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Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread - Page 488

Forum Index > Tech Support
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When using this resource, please read the opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly.
DarthPunk
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia10857 Posts
May 12 2015 11:20 GMT
#9741
I think 970 is the sweet spot right now with GPU's that or a 290.
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have told you what it was."
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-12 11:26:24
May 12 2015 11:26 GMT
#9742
On May 12 2015 18:22 Nihly wrote:
Hello everyone! I'm going to play the Witcher 3 and are thinking about upgrading my PC to run it a bit better if it doesn't cost too much.

My current setup:
i7-2600k OC:ed a bit.
GTX 570.
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
8 GB ram.
XFX core 650 W psu
SSD, win 8.1,

I play with a 1080p monitor. I was thinking of perhaps just upgrading the graphics card and I wonder if it's worth it. FYI, I don't need to be able to max everything out, just play at a 30-60 fps on a something that's not close to the lowest settings.

I was thinking maybe a gtx 960 like this one:
http://www.inet.se/produkt/5411371/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-ssc-acx-2-0-cooling?utm_source=prisjakt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=prisjakt

It costs 2200 kr but I go up to 3000 for a better card if it's worth it. I'd prefer using inet.se or komplett.se
It will mostly be for playing games like witcher 3 and GTA V (and future games like deus ex and such) and it's possible I'll build a completely new pc closer to Christmas this year and move the gpu to that one if so.

Thanks for any opinions. If you think the cpu is just as limiting I might just wait until I can upgrade both.


Just save for a 970/290~

960 is low end maxwell, only half as fast as 980 and one third as fast as titan X (and that GPU will very likely be rebranded to something like gtx1080) and it's not actually that much faster than a 570. Since the price/performance on 960 and 970 are the same (the 970 is just much faster) it's a much more cost effective upgrade.

290 also usually undercuts 970 and gives similar performance when GPU bound, also having 4GB of VRAM (instead of 3.5GB usable) but it uses like 1.6x more power (so that much more heat output too) and the dx11 drivers have bad cpu performance for some games (WoW is the big one that a lot of people play that it kills performance on right now). There are some feature differences too
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
flavorless
Profile Joined August 2010
United States59 Posts
May 12 2015 14:06 GMT
#9743
What is your budget?
650 USD, but under 600 would be ideal.

What is your monitor's native resolution?
I'll be using 1960x1080

What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
For the moment, mostly just SC2, League of Legends and emulators. Also EU4, Dark Souls. I'm not that picky about settings, but the higher the better.

What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Nothing very intensive. Word processing, excel, some programming. I'll dual boot debian.

Do you intend to overclock?
Yes

Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
It might be fun to play around with in a couple of years when my GPU performance starts to flag, but not immediately.

Do you need an operating system?
No.

Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
No.

If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
Nope.

What country will you be buying your parts in?
US

If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
Nope.

ATM I'm thinking of something like this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/FIavorless/saved/2bFypg

I'm thinking the G3258 because it'll give me plenty of performance on LoL, SC2 and emulators in the meantime, and then I can upgrade to a 4670K in six months or so, when I have more cash. I'm open to suggestions, especially on the PSU, motherboard and graphics card.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" — Isaac Asimov
Warri
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany3208 Posts
May 12 2015 14:27 GMT
#9744
Well i went ahead and bought the msi nvidia gt 720 and it turns out that while there is a standard form factor for mainboards, cases and power supplies (ATX) so that you can be sure they each fit with each other, there seems to be no such standard for graphic cards.
So while my old radeon 6950 and my nvidia gtx 560 DID fit in the slot, the distance from the metal thing that goes in the case to the first pin that goes in the pci-e slot on the new gt 720 is about 1mm too long, making it not fit, although both the card and the mainboard are supposedly pci-e 2.0.
http://i.imgur.com/kuqnmv0.jpg (big image so you can see details)
And no i can not move the mainboard unless i drill new screw holes, but they would have to be only 1mm from the old ones so the screws would be loose.
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-12 17:00:53
May 12 2015 15:15 GMT
#9745
edit: derped
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Warri
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany3208 Posts
May 12 2015 15:50 GMT
#9746
It's not the length of the card thats the problem, its the distance between metal that goes in the rear penal and pins that go into the pci slot. And the size of the case wouldnt matter because either way the mainboard would be at the same position relatively to the rear panel. The only wiggleroom here are the screw holes in the mainboard itself and just bending the rear penal metal. As i wrote, the radeon 6950 and the gtx 560 both did fit in and they are quite a bit larger than this one. It's just like 1mm and it seems to be shabby manufacturing as there is a big gap between the metal holder and the plastic of the card itself.
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-12 17:00:27
May 12 2015 16:59 GMT
#9747
Oh i was looking at it backwards because of weird orientation

