• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

I have 2 questions for you all

BenDoro

BenDoro

BenDoro

Associate
Joined
19 Jun 2009
Posts
133
Hi there i basically have 2 questions, ive looked at the clock speeds and everything but its all giberish to be :) so hope you lads can help

1) I cant decide between the geforce gtx 285 1024mb or the ati radeon 4870 x2 2048mb. basically i play a lot of games etc and was wondering what would be the most powerful etc, a mate of mine told me that the radeon graphics cards normally run at a higher clock speed etc but i have always just bought the nvidia cards, so would just like some advice on possibly the pros and cons of the cards and primarly the fastest :)

2) this is non graphics card related i am in need of a new computer and am either going to buy the titan goliath or the ultima vanquish. I understand the i7 is the best proccesor out and ofc the vanquish is faster, the memory speed of 1600mhz is the same but the vanquish says low latency which i guess means its not as slow? now the hard drive on the goliath runs at a 32mb cache and the vanquish runs at 16, so i take it the speed of the 32mb cache hard drive is faster or wat?

many thanks for your time it is greatly appricated

Ben
 
Buying an expensive i7 for just gaming will be total waste of cash tbh ;-).

If you want a prebuilt system, I would consider getting this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-073-OE&tool=5

I can guarantee you that you'll be happy with it.
Just because the expensive stuff looks nice on charts and tests, does not mean that you actually need it to play the newest games on very high settings.

The gaming difference between cheap overclocked Phenom 550 setup with decent kit of ram and OCed 4850 will be just a bit slower than this whole i7 system for about half the price.


If you think you can build it up yourself, I would get similar system with just a changed hdd to spinpoint f1 and maybe a different GPU, cooler and ram :).
 
Quad core is the way to go. A lot of games already utilise quads, and many more will do.
 
many thanks for the posts lads appricated, and i will consider the alternative systems. Just 1 thing u didnt really mention about the graphics cards ... just a quick tip of which is better would be greatly appricated.

Also i just wondered if i purchased a mid line computer how often would you recommend upgrading it, i bought an expensive computer just over 3 years ago now and never touched it now its totally had it and my computer runs super slow. I just wondered how often you lads would contemplate tweaking your system every now and again with the ocassional hardware upgrade.
 
What res do you play at?

I'd say the 285 is a little over priced for what it is though its a great card and the current best single gpu card available. The 4870X2 is the second most powerful (make it the third with Mars edition) and has quite a lot higher fps in some titles, is excellent value for money. Though I will say nvidia tend to have a little more consistent fps and better minimum fps in comparison with some ATi models. Debatable but some say that in its defence ATi has better image quality. The X2 on the other hand is so powerful that it gets such high fps anyway so its unlikely to be an issue here. I have got an X2 but haven't yet had the pleasure of trying out a 285 so I can't really compare further or in more detail.
 
Last edited:
Prebuilt systems have come down to very reasonable prices these days. However, one of the things which I think defines the PC as a gaming platform is building your computer yourself and tweaking it to how you like it!
 
ye i wanted to make my own computer but to me its not worth the hassle i have a job and can afford to play around £100 more for someone more experienced to do it, i also am very unfamiliar with overclocking etc and checking tempuratures for the cpus etc so i kinda wanna leave that side alone for now. So any programs you use to check tempuratures or any you would recommend for someone new to overclocking etc i would appricated that a lot

Regarding my resoulution i play at 1920x1080 on a 23" samsung P2350 i currently bought it after using a 17" cheap tft ofc with a lot lower res and my fps has suffered quite a lot
 
KelticDaz said:
Quad core is the way to go. A lot of games already utilise quads, and many more will do.
Click to expand...

can you state these games?:P

I only know of a few, sup com mostly does

anyways regarding the graphics card, the X2 is the way to go, basics is that is pretty much two HD4870 on the same board
 
AMG said:
can you state these games?:P

I only know of a few, sup com mostly does

anyways regarding the graphics card, the X2 is the way to go, basics is that is pretty much two HD4870 on the same board
Click to expand...


Grid, Last Remnant, Total Wars: Empire (after patch), Company of Heroes, COD WAW, Flight Sim 10, Mirror's Edge, Wolverine, Fallout 3, Chronicles of Riddick, World In Conflict, COD 4, the one you mentioned...

enough for ya?
 
Yeah it is true that quads are becoming a better choice for gaming but it also has to be realised that many of the games that now employ multi threading didn't on release hence why some arn't aware of how many now do make use of a quad :). As for the gfx card question of the op i have an X2 and have found it great for games so would recommend it great value now as well making it even sweeter.
 
Hmm he was considering an i7... and you say "waste of cash" and redirect him to an PII X4 for gaming? you do know these are slower overall for gaming than the old E6600 Core 2? (tho obviously not slower overall but thats another matter).

Without a doubt the best choice for gaming is the LGA775 faster core 2 and quads - tho not a lot uses quad yet but it does deffinatly make things smoother in some games like left 4 dead and cod4. Unfortunatly LGA775 has limited upgradability... and AM3 your buying on the hope of future upgradability... i7 makes the most sense as it will have the longest useful lifespan and as good if not better upgradeability prospects as AM3.

If your used to nVidia then I would say stick with nVidia - a 285GTX will cope very well with 1920x resolution - tho if your a hardcore online FPS player you might wanna consider either the 4870X2 or 295GTX.
 
Last edited:
KelticDaz said:
Grid, Last Remnant, Total Wars: Empire (after patch), Company of Heroes, COD WAW, Flight Sim 10, Mirror's Edge, Wolverine, Fallout 3, Chronicles of Riddick, World In Conflict, COD 4, the one you mentioned...

enough for ya?
Click to expand...

i would hardly call 20 odd games a lot when you compare how many games are out on shelfs pc that would prob be about 2% any way back on track
 
KelticDaz said:
Grid, Last Remnant, Total Wars: Empire (after patch), Company of Heroes, COD WAW, Flight Sim 10, Mirror's Edge, Wolverine, Fallout 3, Chronicles of Riddick, World In Conflict, COD 4, the one you mentioned...

enough for ya?
Click to expand...

yeah I own most anyway...my clan had a little dual core vs quad debiat

not forgeting there are more games coming out.....I wonder if arma2 likes quad :P

the AMD can hold its own, obvously the I7 is faster butas long as teh game is playable at the settings you want why bother, spend money you saved on a desk or something
 
Last edited:
AMG said:
the AMD can hold its own, obvously the I7 is faster butas long as teh game is playable at the settings you want why bother, spend money you saved on a desk or something
Click to expand...

IMO Phenom II X4 doesn't represent good value for gaming, with a single 260/4870 GPU in multi core enabled games it still trails a good intel quad and in non multi-threaded is beaten by the old core 2 duos once you get the clock speed on them to 3gig or higher which most will manage out the box with stock cooling and no voltage adjustment.

Once you add multiple GPUs and an overclocked intel quad into the mix - theres no contest... in CPU intensive game benchmarks like lost coast 260GTX SLI on a 3.2-4gig Phenom II X4 is running almost half the framerate of a Q6600 overclocked to 3.6gig.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom