PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Adajer]

I was not expecting 700/8000 until late Q3 2013. That being said. I cant see Maxwell/9000 cards releasing in Q1, Q2, or even Q3 2014. It would be less than a year between refreshes.

I have heard the rumors of 700/8000 only being 10-15% faster, but I don't believe that. It could be true, but it seems like non-sense to me. I know they will be focusing on mobile graphics in the coming years. The GTX Titan is just a Tesla rehash for common desktops imo, its not really a sign of what refined kepler architecture will produce. And I do believe they are getting over on people who have the money and want to blow it on the most expensive/unnecessary hardware, i.e. those $1000+ intel processors. The next Titan GK110 gpu will be a more affordable titan that is a bit slower. I cant find the link, but last year AMD said that their 8850/8870s would be as fast or faster than the 680. They could have been blowing steam, but if true, that would make their 8970 pan out to be more than 10-15% faster than the 7970. Also, Nvidia will have GPU Boost 2.0 on the 700 series, I believe. That combined with great coolers from Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte and the faster architecture could prove to be a decent performance boost as well.

My 2 cents on the matter.

[Gulkeeva]

Is there a reason you will get a 680 over 7970?

Looking over benchmarks of ffxiv (seems most everyone is using 1920x1080res so still maybe hard to judge) an overclocked 680 outperforms a overclocked 7970 radeon, and looks to be not too far away from the titan (one score was like 9200 with a i7 3770K @ like 4.8ghz with a 680 in the near 1200mhz core oc).

I'll be playing in 2560x1440 so I'll be going the OC route. I've been debating a titan but for $500ish more to get an average 10-15fps more is kinda meh after passing 60fps (the 680 was at like 75fps+ at the highest oc one). I plan to jump on the next card come the battle royal in 2014 as that is the "next big step" so best to save that money for now!

I was not expecting 700/8000 until late Q3 2013. That being said. I cant see Maxwell/9000 cards releasing in Q1, Q2, or even Q3 2014. It would be less than a year between refreshes.

I have heard the rumors of 700/8000 only being 10-15% faster, but I don't believe that. It could be true, but it seems like non-sense to me. I know they will be focusing on mobile graphics in the coming years. The GTX Titan is just a Tesla rehash for common desktops imo, its not really a sign of what refined kepler architecture will produce. And I do believe they are getting over on people who have the money and want to blow it on the most expensive/unnecessary hardware, i.e. those $1000+ intel processors. The next Titan GK110 gpu will be a more affordable titan that is a bit slower. I cant find the link, but last year AMD said that their 8850/8870s would be as fast or faster than the 680. They could have been blowing steam, but if true, that would make their 8970 pan out to be more than 10-15% faster than the 7970. Also, Nvidia will have GPU Boost 2.0 on the 700 series, I believe. That combined with great coolers from Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte and the faster architecture could prove to be a decent performance boost as well.

My 2 cents on the matter.

oh yeah not expecting a massive performance on the next cards, which will be out probably near the end of 2013, if even in 2013, and won't expect the next gen stuff till near the end of 2014 possibly. Thats why I was debating a titan, as EVGA and a few other companies have been given the green light to make a custom Nvidia titan now with different coolers and such, those things could probably OC a lot higher... highest I've seen reported is 1200ish clock speed, and easy to find benchmarks of the titan from its 87?mhz to 1000 is a good +10 fps on some games as is. So I may wait to see what the gimped titan does first...

[Takiwaki]

Hmm true 14 does favor nvidia

[Elona]

Thinking about a buying new rig, and some advice would be great. I have PC connected to HDTV, resolution is set to 720p cos im using it like 6-7ft away from the TV. I have few of options here:

1. i5-3450/8 GB/GTX560 Ti (799€)
2. i7-3770/8 GB/GTX560 Ti (899€)
3. i7-3770/8 GB/GeForce GTX 660 1.5 GB (999€)

Mostly would be using it for surfing and FFXIV, I dont plan to play any other games on this PC. Because of using that 720p resolution, should I go even more cheaper builds? Currently I have AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+/3GB/ATI Radeon 4850 and it runs FFXIV but not super great.

[Adajer]

You going prebuilt? I suggest an i5 and a 660. Might can pull off a 650 boost if you staying at 720p. I'd spend the extra for the 660. Stay away from old gen cards(500 series).

[Elona]

Thanks! Yeah these are pre-builds. Hmm, I was hoping id get away with that 1st one. Maybe ill try to save a bit longer, gonna be hard to not spend that 800€ I have now for booze.

