Building a system, still unsure of Video Card

[Tyval]

I'm currently building up my system and I have pretty much figured out what I want for the various components with the exception of the video card. (CPU intel 6core, SSD drives, 12 Gig memory etc..)

I've read and search through here but I still had a couple of parts I was confused on.

I use InnerSpace and ISBoxer for my MBing software.

My goal is to have my main box on one monitor and my 4 slaves on another.

If I understand things correctly, SLI or crossfire don't matter in terms of WoW performance.
I did read though that it is possible to run a monitor on each card if I have two video cards. I now can't remember if it is possible or recommended to due that on one card.

The cards I've pondered are
5970: Though this is really two cards, so wondering if this would work for a 2 monitor solution.

I've read that the 480GTX runs pretty hot, so unsure if I want two of those in my ssytem.

580GTX Not sure how available these are yet, and if there would be the normal issues with new cards and iffy drivers.

So my questions:

1 or two video cards and which ones would folks get if they were getting cards today.
(money isn't really an issue)


Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

T

[Lax]

I suggest sticking with 1 card, and someone in the ISBoxer Chat Room said a day or two ago that they got the new 580GTX and have not had any problems with it. That person is currently playing WoW in Direct3D11 mode (with the dev build of IS).

About using multiple video cards, read this for some basic info: http://isboxer.com/index.php/guides/21-using-multiple-video-cards. I recommend sticking with 1 card because, as the link outlines, you may be opening yourself up for performance hits if you're intending to swap windows between the monitors. Using 1 video card will not incur this penalty and should perform just fine (especially if it's a high-end video card). The 5970 counts as 2 cards for the purposes of this paragraph.

[Void]

im using the 470 gtx with no problems people say it runs hot but totaly not true mines sitting at 55 right now with fan speed at 50 i cant even hear it. thats with 5 wows open and streaming!

[Sam DeathWalker]

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=msi+cyclone+gtx+460+1GB&_sacat=0&_dmpt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&_odkw=msi+cyclone+gtx+460&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Don't outbid me on the low price one though lol .....

[d0z3rr]

I would've gotten a 5970, but none were in stock at my store. So I picked up a 5870 instead, it is fabulous, huge upgrade to my 260gtx.

[Tyval]

So getting ready to order my machine, but figured I would post the specs to get elicit feedback, just in case before I purchase.

I went a little crazy, but I have a xmas bonus this year to cover the cost hehe.

The important bits:

Motherboard. Asus Rampage III Extreme
CPU i7-980X EE
12 gig ram 3x4gig cosair cominator
Crucial RealSSD C300 (x2)
Corsair Hydro H70 CPU cooler
EVGA superclocked GTX 580
Silverstone ST1000 1000W Power suply

Merry xmas to me!

Thoughts?

[Sam DeathWalker]

I assume you will raid the SSD's? I like the revo's better but if you raid them I can't see much edge in the revo's.

Ya well thats about as good a system off the shelf that you can get. Lot of overkill but Merry Xmas!

"superclocked" is like going from 772 to 794 or some such small percentage, unless its like only $20 or so more dosn't seem worth it.

Might consider the water cooled gtx 580 if you are water cooling the cpu.


I won the 460 auction, should be good for my main (one client) at full effects in cata!

[Tyval]

Ya, I think the video card was only about 20 more, maybe less than that, was picked more because of availability not because it was overclocked a bit.

I still haven't pulled the trigger yet on buying as I'm still pondering, lot of money to spend.

The main thing I want to be able to do, is 5 box on two monitors and up the graphics settings on the main toon and have no lag issues etc.. Plus be ready for a few of the new MMOs coming down the pipe.

I may have an option to cut 400 off the cpu price via intel friend.

Decisions decisions.

[Tyval]

Got all the parts for my new system this week, and built it up yesterday.
Final system info.
i-7 980X (Intel friend was able to get me one at around 1/2 price or wouldn't have got this card.)
12 gig 1600 memory
GTX580 video card.
2x SSD drives

Everything went pretty smooth with the setup, with the exception of not paying attention to my m-board form factor, (it was E-ATX, my first computer case was not ....)

