GPU Boost

[thalastwon]

I guess a better description of what I'd be using the rig for would be in order. Other than gaming, I will be doing a LOT of work modeling and animating in Maya and 3ds Max. Some Blender, Zbrush, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash. Thats just off the top of my head atm. I will be doing some video editing as I will have to edit my own animations, and I want to use this computer over the generic ones at school, which are always in use for homework. I figured this rig would cover my bases, and is able to be upgradable when necessary as I shouldn't have to upgrade the motherboard for a while. I do definitely see the worth in an SSD now though.

[Besidilo]

I just didn't think you thought it out all that well, that's it. Claiming that I'm an extremist, when I'm more of a purist, and my views are based on methodical and measurable evidence that has been gathered by folks for a couple of decades now. There are a few key rules you stick to, and the base will vary depending on the use

 

I don't need to see your credentials to tell if you know your **** or not, though. I've been around in this game for years, and whilst I am not always right and my advice may be flawed by the lack of knowledge in certain areas, you can still instantly tell if somebody knows what consists of a good gaming PC and what doesn't. I would never go to a local computer store to ask that question.

 

Your company website is nicely designed by the way.

 

With regards to HT, it's mostly not needed anyway. Many game still assign secondary threads to tasks that don't require much processing power, leaving the main load

[Besidilo]

Anything that is CUDA optimised and supports more than 8 threads would benefit from your choices. Running a few instances at the same time counts too.

 

I struggle to see how having that much RAM will help, but the added benefit for running VMs might be of great significance for SOME.

 

Other than that, I can't say your uses are exactly hardcore.

[TechAngel85]

While I do think some of Besidilo's comments were maybe a little harsh, I do agree with everything he says, even though I myself have got the exact same graphics card as thalastwon. As I stated I got my graphics card for just above the equivalent price of a 7970 and this was before the new amd drivers. Though now I'd defiantly get a 7970.

 

I don't understand your argument though techangel85 about how market growth for SSD's affects the decision making process of whether to buy something. It has nothing to do with anything really. A user doesn't have to consider getting a piece of technology once it becomes common place, though it does help in some aspects to a very minor degree. Yes there were issues with the initial ssds (itgc) and now trim has solved most of the those issues so there is really no reason to not get a ssd. Also, ssds have been around for consumer usage since 2007 and flash based ssds have been used in corporations since 1995 so I wouldn't call it a new technology.

 

About the only thing I think you should future proof is the motherboard which you also stated and I'd think most people would agree upon.

You've gone more into depth than the point I was attempting to make. I was only stating how SSDs don't hold a lot of the market because the technology is new for consumers, thus still fairly expensive when compared price-per-GB to HDDs. I was just waiting for someone to state that the tech isn't new. It's been around for a good while, yes, but in consumer PCs it has not. HDDs are still the most ecomonical choice for price vs storage size when anyone is on a budget and that is the point I was attempting to make. However, I'm not saying that SSDs aren't good. They're amazing and I want one myself, but the cost won't be coming down significantly for a while and cost is usually an issue for most. If you're just going for pure performance then by all means please do go with SSDs! You'd be ill-informed not to. But if you need space over speed, go with HDDs. However, most people are mixing the two.

 

I can spend X amount of money for a 128GB SSD or I have spend that same amount of money and get a 1TB HDD. When you're going to be doing a lot of video/photo/animation work, you're going to need the space.

[Besidilo]

I can spend X amount of money for a 128GB SSD or I have spend that same amount of money and get a 1TB HDD. When you're going to be doing a lot of video/photo/animation work, you're going to need the space. 

Nothing stops him from getting both by saving some money on other components, but I can see your point.

 

 

Oh, and btw:

 

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/133121-maximized-performance-comparing-the-effects-of-hyper-threading-software-updates

https://semiaccurate.com/2012/04/25/does-disabling-hyper-threading-increase-performance/

[Roogal]

OCZ Vertex 4 128gb - $124.99.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791

 

Western Digital WD Green 2TB - $99.00

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344

 

As I'm sure you know you install all your programs and operating system on the ssd and store all your data/documents on the 2tb hdd. 128gb is more then enough for most people even with skyrim/3dsmax/adobe photo shop/ms word etc as i have all these. I don't see your point about ssd's being expensive. $124.99 is cheap for a drive that is 5x faster than the average hdd (minimum) and you don't just see speed improvements from booting your operating system....

[PioneerRaptor]

'm going to have to agree with Besidilo on all points. While the 670 is a very nice card and does have a little more VRAM than the 7970, for the price the 7970 is much better. Now if you can get the 670 for a similar price, then by all means do so, but you usually can't and therefore the 7970 has a great price/performance ratio and it will also last for a few years.

 

As for the Sandy-bridge EX, that is way over the top. Now, you have said that you do some modeling, I would have gone with a i7-2700K as that would be way more than you will need anytime soon, for just gaming the i5-2500K. Of course, it's getting harder and harder to find those so now it would be the 3570k or the 3770K. Either way it would have saved you a lot more money.

 

8GB of ram is currently the optimum amount of ram to get (in a 2x 4GB manner). The reason is that even doing heavy modeling it would be very hard to max this out, unless you are going to be doing modeling, gaming, etc all at the same time, which obviously makes no sense.

 

Then with all of that money saved an SSD is a HUGE improvement of an HDD. Everything from the moment it starts booting is much faster. You might not see as much performance in gaming except maybe some faster load times, but the improvements are everywhere else.