[Adajer]

You don't need an i7 at all, especially for what you plan to do with it. I am legally obligated to say, you would do better to buy the parts and build it yourself. Its not hard, just use a Anti-static wriststrap and plug everything in. All the connections have a one direction only fit.

[Gulkeeva]

FFXIV is graphics oriented, you could get like a i5 something (around 3ghz at least if ther eis one and a nvidia 650 ti).

Also, next PC I get... I'm getting a barebones, man took me 4 hours jsut to move my crap from my old PC, to my new PC, and through a miracle not having to reinstall windows to do it haha. Now I just need to get 2 SATA to IDE data cables.... >.>

[Adajer]

Got my PB278q today. 1 dead pixel in top left corner, right in the middle of your first tab in FF . Running JScreen Fix to see if it will bring it to life. I feel like sending it back and getting another dud.

Edit: Played a few games before bed. BF3 looks great. Surprisingly, and not so surprisingly, Tomb Raider has the jagglies really bad. x4saa doesnt completely cure it. Ran my 670 to full 2gb vram usage. I dont remember if that was with FXAA on though.

[Gulkeeva]

Got my PB278q today. 1 dead pixel in top left corner, right in the middle of your first tab in FF . Running JScreen Fix to see if it will bring it to life. I feel like sending it back and getting another dud.

Edit: Played a few games before bed. BF3 looks great. Surprisingly, and not so surprisingly, Tomb Raider has the jagglies really bad. x4saa doesnt completely cure it. Ran my 670 to full 2gb vram usage. I don't remember if that was with FXAA on though.

I was debating that monitor but went with a Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM after checking up a few sites. Gaming sure does feel different (and just about everything else) at 2560x1440 eh?

[Gulkeeva]

Hmm true 14 does favor nvidia

After a bit of looking around + researching, a 670 may be better

http://www.neko-sentai.com/images12n...69142c0bf4.gif

Overclocked 670 vs overclocked 680
http://www.overclock.net/t/1258755/o...670-vs-gtx-680

(also 2GB Vram still performs fine even at 2560x1440 which is the res I'll be playing at so, the performance should be basically the same still at that res compared to a 680 oc'ed)


Original article
http://www.4gamer.net/games/199/G019924/20130307003/
Radeon Cat 13.2 beta 6 vs geforce 314.07
i7-3970x 3.5ghz oc'ed to 4ghz
Scroll down till you see the graph and stuff, the full system specs etc is in english

[Adajer]

Glad to see AMD hasnt gotten their grubby little hands on everything. I played for a few min @1440 with my 670 PE. All I did was run around Gridania, but it I ran around 40fps iirc.

[Nitsuki]

is the game just not optimized for the 690? i mean, i'm glad i have a 680, but damn that looks like a slap in the face for the 690 owners.

[Gulkeeva]

is the game just not optimized for the 690? i mean, i'm glad i have a 680, but damn that looks like a slap in the face for the 690 owners.

I would think by retail 2.0 it will support dual card setups.

[Elona]

FFXIV is graphics oriented, you could get like a i5 something (around 3ghz at least if ther eis one and a nvidia 650 ti).

Also, next PC I get... I'm getting a barebones, man took me 4 hours jsut to move my crap from my old PC, to my new PC, and through a miracle not having to reinstall windows to do it haha. Now I just need to get 2 SATA to IDE data cables.... >.>

Got few hundred extra together so went with option 3. Pretty happy so far, decided to run it 1080p since could resize the chat log font so its readable from a distance. After playing 1080p, never going back to 720p.

[Gulkeeva]

Got few hundred extra together so went with option 3. Pretty happy so far, decided to run it 1080p since could resize the chat log font so its readable from a distance. After playing 1080p, never going back to 720p.

Once you go 1440P... O_o
(better then 1600 since a lot of games/videos are formatted toward 720-2X -> 1440 so scales good without distortion)

[Purrrfect]

XIV may be graphic-oriented, but it still needs cpu. My [email protected] can't keep my 660ti fed on the benchmark. In game *may* be different, but only when no one is around.

[Tyche]

I'm running an i5 3570k @ 4.5ghz on a 660ti. I benched about 8,000 on the old utility (haven't done the new one) at 1080p. I can't imagine that CPU being the bottleneck.

[Adajer]

Yeah, I think you don't know what you are talking about. An i5 at stock won't bottleneck SLI 680s. I think you are expecting too much from the 660 ti.

[Purrrfect]

Well the xiv process stays at it's max while the gpu almost never hits full usage in the benchmark. (scored like 7700 I think on the old benchmark)