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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE

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RGM79

Member
Is it better to buy another GTX 980 on the cheap like 350-400, or sell it and buy a 980 ti?

SLI gives you more performance, but you'll need to make sure your motherboard and PSU support SLI. Specifically, you'll need 750 watts or more for twin GTX 980s, even more if you want to do some overclocking. Also, keep in mind that the games you want to play should also support SLI, not all do but support isn't that bad.

A single GTX 980 Ti give you a smaller boost in performance but would have lower power consumption and heat.
 

Azzurri

Gold Member
SLI gives you more performance, but you'll need to make sure your motherboard and PSU support SLI. Specifically, you'll need 750 watts or more for twin GTX 980s, even more if you want to do some overclocking. Also, keep in mind that the games you want to play should also support SLI, not all do but support isn't that bad.

A single GTX 980 Ti give you a smaller boost in performance but would have lower power consumption and heat.

Oh yea, I'm good on the PSU and motherboard part, it's the sli profiles I'm a little worried about.
 

Thorgal

Member
So a few weeks ago my 780TI clasified got a busted fan and went back to the shop for repairs .

Now 3 weeks later they still cannot say when my card would be fixed .
they offered me 2 options :

Either sit and wait till they get confirmation on my cards return
Or since it was still under warranty, offer to refund me the full price i originally paid for it to buy anything else with them

I am now thinking of taking up that offer and upgrade to the 980 ti .


perhaps a bit of a moronic question , but would i have no problems with size and power connectors when replacing my 780 ti with a Gigabyte GTX980Ti G1 ?

CobZanJ.jpg



I don't know why but it seems even larger then the 780 ti classified which already was quite gigantic so i am a little worried it might not fit .
 

Water

Member
Is it setup like Eyefinity/NVSurround? Or is it the same picture on two screens?

Neither. At least if I'm correct in assuming that Eyefinity and NVSurround are essentially invisible to the application/game, and just present all of the displays as one continuous virtual display.

If no special optimization is used, the two displays on a VR display are completely separately rendered camera views, and cause exactly twice the work for the GPU compared to a single display - so it could be a lot more work than doing a single render to a virtual display that just happens to stretch over two physical displays.

Fortunately there is a ton of low-hanging fruit in VR rendering optimization. It depends on the application how much work can be shared with perfectly equivalent result, and what corners can additionally be cut to deliver a good-enough result even cheaper. Obviously something like physics does not need to run separately for the two simultaneously displayed frames. With other stuff the GPU is doing it is less clear cut. Using separate GPUs to render the two frames simultaneously changes things up again, since even if some data is exactly equivalent between the two renders and could be reused by a single GPU, it may not be practical to transfer that data between two GPUs mid-render.

I still have to get some graphics programming credits towards my degree. Maybe I can think up something easy enough related to VR rendering that a prof would give credits for. Interesting topic to be sure.
 

Engell

Member
Either sit and wait till they get confirmation on my cards return
Or since it was still under warranty, offer to refund me the full price i originally paid for it to buy anything else with them

I am now thinking of taking up that offer and upgrade to the 980 ti .

perhaps a bit of a moronic question , but would i have no problems with size and power connectors when replacing my 780 ti with a Gigabyte GTX980Ti G1 ?

I don't know why but it seems even larger then the 780 ti classified which already was quite gigantic so i am a little worried it might not fit .

holy crap, take the 980ti, it will work.. thats a great offer to get
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Fury X whyereeeeeeeeeee
So a few weeks ago my 780TI clasified got a busted fan and went back to the shop for repairs .

Now 3 weeks later they still cannot say when my card would be fixed .
they offered me 2 options :

Either sit and wait till they get confirmation on my cards return
Or since it was still under warranty, offer to refund me the full price i originally paid for it to buy anything else with them

I am now thinking of taking up that offer and upgrade to the 980 ti .


perhaps a bit of a moronic question , but would i have no problems with size and power connectors when replacing my 780 ti with a Gigabyte GTX980Ti G1 ?

CobZanJ.jpg



I don't know why but it seems even larger then the 780 ti classified which already was quite gigantic so i am a little worried it might not fit .
You are going to get $700 for your $250 card? Yeah... get the 980Ti.
 