hmm idk
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Nihly
Profile Joined April 2015
7 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-12 19:03:21
May 12 2015 18:20 GMT
#9748
Show nested quote +
On May 12 2015 20:20 DarthPunk wrote:
I think 970 is the sweet spot right now with GPU's that or a 290.


Show nested quote +
On May 12 2015 20:26 Cyro wrote:
On May 12 2015 18:22 Nihly wrote:
Hello everyone! I'm going to play the Witcher 3 and are thinking about upgrading my PC to run it a bit better if it doesn't cost too much.

My current setup:
i7-2600k OC:ed a bit.
GTX 570.
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
8 GB ram.
XFX core 650 W psu
SSD, win 8.1,

I play with a 1080p monitor. I was thinking of perhaps just upgrading the graphics card and I wonder if it's worth it. FYI, I don't need to be able to max everything out, just play at a 30-60 fps on a something that's not close to the lowest settings.

I was thinking maybe a gtx 960 like this one:
http://www.inet.se/produkt/5411371/evga-geforce-gtx-960-2gb-ssc-acx-2-0-cooling?utm_source=prisjakt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=prisjakt

It costs 2200 kr but I go up to 3000 for a better card if it's worth it. I'd prefer using inet.se or komplett.se
It will mostly be for playing games like witcher 3 and GTA V (and future games like deus ex and such) and it's possible I'll build a completely new pc closer to Christmas this year and move the gpu to that one if so.

Thanks for any opinions. If you think the cpu is just as limiting I might just wait until I can upgrade both.


Just save for a 970/290~

960 is low end maxwell, only half as fast as 980 and one third as fast as titan X (and that GPU will very likely be rebranded to something like gtx1080) and it's not actually that much faster than a 570. Since the price/performance on 960 and 970 are the same (the 970 is just much faster) it's a much more cost effective upgrade.

290 also usually undercuts 970 and gives similar performance when GPU bound, also having 4GB of VRAM (instead of 3.5GB usable) but it uses like 1.6x more power (so that much more heat output too) and the dx11 drivers have bad cpu performance for some games (WoW is the big one that a lot of people play that it kills performance on right now). There are some feature differences too


Thanks for the input, I'll probably wait for a bit then.

Edit: Though I just saw the current packages for 970's including witcher 3 and dark night. If I cancel my preorder hmm...
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
May 12 2015 19:52 GMT
#9749
The MSI Gaming 4g (with 2 fans) is one of the best cards all around, quiet, idle fan off support (but also good for OC, etc)
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
riotjune
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
United States3394 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-13 18:57:41
May 13 2015 18:01 GMT
#9750
Quick question, which program(s) are you guys using to monitor your cpu and graphics card temperatures, etc?

Memtest for memory right?

Edit: Looks like I'll just go with HWinfo.
URfavHO
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States514 Posts
May 13 2015 19:17 GMT
#9751
i use a rectal thermometer soldered directly onto the CPU.
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
May 13 2015 21:01 GMT
#9752
On May 14 2015 03:01 riotjune wrote:
Quick question, which program(s) are you guys using to monitor your cpu and graphics card temperatures, etc?

