My High-End Gaming Rig - Comments / Suggestions

No, it will be fine with any games you throw at it for a couple of years at least, but I don't really understand why you would spend such a lot on a crossfire 4870 setup and then skimp on the processor clock. Surely a single 4870 would be more than sufficient and then spend a bit more for a higher clock processor to maximise throughput? It's a strange choice architecturally.
 
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cerebus said:
Surely a single 4870 would be more than par with your hardware if you're running a Q6600? I doubt you'd have problems with any game then.
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yes, but when i have to upgrade in future, i can only get another 4870 - which is slower than a 4870x2 which i would of had in the first place? (and a 4870x2 +4870 in Xfire won't work too well either.)

so in my setup, i can just upgrade the cpu, and cpu's get cheeper much more rapidly than graphics cards, as well.
 
Well not really keeper, bare in mind within the 6-8 months intel will have a new socket for entry and lga 775 will slowly die out like 939 did with amd.
 
killadoob said:
Well not really keeper, bare in mind within the 6-8 months intel will have a new socket for entry and lga 775 will slowly die out like 939 did with amd.
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well thats gonna happen either way, whether i have a Q6600 or a E8500. :o
 
Well here's another point - when you upgrade again, you are probably going to be getting Windows 7 I'm guessing, so you are going to be thinking of DX11 anyway. At which point your 4870x2 is going to be outdated. Do you plan on staying with Vista/XP for the next two years?
 
cerebus said:
Well here's another point - when you upgrade again, you are probably going to be getting Windows 7 I'm guessing, so you are going to be thinking of DX11 anyway. At which point your 4870x2 is going to be outdated. Do you plan on staying with Vista/XP for the next two years?
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I haven't even gone to vista yet LOL :p

just because DirectX 11 comes out, it doesn't mean the 4870X2 will automatically be outdated.... people will still be able to play new games with 8800's, nevermind the 9 series, nevermind the 260/280 series, nevermind their upcoming series.

Crysis with DX9 and a 7950GX2 > DX10 with a 8500GT.
 
Kepper if i was you i would still wait for amd to release their stuff in jan if possible, even if you don't buy amd intel will more than likely slash cpu prices or maybe the amd will be shyte hot :)

Your call though but i would wait and see what AMD brings to the table.
 
I was also advised to wait when I did my upgrade, but I figured if I keep waiting for the next big thing, I will never get a new machine...
 
lol, knowing myself if I had to wait till jan to upgrade, i'll most probably only have about R2512,53c left to spend on a pc...

IMO you can keep waiting for it to even slash more, waiting for the next Graphics Card series to drop the 4870's price - but then you'll just sit with the same old rig all the time... waiting for the next best thing..

I don't think i'll go amd though...probably because ive never owned one.
 
The thing is, even though graphic card prices don't fall as quickly as CPU prices, their technology becomes obsolete much quicker. Even with i7/Phenom 2 on the horizon, an e8500/Q9650 is going to be a viable gaming processor for the foreseeable future. So whereas your graphics card might have two/three years max lifetime, your processor can go a bit further. Plus when it comes time to upgrade your graphics card, you can still get a good secondhand price, which it's difficult to do with a processor. And I kind of feel that DX11 is going to be the real deal - the only reason DX9 is still used is because DX10 was less than mindblowing.
 
Like I said.

A PC that costs R8000 or R30000 now is going to suck equally in 12mo so whats the point, really.

Not just new cpu's coming out soon, but new SOCKETS(besides AMD). So your R4000 board will be useless and probably your RAM to.

Again.

Q6600
P45
4gb
HD4870
Corsair PSU
 
well with R30,000 you can get a tri-GTX280 setup, which IMO, won't suck in 12 months time - you seriously have got to be kidding me.
 
Brawler said:
Q6600
P45
4gb
HD4870
Corsair PSU
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Ive said it before - If you buy 2 4870's, its gonna cost you more than a single 4870X2, and it will be slower too.
then you got a slower setup than a single 4870X2, and can't upgrade as you are ALREADY in Xfire!

If I buy 1 4870X2, it's cheaper, faster, and I can upgrade should I choose to. simple.

so a single 4870 aint a good idea if you do have enough cash for an X2. not a good idea at all.
 
Keeper just remember tri SLI only uses about 30% of each added card, so basically its very possible in 12 months you need the latest video card which would smash your sli setup :p

I am not saying wait around forever but i was advised to wait for core 2 before upgrading 3 months before it launched and i am glad i waited. Imagine having bought a 3k mobo with a 2k p4 3 months before core 2 :p, i for one am glad i waited with my old amd 3800x2 for core 2:)
 
Keeper said:
well with R30,000 you can get a tri-GTX280 setup, which IMO, won't suck in 12 months time - you seriously have got to be kidding me.
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Go Ahead and get your R12k+ setup now, I actually want you to. Old tech which will not have any upgrade path. Sounds like a wise buy.
 
Keeper it seems you already know what you want. Just get the 4870x2 now and get it over with.
 
Keeper said:
Ive said it before - If you buy 2 4870's, its gonna cost you more than a single 4870X2, and it will be slower too.
then you got a slower setup than a single 4870X2, and can't upgrade as you are ALREADY in Xfire!

If I buy 1 4870X2, it's cheaper, faster, and I can upgrade should I choose to. simple.

so a single 4870 aint a good idea if you do have enough cash for an X2. not a good idea at all.
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Where did I say anything about XFire? I said one single HD4870 which will play 99% of games on high until 12m time when you can upgrade again. A 4870X2 will also need upgrading in 12m time unless you like playing games on medium.

But anyway, your mind is set and cannot be changed, don't know why you bothered to open a thread.
 
Just for interest could a 4870 play crysis on high @ 1680x1050 ?
 
If its high end gaming/rendering system is what you're after then forget about ATI right now.NVIDIA is head and shoulders above ATI in GP-GPU/CUDA/Rendering department.... There's a reason why the Quadro range outsells the ATI equivalent FireGL 10:1
Having owned and used (and still owning) a number of 4870X2 cards, its not all bliss, their hot, very hot and sometimes even crash because of heat :/ Its rare but it does happen

Here is what you want to be getting.
GB EP45-UD3P motherboard
4x2GB DDR2 1066MHz sticks (UD3 board overclock ram very very well, if not the best in the market)
1x GeForce 280GTX
Intel Core 2 Q9450
800Watt PSU (make sure combined 12V rail amps are at least 58A)
If you have some money over or maybe an old 8 series VGA card throw it in there for Physics....

This rig will play the latest games at high res, do your 3d work with acceleration, provide physics support in supporting games, run cool, be fast and affordable.
That's a 12K well spent, you may even get some change from it.
With NVIDIA you will get, compatibility, reliability, Physics, Cuda, and great performance almost guaranteed.
 
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