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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On September 21 2014 09:31 Thalandros wrote:
Does anyone here have experience with G-sync monitors? I want to get a 144hz monitor with my GTX 970 to play games with both competitive and single player, but not sure if gsync can justify the +€150 cost. It's awesome for mid-end rigs but is it equally great on ''high end'' systems?
The biggest benefits are still there, unless you can literally triple buffer vsync 144hz without any of your frametimes reaching ~6ms or so, at which point it doesn't really do anything compared to properly setup vsync.. That's very rare though.
I don't think it's worth paying those silly prices for random brand monitors like AOC(?) because the asus and benq 144hz offerings were better, at least a little bit with the asus tracefree implementation being notably better and benq doing stuff like highly customizable strobing
My call would be to wait for those monitors if you wanted gsync/ulmb 1080p144, just buy something now if you don't want to wait for them. There's no announcement for release that i know of, aside from they were supposed to be here in q2 and we're probably about to hit q4. It's impossible to rate gsync without having seen it, but i don't think it's worth paying extra for while giving up brand name and some other qualities right now
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On September 21 2014 20:06 Foxxan wrote:
Both.
It's hard to describe quiet, but you can get a case with like three ~600-800rpm fans, gpu with a decent cooler, cpu with something like a hr-02 macho and fan @600rpm and you have extremely little noise with gpu using settings to run at ~100-150w
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While at it, can I ask for a case recommendation? I'd like to get it with my GPU next week so I won't need to move twice.
I'm looking for a low-as-possible mid case with a solid window in it. My previous case doesn't and I'd really like it for a change. I've looked up the NZXT S340 but it's impossible for me to get it for less than $150 while the case itself is only 69$. Scan.co.uk. has them for 60 pounds but they can only ship starting Oct. 28. Are there any cases that come close in cleanness and also a window, for a reasonable price (~-80$)?
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Phew, the GTX 970 might just barely fit then, that's nice to know. I really like the look of the Phantom as much as the NZXT, it's very clean and smooth overall. Might go with that!  They sell it for €74,- here so that's doable. Thanks a bunch.
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You can remove an HDD cage to get more GPU clearance I believe, then you can house 400 mm cards
You could watch this to get an overall feel / idea of the case's qualities and quirks, I like Hardwarecanuck's case reviews on youtube, the guy seems pretty objective generally speaking. Stuff like case airflow isn't discussed in detail though
+ Show Spoiler +
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Helping a friend build a computer since I built one myself, but that was years ago so I'm a bit out of date on parts and what not so looking for some help. Doesn't need to be anything super powerful, just average gaming and media PC.
What is your budget?
700-800$
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920x1080
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
Diablo, LoL, Destiny. Medium-High
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Streaming video, downloading torrents
Do you intend to overclock?
Maybe - not a priority
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Nope
Do you need an operating system?
Yep
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Monitor (possibly two). Not included in the budget.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
Probably an SSD + HDD
What country will you be buying your parts in?
USA
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
Newegg/amazon
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On September 22 2014 11:47 decafchicken wrote:
Helping a friend build a computer since I built one myself, but that was years ago so I'm a bit out of date on parts and what not so looking for some help. Doesn't need to be anything super powerful, just average gaming and media PC.
What is your budget?
700-800$
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920x1080
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
Diablo, LoL, Destiny. Medium-High
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Streaming video, downloading torrents
Do you intend to overclock?
Maybe - not a priority
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Nope
Do you need an operating system?
Yep
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Monitor (possibly two). Not included in the budget.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
Probably an SSD + HDD
What country will you be buying your parts in?
USA
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
Newegg/amazon
I would do something like this, probably somewhat over budget (and it also assumes you obtain an OS without paying a ton)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D2V Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($111.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($339.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.20 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $837.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-22 10:47 EDT-0400
example parts, not final (exact compatibility checking or finding absolute best deals takes way more effort than getting 80% of the information there) and it's pretty easy to drop in a weaker GPU if that's too expensive
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Thanks very much! Might scale back a bit on the graphics card. Will double check compatibility but I think it looks good.
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On September 23 2014 01:00 decafchicken wrote:
Thanks very much! Might scale back a bit on the graphics card. Will double check compatibility but I think it looks good.
For price/performance that's the best you can get for a while. If you really wanna scale down, go get yourself a 960 when it comes out (probably in October, but no official statement on that yet. Will save you a lot in power usage over the current AMD cards and probably also in price/performance.
