New Graphics card help.

[Solo-Wing]

Ok so I made this a few weeks back and I am here again after taking the advice you people gave me. I upped from my Pentium D 2 GB system to something better.

It bothers me that it shows the 80GB HDD first. I use the 300GB as my main.

It is Quad-core 2.7 Ghz now. I can play TF2 near max with 40-50 frames but now I want one more upgrade then I am done. I need a Graphics card. Something better then a GT520.

My budget will be around $100 to $150. I might be able to stretch to $200... Anyways any advise?

 

[distortedreality]

Well, considering you've got a Llano CPU, I'd be recommending something by AMD, as then you can use the graphics power of the CPU in tandem with a dedicated GPU. I'll leave a specific recommendation to someone else, but I think a decent 6xxx series card will go nicely.

Is it just me, or do the RAM speed and timings look a little funky?

 

[Solo-Wing]

Well, considering you've got a Llano CPU, I'd be recommending something by AMD, as then you can use the graphics power of the CPU in tandem with a dedicated GPU. I'll leave a specific recommendation to someone else, but I think a decent 6xxx series card will go nicely.

Is it just me, or do the RAM speed and timings look a little funky?

Well the case says G.SKILL Ripjaws at 9-9-9-24... Not sure why Speccy says different.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Ok so I made this a few weeks back and I am here again after taking the advice you people gave me. I upped from my Pentium D 2 GB system to something better.

It bothers me that it shows the 80GB HDD first. I use the 300GB as my main.

It is Quad-core 2.7 Ghz now. I can play TF2 near max with 40-50 frames but now I want one more upgrade then I am done. I need a Graphics card. Something better then a GT520.

My budget will be around $100 to $150. I might be able to stretch to $200... Anyways any advise?

Who's advice did you take to make you get a llano system?

Did you ignore everyone, get hammered and that's what led you to buy one? Dude, you really should have got one of the Sandy Bridge Pentiums, they runs rings around the llano chips for the same price.

It was on sale with the motherboard and Memory for $200.

 

[distortedreality]

This is better for $197 and doesn't have woefully slow RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313266

Uses less power too. Seriously bro, why? Why ignore everyone, I really doubt a single person in that thread suggested a llano chip.

Does it really matter at this point?

OP has made a choice, can't be changed now, so just live with it dude. Might be worth applying all that knowledge you have to the OP's question, rather than whinging about something irrelevant.

 

[Solo-Wing]

This is better for $197 and doesn't have woefully slow RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313266

Uses less power too. Seriously bro, why? Why ignore everyone, I really doubt a single person in that thread suggested a llano chip.

Does it really matter at this point?

OP has made a choice, can't be changed now, so just live with it dude. Might be worth applying all that knowledge you have to the OP's question, rather than whinging about something irrelevant.

Shit sorry man. I kinda bitched to you. I hate it when I mis-click the quote button.

 

[Solo-Wing]

This is better for $197 and doesn't have woefully slow RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313266

Uses less power too. Seriously bro, why? Why ignore everyone, I really doubt a single person in that thread suggested a llano chip.

Does it really matter at this point?

OP has made a choice, can't be changed now, so just live with it dude. Might be worth applying all that knowledge you have to the OP's question, rather than whinging about something irrelevant.

My point is that we helped the OP last time, he ignored us and made a really shitty decision, why should we bother again if our advice means nothing to him?

No Speccy is being stupid.

It is 2 x 4GB 1600 MHz, 1.5V, 9-9-9-24-2N.

Secondly I showed the CPU/MOBO to people in the thread and it was greenlit by 3 people there, no real objections to it.

Thirdly I am asking for help with GPU. Not to be bitched at cause my budget is tight and there is only one good Computer store in my area.

Plus people were telling me to get a Quadcore. That Pentium you just showed? Not QuadCore.

 

[Joccaren]

For $200 you probably won't get too much in a local parts store in the way of a good GPU in my experience, though on Newegg my first search yielded 560Tis as being around $200 - and they're good cards, and if the benchmarks that I'm looking at are true they score almost 10 times better than the 520 in certain tests, though there are definitely cards that outclass them out there.

