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Best card for Dell U2711
- Thread starter matthewwhitton
- Start date
There are also games like Shogun 2, Witcher 2, Crysis 2, Crysis/Warhead etc. Don't just be so limited with Metro 2033.
With that budget then it eliminates the possibility of GTX580 3GB SLI.
I would go for either of:
a) 6950 2GB x 2 CrossfireX
b) 6990 + 6970 TRI-Fire
If u have a budget limitation then yea 2Gb 6950 xfire is probalby the best bang for buck, sli 2.5Gb 570's are also worth a look, basiaclly 2Gb of Vram is more than enough at the moment, the 3Gb cards are only 3Gb because they have more chips and all they do as on any of the higher memory cards is replace the 128Mb ram modules for 256Mb modules hence doubling the memory, it also normally adds a slight increase in latency and therfore also reduces the overclockability of the memory too.
Soldato
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3Gb GTX580 are the thick end of 400 notes so if your looking to make your money go as far as it can I would avoid those cards as their value for money is terrible considering 2 6950's 2Gb's can be had for the same money and yield a much better in investment.
Ran that same test with 0xAA and i bet the 1.5GB 580's will have the same FPS as the 3GB 580'sIt depends on the games you play. For games like Metro 2033 or Shogun 2, it won't be just a few fps ahead.
As using AA in these games uses loads of vram memory..
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Two 3GB gtx 580's would cost you £790
That would leave you £210 which is enough for i5 processor and 8gb of ram
i5 2500k cpu = £155
8GB ddr3 memory = £50
Two 3GB gtx 580 = £790
Total = £995
Can you increase your budget enough for a motherboard ??
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With 2 x 580's and an OC on the i5 a new PSU aswell ?
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Would this be any good? EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 2560MB, maybe sli?
This is good for SLI in terms of vram. However there is a potential problem with the cooler: It is a non-reference cooler, which dumps most of the heat into your case, and if the PCI-E slot spacing on the motherboard is not reasonable, where a sandwitch (back-to-back) SLI is inevitable, then the airflow of the upper card can be easily blocked by the next lower card, causing noise and overheating issues.
For 2-way SLI of these cards, if you can manage to install them apart from each other, leaving enough room for the upper card to breadth, and if your case is not bad at cooling, then it is a good choice.
However for 3-way SLI I'd say better go with reference coolers. (Sadly I haven't seen reference coolers with 2.5GB vram design)
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Ok, i have a thermaltake armour at the minute, is that big enough and cool enough?
Surely a single normal GTX 580 is sufficient? Get that along with a 2600k, 8gb ddr3 and a motherboard and that's saving a load of cash. You could pick up a GTX 580 for Sli if needed.
Also, OP try and buy second hand. You can get some great deals at the moment.
Also, OP try and buy second hand. You can get some great deals at the moment.
That case looks great. Now you just need to find the right motherboard with reasonable PCI-E spacing to keep 2-way SLI of these cool (while making sure it's compatible with the slots in your case).
Just keep in mind that when you find 2-way SLI lack the GPU power, you might eventually want to add in a third GTX570 for 3-way SLI in the future; however you might run into overheating issues anyway with 3-way SLI, since these are non-reference coolers.
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Where abouts can i buy second hand?
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- Near Penrith on a farm
It's so long since I have games on pc, would I need much aa at the top resolution? Is the refurb overclocker gtx 580 any good?
Like the OP I am going to be building a new system, I already have a U2711 which I use for editing photo's using CS5. This PC is primily used for my work.
I have a higher budget of about £1400-£1600.
I built my last PC in 2008 and up to now the only game I played on it has been LOTRO occasionally (not really something that requires lots of FPS).
Recently I received a key for the Battlefield 3 alpha test. And I was stunned by the quality of the graphics. So I would like to be able to play this at full res on the full release.
I was going to order a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5because of heat and noise. I now avoid Nvidia because of historical issues with drivers and XP bluescreens with multiple displays.
As far as I can tell this will give me approx 30fps for most games at high settings (please correct me if I am wrong). How much of a difference will 60fps (ie a second card) make?
