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[Hazaro]

Hey guys, it's time for a new computer... I was wondering how the XFX GeForce GTX 260 666M 896MB holds up?

Also, is it worth getting Windows 7? How much RAM would be required for it?

And how good is Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 2,66GHz?

Sorry missed your post on the last page before...
The 260 holds up fine. It's what I'm suing right now. Game/resolution wise just type it into google. I'd wait a week to see what ATi has to showcase however.
Win 7 is good, 4GB or 6GB depending on DDR2/3 motherboard is fine.
The i5 looks to be a nice chip. You can read Anandtech's 20 page article if you are interested how much better it is.

what motherboard should i be looking at for these 1156 processors? the information i'm finding right now is scant.

I'd wait a week for user reviews to roll in (See tech forums like [H] and XtremeSystems), then the major outlets should have tests up (relatively) soon.

need GAF's advice....got my new PC a few days ago....its got a Q9550

performance wise its fine although its a bit loud but i have no idea of how a PC of this type is meant to sound like

Speed fan shows the 4 cores running between 35c and 40c....GPU at 55c, its got 1 fan running at around 2240rpm

is this about what i should be expecting or can i reduce fan speed or lessen the noise in some other way

Use CoreTemp or RealTemp, run the CPU under load. It's all in the OP.
You can buy an after market cooler and fans if it is too loud for you.

 

[Himajin]

A) Get the 1366 920 knowing the 860 is a touch faster, but have the ability to upgrade to Gulftown CPU in the future.

B) Get the 1156 860 to have speed now. In the future, just get whatever fastest 8xx CPU is.

If you have the money for a $1000+ dollar 6-core upgrade next year, and/or you plan to do anything that will really saturate all those cores, go with 1366 i7. There is no word of an i9 part other than the extreme category ones at this point, so I wouldn't plan on buying an affordable 6-core for a while.

If you aren't doing anything too strenuous or time-sensitive, but still want HT and slightly better performance, an 860 i7 is excellent bang for buck, and appears to outclass the 920 i7.

If you plan to do less serious multitasking, or use the PC mostly for gaming, the i5 is an excellent CPU, better than anything else within 50$ either way of its price range.

As for your notes:
*Triple channel memory has virtually no advantage over dual channel memory for 4 core processors, but will become more necessary for 6-core rigs under heavy load.
*8x is more than enough bandwidth for SLI/Crossfire, at least with current gen cards.
*The 920 has potentially better/easier overclocking, but at stock you are right that the 860 has the lead.

 

[DSN2K]

just ordered...

• Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 iP55 Socket 1156 8 channel audio mATX

• Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory

• Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache

will drop a ATI Dx11 card in at the beginning of December or may wait till January and see what Nvidia have to show.

 

[Pctx]

Do we know the pricing yet? All but the 975 are being discontinued which just leaves a $1000 CPU. It also has to be priced higher than the 870 at $580 to not cannibalize those sales. I got a 920 for $200 a while back and I feel like my only upgrade path is going to be the extreme high end, which is not what I was expecting.

I can see your concern. I think Intel is still working out the kinks in their pricing policy/chip lineup because quite frankly the stats on them are staggering.

The i5 line does bleed pretty close to the 920 performance area for a fraction of the cost, but again, Intel knows that the High-End segment can't absorb $800 bucks a proc every 12-18 months and the performance difference between an i5 chip and an i7/i9 chip is going to come down to price.

Basically, they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot.... I think they are realizing just how powerful each chip is and I'm curious if we're going to start a drop off in lower end chips (or.... lower end chips that performance difference is drastically lower than the i5 now...) but who knows.

As far as your upgrade path,the 1366 isn't going anywhere for quite a while. Looking below;

I'm guessing we will see one or two more rev's of 1366 proc's even after the Sandy Bridge announcement which is I think where Intel moves the GPU (Larrabee) onto the CPU in the next gen of processors without a super expensive alternative to our i7 920's.

 

[NIN90]

My current setup:

AMD Phenom X4 9550

AMD Radeon HD 4850 512 MByte

4,0 GByte DDR2 RAM

MSI 780G-Mainboard

What should I upgrade? CPU or GPU? I feel like I'm not getting everything out of my rig so I think something's bottlenecking me.

 

[brain_stew]

just ordered...

• Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 iP55 Socket 1156 8 channel audio mATX

• Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory

• Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache

will drop a ATI Dx11 card in at the beginning of December or may wait till January and see what Nvidia have to show.

Why have you bought 3 RAM DIMMs? LGA1156 is a dual channel platform.