Another option would probably be an ATI HD 6950 or 6970 [If I recall correctly the 6970 is merely an overclocked 6950, though I could be thinking of something else so someone correct me if I'm wrong], which can be cheaper, and dependent on the tests can score better than a 560Ti too.

Either way they're probably your best options for a $200 budget, and they're not bad cards in all honesty.
As someone pointed out the 6950 and your CPU could work together, though I'm not sure there'd be too much gain in that. However, selecting the 560Ti would net you PhysX capabilities in games that support it, which is Nvidia exclusive.
Choice is yours, and I'd wait for some other people to make suggestions too, just to be sure of any alternatives.

 

[Rack]

It's a tough call since you somehow ended up with a less than optimal CPU. I'd be tempted to go for a 6670 or maybe go as far as a 7770 in your position, it won't be able to run everything on max but you won't be bottle necked by the CPU and you can save towards getting a better system a few years down the line. My other advice might be to not ask us for advice though, go to somewhere with enthusiasts and they may steer you better.

 

[distortedreality]

To answer your q: I'd get an Nvidia GTX 560Ti, it's still three times better than any of the two consoles' cards and that's what games are optimised for. It's just right in terms of bang for the buck. I would ignore people's recommendations to get AMD "because that's what your CPU is", as the whole interplay is a bigger myth than using the "correct" number of RAM sticks to upkeep the dual channel or triple channel "performance boost" (yay, 0.2%!!!!!!!!!!!) and Nvidia make better drivers and release new ones more often.

You may want to actually read the reasons why AMD has been suggested instead of Nvidia in this case before you let your inner fanboy out. Just a suggestion.

I'll give you a hint -

Spoiler

but not in here

Regarding the RAM - could it have anything to do with voltages? I vaguely remember reading somewhere that a lot of the Llano mobo's only supply 1.5v to the RAM, and that RAM specced to run higher will obviously have issues.

 

[Joccaren]

My other advice might be to not ask us for advice though, go to somewhere with enthusiasts and they may steer you better.

What do you mean by enthusiasts, cause I'd probably qualify, as would Matthew94, and probably a couple of others on this site [Maybe distorted, but I haven't seen enough of him to know, which is probably what is also thought of me on this subject].

Granted the Escapist probably doesn't have the most enthusiasts of the web, but you don't necessarily need them all. Places like Overclock.net can be good for that sort of stuff, but its a quite different community there, and its alright to prefer us here

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Want a GPU? Get a 6670 and run it in dual graphics with the APU. It's a decent enough GPU and will make your APU less of a waste of money in DX10/11 games as that's all dual graphics works with. The card is also cheap which matches your low budget.

Yeah, seeing as he's got a Fusion APU then Hybrid Crossfire (do they still call it that?) is going to be the best price/performance option.

I have an APU, the A8-3850 but if I was to do a build now I'd get Intel for sure.

Yeah but you were originally aiming for a HTPC with 'moderate gaming abilities' with that build, which is why I suggested you look at Fusion/A-series APUs and mITX kit...

Of course since then Ivy Bridge has launched, lowering the price of Sandy Bridge CPUs, resulting in a nice pool of affordable socket 1155 CPUs that beat any AMD CPU on price/performance scales.

 

[Rack]

My other advice might be to not ask us for advice though, go to somewhere with enthusiasts and they may steer you better.

What do you mean by enthusiasts, cause I'd probably qualify, as would Matthew94, and probably a couple of others on this site [Maybe distorted, but I haven't seen enough of him to know, which is probably what is also thought of me on this subject].

Granted the Escapist probably doesn't have the most enthusiasts of the web, but you don't necessarily need them all. Places like Overclock.net can be good for that sort of stuff, but its a quite different community there, and its alright to prefer us here

That's fair enough, but it seems as though he is getting mixed messages and less than ideal advice. If he can't tell your advice from bad advice...

