New Graphics Time!

[Surf314]

Also geforce 250 or ati 5770? Buying parts for my sister's B-Day present.

[CaffeinePowered]

Thoughts on MSI as a manufacturer and is DVI dying?

Uh, what would they replace DVI with? HDMI?

I know DVI has a smaller bandwidth (7.92Gbit vs 10.2Gbit), but computer monitors rarely are used for speakers on higher end rigs you have an independent sound card and sound system for that, so why pipe the sound through the video card?

Are all of the cards you are looking at come with HDMI?

Does your monitor support it?

Either way, you can get a converter from HDMI to DVI or vise versa, so technically it shouldn't matter what combination of monitor and card you get.

[Versus]

Also geforce 250 or ati 5770? Buying parts for my sister's B-Day present.

5770

[Surf314]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=4823.msg165641#msg165641 date=1279908682]
Also geforce 250 or ati 5770? Buying parts for my sister's B-Day present.

5770
[/quote]

OK that one comes with both DVI and HDMI ports. The 250 only had DVI which is why I asked.

[zaneyard]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=4823.msg165640#msg165640 date=1279908436]
Thoughts on MSI as a manufacturer and is DVI dying?

Uh, what would they replace DVI with? HDMI?

I know DVI has a smaller bandwidth (7.92Gbit vs 10.2Gbit), but computer monitors rarely are used for speakers on higher end rigs you have an independent sound card and sound system for that, so why pipe the sound through the video card?

Are all of the cards you are looking at come with HDMI?

Does your monitor support it?

Either way, you can get a converter from HDMI to DVI or vise versa, so technically it shouldn't matter what combination of monitor and card you get.
[/quote]
i do believe display port is a prospect

[KorJax]

On the note of my 460, I'm selling my 9600GT on amazon for $50 if anyone is interested

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B...DZGLZWH7W6

[CaffeinePowered]

i do believe display port is a prospect

You don't want to touch display port with a 10ft pole

[Eightball]

Ok, so here's what we've been looking at the past few days. Scar's GTX 460 shipped in yesterday, here are some benchmarks we took:

Resident Evil 5, 1680x1050, Max Settings, AA x8
260: 77.7 average, 60 low, 110 high
460: 97.6 average, 80 low, 140 high

Crysis, 1680x1050, Max Settings, AA x4
260: 38.5 average
460: 47 average
(on a side-note, I'd like to express my distaste over the graphics in Crysis. It's sort of stupid that everyone compares their rigs' performances on Crysis, and it leads to this mentality that the game has good graphics because it's shittily optimized)

All Points Bulletin, 1680x1050, Max Settings, AA x2
260: 43 while running, 40 while shooting, 30 when observing wreckage
460: 58 while running, 56 while shooting, 41 when observing wreckage
(also not very well optimized)


Now, my monitor just arrived today. With 1920x1080, even the GTX 460 isn't perfect throughout all gameplay. I do think I am going to go a bit higher. I'll post some selections when I get back for you guys to discuss. Oh, and the monitor rapes so much. Great quality, so many inputs, looks sleek. Only gripes are that it's a dust magnet and has red lights (my case, keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, speakers, and webcam all use the standard black/blue scheme).

[Vandamguy]

i believe it was spore that introduced the idea of the 460 ,but he recommended running them in SLI and not singly.

[zaneyard]

[quote author=zaneyard link=topic=4823.msg165691#msg165691 date=1279915470]

i do believe display port is a prospect

You don't want to touch display port with a 10ft pole
[/quote]
gross

[Surf314]

I have a single 250  :-\

Guess my e-peen is small. For expanding eventually would it be better to buy another and SLI or save up for a really expensive card?

[zaneyard]

SLI IS A WASTE
ALWAYS

IT NEVER WILL BE GOOD

[Versus]

SLI IS A WASTE WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN HIGH END CARDS
ALWAYS

IT NEVER WILL BE GOOD

ftfy, I liked having two 7800 GTXs in SLI back in 2006 more than one. but two 250s or two 260s in SLI would be pretty terrible, just save up for a nice card. SLI is not terrible if and only if you can afford to buy two nice cards at the same time, or if you somehow get the second card for free like scar11.

[zaneyard]

instead of buying another expensive card to get marginally greater performance and much larger power and heat inefficiency is worth it.








oh that's right, and your epeen

[KorJax]

Actually SLI on the latest nvidia cards, starting with the 9XXX series, is redonkulously good.  Get's something like an 80%-100% increase in performance vs the 40% increase it would get on older cards.

I think two 9600GT's in SLI would run somewhere as good as a 4890 or something. SLI'ing two 460's will make it more powerful than a 5890/480 and yet be cheaper as well IIRC.



