My head hurts..Please pick me a card or 2?

[IamDavid]

I'm confused after reading everything on the forum and reviews from Newegg. I have ~$400 to spend on a new video card setup. Prefer to stick with ATI from past experience. I will be gaming with 2 or 3 monitors.


Thanks

 

[toyota]

ATI? you are in the past...

you should know after 11 years here that you need to list ALL your other specs including resolution you want to play at when asking for video card advice.

 

[IamDavid]

ATI? you are in the past...

you should know after 11 years here that you need to list ALL your other specs including resolution you want to play at when asking for video card advice.

You are so right, I haven't built a gaming rig in 10+ years!

i7 2600K

ASRock Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 2133 LGA 1156 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Z68 EXTREME7 GEN3

OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 SATA III

G.skill Ripjaws X Series 16gb (4 X 4gb)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply

Still undecided on the monitors but those wll come after everything else. I can push the price to ~$500 if needed. I don't want to rebuild for another 4 years or so..

Thanks!!

 

[trollolo]

do not get the 2600k, not ever
the 6950 is a solid card, without paying a stupid premium either, get the 2gb model if you want to fling money around

 

[IamDavid]

do not get the 2600k, not ever
the 6950 is a solid card, without paying a stupid premium either, get the 2gb model if you want to fling money around

Wow, why not on the 2600K? It OC's better than anything doesn't it? This won't be for 100%. I will use it for everything including encoding very large media files.

 

[RussianSensation]

i7 2600K

If you are using primarily for gaming, just get a 2500k. If you intend to keep this system for 3-4 years, I suppose the 2600k may be worth the extra $100. However, you are better off investing that $100 into a 2nd GPU.

ASRock Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 2133 LGA 1156 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Z68 EXTREME7 GEN3

Massive overkill. What do you need Extreme7 version for?

$125 for the Extreme3 version. It has everything under the sun!

G.skill Ripjaws X Series 16gb (4 X 4gb)

2x 4GB is enough. RAM prices will only continue to fall over time. So you can pick up more ram when it's cheaper in 12-15 months if you really need more than 8GB by then.

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply

I would personally go with a PSUs made by Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Corsair, Enermax, XFX or Antec. If you want a good modular PSU to drive 2 GPUs without breaking the bank:

$100 XFX

For the videocard:

See now take that $100 savings from the 2600k --> 2500k and add that $100 towards your $400 GPU budget and get 2 of these XFX HD6950 2GB cards.

Alternatively, buy this HD6950 2GB for $250 right now, take the $150 left over from your $400 GPU budget + $100 savings from the 2600k ==> and buy a brand new $250 GPU in 24 months from now.

EDIT:

Wow, why not on the 2600K? It OC's better than anything doesn't it? This won't be for 100%. I will use it for everything including encoding very large media files.

In that case, why don't you wait until October 12th to see how AMD's FX8150 will perform. It should be very competitive in encoding.

 

[iGas]

What games are you are planing to play and at what resolution?

 

[trollolo]

Wow, why not on the 2600K? It OC's better than anything doesn't it? This won't be for 100%. I will use it for everything including encoding very large media files.

because the 2600k is 100$ more, and really all you're going to do is torrent loli anyways

You must really not like being here...
-ViRGE

 

[lehtv]

RAM prices will only continue to fall over time. So you can pick up more ram when it's cheaper in 12-15 months if you really need more than 8GB by then.

Except that when DDR4 becomes standard by 2013 DDR3 will start increasing in price. However I agree 8GB is enough, agree on PSU+CPU+mobo and GPUs also

 

[toyota]

the OP does not like to upgrade for many years so why not get 16gb now since its only about 100 bucks? ram cant get much cheaper and also he wont have to worry about finding matching ram down the road. I would have bought 16gb had prices been what they are now. heck the 8gb of ram I paid 80 bucks for 3 months ago is now 40 bucks.

 

[IamDavid]

the OP does not like to upgrade for many years so why not get 16gb now since its only about 100 bucks? ram cant get much cheaper and also he wont have to worry about finding matching ram down the road. I would have bought 16gb had prices been what ti hey are now. heck the 8gb of ram I paid 80 bucks for 3 months ago is now 40 bucks.

This was my thinking with all these parts and I had to buy within the next week. I don't want to open my case for a long time.

I plan on playing all types of games can't wait for Diablo 3.

 

[houe]

Guys he wants the option to run 3 monitors so he will have a resolution of 5760 or 5040. At that resolution I recommend crossfire or SLI. I had a 6950 2GB and ran 3 monitors at 5760. Deus ex did play with some reduced settings, but to really fully take advantage of this high resolution you need 2 cards each with 2GB+. Really there aren't that many options to consider if you want to keep 3 monitor gaming a upgrade option: 6950 2GB, 6970 2GB, 560ti 2gb, 570 2.5gb, 580 3GB. The 580 is outside your budget at $550 and up. The bottom line I've discovered with 3 monitor gaming is that it is going to be expensive to drive that many pixels.

 

[Dadofamunky]

the OP does not like to upgrade for many years so why not get 16gb now since its only about 100 bucks? ram cant get much cheaper and also he wont have to worry about finding matching ram down the road. I would have bought 16gb had prices been what they are now. heck the 8gb of ram I paid 80 bucks for 3 months ago is now 40 bucks.

The man has a point.

Also, for 3 monitors I do think ATI is the better choice. I don't keep up too much on that side but my wild-ass guess would be two 6850s/6950s in parallel.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

RussianSensation offers the same advice I would offer, minus the ram choice. Yes ram might be cheaper down the line, but it is already so cheap as it is. You might save 20 bucks down the line, so if you want 16gb, get it. You will likely be fine with 8 unless you have a high memory usage application in mind currently. So either choice is valid in my mind.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

because the 2600k is 100$ more, and really all you're going to do is torrent loli anyways

Torrent loli? Wow way to unnecessarily troll.

 

[IamDavid]

So would I see enough of an improvement to justify dual 6970's? Would it push the life of the PC out another 12months or so? Looks to me like he extra cost might be worth the$$ but like I said, my head hurts from all of this! o

 

[OVerLoRDI]

So would I see enough of an improvement to justify dual 6970's? Would it push the life of the PC out another 12months or so? Looks to me like he extra cost might be worth the$$ but like I said, my head hurts from all of this! o

What resolution is your monitor? If it is 1080p or higher it wouldn't be a bad idea.

Crossfire scaling on the 69xx series is very very good.

 

[TemjinGold]

So would I see enough of an improvement to justify dual 6970's? Would it push the life of the PC out another 12months or so? Looks to me like he extra cost might be worth the$$ but like I said, my head hurts from all of this! o

At a 3-monitor resolution, yes you will see HUGE differences.

 

[IamDavid]

At a 3-monitor resolution, yes you will see HUGE differences.

Thanks everyone, went with 2 6970's!