 

[brain_stew]

I'm guessing we will see one or two more rev's of 1366 proc's even after the Sandy Bridge announcement which is I think where Intel moves the GPU (Larrabee) onto the CPU in the next gen of processors without a super expensive alternative to our i7 920's.[/QUOTE]

That's not the aim of Sandy Bridge at all. Its going to have a lot more floating point performance but is in no way suppose to be replacing the GPU. Intel still want you to buy a Larrabee chip.

 

[DSN2K]

Why have you bought 3 RAM DIMMs? LGA1156 is a dual channel platform.

it was cheap so I thought I might as well have got it.

 

[Hajaz]

core i5 and i7 8xx use dual channel, so they have less bandwidth then core i7 9xx, however from what ive read they use that bandwidth far more efficiently because of the integrated memcontroller.
im wondering how gulftown will do that on existing x58 mobos, witch still have a memcomntroller on the northbridge (afaik)?

 

[squicken]

I was all set to buy a G2 SSD, but they have completely disappeared. I guess I'll wait until they are back in stock, or someone else makes something that has TRIM functionality within Win7.

 

[Pctx]

That's not the aim of Sandy Bridge at all. Its going to have a lot more floating point performance but is in no way suppose to be replacing the GPU. Intel still want you to buy a Larrabee chip.

No I didn't think it was to replace the GPU, I'm just saying I remember hearing them talking about moving the GPU onto the CPU during that cycle. I don't see GPU's (standalone PCI-e) going away anytime soon.

 

[Yoshichan]

Sorry missed your post on the last page before...
The 260 holds up fine. It's what I'm suing right now. Game/resolution wise just type it into google. I'd wait a week to see what ATi has to showcase however.
Win 7 is good, 4GB or 6GB depending on DDR2/3 motherboard is fine.
The i5 looks to be a nice chip. You can read Anandtech's 20 page article if you are interested how much better it is..

Thanks bro, damn I need a new computer (borrowing this one) and I'm still really confused what to buy... god damn.

 

[Blackface]

just ordered...

• Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 iP55 Socket 1156 8 channel audio mATX

• Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory

• Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache

will drop a ATI Dx11 card in at the beginning of December or may wait till January and see what Nvidia have to show.

This will be a beast. If you ever feel like OC'ing the I5 will just rip up everything.

 

[yanhero]

core i5 and i7 8xx use dual channel, so they have less bandwidth then core i7 9xx, however from what ive read they use that bandwidth far more efficiently because of the integrated memcontroller.
im wondering how gulftown will do that on existing x58 mobos, witch still have a memcomntroller on the northbridge (afaik)?

No, the i7 9xx has integrated memory controller too. It's just that theres no use for so much bandwidth, so dual channel is good enough. Same thing with QPI vs DMI.

i5 & i7 8xx cost less and have practically the same performance as the i7 9xx because they cut away all the overkill crap.

 

[brain_stew]

5870 pictures!

From here:

http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/view_message/32550799

Nothing official yet but it seems to be shaping up like this:

5870:

1600 stream processors
~ 825mhz core clock giving a whopping 2.6tflops
80TMUs
256 bit memory bus but with a more efficient memory controller
2GB of GDDR5 clocked faster 4870's GDDR5
~$299 SRP

5850:

1600 stream processors
2+ teraflops of performance expect a core clock of 625-650mhz or thereabouts
~$199 SRP

Juniper should be a 800 stream processor part with full DX11 functionality and could potentially mathc up to the best of Nvidia's current ofering despite being ATI's midrange card.

 

[Firestorm]

MSRP of the 5850 is $199 USD? Holy crap. It's around the performance of the GTX 285 isn't it?

 

[Minsc]

I was all set to buy a G2 SSD, but they have completely disappeared. I guess I'll wait until they are back in stock, or someone else makes something that has TRIM functionality within Win7.

Nothing has proper TRIM support in Win 7 yet, not even the OCZ drives, or the G2.

Unfortunately, no drives properly support TRIM yet. The beta Indilinx firmware with TRIM support works well, unless you put your system to sleep. Then there’s a chance you might lose your data. Woops. There’s also the problem with Intel’s Matrix Storage Manager not passing TRIM to your drives. All of this will get fixed before the end of the year, but it’s just a bit too early to get TRIM happy.

It's going to kill me if I end up not getting an SSD with my new machine, but the cards are not looking good lately, hopefully the smoke clears up soon.

 

[brain_stew]

MSRP of the 5850 is $199 USD? Holy crap. It's around the performance of the GTX 285 isn't it?

