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So, a couple of possible builds. Price around $1250-$1350ish
+ Show Spoiler [Crossfire] +
This appears to be the most economical while performing GPU setup at this price range. If I were to go non Crossfire/SLI, atm it would seem the 6970 is the best route (~$330, whereas the $500+ 580 doesn't seem to be particularly better... and both are outperformed by the 6870CF). But, this is a $70 drop only, so what would I get with that... 128gb SSD instead of 64gb?
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I wouldn't suggest going for two cards in CF due to the many compatibility issues/some games favouring CF and some not, and also driver updates et cetera.
He would be better off with a single graphics card.
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5930 Posts
He seems dead set on spending every single cent he has, I'm not sure what is compelling him to do so but I've told him that he should just buy one mid range card and upgrade in a year if it isn't enough for him multiple times.
Note: buying a single GTX560 Ti or HD6870 is still the best idea unless you are running obscenely large resolutions, 3D effects, or really need CUDA. Southern Islands and Kepler is going to wreck the shit out of whatever you currently have and you're going to have huge buyer's remorse in the process.
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$1250 leaves a lot left over (~$700) for upgrades later (assuming I don't have more $$ to spend later which I will).
Which is why I considered ~$400 mid range t.t
But just to be clear, if I so happen to be multiboxing two games at high detail + 1920x1080 resolution, and maybe streaming one of the screens involved simultaneously, a 560ti or 6870 will still do it no problem at all? I generally prefer at least a 35-40 fps min, sometimes during certain movements I notice things when it's at ~30 fps >< (though rarely), or if there is a sudden increase in gpu demand (randomly huge amount of detailed spellcasting or whatever for example).
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one card is plenty dudan, if you really want to spend that extra 200 dollars on something you should get a nice sexy 300 dollar lian li case 
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Why would I get a $300 case o.O
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On June 29 2011 22:30 EtherealDeath wrote:
Why would I get a $300 case o.O
Well, expensive cases usually have features cheaper ones don't. In the case of Lian Li or Silverstone, that's generally awesome thermal and/or acoustic performance.
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But I like hearing my computer T_T
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5930 Posts
Why would you play two games at once, you limitation is probably going to end up being the whole computer, including software. I can only imagine the drivers pissing its pants being forced to render two stressful things at once.
Even Quadros, NV's workstation lineup, cannot handle full scientific calculations and heavy Windows 7 GUI work without having problems. And this is coming from drivers tested not for performance but for reliability.
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On June 29 2011 22:30 EtherealDeath wrote:
Why would I get a $300 case o.O
at least cases will stay relatively useful in 3 years. in 3 years your crossfired cards will be scrap
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On June 29 2011 22:38 Womwomwom wrote:
Why would you play two games at once, you limitation is probably going to end up being the whole computer, including software. I can only imagine the drivers pissing its pants being forced to render two stressful things at once.
Even Quadros, NV's workstation lineup, cannot handle full scientific calculations and heavy Windows 7 GUI work without having problems. And this is coming from drivers tested not for performance but for reliability.
Oh, interesting. I usually run two games at once on my current shitty desktop (nvidia 9600GS), and the 2nd game is usually WoW, wherein I am more often running it more for chat than anything else.
Of course, my SC2 is on low and my WoW on "good" cause my current desktop is like, 3 years old.
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5930 Posts
Then you must play two games simultaneously on a single computer, get a single GPU so you will minimize possible driver issues.
I don't even think dual GPU systems work properly with World of Warcraft so you will absolutely run into driver issues if you go Crossfire/SLI.
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Hmmmm well I guess I'll get a single 6870 and wait for new gpus then. I kind of have a huge abhorrence for the $400 single gpus... performance so not worth the money.
560Ti is about $30 more than a 6870 on newegg right now. Performance doesn't seem to warrant the increase, therefore 6870. Agree?
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5930 Posts
If you're not going to overclock it heavily to GTX570s level, no its not really worth the price premium in my opinion - what the HD6870 can't run, the GTX560 Ti can't run basically. GTX560 Tis overclock very well so if you're into that type of thing, its your card of choice.
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Well, if the 560ti can be safely overclocked to a noticeable improvement (while factoring in the price premium) over the 6870, then I would. But does it?
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On June 29 2011 23:00 EtherealDeath wrote:
Well, if the 560ti can be safely overclocked to a noticeable improvement (while factoring in the price premium) over the 6870, then I would. But does it?
Depends on cooling. Multi-GPU and heavy GPU OC's get hot as hell. But yeah, 560Ti is pretty insanely OCable. Just make sure to look for the Ti. 560 and 560Ti are entirely different cards, because Nvidia's naming conventions are designed by ex-KGB cryptologists.
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Assuming air cooling only. Using the Rosewill Challenger, I think I can have up to 5 fans, 1 or 2 being 140mm, 2 side fans. Don't really want to pay more for a case just to OC the 560.
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On June 29 2011 23:00 EtherealDeath wrote:
Well, if the 560ti can be safely overclocked to a noticeable improvement (while factoring in the price premium) over the 6870, then I would. But does it?
you can get enormous overlocks on 560ti's without touching voltages at all, if youre worried about stuff blowing up
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Oh, no, you don't need to pay more for a case to cool it, you would just need to pay more for a case to cool it quietly. But you already said you're insane and like hearing your computer.
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5930 Posts
Depends on how lucky you are. Shouldn't be too hard to hit 950mhz clock speeds on stock voltages though anything higher than that probably needs voltage manipulation. You pretty much need to hit 1000mhz to start matching the GTX570 or HD6950, though I sometimes wonder if its actually worth it since the acoustics and power consumption is seriously terrible without aftermarket cooling.
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EPT
