Ultimate gaming pc.

[Lias]

Intel's new CPU lineup comes out next week.. So give it a month for the new cpus and pricedrops to filter down to NZ. With things as it stands though I'd got for a E6850, decent motherboard (Asus Commando?) and a couple of SLI'd 8800's. Hubba Hubba

If you like RTS games, you don't want to miss this!

Coop multiplater, nukes, what more does an RTS need?

I was just listening to someone rave about that yesterday hehe.

[Dargor]

I'm not sure if I should start playing that again

You shouldnt. Play good games.

[Reckless]

Concerning Grafix cards what do you guys reckon.

If the budget was a grand or so what would you do!! 8800GTX or 2 x 8800GTS n sli??

I don't reckon in practice you'd notice alot of differnce between the 8800 gts and the 8800gtx. In fact I'd probably go for 2 x 8800gts in sli for 1200 bucks odd rather than 1x gtx for a grand or 2 for 2 grand.
As I'm probably building a new 3d CAD computer soon.
Trouble with modern CAD you need grahics grunt for rendering and cpu grunt for Raytrace (povray). SLI might be better to run 3 monitors off as well??

opinions please! GTX or GTS

[imdying]

I wouldn't buy either of those for CAD without checking Nvidia's range of cards designed for CAD, probably best to seek out some related benchmarks for hte programs you're using. It's not really the graphics output of the cards you'll need, more the floating point power. If this is a work from home machine though, and you're looking to play high end games on a big (1920x1200+) monitor, then paying the extra for two 640mb cards could pay dividends, especially if you're potentially buying a higher res (something like a 30" 2560x1600) inside a year.

It's worth looking at some benchmarks though, and weighing up the difference between the GTS and GTX. Ultimately the difference is pretty small, especially in a years time... the bleeding edge is for suckers.

[Reckless]

Alot of the guys are using gaming cards instead of specialist cad cards as the speed difference is not that great if any. One guy on our user group says his gaming rig is faster in 3d design. Its mainly the more stable gauranteed drivers the bigger businesses go for with the secialist Fire GL and Quatro etc.
But in NZ the cad based cards are so bloody expensve they are out of the question, like $2-3,000-00 each. So I've alway used gaming cards, they still support open gl at the moment.
It is a cost versus time thing. eg do you spend the extra grand to save .5 a second in a 3d or not. And if you do is that .5 of a second gonna make you that extra over the life of the computer. Its always a lottery.

My computers are by default usually good gaming machines. Usually buy one notch down from top of the range rip off stuff and upgrade every 2-3 years. Hence the question on the GTX vs GTS. But line up the FSB, ram and motherboard speeds etc as fast as I can. When I'm designing the 3d is constantly generating on my second monitor.
Nividia are thay only way to go at the moment as the ATI drivers just aren't up to par for us.
Using 22" widescreen at the moment. 30" are widely used by the guys in the states but price is still way above their level due to our captive market. Probably go for 22" widscreen (plan screen) with a 19" either side for libaries and 3d. On my new set up.
CYA

[The Pastor]

what are the benifits for gaming to run two vid cards? how does that work?

[imdying]

It is a cost versus time thing. eg do you spend the extra grand to save .5 a second in a 3d or not. And if you do is that .5 of a second gonna make you that extra over the life of the computer. Its always a lottery.

That's about the size of it, much like the difference between the $500 and $1000 cards, it's pretty small.

what are the benifits for gaming to run two vid cards? how does that work?

You don't need to use two cards unless you're running quite a high resolution monitor.

[Dargor]

I suggest you get a 8800 gts 320mb or even the 8600 and save the $500, then in a few years upgrade to the not quite best vid card.
video card ram is only for textures, and i dont think you need 640mb + of textures. your not going to be any leeter with a insane texture res.

sli, the dual gfx card thing, works simmilar to having two cpu's except less important, they try to share the load. Some game engines use one of the gfx cards to do some physics stuff, but with dual core cpu's i think thats pointless.

[Slicksta]

Even tho the 8600gt is direct x 10 its cheaper to get a 7900gs that is the best atm for price/performance