Targetting 8-10 boxing single CPU

[kaiverrettu]

Hey, im trying to reach my target of 8-10 box. Atm im running around with

i7 920
12gb ram

Now im looking forward to upgrading my crappy graphics card but im thinking, should I save some and buy a 200$ one instead of say, 150$ one(such as the 6850) to increase my boxing capacity to the max? Could crappy graphics card make the difference and allow me to box a few extra toons, or should I look forward to upgrading my CPU to 960 instead, or buying more RAM?

Mostly concerned about the bottleneck here - I don't want my GFX to become the bottleneck in my system. Thanks.

[jnorland]

I'm currently running on the 920 and I'm having the same issues however my CPU is overclocked to 4.0Ghz and I'm running the 6870. MiRai has been helping me work through the upgrades so I can effectively box 8 and reading that thread may help you with your decision. http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46600-Upgrading-PC-for-8-x-accounts. I can 8 Box at the moment and have yet to try 10 however the 8 box is a bit sketchy with this system. That's not to say your current video card isn't your limiting factor but that upgrading may not be enough to effectively run 8 in DX11 at low settings, I still need to try DX9.

Windows 7 Professional x64
i7 920 2.66 Ghz; Overclocked to 4.0 Ghz
Corsair Hydro h50
Corsair M4
AMD XFX HD6870
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt
Patriot Viper Xtreme Series DDR3 24 GB (6 x 4 GB) PC3-16000 2000MHz
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R

[kaiverrettu]

I'm currently running on the 920 and I'm having the same issues however my CPU is overclocked to 4.0Ghz and I'm running the 6870. MiRai has been helping me work through the upgrades so I can effectively box 8 and reading that thread may help you with your decision. http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46600-Upgrading-PC-for-8-x-accounts. I can 8 Box at the moment and have yet to try 10 however the 8 box is a bit sketchy with this system. That's not to say your current video card isn't your limiting factor but that upgrading may not be enough to effectively run 8 in DX11 at low settings, I still need to try DX9.

Windows 7 Professional x64
i7 920 2.66 Ghz; Overclocked to 4.0 Ghz
Corsair Hydro h50
Corsair M4
AMD XFX HD6870
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt
Patriot Viper Xtreme Series DDR3 24 GB (6 x 4 GB) PC3-16000 2000MHz
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R

From what I've read in that thread, it does indeed seem possible that the GFX unit as well as RAM is the bottleneck in my system. This is very comfortable to know. Now I just need to find the proper "sweet spot" GFX card to support just my needs and nothing more.. would perhaps a 2gb card suffice? For I'd hate to pay around 200$ more just to find out :)

[MiRai]

Now I just need to find the proper "sweet spot" GFX card to support just my needs and nothing more.. would perhaps a 2gb card suffice? For I'd hate to pay around 200$ more just to find out :)
Below is a screenshot I took months back when I was comparing some in-game settings. In this
screenshot I was using DX11 with custom video settings from my Advanced Video Settings (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/44575-Advanced-Video-Settings) thread
but, to give you an idea, I play with my main on almost Ultra settings and the slaves are
somewhere Low/Medium (no anti-aliasing). This was taken in Stormwind at a non-peak time with
60FPS on the main and 30FPS on the slaves. If I drop the FPS on the slaves to 15FPS that cuts
my GPU Load in the picture to below 30%. As you can see the amount of video RAM I'm using in
the screenshot is 1.2GB. Right-click on the image and open it in a new tab/window to view it.

http://i.imgur.com/VVama.png

[kaiverrettu]

Below is a screenshot I took months back when I was comparing some in-game settings. In this
screenshot I was using DX11 with custom video settings from my Advanced Video Settings (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/44575-Advanced-Video-Settings) thread
but, to give you an idea, I play with my main on almost Ultra settings and the slaves are
somewhere Low/Medium (no anti-aliasing). This was taken in Stormwind at a non-peak time with
60FPS on the main and 30FPS on the slaves. If I drop the FPS on the slaves to 15FPS that cuts
my GPU Load in the picture to below 30%. As you can see the amount of video RAM I'm using in
the screenshot is 1.2GB. Right-click on the image and open it in a new tab/window to view it.