Lagamorph

Member
This seems like a good place to post for some Overclocking help.

I'm currently looking to overclock my MSI GTX 970, but I haven't overclocked in a decade.
I've gotten MSI Afterburner and the Heaven benchmarking tool. I'm not even going to touch the Core Voltage (Leaving it locked) and I've left the Power Limit at 100%. The Temp Limit is at 79, which was the default it opened with.

Currently my overclocks are,
+200 Core Clock
+220 Memory Clock

My latest Heaven benchmark result is,
My temps never went above 65 during the benchmark and I didn't notice any artifacting.

Any recommendations on boosting any further? From a bit of googling it seems like the memory can be pushed quite a bit further than the Core? Is that correct? Should I leave the core about as it is and push the memory further?
Should I be somehow disabling the Intel graphics as well as this may be impacting performance? When I ran the MSI Kombustor benchmark it was showing both the GTX and the Intel graphics, and the Intel was seeming to show that it was being used.
 
Alright... I think imma start buying the first half of my parts now from newegg

since i'm from Hawaii, anyone know how long it would take for it to ship?
 

Handal

Member
I wouldn't get any reference card if I could avoid it, although the 980Ti reference is ok. Can you just flip the card and buy a 980Ti? Difference can't be that much is it?

Yeah but the one I can step-up to has the ACX 2.0+ cooler, which means it's just the reference card with custom cooler. Should be fine no ?
 

Lexxism

Member
I got a new PSU. I got a couple of problems but was able to fix it. Now, I can't boot my ssd. I cant even see it on my bios. What should I do?
 

Kid Ska

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Hey PC gaf, how's this for a first build? Trying to hit 1080p/60fps on all new games, no overclocking, and I want to keep the price around $900. I'm upgrading from a gaming laptop, so anything is going to impress me. Definitely want to be able to run open world games like Fallout 4 or the Witcher 3 (and maybe Batman if it ever gets patched) on high without dipping below 60.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($296.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $893.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-23 17:06 EDT-0400
 

LilJoka

Member
This seems like a good place to post for some Overclocking help.

I'm currently looking to overclock my MSI GTX 970, but I haven't overclocked in a decade.
I've gotten MSI Afterburner and the Heaven benchmarking tool. I'm not even going to touch the Core Voltage (Leaving it locked) and I've left the Power Limit at 100%. The Temp Limit is at 79, which was the default it opened with.

Currently my overclocks are,
+200 Core Clock
+220 Memory Clock

My latest Heaven benchmark result is,

My temps never went above 65 during the benchmark and I didn't notice any artifacting.

Any recommendations on boosting any further? From a bit of googling it seems like the memory can be pushed quite a bit further than the Core? Is that correct? Should I leave the core about as it is and push the memory further?
Should I be somehow disabling the Intel graphics as well as this may be impacting performance? When I ran the MSI Kombustor benchmark it was showing both the GTX and the Intel graphics, and the Intel was seeming to show that it was being used.

The onboard graphics should get automatically disabled when a PCIE GPU is detected.

Enable the on screen display in MSI AB, specifically the Core and Memory clocks and Power Limit, Core temperature.
Now watch the in screen display in Heaven bench. If you hit the power limit the overclock won't have any effect as it'll just downclock, so using 110% power limit is the first thing to do.

Watch the temperatures, after 70c there is some downclock (13Mhz) and more at 80c.

Just keep pushing the Core and Memory clocks, don't post offsets as nobody is going to look up your card and try to work out what that actually means in terms of clock speeds.

I run mine at 1.23v 1545Mhz core, 3900Mhz memory. I used a custom bios I edited myself to get more out of the card. And I raised the amount of power available to the card to prevent throttling.

I can run a good bit more in benches, 1626Mhz core and 4059Mhz memory. GTA V, Far Cry 4 and Witcher 3 are excellent to test stability. Far Cry 4 is great for Memory OC testing. Make sure to run uncapped frame rates when testing to really push the card and temps.

I use the stock fan profile while gaming, 75% constant while benching.