[MontyMM]

@thelastone

 

I really wouldn't worry - there's nothing wrong with your rig at all.  Your CPU may be overkill for what you end up doing, but depending on the software, could also prove useful. Certainly if you end up using the sort of pro tools i mentioned, it will be a benefit. 16GB of ram is perfectly reasonable for a workstation too.  The Nvidia 670 4GB is a fine card, and although not the price/performance winner, it does have certain advantages for the Skyrim and ENB enthusiast, which I assume you are, being here! It is also my choice for that reason.

 

You can add an SSD any time you like.  That rig certainly won't let you down - it's not like you've bought a lemon!

[z929669]

I struggle to see how having that much RAM will help, but the added benefit for running VMs might be of great significance for SOME.

 

 

That much RAM is necessary for some 64-bit processes that will use up every bit of RAM available that it needs. This may not be efficient memory handling, but there are unfortunately programs out there that do this. Data-crunching apps like SPSS will use 16 GB RAM to sort 300 million records containing a hundred or so fields (and you will also not be able to use your box in the process :P )

 

... but I would never do this on my personal computer, which for me is a pure home built (about my 12th build over nearly 1.5x as many years. I am no hardware expert, but I know pretty much how to recognize the best info when I need it ... see specs below ... I want a SSD and a 7970, and I am good to go for a few more years).

 

All that said, I would never build anything but last one or two season's top build.

[stoppingby4now]

Benchmark results for high end cards.

 

7970 price.

 

GTX 670 price. (New egg had one at $359, but it is out of stock...this would have been the absolute winner for price/performance).

 

$10 more for an extra 1GB of VRAM (hardly anything to shake a stick at), and a bit more performance. Definitely nothing to claim as excessive, particularly since two of nVidia's cards are still the top performers.

[Besidilo]

Wow, I thought you were one of the few who had any idea about hardware around here, appears not.

 

Linking to a Passmark as a supposedly viable benchmark? Please...

 

There's also so much wrong with your assumption that the extra 1GB VRAM is all that matters... In which case you missed the point anyway, because TLW got a GTX670 4GB which costs substantially more money and has the extra 1GB VRAM advantage over the 7970 3GB.

 

I'll refrain from posting about hardware here from now on, because it seems like some people just post things that they're convinced about being right, without prior elementary knowledge of computers and it all ends in a pointless discussion, wasting my and your time. No offence to anyone, but I just get mad for no reason and if the STEP team feels like they know better, so be it.

[Besidilo]

I struggle to see how having that much RAM will help, but the added benefit for running VMs might be of great significance for SOME.

 

 

That much RAM is necessary for some 64-bit processes that will use up every bit of RAM available that it needs. This may not be efficient memory handling, but there are unfortunately programs out there that do this. Data-crunching apps like SPSS will use 16 GB RAM to sort 300 million records containing a hundred or so fields (and you will also not be able to use your box in the process :P )

 

... but I would never do this on my personal computer, which for me is a pure home built (about my 12th build over nearly 1.5x as many years. I am no hardware expert, but I know pretty much how to recognize the best info when I need it ... see specs below ... I want a SSD and a 7970, and I am good to go for a few more years).

 

All that said, I would never build anything but last one or two season's top build.

 

I don't think thalastwon mentioned anything about data crunching...

[PioneerRaptor]

Benchmark results for high end cards.

 

7970 price.

 

GTX 670 price. (New egg had one at $359, but it is out of stock...this would have been the absolute winner for price/performance).

 

$10 more for an extra 1GB of VRAM (hardly anything to shake a stick at), and a bit more performance. Definitely nothing to claim as excessive, particularly since two of nVidia's cards are still the top performers.

The 670 you linked to is actually 10$ more for 1GB Less than the 7970.

[stoppingby4now]

Wow, I thought you were one of the few who had any idea about hardware around here, appears not.

 

Linking to a Passmark as a supposedly viable benchmark? Please...

 

There's also so much wrong with your assumption that the extra 1GB VRAM is all that matters... In which case you missed the point anyway, because TLW got a GTX670 4GB which costs substantially more money and has the extra 1GB VRAM advantage over the 7970 3GB.

 

I'll refrain from posting about hardware here from now on, because it seems like some people just post things that they're convinced about being right, without prior elementary knowledge of computers and it all ends in a pointless discussion, wasting my and your time. No offence to anyone, but I just get mad for no reason and if the STEP team feels like they know better, so be it.

I have to say you've missed the point. There are plenty of benchmarks that put those two cards ahead of the 7970, so in part I was debunking any thought that the 7970 is the top card (unless you meant in price per performance, in which case you would be mostly correct). And in no way did I "assume" that an extra 1GB of VRAM is all that matters (my exact comment was hardly anything to shake a stick at). You should read posts more carefully before making assumptions of your own.

Benchmark results for high end cards.

 

7970 price.

 

GTX 670 price. (New egg had one at $359, but it is out of stock...this would have been the absolute winner for price/performance).

 

$10 more for an extra 1GB of VRAM (hardly anything to shake a stick at), and a bit more performance. Definitely nothing to claim as excessive, particularly since two of nVidia's cards are still the top performers.

The 670 you linked to is actually 10$ more for 1GB Less than the 7970.

You are correct, that was my bad. I didn't even look at that, and had carried over the specs from the initial price point from new egg which was for a 4GB card (which was likely a one time offer).

 

But you can get the 670 2GB version for even cheaper at $350, which is still a great card for the majority of games out there.

[thalastwon]

Its all good guys. I'm happy with my purchase. I just know I have to get a an SSD when I can afford one. Any recommendations for SSDs? I have literally no idea where to start.