and stop using the old drive. If you are really curious, and don't care much about a total drive loss, you can monitor the situation with a SMART monitoring tool - SMART is a standard for low level disk monitoring that works across all (or most) drives.

Now, since it's a Seagate 2TB drive, there's a good chance it has a 5 year warranty - perform the disk transfer / swap and then RMA the bad drive, and you will get back a refurb 2TB with no bad sectors (or at least a non-declining drive with an ever increasing number of bad sectors).

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Any live near Mountain View?
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/

going to this museum in the next few weeks.

 

[Hazaro]

Now, since it's a Seagate 2TB drive, there's a good chance it has a 5 year warranty - perform the disk transfer / swap and then RMA the bad drive, and you will get back a refurb 2TB with no bad sectors (or at least a non-declining drive with an ever increasing number of bad sectors).

Seagate's main 1 and 2TB have 1 year warranties now. It's a fucking joke.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Seagate's main 1 and 2TB have 1 year warranties now. It's a fucking joke.

Who tends to have the best warranties now?

 

[Hazaro]

Who tends to have the best warranties now?

Doesn't matter imo
You buy the best drive you can for what you need it for. Then have a backup.

Cheap - WD Blue 1TB
You need a 2TB drive? Sucks for you! - WD Green... Maybe the Hitachi... The only real 'good' choice it seems is the WD Red 2TB and you have to tweak a setting on it and find it in stock, and pay $150-180. Blacks are also ok, but super loud and $180.

There is no overall good HDD to buy on the market right now imo.
Toshiba finally has a new enterprise drive (I know nothing about it) and they should get in some new 3.5" drives soon into the market place.

 

[mkenyon]

RIP Samsung. You were great while I knew you.

 

[J0dy77]

Unfortunately the only good HDD (Samsungs) were bought out.
WD Greens are slightly ok, but can have that spinup access time like you said.

The 1TB platter WD Blue in the OP is about the only safe (cheap) thing I'd suggest. Problem is it's 7200RPM and it is a newer drive so I'm not 100% on how reliable it is. The WD Red 2TB you have to change a setting on it and it's $150-$190 and hard to find in stock.

If it's a big concern to you I'd buy a used Samsung F4 2TB, or a legitimate one from somewhere. Current ones being sold are almost all Seagate Green's and are not great.

Thanks for this reply. I had a bad feeling that was going to be the case. The spinup on these drives is awful and really drag the system down when they're in use. Ill keep an eye out for the Samsung.

 

[Salsa]

man.. either my CPU is bottle necking more than I thought or the 670's performance just isnt as good as I hoped it would be (when comparing to my 560ti).

Again, my specs:

gtx 670 FTW 2gb
I5 2500k @ 3.3ghz
8gb ram
and at 1360x768 res

These settings in Saints Row The Third:

around 42-50fps outside in most areas..

pretty sure it was the same deal with my old card, or at least I knew I played it with these settings on my 560ti and it was playable so I guess the fps were around that, if not just a little bit lower


Battlefield 3 is easily the standout as far as the benchmarking goes. I get mostyl steady 60s with drops to 52 or so during heavy areas (or at top of a moutain with max view distance).

Another thing ive noticed is that it seems like the card has to wind up a bit, something I hadnt experienced before. For the first 20 seconds or so when jumping into a game it performs noticeably worse than after that, and it even does sort of the Unreal Engine 3 thing of loading up textures and foliage real quick at first boot (talking about BF3 so no UE3 there).

 

[hypernima]

This might be a strange question but do I need a wireless adapter for my desktop if I won't be plugged in? Do these things even still exist?

 

[DTKT]

man.. either my CPU is bottle necking more than I thought or the 670's performance just isnt as good as I hoped it would be (when comparing to my 560ti).

Again, my specs:

gtx 670 FTW 2gb
I5 2500k @ 3.3ghz
8gb ram
and at 1360x768 res

These settings in Saints Row The Third:



around 42-50fps outside in most areas..

pretty sure it was the same deal with my old card, or at least I knew I played it with these settings on my 560ti and it was playable so I guess the fps were around that, if not just a little bit lower


Battlefield 3 is easily the standout as far as the benchmarking goes. I get mostyl steady 60s with drops to 52 or so during heavy areas (or at top of a moutain with max view distance).

Another thing ive noticed is that it seems like the card has to wind up a bit, something I hadnt experienced before. For the first 20 seconds or so when jumping into a game it performs noticeably worse than after that, and it even does sort of the Unreal Engine 3 thing of loading up textures and foliage real quick at first boot (talking about BF3 so no UE3 there).

Is there a way for you to try 1920x1080? There is something really wrong with a 670 if it can't push 50+ with a res of 1360x768. The other obvious things are drivers and making sure the card itself is not defective.

 

[AwesomeSauce]

man.. either my CPU is bottle necking more than I thought or the 670's performance just isnt as good as I hoped it would be (when comparing to my 560ti).

Again, my specs:

gtx 670 FTW 2gb
I5 2500k @ 3.3ghz
8gb ram
and at 1360x768 res

These settings in Saints Row The Third:



around 42-50fps outside in most areas..

pretty sure it was the same deal with my old card, or at least I knew I played it with these settings on my 560ti and it was playable so I guess the fps were around that, if not just a little bit lower


Battlefield 3 is easily the standout as far as the benchmarking goes. I get mostyl steady 60s with drops to 52 or so during heavy areas (or at top of a moutain with max view distance).

Another thing ive noticed is that it seems like the card has to wind up a bit, something I hadnt experienced before. For the first 20 seconds or so when jumping into a game it performs noticeably worse than after that, and it even does sort of the Unreal Engine 3 thing of loading up textures and foliage real quick at first boot (talking about BF3 so no UE3 there).

Since you game at a lower resolution, the GPU isn't really being used to potential. If anything OC your CPU as that would be more of a benefit to your framerate at that resolution.

You should definitively notice the improvements over the 560ti if you play at higher resolutions.

Is there a way for you to try 1920x1080? There is something really wrong with a 670 if it can't push 50+ with a res of 1360x768. The other obvious things are drivers and making sure the card itself is not defective.

Maybe downsampling from a higher resolution will force the gpu to work more and improve framerate. Check your gpu usage while playing and report back. I have a feeling that your GPU might be going to low power mode when playing some games.

 

[Salsa]

Maybe downsampling from a higher resolution will force the gpu to work more and improve framerate. Check your gpu usage while playing and report back.

wait, I could actually get a better framerate if I play at 1080p than when playing at my current res?

how does that work?

 

[Jzero]

This might be a strange question but do I need a wireless adapter for my desktop if I won't be plugged in? Do these things even still exist?

Can you elaborate more? Are you asking if you can put a wireless adapter instead of ethernet?

 

[AwesomeSauce]

wait, I could actually get a better framerate if I play at 1080p than when playing at my current res?

how does that work?

Well, I'm assuming since you play at a low resolution that the GPU isn't being utilized enough causing it to go into some low power mode.

At lower resolutions the CPU is more of a bottleneck than the GPU if IIRC.

Try forcing maximum power mode in inspector and see if that improves your situation.

 

[DTKT]

wait, I could actually get a better framerate if I play at 1080p than when playing at my current res?

how does that work?

I guess it's possible that since the actual resolution is so "low", the GPU is not performing to 100% because it thinks it's not handling something graphically heavy? Use MSI Afterburner to check how the card is performing. Check GPU Load and Fan Speed.