On January 29 2011 10:33 Sgany wrote: Ok have some internet
My ram is 4gb atm, I plan to upgrade to 8gb.
I plan to do x2 gtx 580 SLI once I get more money, so what PSU would I need to support this?
I didn't notice this post until just now - but I sincerely hope you aren't doing this to improve your frame rates. Womwomwom already posted a link on page 2 which highlights the issue.
At the lower resolutions, 1680 and 1920, you aren't even seeing any major separations from the GPUs until you add 4x AA. That's a basic indicator that an i7 at 4Ghz is still CPU-limited at those lower resolutions.
Until SC2 becomes truly multi-threaded, single thread performance will be king. This means max IPC, max frequency - which is both in Intel's favor at the moment. I'm talking air OCs, before someone quotes me the PhII at 7Ghz haha.
On January 23 2011 09:15 Sgany wrote: I currently run sc2 on extreme at around 30-60 fps which averages around 40, is this under performing for my specs. Nothing is currently overclocked.
What kind of performance were you expecting exactly?
On January 29 2011 13:02 Obsolescence wrote: I agree with several other posters: your PSU is not enough for your system. Here is your graphics card's official page. Click "Specifications" and scroll to the bottom.
Minimum Recommended System Power (W): 600
The difference between a 600W and a 750W is ~50 U.S. dollars. Why did you choose to go for the minimum recommended system power? In my amateur opinion, that is a terrible idea unless you have worked the calculations.
On January 29 2011 10:12 skyR wrote: Seriously... ignorant people still suggesting 600W isn't enough to run the rig?
A 600W PSU can cost up to $200 FYI [Citation Needed]. I would gladly place my components in the care of an X650 instead of a shitty no name 1000W PSU. The fact that most of you think that a GTX 580 and a 1366 processor can use a combined load of more than 400W is delusional.
If a power supply wasn't providing enough power to its components. The computer would be experiencing lockups, random reboots, or BSODs. Seriously. Go into your BIOS and try it. Lower the vcore to your CPU and see what happens...
There is the chance that the PCI-E power connectors on the GTX 580 came loose or never connected and that could prove to be the problem. But for the last time, it is not the ****ing wattage of the power supply that is the problem.
Here is a link to Newegg's listing of 750W PSUs ranked from highest price to lowest price.
A 600W PSU can only cost $200 if you have a working time machine (unless you're a sucker).
600W power supplies can cost that much if you go buy 80+ Gold power supplies.
The vast majority of the ones you listed have major flaws...in fact the only ones I'd trust without reading reviews (not Newegg reviews, proper reviews) are the PC Power and Cooling ones because of their long successful history. For instance the Coolermaster 750W GX Series has problems with fan noise, suppressing electrical noise and running within spec when drawing heavy loads and the Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W can't actually draw its specified loads when the operating temperature is hot and has problems suppressing noise and ripple during heavy loads. That shit can fry your computer if you're not careful.
Its cute that people are just throwing around PSU wattages as if its the only thing that matters.
Well what I find cute is people saying to OC CPU or GPU. I mean his GTX 580 is well enough to get 100 + fps easy and the i7 950 is a really good CPU witch yes stock without OC will give you great performance on starcraft2.
On topic, OP there are a few things you can do to improve your performance. The RAM boost will assist load times, can't hurt you there, but in general to get better performance from what you already have you would need to OC your hardware. I wouldn't recommend it since no offense if you knew how to take care of OC'd hardware you probably wouldn't have bought some of the things you ended up purchasing. You are already running at a pretty strong frame rate but if your system is running really cool you can squeeze more out of it, just make sure you do your research first.
I agree that lack of power isn't causing a reduction in framerates, that's just silly since if you have ever experienced that problem you'd know that you couldn't even get the thing stable in the first place to even test framerates.
On January 29 2011 10:33 Sgany wrote: Ok have some internet
My ram is 4gb atm, I plan to upgrade to 8gb.
I plan to do x2 gtx 580 SLI once I get more money, so what PSU would I need to support this?
I didn't notice this post until just now - but I sincerely hope you aren't doing this to improve your frame rates. Womwomwom already posted a link on page 2 which highlights the issue.
At the lower resolutions, 1680 and 1920, you aren't even seeing any major separations from the GPUs until you add 4x AA. That's a basic indicator that an i7 at 4Ghz is still CPU-limited at those lower resolutions.
Until SC2 becomes truly multi-threaded, single thread performance will be king. This means max IPC, max frequency - which is both in Intel's favor at the moment. I'm talking air OCs, before someone quotes me the PhII at 7Ghz haha.
To get the values for 2560x1600 (double the processing power from the latter ) from the 1920x1080 tests, you can just cut the FPS in half
and it would end up getting the FPS as stated in the OP
Would this guide be suitable/compatible with my current setup, also I have no thermal paste.
With a weak power supply and inexplicable performance issues (you should be getting better FPS regardless), the last thing you want to do is start overclocking...
If your temps are almost up to 70 on stock voltage with no OC then you'll likely need better cooling if you plan to OC... obviously going to need thermal paste as well.
Honestly it sounds like you don't really know what you're doing so be careful and take the appropriate precautionary steps listed in a trusted guide. The only thing worse than an under-performing expensive rig is a dead expensive rig.