 

[SpAc3man]

Nothing wrong with the RAM. Speccy shows it as half speed as it is DDR (double data rate) which means it transmits/receives data on both the rising and falling edge of the clock. Effectively doubling the transfer rate. Speccy reports the RAM clock not transfer rate. As for timings you should just check them in the bios to make sure they are set right.

I would recommend either a 7850, 7870, 660 or 660Ti GPU. You will be very happy.

EDIT: just checked my RAM in Speccy and it showed as 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 533MHz (5-7-7-20)
I know for an absolute fact it is running at 1066MHz (5-5-5-15).

 

[Starbird]

GTX680 at the minimum.

 

[Hazy992]

GTX680 at the minimum.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic (written text and all that). If you're being serious then a 680 is a bad idea, cause the rest of his rig is going to be a huge bottleneck making the 680 a waste of money. Besides it's way out of his budget,

I'd probably recommend a 6850 or something, or maybe the 6670 so you can do dual graphics.

 

[GoaThief]

I'd normally say to avoid AMD at the moment due to drivers but as they're less effected by the CPU than their Nvidia counterparts it's probably your best bet. I'm not in your country so pricing will be different but the price/performance sweet spot seems to be around 150-200 GBP.

Avoid anything Xfire or SLI too, headaches aplenty I can assure you. Don't plan this for now or upgrades down the line, sell your card instead and purchase a higher specced single GPU one instead.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Most people have been recomending I get the 6670 for the cross-fire.
So I am thinking of getting this:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3832#ov

or this:

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD66702GD3/

Any objections?

 

[Joccaren]

Avoid anything Xfire or SLI too, headaches aplenty I can assure you. Don't plan this for now or upgrades down the line, sell your card instead and purchase a higher specced single GPU one instead.

Eh, I'm not sure what headaches you speak of, unless some games not utilizing them. SLI at least is damn easy to set up. Plug in GPUs, put on SLI bridge, tell Drivers to run SLI.

Though selling the current card to help pay for the new one is good advice.

Most people have been recomending I get the 6670 for the cross-fire.
So I am thinking of getting this:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3832#ov

or this:

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD66702GD3/

Any objections?

I wouldn't go for 2 6670s TBH.

Quick lookup of Benchmarks shows an individual 6670 to be rather low scoring, and Xfire won't even double that most of the time.
This site, no idea how reliable but it is the easiest to see graphical representation I could find, highlights the 6670 individually with a score of 1,146
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6670

Scrolling up on the same site yields a 560Ti scoring 2,985
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+560+Ti

and a 6950 scoring 3,056
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6950


Now, even if we were to assume optimal gain from Xfire, yielding double the score in said test, it would only result in a score of 2,292 for the 6670. I'm also not sure which version of the 6670 was used, the GDDR3 or GDDR5 version. Both cards you have linked to are the GDDR3 version. As such, that result could be higher than what you would benchmark if you were to use that software with those cards, hence those cards might be worse than what was tested.

For price, each of the 6670s would cost you $70 according to this site, adding to $140 for two in Xfire.
This is, admittedly, cheaper than both the 560Ti - priced at $200, and the 6950 - priced at $180.


As said, I haven't done my research on this site to know how reliable it is and a lot of the other results were rather obtuse in how they presented their results, so two 6670s in XFire may perform better than represented, however it seems to be an accurate enough representation based off the 560Ti and 6950, and how they score relative to each other in other benchmarks I've seen.
Choice is still there to go for the cheaper dual 6670s and get less performance [Slightly over 2/3rds the performance of the other cards], or you could get a 6950 which is $40 more expensive, as well as cheaper than a 560Ti and higher scoring, or the 560Ti which is $60 more expensive, scores slightly lower than the 6950, but has PhysX capabilities.
All depends on your priorities.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Snip

I am not buying 2 GPUs. I got a AMD APU which appearently goes well with the 6670. Plus my budget is only around $100.
Also I am not selling my card. Told a friend I would give it to her when she was looking into building a low-end PC.