Gave it a quick try last night and was a happy camper. Was only on one monitor but could turn all chars on all ultra settings with the exception of shadows, I can have the master on ultra, but others must leave on high. With that was able to bebop around dalaran with my team with no issues.


Just in time for Cataclsym!

Now I'm getting things setup to use both monitors (23in 1920x1080).

I will probably start working on overclocking after making sure things are stable for a week or so, but am in no rush since I don't really need more power for WoW right now, and don't expect to be playing anything else at lesat for a few weeks after the expansion.

[Umbaalo]

Nice rig, pretty similar to what I'm going to have finished in another month or two. Really happy to hear that the gtx 580 delivers such nice performance while running around Dal with the settings that high.
Just one question though, if you are happy with the performance, why bother overclocking? Maybe a small boost would be nice, but with how pricey those parts are, I'm just too faint of heart to push that system too far. Good luck regardless and keep us updated with progress and issues and such!

[sonic777]

I'm running with dual 460's and very happy but I have read that the 470's will out perform for a decent enough cost offset.

Looks like a nice rig!

[Slats]

I'm getting almost the same machine except I went with some very low latency G.Skill RAM and I'm using an OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB which runs in a PCIe slot.

I got the same card but didn't bother with the over clocked version. I had a huge amount of trouble with 2 or 3 XFX cards that where slightly overclocked and as soon as I undertuned them down to factory defaults all my problems went away so now I just steer clear as a rule of thumb.

I also replaced the stock cooler with a different one as apparently the stock one on the EE is noisy and huge and not that great.

Real really happy to hear that you can run shit on Ultra and High. That is exactly what I want to do. I also bought 2x 1TB Cavier WD Black drives that are SATAIII to raid together to do alot of FRAPs on.

Are you happy with the sound card on the Rampage II Extreme or would you get a proper Creative Card?

I was considering a second GTX580 but good to know there is no point - I tend to shy away from SLi

[Bloodcloud]

Thinking about a similar system:

GPU : ASUS EAH5870/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Processor
CPU: Intel Core i7 950 / 3.06 GHz LGA1366 Socket - L3 8 MB
MOBO: ASUS Rampage III Extreme Republic of Gamers
MEM: Kingston HyperX T1 *3 =12GB
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2 TB *2
Power Supply: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W
Chassis : Coolermaster - COSMOS S
Drives: LG GH22LS50 Super Multi
SSD: (existing)

Will make it a sport to watercool everything possible:
CPU: EK-Supreme HF - Nickel
MB: EK-FB RE3 - Acetal+Nickel
GPU: EK-FC5870 ASUS V2 -Acetal + Nickel
Radiator: ThermoChill PA120.3
Fan: Yate Loon D12SL-12 LOW (http://www.petrastechshop.com/12yalod1cafa.html)
Pump: Laing DDC 3.2(MCP 355) (http://www.petrastechshop.com/ladd1mcin12p.html)
Reservior XSPC Reservoir Top for Laing DDC


will be a very nice xmas if I actually have this rig running :)

How is the sound on the ASUS Extreme III ? anyone an idea ? or do I need a Creative Card as well ?

[MiRai]

Are you happy with the sound card on the Rampage II Extreme or would you get a proper Creative Card?


How is the sound on the ASUS Extreme III ? anyone an idea ? or do I need a Creative Card as well ?
Soundcards help offload CPU usage and can help improve framerates. They, of course, also give much better sound
[depending on your setup]. I would stay away from Creative cards as their drivers are apparently pure garbage [I have
nothing solid to back this up just go Google it]. I would suggest going with either an Asus Xonar [people still mention
these can be flakey], an HT Omega, or a very very sexy Auzentech card.

[Tyval]

I'm currently using the built in sound on my Asus Extreme III, it is fine, though I did buy a Asus Xonar sound card as well, just didn't put it in yet as wanted to test things out with the built in.

Not all on board sound cards tax the CPU the same, I'm sure the lower end boards are taking what they can from the CPU, some of the higher ones I looked at pretty much just include the sound card on the board. With the shrinking of everything and the fact that sound needs just haven't scaled like video sound has kind of just become this low cost thing we expect to have.