Just keep increasing core or memory till failure, then back off till stable. There isn't much more to it unless you get into custom bios'. Use the tools I mentioned to understand what is happening to your card clocks at load. Monitor voltage too, I think as you increase clocks, higher buns automatically use higher voltages (like Intel cpu auto vcore). And that can cause lower scores since you hit the power limiter earlier causing clocks to drop!

Some Firestrike I ran today
1545/3900Mhz 1.23v Heaven 61.5fps, 1548 points.

1628/4050 1.25v (visible artefacts, but benches)

1593/4018Mhz Heaven 63.6fps 1602 points

Heaven is memory intensive, my GTX 780 could get 77fps.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Yeah but the one I can step-up to has the ACX 2.0+ cooler, which means it's just the reference card with custom cooler. Should be fine no ?
Fine
I got a new PSU. I got a couple of problems but was able to fix it. Now, I can't boot my ssd. I cant even see it on my bios. What should I do?
Try swapping ACHI/IDE/Legacy boot or device mode or secure boot if you are on Win8.
 

RGM79

Member
Hey PC gaf, how's this for a first build? Trying to hit 1080p/60fps on all new games, no overclocking, and I want to keep the price around $900. I'm upgrading from a gaming laptop, so anything is going to impress me. Definitely want to be able to run open world games like Fallout 4 or the Witcher 3 (and maybe Batman if it ever gets patched) on high without dipping below 60.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($296.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $893.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-23 17:06 EDT-0400

Looks fine if you won't be overclocking, but I highly recommend the overclockable i5 4690K and a Z97 motherboard instead, but I'm not sure if that'll fit into your budget without sacrificing something else.
 

Lagamorph

Member
The onboard graphics should get automatically disabled when a PCIE GPU is detected.

Enable the on screen display in MSI AB, specifically the Core and Memory clocks and Power Limit, Core temperature.
Now watch the in screen display in Heaven bench. If you hit the power limit the overclock won't have any effect as it'll just downclock, so using 110% power limit is the first thing to do.

Watch the temperatures, after 70c there is some downclock (13Mhz) and more at 80c.

Just keep pushing the Core and Memory clocks, don't post offsets as nobody is going to look up your card and try to work out what that actually means in terms of clock speeds.

I run mine at 1.23v 1545Mhz core, 3900Mhz memory. I used a custom bios I edited myself to get more out of the card. And I raised the amount of power available to the card to prevent throttling.

I can run a good bit more in benches, 1626Mhz core and 4059Mhz memory. GTA V, Far Cry 4 and Witcher 3 are excellent to test stability. Far Cry 4 is great for Memory OC testing. Make sure to run uncapped frame rates when testing to really push the card and temps.

I use the stock fan profile while gaming, 75% constant while benching.

Just keep increasing core or memory till failure, then back off till stable. There isn't much more to it unless you get into custom bios'. Use the tools I mentioned to understand what is happening to your card clocks at load. Monitor voltage too, I think as you increase clocks, higher buns automatically use higher voltages (like Intel cpu auto vcore). And that can cause lower scores since you hit the power limiter earlier causing clocks to drop!

Afterburner doesn't give me the explicit core values when adjusting the clocks, just the offset. I've tried looking for the option to switch to explicit values, but I can't find it.
I enabled the OSD and added in the options for
GPU1 Temperature
GPU1 Core Clock
GPU1 Memory Clock
GPU1 Power Limit

The results I get when running Heaven are,
Temp = 64
Core Clock = 1,526
Mem Clock = 3,734

For the Power Limit option I get "Lim1 = 0". This is with the option "GPU1 power limit" selected in the MSI Afterburner monitoring tab. Does the 0 mean it's not hitting the power limit? Or have I picked something wrong?

I leave Fan Speed set to Auto.
 

LilJoka

Member
Afterburner doesn't give me the explicit core values when adjusting the clocks, just the offset. I've tried looking for the option to switch to explicit values, but I can't find it.
I enabled the OSD and added in the options for
GPU1 Temperature
GPU1 Core Clock
GPU1 Memory Clock
GPU1 Power Limit

The results I get when running Heaven are,
Temp = 64
Core Clock = 1,526
Mem Clock = 3,734

For the Power Limit option I get "Lim1 = 0". This is with the option "GPU1 power limit" selected in the MSI Afterburner monitoring tab. Does the 0 mean it's not hitting the power limit? Or have I picked something wrong?