Hmm yes that seems pretty interesting. Thanks. Now, to go and find a silent GPU in the 2gb range.. then I can start boxing!

[MiRai]

Hmm yes that seems pretty interesting. Thanks. Now, to go and find a silent GPU in the 2gb range.. then I can start boxing!
Remember, you can find a low-end video card that comes with 2GB of VRAM and it's not going
to be good for multiboxing. Don't just randomly buy a video card because it's cheap and has 2GB
of VRAM. It's best to Google some benchmarks on a few different cards that you're looking at.

As an example, here's a $60 video card with 2GB of video RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127609). You wouldn't be able to multibox
with this.

[kaiverrettu]

I was gonna buy this one http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/GAIN-1848 but what really bugs me of this card is that the clock frequency is so low, twice lower than this: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/NE5X56001142F despite being so much more expensive. Am I doing something horribly wrong if I buy it?

[MiRai]

I was gonna buy this one http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/GAIN-1848 but what really bugs me of this card is that the clock frequency is so low, twice lower than this: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/NE5X56001142F despite being so much more expensive. Am I doing something horribly wrong if I buy it?
It's DDR marketing crap. The clock is 2004MHz (http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=1678). Always double check manufacturer websites if
numbers look weird. Also, those are two different cards. The more expensive one is a "Ti" model
and has a fancier cooler (http://www.gainward.com/phantom/index.php) which does seem to keep the card a little cooler (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/11/08/gainward-geforce-gtx-560-ti-2048mb-phantom/7). Either way they're
practically the same card.

[kaiverrettu]

It's DDR marketing crap. The clock is 2004MHz (http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=1678). Always double check manufacturer websites if
numbers look weird. Also, those are two different cards. The more expensive one is a "Ti" model
and has a fancier cooler (http://www.gainward.com/phantom/index.php) which does seem to keep the card a little cooler (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/11/08/gainward-geforce-gtx-560-ti-2048mb-phantom/7). Either way they're
practically the same card.

Fair enuff. Ima buy the second one then.. Thx!

[kaiverrettu]

Just realized I had been running my CPU on high temps due to improper glue(ing?). Hopefully it was not damaged too much by this incident.. :B

[MiRai]

Just realized I had been running my CPU on high temps due to improper glue(ing?). Hopefully it was not damaged too much by this incident.. :B
Definie 'high temps'.

[jstanthr]

I had a customer come to me wiht "high temps" on a rig he had built himself (also a 920) and he didn't use any thermal compound at all! I threw on some AS5 and his temps nearly when down by half. It's amazing what a lil artic silver 5 can do.


one question. why are you wanting a "silent" GFX card?

[kaiverrettu]

Definie 'high temps'.

100c-105c under load.. over a period of like.. 1.5 weeks D:


one question. why are you wanting a "silent" GFX card?

Not for any specific purpose ;P I just like silent stuff.


I had a customer come to me wiht "high temps" on a rig he had built himself (also a 920) and he didn't use any thermal compound at all! I threw on some AS5 and his temps nearly when down by half. It's amazing what a lil artic silver 5 can do.

Yah man I figured it had to do with a problem in the glue.

EDIT: Applied glue, then sticked my fan, now it's showing steady 50c temperatures instead of 88c on idle.

If only I had known, I could've avoided running my comp on 100c for 1.5 weeks for a measly 6 bucks.. I will dread if I see this chip break in the next 2-3 months. :P

On the positive, my SSD, GFX card and Noctua are on their way and will arrive here by Monday..... 8)

[MiRai]

I would say you were right on the border of the chip shutting itself down. If you're not getting any BSODs then you should be fine.

[kaiverrettu]

Always expert advice here, so I ought I'd ask.. while installing my new cooler I managed bent 1 pin in my Mobo. Is this dangerous, provided it's not touching any other pins despite being a little bit off?

Edit: aight figured I need a new mobo now, learn to be more careful next time.

[kaiverrettu]

There we go! Installed new mobo and 2600 succescufully, albeit broke the hard drive when trying to transfer stuff in the progress.. I still got my SSD left.

[Sajuuk]

How did you break your hard drive?