Memtest for memory right?

Edit: Looks like I'll just go with HWinfo.


hwinfo, gpu-z and msi afterburner
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
DarthPunk
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia10857 Posts
May 14 2015 00:26 GMT
#9753
Quick question about Overclocking stability. I have my cards at +100 mhz offset and they are fine 99.9% of the time but every now and then the display driver crashes. Is the way to fix this to bump the voltage which is currently at +50 MV or to drop the offset?

I get slightly over 1500 mhz in most apps.

Another weird thing I noticed is that the cards only ever reach about 70% power draw at the highest end. is that normal?

This is for Evga FTW+ 970 SLI.
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have told you what it was."
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-14 00:39:51
May 14 2015 00:38 GMT
#9754
The % power limit is a percentage of a different number card-to-card. For example the reference gtx980 has 100% at 165w - but the g1 has 100% at 350w.

As long as you're not hitting it in a restrictive way, it's fine.

You should lower your offset a little. If you're 100% stable at max clocks (and that's an if) then there's still a huge concern with stability at the lower voltage bins and the clocks assigned to them.

tl;dr nvidia has stuff set up in a messed up way. Without a bios mod, your clock speed offset applies across the board but you can ONLY adjust voltage at the very top of the range. That can and often does lead to instability in low loads or when alt tabbing between programs when the settings are otherwise completely fine, even with a safety margin.

The way to fix that is to manually set the voltage vs clock bins on the bios level, but that has a slight amount of risk associated with it (if you have the knowledge to do it or trust someone to make the file for you) and probably voids your warranty.
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
DarthPunk
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia10857 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-05-14 00:44:28
May 14 2015 00:43 GMT
#9755
On May 14 2015 09:38 Cyro wrote:
The % power limit is a percentage of a different number card-to-card. For example the reference gtx980 has 100% at 165w - but the g1 has 100% at 350w.

As long as you're not hitting it in a restrictive way, it's fine.

You should lower your offset a little. If you're 100% stable at max clocks (and that's an if) then there's still a huge concern with stability at the lower voltage bins and the clocks assigned to them.

tl;dr nvidia has stuff set up in a messed up way. Without a bios mod, your clock speed offset applies across the board but you can ONLY adjust voltage at the very top of the range. That can and often does lead to instability in low loads or when alt tabbing between programs when the settings are otherwise completely fine, even with a safety margin.

The way to fix that is to manually set the voltage vs clock bins on the bios level, but that has a slight amount of risk associated with it (if you have the knowledge to do it or trust someone to make the file for you) and probably voids your warranty.


Alright that makes sense. My driver crashes were mostly occurring when alt-tabbing. I'll reduce the offset until it stops crashing entirely.

My card has a dual bios switch would that make it less risky to change some bios stuff?
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have told you what it was."
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
May 14 2015 00:54 GMT
#9756
Yea; i have not looked into it too seriously TBH. This offset vs volts thing is pretty new knowledge to me but it explains a lot.
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
DarthPunk
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia10857 Posts
May 14 2015 00:56 GMT
#9757
On May 14 2015 09:54 Cyro wrote:
Yea; i have not looked into it too seriously TBH. This offset vs volts thing is pretty new knowledge to me but it explains a lot.


Ok. Thanks for your help :D
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have told you what it was."
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
May 14 2015 03:14 GMT
#9758
np hf
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
SleepTech
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States222 Posts
May 16 2015 19:23 GMT
#9759
Hello,

Is this a good SSD:

Crucial BX100 CT250BX100SSD1 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gbps (SATA III) Micron 16nm MLC NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

$95
Kupon3ss
Profile Joined May 2008
時の回廊10066 Posts
May 16 2015 21:04 GMT
#9760
Yes
When in doubt, just believe in yourself and press buttons
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