I leave Fan Speed set to Auto.

Yeah only the On screen display gives the clocks. 1526Mhz core is mighty good, average is about 1400Mhz. Memory could be pushed further but I've found little return. Try anyways though. 3800Mhz should be possible easily.

In the OSD options in MSI AB, you can enable power limit display. That will give the %age in game/bench in the OSD. That will tell you if you are hitting it, when you hit the power limit you've set, it'll down clock some bins. 110% is safe so I wouldn't even bother tweaking. What you may find is that the offset your applying isn't doing what your asking since you've hit the power limit.

Make sure to test the games I mentioned. But otherwise your probably close to the limits of the chip. Should match GTX 980 with that core clock.

The Lim=0 one is something else, afaik that will only trigger if something is wrong, should be another option to do with power limit.
 

Dartastic

Member
I'm going to snake an HDMI cable from my PC to my TV so I can use it as a second monitor to play games on. Would the best solution just be to mirror what is on my main PC screen?
 

Lagamorph

Member
Yeah only the On screen display gives the clocks. 1526Mhz core is mighty good, average is about 1400Mhz. Memory could be pushed further but I've found little return. Try anyways though. 3800Mhz should be possible easily.

In the OSD options in MSI AB, you can enable power limit display. That will give the %age in game/bench in the OSD. That will tell you if you are hitting it, when you hit the power limit you've set, it'll down clock some bins. 110% is safe so I wouldn't even bother tweaking. What you may find is that the offset your applying isn't doing what your asking since you've hit the power limit.

Make sure to test the games I mentioned. But otherwise your probably close to the limits of the chip. Should match GTX 980 with that core clock.
I've enabled the option for power limit in the monitoring tab, but it just shows "Lim1 = 0". I set the log file to be recorded, and it just shows 0 all the way through, and shows that it can be either 0 or a maximum of 1. I suspect I'm not enabling the right option. The one I've enabled is named "GPU1 power limit"
 

MattyG

Banned
I just realized that I've left the plastic/rubber SLI slot cover on my last two cards (EVGA). Should I remove it, or should it just be left on if I'm not doing SLI?
 

RGM79

Member
I just realized that I've left the plastic/rubber SLI slot cover on my last two cards (EVGA). Should I remove it, or should it just be left on if I'm not doing SLI?
It doesn't really do anything but protect the connector from physical damage.

You can leave it on or off as you like.
 

btkadams

Member
do you guys sit your PCs on the floor? the corsair air 540 ATX case i bought seems way too big for my desk. should i put it on a stand of a some sort? i have carpet btw.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
do you guys sit your PCs on the floor? the corsair air 540 ATX case i bought seems way too big for my desk. should i put it on a stand of a some sort? i have carpet btw.

I have an old painted black bookshelf shelf that's directly on the floor and my pc is on top of that. It looks like and I've been using it for years since I've always had carpeted floors.
edit: From a bookshelf, the shelves were removable so I took one and used it.
 

Lexxism

Member
After a lot of test, still no dice on why is my SSD is not showing up. I wonder if it was when I used my old PSU sata cable power cable on my SSD instead of using the new one. There wasn't even a power on it until I changed the old one and used the new one. Anyway, just installed my OS temporarily on my HDD and already seeing the difference lol
 

ricki42

Member
any recommendations for a stand? i'm on carpet.

I have mine on an old TV stand. Puts it at a convenient height next to the desk, gives me some space to work with it if needed, has some shelf space, and is on (kind of crappy) wheels. Maybe check a thrift store for something you like.
 

Lagamorph

Member
Yeah only the On screen display gives the clocks. 1526Mhz core is mighty good, average is about 1400Mhz. Memory could be pushed further but I've found little return. Try anyways though. 3800Mhz should be possible easily.

In the OSD options in MSI AB, you can enable power limit display. That will give the %age in game/bench in the OSD. That will tell you if you are hitting it, when you hit the power limit you've set, it'll down clock some bins. 110% is safe so I wouldn't even bother tweaking. What you may find is that the offset your applying isn't doing what your asking since you've hit the power limit.

