64KB is all anyone will ever need

10/24/2011 2:16:40 PM

Quote :

"It doesn't. ~40fps on Ultra settings, ~50fps on High settings, maybe 10fps higher when I OC. So I'm still not maxxing out the resolution."

... I get 60fps on high at 1920x1200 on one 570... besides, that was beta, we wont' know how well the final bf3 build plays out.

10/24/2011 3:08:48 PM

average or peak? certainly not average outside.

it's still besides the point, i'm not utilizing my maximum resolution on ultra so i'm still utilizing 100% of my GPU, get over it, i realize there are larger resolutions out there. personally i value eye-candy and playable framerates over resolution.

[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 5:21 PM. Reason : .]

10/24/2011 5:17:05 PM

quote from me when testing the beta. Was on Metro at 1920x1200 on high settings.

Quote :

" I just used fraps to see what my 5870 was getting before I switch to the 570 and it says I'm getting 67fps average with a max of 95 outside and 82fps average with a max of 103 indoors."

Quote :

"GTX 570 is getting 65fps with a max of 83 outdoors and 78fps avg with 109 max indoors."

10/24/2011 5:48:49 PM

no ultra?

10/24/2011 6:14:03 PM

ultra setting was worthless on beta since there was no ultra textures, it used the same as high... this was discussed on the bf3 forum weeks ago.

10/24/2011 6:21:30 PM

sorry let me clarify, with 4x MSAA, post effects and 16:1 AF?

i was never able to get over 50fps outdoor and 60fps indoor with a single 570 at 1680x1050 with above settings.

10/24/2011 6:29:03 PM

I don't remember, but I usually put AA and AF on max. but when they release it at 3:00. I'll play it and test it out, but not for long.

10/24/2011 6:41:53 PM

Eh Ill just throw this in here.

Where are you guys going for cheap media? Specifically BD-R discs. DVD just aint cutting it anymore for HD video and if I can find reliable media on the cheap I may have to throw a BR burner in this system.

10/25/2011 6:51:06 PM

umm... dual layer DVD should be more than enough space for HD video...

10/25/2011 9:15:47 PM

Not for my purposes. I believe I am up to 11 TB of HD space now and that is filling up quick so backing stuff up at 9 gigs a pop isnt exactly what I had in mind. I have a 1.5 TB external drive for some things but I'd rather have some optional optical capabilities as well

10/26/2011 11:01:49 AM

You realize that a BD is only ~50GB, right? That's still a lot of disks to meet 11TB worth of data.

10/26/2011 11:24:20 AM

Amazon:

"TDK Blu-ray Disc 20 Spindle - 50GB 4X BD-R DL - 2010 Printable Version" Japan
Personal Computers; $109.70

10/26/2011 11:25:38 AM

Yeah I gave up on physical media and just use HDDs. If you have a decent raid 5 setup you'll be fine.

10/26/2011 11:25:43 AM

So that's a theoretical 1TB for ~$110 ... or $1,000 for 10TB of data.

Buy an external 5 bay disk RAID array and fill it with 2 TB disks for a total capacity of 8TB on RAID 5.

$150 - Rosewill RSV-S5 HDD 5-Bay RAID 0/1/5/10/5+spare/Spanning/JBOD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132015

$750 ($150*5) HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 2TB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145473

$900 for 8TB with the added reliability and data protection of 5 disk RAID 5.

This is a much better option.




[Edited on October 26, 2011 at 11:38 AM. Reason : .]

10/26/2011 11:35:34 AM

Someone please explain why you'd pay (2.5X) the cost for the same amount of data? (other than 1/2 number of discs)

Single layer BD-R is MUCH more affordable at around $1/disc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817607025

So for 1TB you'd pay only ~$40.

[Edited on October 26, 2011 at 11:49 AM. Reason : /]

10/26/2011 11:49:16 AM

Yeah this isnt necessarily important data I am trying to backup, more like being able to pull off 25 gigs of data that is not as important to simply free up space. Granted if I lost all the data I would probably cry but it is not business type data where I need to go to a raid setup. Although if I can set that up to simply allow me to pop in 5 more drives that may be another option.

10/26/2011 11:57:26 AM

I don't use BD-R for data backup, I use them to backup my Blueray movies in case they get scratched.

10/26/2011 1:21:46 PM

Incredible deal on a 850W PSU:

OCZ ZX Series 850W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Gold High Performance Power Supply - $
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044

They have a 10% off code (10% off with promo code OCZModular, ends 11/6)

$117 shipped - $30MIR = $87

5-year warranty and 70A on 12V rail... perfect for any SLI (or Xfire) system.

[Edited on October 26, 2011 at 5:37 PM. Reason : .]

10/26/2011 5:34:59 PM

Quote :

"Single layer BD-R is MUCH more affordable at around $1/disc"

Because with HDDs I have redundancy and I don't have to physically take a disk out and put it in a slot. That feels so stone age.

10/26/2011 6:33:56 PM

Good lord, do you take everything out of context?

I was clearly talking about the difference between dual-layer vs. single-layer BD-R prices, not trying to compare it to HDDs.

10/26/2011 6:41:52 PM

Damn... Mine is the Z series that I got for $80... i would have paid the extra 7 bucks for the full modular, but its the same PSU. I like it. good buy, def.

10/26/2011 6:42:12 PM

WOOPS!!! My bad.

10/26/2011 6:57:41 PM

Arctic Silver 5 for $7 shipped
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

Pretty good deal, regularly $10-$12

[Edited on October 31, 2011 at 11:57 AM. Reason : /]

10/31/2011 11:57:19 AM

its meh at best. They usually $5-7 shipped on ebay all the time.