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On September 23 2014 01:00 decafchicken wrote:
Thanks very much! Might scale back a bit on the graphics card. Will double check compatibility but I think it looks good.
I'd get something in the R7 250X / R7 260X / GTX 750 / GTX 750 Ti range for those games and upgrade if you need to later when new tech is available.
It's better to have more money for better monitors or pocket change than graphics horsepower you're not using. For a friend's build it's a bit more complicated since the idea of upgrades or your availability might not be optimal, but there's reason to expect some turnover in the $200+ range kind of in a couple months for graphics cards.
In any case, a $100 investment now is the way I'd go and isn't much of a sunk cost if you really need something new in the near future. Backup cards for another comp, to sell, or use for troubleshooting or if something dies are useful in their own right anyway (though less so given that there's integrated graphics on all these platforms these days).
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On September 23 2014 04:16 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On September 23 2014 01:00 decafchicken wrote:
Thanks very much! Might scale back a bit on the graphics card. Will double check compatibility but I think it looks good. I'd get something in the R7 250X / R7 260X / GTX 750 / GTX 750 Ti range for those games and upgrade if you need to later when new tech is available. It's better to have more money for better monitors or pocket change than graphics horsepower you're not using. For a friend's build it's a bit more complicated since the idea of upgrades or your availability might not be optimal, but there's reason to expect some turnover in the $200+ range kind of in a couple months for graphics cards. In any case, a $100 investment now is the way I'd go and isn't much of a sunk cost if you really need something new in the near future. Backup cards for another comp, to sell, or use for troubleshooting or if something dies are useful in their own right anyway (though less so given that there's integrated graphics on all these platforms these days).
You're thinking that we're going get price reductions across the board with the advent of Maxwell releases?
It's hard to ignore $200 GTX 760s for instance.
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They're not quite at $200 yet, at least for most models.
Anyway, outgoing stuff getting cleared out always has better price/performance. Prices could drop a little bit further if more Maxwell cards become available and Nvidia wants to be aggressive on pricing like for the GTX 970, which isn't necessarily what will happen.
The new releases should have better power efficiency, more auxiliary features, and probably better long-term support, so it depends on what you value more.
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
Crossfire isn't always viable, the two main points against it would probably be power (you need a ~550w-750w PSU to run 2x OC'd 7970 comfortably, depending on cpu and cpu oc status)
and also latency: If you have a game running at 30fps and then you crossfire to run at 60fps with alternate frame rendering, your game looks smooth like @60fps, but it still responds as if it was 30fps. Each frame still takes 1/30'th of a second from start to finish of rendering.
On top of that, in order for that smoothness to be preserved with two GPU's, frame queueing is often used for multiple GPU's, so a system with two GPU's running alternate frame rendering 60fps can be slower to respond than a single GPU @30fps.
With latency and smoothness being pretty much the 2 reasons to use higher FPS, losing half of the point seems to make muti-GPU worth very little in comparison to single
Also.. Nvidia is price cutting stuff quite aggressively ATM, they EOL'd the 770 through 780ti and there was a thread on OCUK discussing nvidia allowing them to pricecut the 780ti windforce by literally 30% to clear stock
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*SLI. nVidia cards don't Crossfire, that's an ATI thing.
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On September 23 2014 07:05 felisconcolori wrote:
*SLI. nVidia cards don't Crossfire, that's an ATI thing.
In fact, it's probably more worth it to me to get another 7970
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To be fair, after the media blowout about uneven frametimes last year it's been getting better and better for SLI/Crossfire. The graphs don't look so wild anymore, to the point where dual GPU's come very close to single GPU except obviously a ton faster.
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On September 23 2014 09:41 Firkraag8 wrote:
To be fair, after the media blowout about uneven frametimes last year it's been getting better and better for SLI/Crossfire. The graphs don't look so wild anymore, to the point where dual GPU's come very close to single GPU except obviously a ton faster.
Yea it's good, it's mostly not an issue but to get to that point of not loosing smoothness, they still use larger queues than single GPU does, there is not really any way around that (aside from cool tech like VR, using one GPU per eye instead of alternate frame rendering)
for the same latency on a render, even with queue size the same which isn't possible, you need twice as high FPS with dual gpu's (so ~300fps instead of 150 before you stop getting latency benefits on 144hz..)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tT6pyWd.png)