Make sure to test the games I mentioned. But otherwise your probably close to the limits of the chip. Should match GTX 980 with that core clock.

The Lim=0 one is something else, afaik that will only trigger if something is wrong, should be another option to do with power limit.
Ok, found the power monitoring option I think, it's in the monitoring tab as just "GPU1 Power" rather than "Power Limit". I upped the Power Limit in Afterburner to 105% and re-ran the benchmark. My power usage was at 84%.

Upped my memory clock a bit and re-ran the benchmark, didn't seem to get any artifacts or issues. So my current setup us,

Power Limit - 105%
Core Clock - 1,526MHz
Memory Clock 3,780MHz

During the benchmark the power usage at its highest was 94% (Though it was mostly in the 85-90 range) and the temperature never went above 65.

Going to try it out in some games now (Particularly GTA V and Far Cry 4 as you mentioned, don't have Witcher 3 yet) to make sure it's stable. If not I might drop the core clock down to 1,500.
 

Whomeam

Neo Member
It'll definitely work out and would be great in terms of performance, but the price you're paying isn't very good. For that much money you could get a hexa core i7 and X99 PC with DDR4 RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($372.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BL 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($172.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series:DT01ACA 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($679.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1755.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-22 11:31 EDT-0400

This build comes in a little cheaper but has a more capable processor and better CPU cooler, while the rest of the build has nearly equally spec'd but more cost-effective parts like the PSU and hard drive. The hexa core i7 5820K processor will in theory be more useful over the next several years than the quad core i7 4790K and last a few years longer before being considered outdated. Also, the 5820K can be more effective for video editing and encoding.

If you don't mind dropping down to a 750 watt PSU (still enough to overclock this build's CPU and GPU) and maybe pick up a slightly cheaper non-factory OC GTX 980 Ti, you could get a 500GB SSD instead and the build would come in under $1800. You could try overclocking the EVGA GTX 980 Ti yourself to get the same as the Superclocked+ edition's speeds. Here's the revised build with 500GB SSD.

Edit: first version of the build forgot the SSD.

Hmm, your parts list didn't specify a case. I wasn't sure if you forgot to or if you already had a case you'll be reusing, so I didn't include one in my list either to keep the costs comparable. If you already have a case, can you tell us what model it is? The Phanteks air cooler may not fit in it.



Sorry, I'm not sure if any of us are from that area.

Have you looked at http://geizhals.de/? It's much better than PCPartPicker for Germany and other EU nations, the price database is very expansive and up to date.

Was thinking something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6873QugrY

But im definitely open to suggestions. Thanks for your help so far.
 

Lagamorph

Member
Just ran the Kombustor fur ring test and the power usage shot straight to 105%, and my core clocks came down to about 1,354MHz (Temps are still sitting around 67 mind). So looks like that might be as high as I can really go without messing with the core voltage.
 
Wheew so i just ordered the first parts of my gaming pc and newegg sent me the fedex order number to track it .. Says it is still "in transit" in the status and estimated delivery will be on thursday at 8:30pm wtf !

Is that an actual estimate accurate ?

Sorry first time ordering my parts so kind of an newbie here
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
I fucked up GAF. I ordered a 980 Ti not knowing about reference cards so I got a reference card (MSI version) coming in today. I can send it back and get a refund but the good cards are still 2 weeks or so out here and more expensive. Should I accept the reference card or send it back, wait 2 weeks or so, spend a little bit more and get a proper version? Bear in mind I'm intending for this card to last a while, as you can guess from my dumbness I'm not an enthusiast who upgrades every 6-12 months. Is it a really big deal or will I be good?
 
I fucked up GAF. I ordered a 980 Ti not knowing about reference cards so I got a reference card (MSI version) coming in today. I can send it back and get a refund but the good cards are still 2 weeks or so out here and more expensive. Should I accept the reference card or send it back, wait 2 weeks or so, spend a little bit more and get a proper version? Bear in mind I'm intending for this card to last a while, as you can guess from my dumbness I'm not an enthusiast who upgrades every 6-12 months. Is it a really big deal or will I be good?

There's nothing wrong in a reference card, unless you're planning on agressive overclocking.
 
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