Also note that overclocking will increase the amount of power drawn from your PSU, which is a likely/possible source of the problem in the first place. I would strongly recommend to get your hands on a 800+ watt power supply and swap that into your comp. There is a reasonable chance that it may fix your performance issues.
Would this guide be suitable/compatible with my current setup, also I have no thermal paste.
With a weak power supply and inexplicable performance issues (you should be getting better FPS regardless), the last thing you want to do is start overclocking...
If your temps are almost up to 70 on stock voltage with no OC then you'll likely need better cooling if you plan to OC... obviously going to need thermal paste as well.
Honestly it sounds like you don't really know what you're doing so be careful and take the appropriate precautionary steps listed in a trusted guide. The only thing worse than an under-performing expensive rig is a dead expensive rig.
Also note that overclocking will increase the amount of power drawn from your PSU, which is a likely/possible source of the problem in the first place. I would strongly recommend to get your hands on a 800+ watt power supply and swap that into your comp. There is a reasonable chance that it may fix your performance issues.
After attempting overclocking using my motherboards auto OC to 3.7 my core temps went to around 85-91. So that is currently not an option, but I do believe I have a good cooling system for my computer?
Overclocking doesn't really change power demands by a lot until you hit the point of diminishing returns where you need to increase the vcore to ensure stability. The same goes for GPUs, very often on stock voltages you can overclock certain cards very far...for instance the HD5850 can be clocked to 850/1200 which is quite noticeably higher than the stock settings (750/1000 I think).
Depending on how well your chip has been binned, you can turn off tubo boost and "overclock" the i7 950 to 3.6ghz on stock voltages by playing around with the multiplier.
After attempting overclocking using my motherboards auto OC to 3.7 my core temps went to around 85-91. So that is currently not an option, but I do believe I have a good cooling system for my computer?
Because of the binning process, the auto OC function are always extremely conservative. If you're lazy they're generally very decent but its always better to do it yourself.
I plan to upgrade my PSU to around 1000 watt when I get more money, I plan to future proof my computer as I will also be getting an additional 580 and most likely a motherboard upgrade to make room this SLI.
With the hardware you have, overclocking NOT needed to run well (580 heats up a lot so I wouldn't recommend overclock) What you need is more power supply man! I think you need at least 800 Watt. Edit: oops I didnt see your post, 1000 should do it.
On January 29 2011 13:41 LorD_AreS wrote: Well what I find cute is people saying to OC CPU or GPU. I mean his GTX 580 is well enough to get 100 + fps easy and the i7 950 is a really good CPU witch yes stock without OC will give you great performance on starcraft2.
Did you bother reading through my links? Cute or not, the point of OCing is raising the minimum FPS more than the max FPS. Nobody cares what you max out at, but you can be damn sure when your FPS drops to the minimum it is noticeable. Again, if you bothered reading my links you'd see that with the SB overclocks you are actually hitting a point where minimum FPS is exceeding 60FPS.
Now does that mean all of us have to go out and buy a SB? No, but if you don't have one and you don't have similar clocks, you will need to lower your expectations for minimum FPS. I am still baffled at the amount of people who recommend AMD CPUs at this point. Even in Tom's badly done CPU-scaling article, it highlights the effect that AMD's lower IPC has in CPU-scaling: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/starcraft-ii-radeon-geforce,2728-8.html
Now Tom goes on a tangent, showing a graph comparing # of cores for the Phenom II, when it can't even beat the lowest clocked i5 750. Tom ignores the bigger point that is staring him in the face: that PhII's really need overclocking just to match stock-clocked i5/i7's. IMO, who gives a shit about the # of cores involved (for an AMD chip) when the highest performing chips (i5/i7's) are already quad-core by design?
You know it's ironic, for a site that used to be heavily Intel-biased in its early years, they could actually use some if they wanted to provide good information for the community. But I digress
And wow....people are still hung up on the power supply in this thread. Simply hilarious.
You know what, I'll write it out so people without reading comprehension will understand. Anandtech's test system is a 920 @ 3.3Ghz. I.e. an overclocked 920. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/5 With a GTX 580, at full 3D loads (Crysis), they hit 389W. Total system power consumption. The end.
On higher priority issue currently with my computer is that one of my ram sticks does not seem to be registering with my computer my ram is currently 4gb when I am using Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) XMS3 1600MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
On January 31 2011 23:35 Sgany wrote: On higher priority issue currently with my computer is that one of my ram sticks does not seem to be registering with my computer my ram is currently 4gb when I am using Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) XMS3 1600MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Try reseating them first. If that doesn't work, run memtest86+ on each stick individually for a minimum of 8 passes. If an error shows up, you are going to have to RMA.
On January 31 2011 23:35 Sgany wrote: On higher priority issue currently with my computer is that one of my ram sticks does not seem to be registering with my computer my ram is currently 4gb when I am using Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) XMS3 1600MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Try reseating them first. If that doesn't work, run memtest86+ on each stick individually for a minimum of 8 passes. If an error shows up, you are going to have to RMA.
I currently have an issue getting my sticks out of their sockets as my GTX 580 is making it near impossible to access the second clip. Is memtest86+ a boot program, as I cannot seem to run it as an application.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i54.tinypic.com/b3oi38.jpg)