That all said though I did buy a sound card as I figured they are so cheap (even cheaper with a combo deal I got when buying parts). why not offload a bit.

There have been some reviews of on board sound, and some of the MBs have done quite well in that regard.

I'm skeptical whether I could tell the difference in quality of sound from what I am using now(built in on my Asus extreme III and the card I'm going to pop in this week (Asus Xonar). I'll let ya know.

[d0z3rr]

Soundcards help offload CPU usage and can help improve framerates. They, of course, also give much better sound
[depending on your setup]. I would stay away from Creative cards as their drivers are apparently pure garbage [I have
nothing solid to back this up just go Google it]. I would suggest going with either an Asus Xonar [people still mention
these can be flakey], an HT Omega, or a very very sexy Auzentech card.

+4000 Creative definitely has bloaty drivers and software.

But, they did come out with a new X-Fi, its about $150 and has gotten very good reviews. But it still hast he bloaty software :( However, if you're running an i7 you really won't notice the bloat.

[MiRai]

I'm currently using the built in sound on my Asus Extreme III, it is fine, though I did buy a Asus Xonar sound card as well, just didn't put it in yet as wanted to test things out with the built in.

Not all on board sound cards tax the CPU the same, I'm sure the lower end boards are taking what they can from the CPU, some of the higher ones I looked at pretty much just include the sound card on the board. With the shrinking of everything and the fact that sound needs just haven't scaled like video sound has kind of just become this low cost thing we expect to have.

That all said though I did buy a sound card as I figured they are so cheap (even cheaper with a combo deal I got when buying parts). why not offload a bit.

There have been some reviews of on board sound, and some of the MBs have done quite well in that regard.

I'm skeptical whether I could tell the difference in quality of sound from what I am using now(built in on my Asus extreme III and the card I'm going to pop in this week (Asus Xonar). I'll let ya know.
This thread is not about sound cards so I hate to get off subject, but here is a little review of the Auzentech:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/auzentech-xfi-forte-71-soundcard-review-test/11

You can see on that page that if you really want some awesome sound on games that support it, even the Xonar ends up
taxing the CPU up to almost 17% when the Auzentech Forte is at 6%. We're talking full load EAX + 3D with 127 buffers
[channels?]. When I go into WoW's sound options using my onboard sound on my current setup, I can only select 64
channels. I'm not sure if that is a limitation with my onboard sound or if that's all WoW supports. I'm doing a little future-
proofing with my new system, so I picked up the Auzentech. If anyone's focus is just for playing WoW, you can probably
just get away with cheapo onboard sound and still be just fine.

[Tyval]

Fenril,

Well this was thread about building a machine and sound/sound card is part of that so I seems on topic to me.

Very interesting info, I agree that WoW probably isn't that big from a sound standpoint (plus have sound off on all my slaves). One thing I'm curious about, I remember Nvidia offloading some work to CPUs when they detected the resources were available (this was a couple years ago, back when mutli-cores were coming out but little took advantage of them), I wonder if something similar is going on, or if it is more a mandatory hit....

I guess for my machine i have an extra core floating about so probably not a big deal either way hehe.

Right now my CPUs seem under utilized so thinking I may be bottle-necking at the video card. Which I guess makes sense as 5x 1920x1080 is a lot of screen.

[Bloodcloud]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/auzentech-xfi-forte-71-soundcard-review-test/16

the Auzentech XFI Forte 7.1 seems to be a good one.

Have you checked the recent Logitech Keyboards and mouse:
- Logitech Gaming Mouse G700
- Logitech G510 Keyboard
- LogitechG13 Advanced Gameboard

I ordered the G510 and the G700 and will arrive shortly.
Currently i use:
-G13
- "old" G15 Keyboard ( the new G15 sucks because of less macro keys, or no display)
- 2* Mouse MX Revolution (with software adjustment to add keys to all buttons) (and two because I always forget to charge them.)

