New Gaming Rig Geared Toward BF3

[T_Yamamoto]

im a nVidia fan boy lmao

 

[mfenn]

Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$15 off w/ promo code EMCKBJD39, ends 8/22
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371044

54.99 after promo code, which ends 8/22

Nice find!

 

[mfenn]

im a nVidia fan boy lmao

Well, at least you admit it. :awe: That's better than most.

 

[mfenn]

560TI vs 6950 seems a tough choice. They perform very similar. The benchmarks seems to put the 6950 ahead a few FPS. But the 560 runs a lot cooler and quieter. They are also priced equally. One may be less or more depending on what rebate/deal is going on at any given time. The 560 is also smaller. I think Nvidia probably has better driver support, and I think there are more games optimized for nvidia than ATI, but the benchmarks don't lie, unless a liar made them.

Actually the GTX 560 Ti uses more power. Heat and noise will depend more on the cooler that your specific card has though.

Nvidia and AMD's drivers are pretty much the same in overall quality. Both have released some terrible ones in the past. Anybody in here remember that Nvidia driver that killed people's cards? :awe:

 

[mwforrest7]

Well, I'll be using a single monitor at a resolution of 1920x1080. While the 560TI does use slightly more power, it remained quite a bit cooler according to one benchmark. I believe it was on guru3d

 

[SnoKrash]

Now Im debating between th 560ti and the 6950's.. hmmm

That EVGA you selected had alot of good reviews, and is OCed over stock.. Hmmmm

 

[mwforrest7]

It is a tad cheaper at the moment too with the rebate.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

nVidia wins...?

 

[mwforrest7]

I think so. The 6950 only outpeforms by 2-3 FPS usually. Meanwhile the 560TI is way quieter, and runs cooler according to the benchmarks. Even if your just going for performance and don't care about heat or noise, I'd say they're so close, go for which ever is cheaper at time of purchase. If you care about noise and heat and they're similarly priced, go for the 560TI.

I think I've settled with this build. Unless someone can find me a cheaper motherboard that is similarly rated. All the cheaper ones I can find are 4 star or lower. The highly rated ones seem to sit around the 200 price range. Other than that I'm simply sitting here wondering if I should wait a month to see if prices will drop more, or if I should order now with the assumption that prices are probably lower now with the back-to school deals they're promoting. The rebates on the couple of items I have expire Aug 31.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

i guess you could buy now.

i just love the twin frozer coolers. two fans

 

[Smartazz]

I think so. The 6950 only outpeforms by 2-3 FPS usually. Meanwhile the 560TI is way quieter, and runs cooler according to the benchmarks. Even if your just going for performance and don't care about heat or noise, I'd say they're so close, go for which ever is cheaper at time of purchase. If you care about noise and heat and they're similarly priced, go for the 560TI.

I think I've settled with this build. Unless someone can find me a cheaper motherboard that is similarly rated. All the cheaper ones I can find are 4 star or lower. The highly rated ones seem to sit around the 200 price range. Other than that I'm simply sitting here wondering if I should wait a month to see if prices will drop more, or if I should order now with the assumption that prices are probably lower now with the back-to school deals they're promoting. The rebates on the couple of items I have expire Aug 31.

Another benefit of the the 6950s is that there is a 2GB version and I'm pretty sure crossfire scales better than SLI at this point. Of course you can't go wrong with a GTX 560Ti as crossfire 6950s might be overkill for your resolution.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Another benefit of the the 6950s is that there is a 2GB version and I'm pretty sure crossfire scales better than SLI at this point. Of course you can't go wrong with a GTX 560Ti as crossfire 6950s might be overkill for your resolution.

probably will be overkill xD

 

[mfenn]

Well, I'll be using a single monitor at a resolution of 1920x1080. While the 560TI does use slightly more power, it remained quite a bit cooler according to one benchmark. I believe it was on guru3d

Like I said before, heat and noise depends on the particular cards cooler. You can't just take a generic GTX 560 Ti and 6950 2GB and compare. You have to find a review that compares the exact cards that you're looking at.

As for performance, it really depends on the game. The two cards are about even in some games, but the 6950 2GB demolishes the GTX 560 Ti in others. Overall, the 6950 2GB is significantly faster. That being said, Battlefield is a TWIMTBP game, so the 560 Ti will probably be about even in that game.