Gaming graphics card

shuffles03

I was on here a while ago about building a gaming PC. I'm taking my time with it and I'm going to take my time with it so I can set aside the money I need to get the parts I want.

Originally, I was going to get a Nvidia GTX480 in my build but recently I've been looking at the ATI range.

What do you guys think of this or is this overkill:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=bGf2f0s2zeWhT0w8

shuffles03

For some reason thats the wrong link.

I'm looking at the ARES/2DIS/4GD5 Limited Edition. It's some sort of ASUS ATI build.

Here's the features:

- Dual Radeon HD 5870 with 4GB GDDR5
- Performance King~~32% faster than generic Radeon HD 5970
- 600% air flow Fansink in comparison with reference Radeon HD 5970
- 8mm heat pipe x8 with 99.9% oxygen-free-copper for best heat dissipation
- Limited Edition with Unique Metal case & ROG Gaming mouse bundle

Solitaire

Ah, the legendary HD5990 ARES

You do know those limited-edition cards cost thousands? :eek:

shuffles03

Dammit! I just saw it on the ATI site and clicked on the link. There was no price.

Solitaire

Ignoring the HD5990 (think all the units are sold ) the HD5970 is the fastest single card. After that the fastest single-GPU card is the GTX480, followed by the HD5870, which is by far the least hot, thirsty or troublesome of the three

shuffles03

Is there much difference between the HD5970 and GTX480?

On eBuyers there are 3 5970's:

-XFX HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB DDR5 Dual DVI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £450.93

- Asus HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £498.99

- HIS HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini Display Port PCI-E Graphics Card - £502.89

Whats the main difference here & if you were to choose one which would you get?

shuffles03

As I'm buying the components over a period of weeks I don't mind spending a little extra to get a huge performance boost.

Solitaire

HWVS actually have the ARES HD5990 ready for pre-order :eek:

A snip at €1107! :pac:

Cheapest HD5970 there is the Club3D at just under €540, saving a twenty over the XFX there or on eBuyer. There are GTX480s starting past €425 and HD5870s for a bit under €340. Pick your poison.

Icyseanfitz

a 5970 is pretty much overkill as it is as there is no game it cant max completely i wouldnt spend more than 600 on a gpu

shuffles03

Hyothetically, wat would the power be like if you had dual HD5990 Ares in a rig?

Hypothetically.

Hank Scorpio

Check this out

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694.html

BeciMester

shuffles03 wrote: »

Hyothetically, wat would the power be like if you had dual HD5990 Ares in a rig?

Hypothetically.

I dunno. The word 'epic' comes to mind.

While we're at it, why not quad-fire? :eek:

Lu Tze

That would be quadfire :pac:

Solitaire

Yup, 2 x HD5990 = quad HD5870 2GBs! :eek:

Icyseanfitz

that would be absolutely amazing power but with the hd 6 series coming out i really wouldnt spend that much money just get a 2 gig 5970 and quadfire another later if you want (not like thats a underpowered option anyway ),

Icyseanfitz

btw are you a banker? you seem pretty healed

shuffles03

When is the 6 series coming out?

Icyseanfitz

its meant to be around November December as far as i know but if i where you id just buy something now because if you go down that road you will always be waiting for the next best thing

Monotype

Also, they're only releasing the lower end ones first and I haven't heard of any revolutionary new features to look forward to.

Icyseanfitz

ya from what ive heard there just a revision of the 5 series their not using a new die for these ones yet it will probably be the hd 7 series before you see a really big leap from the 5 series (dont hold me to that though ) also why are they releasing the low end cards first?? seems a bit odd as you would want to generate interest in your new cards by bringing out you top models first

Monotype

I presume it's because they think that they can sit back and take it easy now that they're ahead.

Icyseanfitz

which is of course the complete wrong thing to do :rolleyes: i sometimes wonder who runs these companies as the correct thing to do would be to push on ahead and leave the competition in the dust, tbh though this is all speculation the hd 6 series could be mind blowing for all we know

Monotype

Maybe they're being careful not to break any competition laws. :pac:

shuffles03

Wat do you thinkof this set up?

- Intel i7 930 2.8GHz Socket 1366 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 X58 Socket 1366 Dual Gigabit LAN 8 Channel Audio XL ATX Motherboard

- XFX HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB DDR5 Dual DVI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card

- Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm - OEM

- OCZ 6gb (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Gold XTC Triple Channel Memory Kit for i7 Motherboard

- Kingston 64GB SSDNow V SSD 2.5" SATA-II - Read = 200MB/sec, Write = 110MB/sec

- CM Storm Scout + Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W Modular PSU *Special Offer Bundle*

- LG BH10LS30 10x BD-RE with DVD±RW & LightScribe SATA Blu-Ray Drive - OEM Black

- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Complete package - 1 PC - DVD - 32/64-bit

- Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B Socket Intel 775 1156 1366 Heatpipe CPU Cooler

- Xilence Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan - 3&4pin connection

- Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express - OEM

- Acer GD235HZ 23.6-inch 3D display

- Logitech G19 Keyboard

- Logitech G9X Laser Mouse

Icyseanfitz

yeah thats a really high end rig but if you wanted to you could save money on the CPU unless your doing a load of rendering etc

shuffles03

Wat would you suggest? I also think that motherboard might be overkill!

Icyseanfitz

well personally i would go with a AMD build if all you really want to do is gaming you could get a AMD penom II x4 965 BE 3.4 GHz or a X6, then for the mobo get a ASUS crosshair Formula IV crossfire, and then pick up 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM as for the GPU id stick with the 5970 2 gig. this is pretty much the build i will be buying in a couple of weeks for gaming

shuffles03

Would that AMD processor be a lot better than the i7?

Icyseanfitz

i7's are more powerful than say a x4 or a x6 but an i7 is overpowered for gaming, gaming is primarily GPU heavy as opposed to CPU heavy which is why i asked if you were doing 3d modeling rendering etc. which is where an i7 would come in handy, my opinion is go AMD with a 5970 and save some money that you dont need to spend for gaming as the AMD CPU's will do the same job

Solitaire

X4? Hell no.

X6? Depends. If the app in question doesn't like HyperThreading the X6 can whoop ass. If it does, the i7 once again blows it out of the water.

Of course, the question is more a case of "do I even need an i7 over an X4 or X6 or i5 quad in the first place?!?"

Icyseanfitz

Solitaire wrote: »

X4? Hell no.

X6? Depends. If the app in question doesn't like HyperThreading the X6 can whoop ass. If it does, the i7 once again blows it out of the water.

Of course, the question is more a case of "do I even need an i7 over an X4 or X6 or i5 quad in the first place?!?"

couldnt have said it better myself if your only interest for this pc is gaming i would just go with an x4 or x6 as they are much better value