New Eyefinity PC Build Coming Soon - Thoughts?

[Natsuru]

I don't normally play games with 47 tabs open in firefox running in the background

If one of your games is using more than 4gb, something is really, really wrong with the programmers

but like I said, you can get 8gb kits on ebay for 30 bucks now, so go ahead and get you some!

[Neckbeard]

I like to have other shit open when i game, you need more than 4gb of ram lol

[Natsuru]

Again, he should get 8gb just because it's so cheap

I'm using 6gb with a 4850 1gb and have no problem running any game on ultra

don't worry, 6850 is in the mail just in time for new years

[all4spl]

+1 to intel processor i5 quad should be PLENTY for you

+11111 to more ram its cheap just go to your mobo max 16, 32 etc...

+11111 to SSDs access time is unbeatable. (could also just get a hybrid drive for your OS and use SSDs for all your games)

Mobo's I like MSI milspec boards very rugged and most of them come with push button OCing so you don't have to do any guess work.

Corsair PSUs till I DIE! Best PSUs I have ever used, I have an 850TX and I don't see myself needing a new one for a LONG time.

As for video cards I am a Nvidia guy so I will just bow out on recommending one

For ref I have 16gb of Ram although I never max it out, it's good to know I can run literally as many programs on my machine as I want.

[Natsuru]

Don't go with a hybrid drive, you silly goose!

Get a nice one that holds enough for your OS, maybe a few games, install them, and never touch the SSD again

Those milspec mobos are pretty nice as well, like all4spl said

did a build for a friend with one of those, the OC button is REALLY handy to have

[Raptorman]

Ohgodno AMD CPU for gaming. Oof. Even the i3 2100 beats the Phenom II X6 1100t in gaming. And Phenom II is greater than or equal to the performance of Bulldozer(FX). I'd go for the 7xxx series GPUs. More energy efficient and more powerful.

Also go for the 8gb kit of RAM. I've gone over 4gb's plenty of times. It's great to have the headroom. And I went over 4gb's when I had SW:ToR, iTunes, and a tab of chrome open. Doesn't take much to go over 4gb.

[Maxim]

I don't think half of you understand that his CPU is perfectly fine for what he's doing. Even with 3 cards he will still be bottlenecked by his graphics cards at Eyefinity resolutions. Those 3 cards will have to work at 100% load to drive that high of a resolution at even medium settings in today's games. They're 2 generations out of date. Far Cry 3 will punish them at 3x 1080p. The CPU won't be pegged at 100% in games because the graphics cards will be holding the system back. Dumping $350+ into a new mobo and i5 won't get him any extra performance.

More than 8GB is unnecessary if you're on a budget. Don't bother running 16GB or 32GB unless you have nothing else to spend the money on. 8GB of RAM is around $30 (give or take a few). That's $30 that can be put toward better fans, a bigger SSD/HDD, or anything else that will have a direct effect on your machine. RAM is only getting cheaper. You can always pick up more later.

[Natsuru]

Ummmmmm

Are you under the impression that a 7450 is faster than a 5870 because it's "Newer"?

If so, then I should inform you that no, newer does not mean faster

His 5870's are about 5% slower than a 6950.... in the worst case scenario

It's roughly on par with a 7850 in MOST applications, and both cards are fantastic overclockers

Feel free to check it yourself

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/amd-radeon-hd-7870-ghz-edition-radeon-hd-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/11

[Raptorman]

I hate the argument that people come up with that if you aren't at 100% CPU use that you're CPU is just as fast as any other CPU. No, that is so horribly false. I had the x6 1090t and then switched to a i5 2500k and I got a 5-20 fps boost in my games. It does matter.

[Maxim]

Ummmmmm

Are you under the impression that a 7450 is faster than a 5870 because it's "Newer"?

If so, then I should inform you that no, newer does not mean faster

His 5870's are about 5% slower than a 6950.... in the worst case scenario

It's roughly on par with a 7850 in MOST applications, and both cards are fantastic overclockers

Feel free to check it yourself

http://www.anandtech...hern-islands/11

No. I understand generational jumps quite well actually. However, it seems most people in here don't understand that GPU scaling isn't 100% for 3 GPU's.

Here's some (really) rough math. From the chart you linked, the 5870 plays BF3 at at around 47fps at 1920x1200. Let's round that to 50 at 1080p for shits and giggles. Assuming perfect scaling, his 3 5870's would play at 50fps on 3x1080p (three cards, three monitors, I told you this was rough math but it's accurate enough). However, GPU scaling drops hard for gaming once you get into 3 and 4 GPU's. So we're likely looking at around 30-35fps in BF3. This is with all 3 cards 100% maxed out. Can we turn some stuff down to up the FPS? Sure! But then why bother buying a 3rd card in the first place if we're just going to lower graphics settings? And why bother with the CPU/mobo upgrade if our concern is graphics settings?

Here's a chart showing 3x 6950s playing Crysis at 58fps at 2560x1600. However, 2560x1600 is about 65% of the pixels per frame as 5760x1080. Which means (more rough math) we're looking at around 38-40fps at 3x 1080p on 6950's in Crysis (the first one), which is less demanding than Far Cry 3. That number is only going to drop more once you factor in that 5870's are slower cards and don't scale as well in CrossFireX as the 6000 series.

Remember that this is all before you take into account that at least one of his 5870's is likely a 1GB card (if not all 3). IDK if you're played Far Cry 3 or BF3 maxed out but at 1080p they will easily chew up 1.5GB of VRAM and that only gets worse at higher resolutions. His GPU's will be the bottleneck and his VRAM will only help to cripple his FPS at Eyefinity resolutions.

I hate the argument that people come up with that if you aren't at 100% CPU use that you're CPU is just as fast as any other CPU. No, that is so horribly false. I had the x6 1090t and then switched to a i5 2500k and I got a 5-20 fps boost in my games. It does matter.

The performance difference will depend heavily on the game, your resolution, and your graphics configuration.

I think you're taking what I said about his specific setup and his specific usage scenario and assuming I meant it about everyone's setup and usage scenario. In case that was the issue, here you go:

At a resolution of 5760x1080 (3x1080p), 3 (three) 1GB Radeon HD 5870 GPU's in Crossfire will not be bottlenecked by an AMD FX quad-core running Far Cry 3.