It'll obliterate a GTX 285, of that I can be 99% sure. It "could" be as much as $300 but everything I've seen points to $200 being more likely. Even at $300 it'll be insane value, at $200, things are starting to get ridiculous! :lol

The midrange Juniper is the card that will be more in line with the GTX 285, there's every chance it'll give a GTX 285 a run for its money whilst only requiring one PCIe power plug and coming in at <$150.

Yes, its going to be a bloodbath, I've no idea how Nvidia can compete.

 

[Minsc]

It'll obliterate a GTX 285, of that I can be 99% sure. It "could" be as much as $300 but everything I've seen points to $200 being more likely.

The midrange Juniper is the card that will be more in line with the GTX 285, there's every chance it'll give a GTX 285 a run for its money whilst only requiring one PCIe power plug and coming in at <$150.

Yes, its going to be a bloodbath, I've no idea how Nvidia can compete.

50% price drops? :lol

Bring them on!

 

[brain_stew]

50% price drops? :lol

Bring them on!

Hah, it seems inevitable at this point, and to think the GTX 280 launched at $650 only a year ago. You could be getting that sort of performance for $100 before long! :lol

The bad news for Nvidia is that ATI have a 5 teraflop card (Hemlock) waiting in the wings ready for launch later in the year.

Apparently ATI have got a bunch of DX11 games to show off at their "public" press event as well, really interested to see who (outside of Codemasters) been collaborating with them and whether any of these games will be using tessellation. BF3 reveal please ATI.

 

[Ceebs]

That is absurd if those prices pan out. I may be tempted to sell off my 1 month old 4870 and go ahead and upgrade.

 

[TheFightingFish]

It'll obliterate a GTX 285, of that I can be 99% sure. It "could" be as much as $300 but everything I've seen points to $200 being more likely. Even at $300 it'll be insane value, at $200, things are starting to get ridiculous! :lol

The midrange Juniper is the card that will be more in line with the GTX 285, there's every chance it'll give a GTX 285 a run for its money whilst only requiring one PCIe power plug and coming in at <$150.

Yes, its going to be a bloodbath, I've no idea how Nvidia can compete.

It would be great to actually see the 5850 start at $200, but I can't for the life of me imagine why they would do that. If performance is really as good as expected and nVidia's next cards are really as far away as they look it seems like ATI would be leaving money on the table to price it that low.

Just wondering what have you seen that makes the $200 price point more likely? You seems to be one of GAF's resident PC hardware gurus, so that fact that you are expecting $200 is about the only thing that makes me hopefully that these will actually be under $300.

 

[TouchMyBox]

$299 for the 5870 with specs like those? So in other words it will be $400 CDN at launch. Oh well, I'll still totally get it regardless of inevitable price hikes if it's 2.6 TFlops.

Edit: Is that the 5870x2? or the longest single gpu card in history?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Fuck, look at the size of that thing...it has an exhaust, next they'll be adding spoilers onto the back of GPU's.

It's good to see AMD back in the game.

 

[MWS Natural]

5870 pictures!

http://i32.tinypic.com/2e32yo2.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://i27.tinypic.com/4ftp9h.jpg/IMG]

From here:

[url]http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/view_message/32550799[/url]

Nothing official yet but it seems to be shaping up like this:

5870:

1600 stream processors
~ 825mhz core clock giving a whopping [B]2.6tflops[/B]
80TMUs
256 bit memory bus but with a more efficient memory controller
2GB of GDDR5 clocked faster 4870's GDDR5
~$299 SRP

5850:

1600 stream processors
2+ teraflops of performance expect a core clock of 625-650mhz or thereabouts
~$199 SRP

Juniper should be a 800 stream processor part with full DX11 functionality and could potentially mathc up to the best of Nvidia's current ofering despite being ATI's midrange card.[/QUOTE]


Amazing...any idea how big they are size wise?

 

[brain_stew]

Amazing...any idea how big they are size wise?

That 5870 pictured is confirmed as (slightly) smaller than a 8800gtx.

Pricing is still up in the air obviously, I'm confident of a $300 5870 but we'll see.

 

[Artofwar420]

You guys remember how the 8800GT was the best card for the money a while ago? What would be its equivalent now?

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

i may end up buying a 5870 JUST so my pc will forget a monitor i no longer have connected anymore. i've tried everything except reformatting.

-uninstalled my video 4850
-uninstalled catalyst and all drivers/chipset drivers
-uninstalled monitor
-ran CCleaner to clean registry
-still shows two monitors connected when i only have 1

i wouldn't be surprised if even with a new card it shows the old monitor.

 

[Technosteve]

no my shiny new 4890 of two weeks is being replaced at same price point by a red rocket ship!!!!!!!! i wonder if i can adhoc crossfire a 4890 and a 5850....