Is it a visible difference?
There has also been talk in this thread about getting the right m/b for card spacing. If I did go for two sapphires what m/b would be ideal for this and would 850w p/s be enough?
I'll spec out the whole system, to hopefully give the answers to questions. My aim is cool and quiet if that also helps.
I'm going for Intel i7-2600k with something like Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz C8 Memory Kit. Case is undecided, my current case is a Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case, but its a beast and I would ideally like something smaller.
Going to raid 1, a couple of 2tb h/ds and am thinking of putting a couple of 128gb ssd's (under raid1 ) for operating system and photoediting area. I will stick with the on board sound as I only have a couple of desktop speakers.
Sorry, this post is a bit of a mess. And apoligises to the O/P I'm not trying to highjack your thread, but this seemed to simular ot my query to warrent starting a new one!
M.
I have a higher budget of about £1400-£1600.
I built my last PC in 2008 and up to now the only game I played on it has been LOTRO occasionally (not really something that requires lots of FPS).
Recently I received a key for the Battlefield 3 alpha test. And I was stunned by the quality of the graphics. So I would like to be able to play this at full res on the full release.
I was going to order a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5because of heat and noise. I now avoid Nvidia because of historical issues with drivers and XP bluescreens with multiple displays.
As far as I can tell this will give me approx 30fps for most games at high settings (please correct me if I am wrong). How much of a difference will 60fps (ie a second card) make?
Is it a visible difference?
There has also been talk in this thread about getting the right m/b for card spacing. If I did go for two sapphires what m/b would be ideal for this and would 850w p/s be enough?
I'll spec out the whole system, to hopefully give the answers to questions. My aim is cool and quiet if that also helps.
I'm going for Intel i7-2600k with something like Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz C8 Memory Kit. Case is undecided, my current case is a Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case, but its a beast and I would ideally like something smaller.
Going to raid 1, a couple of 2tb h/ds and am thinking of putting a couple of 128gb ssd's (under raid1 ) for operating system and photoediting area. I will stick with the on board sound as I only have a couple of desktop speakers.
Sorry, this post is a bit of a mess. And apoligises to the O/P I'm not trying to highjack your thread, but this seemed to simular ot my query to warrent starting a new one!
M.
^^
850W is more than enough for 2x 6950 CF.
In terms of gaming performance and most daily application performance, i7 2600K is of poor value compared against i5 2500K. Even if you need HT desperately for certain applications it won't provide you more than 15% performance increase in most cases.
For most people, the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps is very obvious, especially for first-person-shooting games. You might tweak your settings to get 30 fps and 60 fps respectively then try to feel and compare.
With that budget, personally I'd go for 6990 + 6970 TRI-CF, which is faster than GTX580 3GB 2-way SLI. If you stretch your budget you could go for GTX580 3GB TRI-SLI.
850W is more than enough for 2x 6950 CF.
In terms of gaming performance and most daily application performance, i7 2600K is of poor value compared against i5 2500K. Even if you need HT desperately for certain applications it won't provide you more than 15% performance increase in most cases.
For most people, the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps is very obvious, especially for first-person-shooting games. You might tweak your settings to get 30 fps and 60 fps respectively then try to feel and compare.
With that budget, personally I'd go for 6990 + 6970 TRI-CF, which is faster than GTX580 3GB 2-way SLI. If you stretch your budget you could go for GTX580 3GB TRI-SLI.
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Wow, that would be something!
OKay, I'm learning here, I had seen the term TRI-Cf before and assumed that meant three cards. I had not realised the 6990 was duel GPU (please educate me if I have this wrong). But we are talking £570 for the 6990 + £320 for 6970, so i think thats out of the question as I would have to drop the SSD's to pay for it.
BUT is the 6990 like two 6970's pre-crossfired on one card? Just found this review http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/03/08/amd-radeon-hd-6990-review/10
Would two 6950's (which I understand can be reflashed to 6970's) give some thing in the same league (only looking to hit the 60fps) as one 6990 and saving £170 quid? Then there is the VTX3D ATI Radeon HD 6870 X2 Edition 2048MB.
Arrggghh to many choices...