10/31/2011 11:45:41 PM

DAMN UPS needs to get here already and delivery my MSI 580.

11/3/2011 6:37:28 PM

Holy crap this thing is huge:

11/3/2011 7:09:55 PM

damn neo thats baller

11/4/2011 7:26:09 AM

Left to right: 7950gx2 (2006), 8800gtx (2007), 2x 460's (2010), new MSI 580 3GB

11/4/2011 8:24:26 AM

Quote :

"damn neo thats baller"

next a picture with the 2nd MSI 580 right?

[Edited on November 4, 2011 at 10:31 AM. Reason : .]

11/4/2011 10:30:51 AM

how much did you pay for that 580? They're looking to be around 500 right now...

11/4/2011 10:31:59 AM

^I think he got the 3GB version, so ~$600

11/4/2011 10:32:35 AM

god damn...i could build a whole new computer for 600

11/4/2011 10:37:50 AM

I already sold my second 460. Yeah the 580 is $594 on newegg. Debating getting a second.

-AHHH!!! Newegg says out of stock. I always get worried that if I wait to do SLI they'll be gone before I can snag one. It's a popular card though so I'm sure it will be around for a while.

[Edited on November 4, 2011 at 10:45 AM. Reason : s]

11/4/2011 10:42:32 AM

I want one of those badly but not sure I can justify that much on a vid card plus the size worries me even with a full tower with that length it may be pushing up against my hard drive bays

11/4/2011 11:10:05 AM

I like how the card has only dropped 6 dollars since I bought it, lol. High demand is high.

11/4/2011 11:11:45 AM

Yeah it comes within an inch of my HDD bays. I had to move some cords around to fit it.

11/4/2011 11:16:38 AM

So do you have enough room for SLI, plus room for airflow too? Those bad boys in SLI will need space.

11/4/2011 11:25:12 AM

Yeah I have enough room for SLI. Although the fans on the top card will be blowing right down on the bottom card.

The other thing that sucks about SLI is you can only run 2 monitors despite having 4 DVI ports. I have 3 monitors and require a 3rd video card to push the last monitor. So I have a low profile Nvidia 430 in the 3rd slot.

11/4/2011 11:27:41 AM

I thought the only way to get Nvidia 3d surround (3 monitors) was to SLI two cards? Did I miss something? I have 3 monitors running at work with nvidia cards but they are not SLIed together.

11/4/2011 4:40:37 PM

Yeah it's confusing. To get surround you need SLI with 3 monitors but it spreads the resolution across all three monitors so it's wonky in windows. So you typically switch back and forth between surround and SLI focused on one monitor. Without surround in SLI you can only have 2 monitors.

11/4/2011 5:01:28 PM

So out of all the games I've tried so far Crysis 2 wins for most VRAM usage maxed out at 1080p.

Crysis 1: ~1400-1600MB
Crysis 2: ~1900-2100MB
Metro 2033: ~1300-1500MB
Battlefield 3: ~1400-1600MB

Although these were just a couple levels on each. I'm pretty sure Metro 2033 would go higher if I had been on a larger map. That was in the tunnels.

[Edited on November 6, 2011 at 5:29 PM. Reason : s]

11/6/2011 5:18:31 PM

Not really all that surprising aside from Crysis 2 going over 2GB, 1.5GB max at 1080p is pretty standard.... I'm sure though most of the games coming out in the near future will continue to push the limit.

11/6/2011 6:05:33 PM

Yeah that was surprising. Glad I have 3GB now. I might re-do these at 1920 by 1200 and see if I can get it higher.

11/6/2011 6:08:24 PM

shit, my 5870 was longer than your 580. although only by .11" or something. 12" is still pretty fucking long in some cases. Kinda glad the 570's are a good inch or two shorter.

11/7/2011 11:49:07 AM

is there anything that I should avoid buying OEM these days when building a new rig?

For reference, I'm getting everything (case, components, os, desk, kitchen sink).

11/9/2011 5:33:15 PM

got my 6950 2gb reference card today. took some "modification" to make it fit in my case. runs bf3 at ultra everything 30-60fps @1920x1200. Would like a tool to investigate vram, on my g15 would be sweet but my card is "diamond." Will get around to unlocking the extra shaders and turning my card into a 6970

11/9/2011 5:36:46 PM

GPU-Z will log VRAM
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2039/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.5.5.html

^I'd also love to see the 3DMark score on that when you're done unlocking and overclocking.... I almost went that route. I have yet to see how comparable the unlocked & overclocked 6950 is to the overclocked 570 since they are the same price and both have good overclocking potential.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 5:46 PM. Reason : .]

11/9/2011 5:41:29 PM

you have to use the 6970 firmware to flash your card, but just don't flash it and be done, when it does, it'll clock your card to the 70's speed which is like 100mhz more than the 50's. Some reference boards may not handle it and can fuck up your card.

Google how to's, plenty of them on there with the right way to flash the 6950's properly. MSI afterburner should work on your card, but not sure. I know one or two ppl here has done it; they'll chime in here soon enough.

@Sayer: as far are barebone OEM products, its not much different than retail; its most about the packaging and warranty. Most of the time OEM parts should still come with a similar warranty period but tends to lack most of the little extra pieces like cables or adapters. Since most retail mobo's come with a ton of accessories, just get an OEM hard drive, optical drive and OS. Most others tend to be very similar to the retail cost. Stick with retail cpu's since most oem chips only come with a 90 day warranty and lack a heatsink (not a good choice considering you only save like 15 bucks or so).

11/9/2011 5:45:23 PM

^there's about 2-3 how-to's posted already ITT, i'm sure he's aware of it... good to know there are still cards out there that aren't laser cut.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 5:49 PM. Reason : .]

11/9/2011 5:47:12 PM