 

[Ceebs]

no my shiny new 4890 of two weeks is being replaced at same price point by a red rocket ship!!!!!!!! i wonder if i can adhoc crossfire a 4890 and a 5850....

Guess you can build an awesome HTPC now as well. :lol

 

[Technosteve]

the 4890 eats like 100 watts of power when it's full load, and i heard the new 5xxx series are cooler and less power guzzlers. Damn you sapphire vapor x and your custom pcb!!!!!

 

[Violater]

It's so sad I am such a neophyte at the things. I can only understand in (how many FPS I will be able to get in Crysis) terms help me

 

[Technosteve]

It's so sad I am such a neophyte at the things. I can only understand in (how many FPS I will be able to get in Crysis) terms help me

Crysis on ultra deluxe enthusiast mode will yield 30 fps average with 4890 with the 5xxx it might be 60 fps average

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

holy shit, i guess it's stime to go ATI route? when do we hear anything on NVIDIA offerings?

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

and to confirm, the new i5 and 1156 motherboards use DDR2 RAM?

 

[Swag]

So when can we expect the 5xxx series of cards to be released, much later on this year? About to build a rig cause my current GPU is dying, don't wanna buy an HD 4890 then find out the 5xxx series is coming out in a few weeks.

 

[pseudocaesar]

Whoa, I only just bought a 4890 1gb but if that is the price for the 5870 im totally shelling out for one. Just in time for Windows 7, holy cow.

 

[TouchMyBox]

So when can we expect the 5xxx series of cards to be released, much later on this year? About to build a rig cause my current GPU is dying, don't wanna buy an HD 4890 then find out the 5xxx series is coming out in a few weeks.

It's coming out in a few weeks.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

but this is what i got from anadtech's article

The Core i7 870 gets close enough to the Core i7 975 that I'm having a hard time justifying the LGA-1366 platform at all. As I see it, LGA-1366 has a few advantages:

1) High-end multi-GPU Performance

2) Stock Voltage Overclocking

3) Future support for 6-core Gulftown CPUs

so it'd be best to still stick with an i7-1366 platform if you want high-end gaming? is that what they are saying?

 

[mgviperman]

and to confirm, the new i5 and 1156 motherboards use DDR2 RAM?

DDR3 I believe.

 

[Hazaro]

but this is what i got from anadtech's article



so it'd be best to still stick with an i7-1366 platform if you want high-end gaming? is that what they are saying?

We are talking SLi high end cards, or even tri/quad set-up.

In the graphs above an i5 produced around 10% less frames on a dual GTX 275 set-up in FC2. Going to a quad set-up really hit home and i5 is not for that.

If you have money to be plunking down on a dual GTX 275's or 2 4870x2's then i5 probably isn't for you anyway.

 

[x3sphere]

I'm finally building my dream rig, but I'm stuck between two Intel chipsets. (Calling all hardware geeks)

1156 i7 860 vs. 1366 i7 920


Should I:

A) Get the 1366 920 knowing the 860 is a touch faster, but have the ability to upgrade to Gulftown CPU in the future.

B) Get the 1156 860 to have speed now. In the future, just get whatever fastest 8xx CPU is.


Some notes:

• The 1366 has triple channel memory compared to 1156's dual.
• 1366 in SLI/Crossfire uses 16x whereas 1156 drops to 8x.

• The 860 is .2ghz faster (also has a more aggressive TurboBoost feature) and uses 30w less than the 920.
• The 1156 system would be $80 cheaper due to the motherboard and 4gb ram instead of 6gb.

There won't be much of a perceptible difference between a 920 and 860, despite the .2 GHz difference. It's really easy to overclock on Bloomfield, too. Most of the time, on a D0 chip you can up the clock to 3GHz without even changing voltage. That'd already put it past the 860.

So, I'd stick with the 920, just for having the option to upgrade later on.

 

[EL Beefo]

So I'm buying a laptop instead of building a pc, but I figure this thread is filled with the best people to ask.

I've narrowed down my choices to these two
-http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366651&type=product&id=1218092150636
- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
and I'm having trouble deciding. The Asus has the better video card with the gtx 260m, but a slower processor. As far as I can tell, they both can support two HDD's so eventually a put a SSD in there as well. Would the processor in the asus negate the better gpu, or will I be fine with what's in there?

I'm leaning towards the asus since it also smaller (the gateway weighs 9lbs) and better looking in my opinion, but I'd put up with more weight if it's worth it.

 

[butts]

Never buying an XFX card again. I bought the 260 core216 Black Edition and have had a ton of video crashes. Sounds like it is a common problem among these cards too.