Keep in mind that is the 700mb version, the 1GB version is even faster and has a fatter pipe for about $20-$30 more per card though.

So at about $400 you can get better performance than a 480 for $50-$150 cheaper depending on where you get it and what brand. I think it'll use up less power too.

[Versus]

don't SLI/crossfire unless you are buying top end cards

instead of buying another expensive card to get marginally greater performance and much larger power and heat inefficiency is worth it.

nice sentence fragment/writing skills

[Eightball]

Ok, update for you guys. I was never crazy about the idea of SLI/Crossfire, but I'm suddenly hearing a lot of positive things about it from Korjax, Spore, etc. Those benchmarks are certainly hard to argue with. Neither are these benchmarks. So I think I'm really considering it. Here are my choices for nVidia cards.

Two GTX 460s with 768MB 198-bit GDDR5
If I go with this option, I think I actually need to buy two cards at once in order to get the performance I want. The price is certainly not too bad: $200 for either of the following cards and free shipping. Just have to pick a brand. I'm significantly more tempted to go for the 1GB cards instead though.
ASUS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814121387
EVGA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130562

Two GTX 460s with 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 <- Seems like the most favorable option at the moment.
This is what I have in my computer right now, and will have until Scar goes home and takes his with him. Most of the cards are out of stock, so my options are to either go with the Gigabyte card that Scar bought, or wait to get an EVGA card for the same price and specs.
Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125333
EVGA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130565 (does anyone know the difference between their AR and TR cards? The AR is $10 more but I don't know why that is)


(The GTX 470 and 480 indeed don't seem like great deals. I was really considering 2x GTX 465s...until I looked at their benchmarks, where they performed identically to the 460 with 768MB. So that's it, if I go nVidia, I go 460. Now for ATI.)


ATI Radeon HD 5850 with 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
The 5850 seems to be getting positive reviews everywhere, especially winning some awards from Tom's Hardware. However, I am questioning if the higher price tag (at least $60 more than a 460) for what seems like only a slight increase in fps. Still, to keep my options, here are the 5850s I'm considering.
XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814150477
Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125318

ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
Spore is using this card, and I'm definitely interested in it. The price is also kind of steep, though it definitely outperforms the 5850.
XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814150476
Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125316

ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
At this point, my attention span has gone out the window and I can't find reliable benchmarks for this sort of card. This is sort of the absolute ceiling for me, and is a card that I would absolutely not run in crossfire for at least a year, because it annihilates my budget that badly. At least there's no decent competition for this ASUS card.
ASUS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814121382


So, lay it on me. How do these options look? Which would you personally prefer? Am I putting too much thought into this?

I'M AN INDECISIVE FUCK but I nailed it down further. Check below.

[Versus]

yeah after eightball showed me those benchmarks, going with SLI'd 460s seems alright.

[Eightball]

GRHJFDHFH

Ok, I've made my decision. Sort of. I know I want two GTX 460s with 1GB GDDR5 in SLI. I might not do SLI right away, but I will do it. All of the benchmarks and price-performance analyses I've seen point toward these cards. All I need from you now is your opinion on which of the following 460s to get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125333 - Gigabyte card, the one Scar has and is in my comp right now. I can't complain, it looks to be a decent value and its speed is good. $230 and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130565 - EVGA card, not overclocked. 2-year warranty. $230 with 2 dollar shipping. Out of stock for two more days.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130567 - EVGA card, overclocked. 2-year warranty. $240 with 2 dollar shipping. Out of stock for two more days.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130566 - EVGA card, not overclocked. Lifetime warranty. $240 with 2 dollar shipping. Out of stock for two more days.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130568 - EVGA card, overclocked. Lifetime warranty. $250 with 2 dollar shipping. Out of stock for two more days.

This is it, I think. It's first a question of which set of EVGA services to choose from, and then pick between it and the Gigabyte.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm also having a few concerns over power. I'm sporting a 750W PSU (certified 80% efficiency), and I wonder if it's enough to power the two cards. I checked a similar rig on iBuypower and also tested with extreme power lite, and I think I'm in the clear, but hearing everyone's input would ease my now greatly frayed nerves.

[Spore]

Just because I do like hitting the point that SLI has improved hugely over the last couple years. Trying to let people know that it isn't shit anymore is like trying to explain to stubborn idiots that Vista has improved greatly since launch from Service Packs.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gt...li-review/
The 80 to 100 percent boost is nothing to scoff at for the price, and they're using the inferior 768MB version to achieve those frames. Also, 750 watts is more than enough. As always, Nvidia is also good with their drivers and you can bet your ass Fermi SLI support will improve at least marginally further. They aren't stupidly hot, not very loud, big, expensive, or power consuming, and they can overclock well too. That's just awesome.