RFC on i7 build

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 17:41

Please comment on my spec:

Krypton Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle Krypton with Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle £384.23
with: Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3)
with: Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £211.49

Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXUK) £109.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD5002AAEX) Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD5002AAEX) 2 x £47.99

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £29.99

Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99

Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin 2 x £14.99

Sub Total : £906.91
Shipping : £12.50
VAT : £160.90
Total : £1,080.31

Thanks

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 19:02

afaik GTX460 1024 is based on newest G104 chip // GTX470 would be a downgrade

changes:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.59

Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX850 High Performance 850W Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) £146.99

comes to same:

Sub Total: £910.40
Shipping : £13.75
VAT : £161.73
Total : £1,085.88

the PSU is ott but its cheaper than buying another one later

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 19:20

it came out 4 months later based on a much improved chip

uses less power, generates a less heat and out performs 470 in every way except no of cores

nvidia use product names and driver tweaking to get the benchmarks they want at the time, once they have shifted the G100 based stock the G104 drivers will be "improved"

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 19:54

the internet is full of people discussing performance changes when new drivers come out
people are rolling their drivers back and forward etc. all the time to find the best ones

you think nvidia are incapable of developing good drivers?

it is "sell what you have" no point in letting 460 shine in july when you have only have 1 G104 fab and 10 G100 fabs up and running ...

as the fabs come on line the drivers will improve and the benchmarks will increase

otherwise you believe nv designed a new core that was less performant than previous?

nv tactically name their products to take advantage of peoples' assumptions

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 20:28

if the GTX460 1gb was better/faster than a GTX470 it would have been called the GTX475 or something with a higher model name to denote this to the public

then they would all buy it and nv would run out of stock of G104s and have too many G100s left needing a discount

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 20:57

GTX460 good news
- it is the next generation gpu
- it uses a lot less power
- it generates a lot less heat
- the individual shaders are more powerful
- it is easier to overclock (it runs so much cooler)
- it is cheaper

GTX470 good news
- it has more cores
- it slightly outperforms a stock 460

think of the GTX460 as a GTX470 with a free water cooler
saving you £90

over time the G104 drivers will improve and it will close the performance gap

I could be wrong but I say smart money is on the new chip

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 21:14

I have explained that it may outperform the GTX460 but that that advantage will reduce over time and the money and heat savings more than make up for it

Plus FPS figures are not really meaningful - they are used because they favour expensive cards

For me the only meaningful performance measure is frametime:

if it is > 1/30 second then gpu is no good for that game
if it is < 1/30 second then gpu can run 30 fps vsync
if it is < 1/60 second then gpu can run 60 fps vsync (which is max for my monitors anyway)

otherwise it is irrelevant - there is no point in updating the monitor faster than 60 hz as you will never see the updates anyway

so in reality in all those tests the 460 and 470 were in the same frametime group

ie: they could run most games at 60 fps and some at 30 fps (vsync)

in reality the only difference is the 470 costs more and stresses out your PC more

FireShadow · 6 Sep 2010 at 21:18

market research = understanding your customers

first understand how they think, then take advantage of that knowledge

are you sure your perspective on gpu performance is the right one?

FireShadow · 7 Sep 2010 at 19:57

Thanks for your efforts to educate me :-)

You could say the GTX470 is only 12% more expensive for 20-30% more oomph
but uses 35% more power

So it is a good deal