My keyboard is still fine, except for an "etched" handprint which shows my hand laying on the aswd keys :)
Using is since 5 years+ already and am very happy with it. The G510 might be a well earned renewal :)
http://www.rsistuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/logitech-g15-keyboard1-300x243.jpg http://www.logitech.com/assets/31330/4/gaming-keyboard-g510.png

(to make the topic even more diverse :)

[Trushot]

I'm currently building up my system and I have pretty much figured out what I want for the various components with the exception of the video card. (CPU intel 6core, SSD drives, 12 Gig memory etc..)

I've read and search through here but I still had a couple of parts I was confused on.

I use InnerSpace and ISBoxer for my MBing software.

My goal is to have my main box on one monitor and my 4 slaves on another.

If I understand things correctly, SLI or crossfire don't matter in terms of WoW performance.
I did read though that it is possible to run a monitor on each card if I have two video cards. I now can't remember if it is possible or recommended to due that on one card.

The cards I've pondered are
5970: Though this is really two cards, so wondering if this would work for a 2 monitor solution.

I've read that the 480GTX runs pretty hot, so unsure if I want two of those in my ssytem.

580GTX Not sure how available these are yet, and if there would be the normal issues with new cards and iffy drivers.

So my questions:

1 or two video cards and which ones would folks get if they were getting cards today.
(money isn't really an issue)


Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

T

Well i know you already bought your card but LAX ( dev for ISBOXER ) is against a 5970 or any card with dual GPUS becuase they are SLI / crossfired ... i asked him this exact question in ISBOXER forums and he gave a long explanation of it here at this thread

http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=867

So i am going with a 5870 unless i can get my hands on a 6970 before end of year :)

was actually going to crossfire two 5970's but i guess now there is no point

[Tyval]

I've been quite happy with the 580GTX so far.

[Slats]

Well I'm disappointed with my video in WoW using the GTX580. It really bars at PIP swap alot, and quote often I get corrupted textures or wierd inverted colors, or sometime I PIP swap and I have a tiny little window before it flicks to fullscreen (as in filling it in windowed mode).

On my Radeon I had zero issues it was steady as a rock if only struggling due to being a Quadcore Q9550.

My system is very similar to you guys:

Asus Rampage Extreme III
Intel i7 980 X
EVGA GTX 580
12GB G.Skill DDR3 1600
OCZ Revodrive X2 240GB
ASUS Xonar STX Sound Card with onboard sound disabled on m/b.

I've gone into NVIDIA Control Panel and I've set the 3D Mode to Performance vs Quality. I had the same tearing and PIP Swapping issues as prior to changing this.

Before settings in Org I PIP swapped and my machine simple just crashed with all the WOW giving a Fatal Exception and crashing back to desktop.

NVIDIA Driver Version 263.09

Running in dx11 mode.

[Trushot]

IMHO i think as of yesterday the best single GPU card for gaming is the new 6970 that was released ... i ordered one :)

in a few weeks when the drivers get sorted out it will outshine Nvidia

there were some reports of testing going around the net that put them on apr ... but dig under the blankets a little bit and youll find
under stress the 6970 was better and that is with the rushed drivers that were barely acceptable ... within a few weeks and new drivers the 6970 will stand obviously alone atop the single GPU gamer market


* The above is my own opinion based on about 10 hours of research and reading take it with a grain of salt

[Tyval]

Slats,

I'm using Innerspace/Isboxer but not the DX11 beta version (which I think is available) so I guess I'm running in DX9c.

I had some weird issues in one window awhile ago but that went away when I stopped running all the characters at max.

I've got the 5 chars in 1920x1080 using 2 monitors, main window/monitor/character is everything max except for shadows. The slaves are pruned down to medium settings with shadows/water turned off.

Have had no issues, and swapping chars is instant.

[Slats]

OK I've gone back to DirectX9. No more tearing and texture ripping/wierd bleeding issues. All characters now set to 'High' with shadows turned 'Low' as their seems to be no off, as 0 = low now. :(

I maintain a solid 63 fps pretty much everywhere. The only place I've seen even a slight dip in frames is in Grim Batol fighting the 3rd Boss and that AoE the Dragon puts on the ground.

Stayed up till 3am last night playing, until Windows update kicked in and shut down the machine in the middle of the last boss haha.

I dont' think I'd shell out fo the ATi Card this time around - I really want to but it would have to be like a 25% performance increase really.

:D