Guess I'll just stick with EVGA from now on. Never had any problems with them and they are usually some of the cheaper priced cards.

 

[evlcookie]

but this is what i got from anadtech's article

so it'd be best to still stick with an i7-1366 platform if you want high-end gaming? is that what they are saying?

Yes, thats pretty much it. If by high end you mean crossfire / sli setups then yes. If by high end you mean 6 core cpu's this time next year, then yes.

If you don't give a rats ass about those things then there is nothing wrong with the new platform.

 

[Cataferal]

Quick question before I order today:

If I were to buy a 4890, would my Q6600 (2.4ghz) processor be a major bottleneck to performance? Would it be worth upgrading from a 9800gtx at all, with this considered?

 

[Yoshichan]

Okay hey guys, I'm wondering how this PC holds up... I really need to buy a new computer asap since the one I'm using now is going to day any minute now

I'm just going to copy and paste this since I don't understand shit out of it...

Cooler Master HAF Mini 922 Black 1x 200mm front fan, 1x top 200mm fan, 1x rear 120mm fan, Red LEDs on/off,

Corsair Powersupply 650W Black,ATX/EPS, 120mm fläkt, 8xSATA, SLI

Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 2,66GHz, Socket LGA1156, 8MB, Boxed

Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL9 Kit w/2x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, 1.5V, for Intel and AMD, 240pin

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3, P55, Socket-1156 4xDDR3, ATX, GbLAN, 4phase power, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16

XFX GeForce GTX 260 666M 896MB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, "BLACK", 2xDVI, HDCP, 55nm, 666/2000MHz

Western Digital Caviar® GreenPower™ 1TB, Sata 3 Gb/s, 32MB Cache

Samsung DVD±RW burner, SH-S223B 22x DVD, DVDRAM, SATA, Black, Bulk

Batman : Arkham Asylum (Voucher)

Antistatic Armchain 180cm



How will it hold up for, let's say, World of Warcraft (highest settings), Diablo 3 and Crysis? Thanks and sorry about this lads...

 

[Hazaro]

Never buying an XFX card again. I bought the 260 core216 Black Edition and have had a ton of video crashes. Sounds like it is a common problem among these cards too.

Guess I'll just stick with EVGA from now on. Never had any problems with them and they are usually some of the cheaper priced cards.

Bad luck of the draw, eVGA buys the cards from the same place XFX gets them. Just RMA.

I've narrowed down my choices to these two:

Difficult situation...
If the 6 cell battery doesn't turn you off I'd get the Asus. Express Gate seems nifty and it sports a better GPU, CPU doesn't matter much on a laptop imo.
2lbs lighter is much easier too deal with also. Additionally it seems like the keyboard is better on the ASUS which is great.

Okay hey guys, I'm wondering how this PC holds up... I really need to buy a new computer asap since the one I'm using now is going to day any minute now

How will it hold up for, let's say, World of Warcraft (highest settings), Diablo 3 and Crysis? Thanks and sorry about this lads...

Get any $80 DDR3 from G.Skill instead, it's $50 cheaper than the one you linked.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231188

WoW @ 60fps (Very CPU dependent), DIII probably fine, Crysis are around 30 with a custom config for ~very high.

Looks good to me.

 

[K.Jack]

They're notebooks people.

So I'm buying a laptop instead of building a pc, but I figure this thread is filled with the best people to ask.

I've narrowed down my choices to these two
-http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366651&type=product&id=1218092150636
- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
and I'm having trouble deciding. The Asus has the better video card with the gtx 260m, but a slower processor. As far as I can tell, they both can support two HDD's so eventually a put a SSD in there as well. Would the processor in the asus negate the better gpu, or will I be fine with what's in there?

I'm leaning towards the asus since it also smaller (the gateway weighs 9lbs) and better looking in my opinion, but I'd put up with more weight if it's worth it.

The GTX 260M kills the 9800M GTS, while the P8600 is only 11% faster than the P7350.

The ASUS at just $100 more is the proper choice. How soon are you buying?

CPU doesn't matter much on a laptop imo.

Why would that be true?

 

[Hazaro]

They're notebooks people.

The GTX 260M kills the 9800M GTS, while the P8600 is only 11% faster than the P7350.

The ASUS at just $100 more is the proper choice. How soon are you buying?

Why would that be true?

The 260M doesn't kill the 9800M GTS, it's slightly faster, but produces less heat to boot.
I'd still go for the Acer, plus it looks nicer and has a real keyboard.

I say CPU doesn't matter much because that few second difference would not matter to me for applications and in gaming frames are mostly GPU limited, even at laptop res.
Of course I haven't read much about notebooks, so feel free to hit me with some charts.