Video card ! Help

[wazza300]

if you wanted to use crossfire/sli then i would upgrade to x58 platform,otherwise just single gpu or if you wernt bothered about sata3/usb3 and wanted crosfire/sli then i would go for the cheapest i3 530 chip and 1156 platform and overclock it

[Psycho101]

Like I say, I dunno how GTA4 would cope with Hyper threading rather than native quad cores, and I haven't had time to check yet. Hopefully the boost is enough for it to make the i3 viable.

Indeed, USB 3 and Sata 6GB/s doesn't interest me as I don't use high bandwidth USB devices and have two lightning fast sata 3GB/s SSD's.

I might even go for an i3 and use a really high end motherboard with at least two 8x lane PCIe and a 4 lane for a 9800GT "Green" PhysX PPU. I can always upgrade then to a native quad i5 or i7. personally I believe that as good as X58 is, the only main difference is RAM bandwidth, and dual channel is plenty for gaming. Encoding and 3D/Maths modelling is different and will suck up all that extra throughput. If money was no object though I'd definitely go UD7 X58A with two 16X PCIe and all the luxuries, grabbing a good stepping 920 while I'm at it and some standard 1600 8-8-824 RAM.

Now I have a case that can handle water cooling I may be investing in a 240 rad, res and pump to cool the CPU only. GPU's are nice and cool in this case, with my peak temps dropping higely. Got the figures wrong in a previous post. Load temps went from 86c at 850MHz Core all the way down to 71c using standard settings of Furmark and/or MSI's Furmark based DX11 Fury MSI logo thingie. Wouldn't mind running an i3 at 4.4-4.5GHz super cool. the increased idle noise (from the constant 2 x 120mm fans on the rad) would be worth it for lower loaded noise and very low temps.

I saw a water chiller in Custom PC magazine this month for £400, I'd get that too if I could afford it. Wouldn't use a radiator if I used a chiller as strangely, the rad would actually cause the water to heat up above the temp the water was chilled to due to the coolant being able to hit about 8c. The coolers are noisy, like a fridge but a quick "house mod" and that'll be solved. I'd drill 2 holes in the wall and put the chiller in the spare bedroom, threading the tubes through the holes and using rubber grommets to block the little bit of left over noise. THAT would be an awesome custom PC job

[wazza300]

ive been lookin at the asus h55 mb's and the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H<-- that has one pci-e 16 and one 4x,plus onboard graphics hdmi ect,and yh dual channel is just as fast as tripple in games,the prices of tri channel ram are ridiculous now,£96 is what i paid just over a year ago for mine,you should look on youtube for i3 530 benches and plenty gta 4 videos using that chip

[kick]

Since u run your cpu (triton) at 4ghz.
Ill just include what I get at that speed on bmarks

4ghz cpu (2000fsb)
heaven :460 gtx 700gpu/900mem .987v(as it came in the box)score=922 fps av=36.6
heaven :460 gtx 800gpu/1000mem .987v(as glh edition arrives)score =1040 fps=41.3
heaven :460 gtx 850gpu/1100mem 1.025v score= 1103 fps=43.8

(Ive been naughty scores)
890 gpu/1100mem 1.075v gpu score=1148 fps=45

overclock from 700-800gpu seems good. memory 10% higher seems ok too,
800-890/900,even if it would stand a heat test,which i havent tried doesnt seem to give a lot more in performance

the higher cpu speed doesnt seem to make much difference in "heaven". see below.


Attachment 2833

3d06=19313 at max gpu overclock listed.
3.92ghz cpu and 800/1000mem gets around 19010

3Dvantage (max listed overclock on gx)
3.92Ghz cpu=18561
4.0Ghz cpu=18717

Final settings..dunno everything seems playable .800/1000 appears to be "free",so seems like a good compromise without changing voltage and what u might be likely to get if u go the 460 1gb route.
edit
I did post earlier something about 1.08 v being the max voltage msi ab can apply.

That was a newer beta version I dloaded.The regular version allows over 1.2v.
Yeh Ive been tempted .
I can see now how the tester got 930mhz (on this site).
Its like the cpu overclocks tho. The more u clock up the less u gain and the more strain u put on.
900mhz for me in "heaven" barely broke 45fps.
To avoid the possible "melted cheese" effect it doesnt seem worth it + the power draw is likely to be huge,my 500w is probably feeling the strain as it is

[kick]

The psu q
Youre on a 600w 1 rail split to 3 rail one,I think?
460 Igb clocked hard should be good 99% of the time.
Im on a 2 rail 500w.
I should be good like 97% of the time.
This is a 30 min linpac and gx card combined psu stress run..
Gx card isnt overvolted,cpu and mem are a bit.
The most interesting aspect is the gpu usage drop spike at like 25 min.

Sure this test is "how hot can you go" sort of combining cpu burn test and gx card test to stress the psu.
Im not trying 2000 fsb on it cos with the increased voltages needed ,I feel it would fail.
With your system now and 600w psu/3 rails even tho only 18A ,you should be golden.