Ideal rig for excellent PC gaming?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RikkiGT-R
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hampus_dh
So it´s possible to buy 28nm graphics cards that will arrive in 2012, right now?

I´m not saying he shouldn´t buy the stuff you said. I just said that it really doesn´t matter since technology accelerates. Meaning everything that´s newer will also get older more quickly.

Basically, buy what´s in store now and be happy.
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I worded it wrongly. I meant what I recommended above to buy now can be bought now. I suggested to upgrade in 2012 partly, not wait until then to buy a new computer.
 
I'll probably just print off the last 5 posts and bring them to my local computer shop for them to decipher :D
 
Agree with saidur_ali on the most part.

Best CPU right now for the money is the i5 2500k.

It must be said though for a budget rig an athlon ii 640, phenom ii 955 or even a decent dual core can run most of the games out there as they're mostly GPU dependant and a CPU costing £70-100 has no probs. Still these are ageing CPUs and AMD should've replaced these by now. There's only a handful of CPU demanding games that could trouble these.

A GTX 570 running Metro 2033 on Very High will only get to around 40FPS whether you use an Athlon or a 990X overclocked to 5.0GHz. You'll need two graphics cards, not a powerful CPU.

Running at low res to lesson the GPU load so very high frame rate is achieved or low demanding games like Resident Evil 5 with a decent GPU can mean 120Hz monitor can benefit as the frame rate will 100-200FPS. An Athlon may bottleneck the GPU to 80FPS. Using an i5/i7 will let the GPU do its thing.

Say your budget is £600 and you want to play crysis etc. Spending that extra £100 on a i5 2500k instead the of the GPU and getting a cheaper GPU like a GTS 450/ATI 5770 instead of a GTX 560 and a cheaper CPU/mobo for example would be very bad. You should get a Phenom and the best GPU you can.

The 6990 GPU is out soon. A Phenom 955 with a 6990 will wipe the floor with a i5 2500k and a GTX 580 in Crysis/Metro 2033, yet both will cost a grand. The i5 2500k will beat the 955 in video editing and many other tasks etc, playing Starcraft 2, getting 300-400FPS in a console port or a synthetic benchmark for e-peen.
 
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Yeah but the 6990 GPU uses 2*8pin connectors. I will be a beast but probably suffer the same infant illnesses as the first fermi chips (too hot, too lound, too power hungry)

I wouldn't spend the money on a 580GTX, they are too expensive, and will go down when the 590GTX hits the stores in a few months. Take a 470-480-570GTX.
And upgrade later on.
It's rare that you need the lastest GPU to play games on excellent graphics.
With my 280GTX (3year old) i play everything on High without problem.
Maybe not with 200fps. But as long as you don't have a 120Hz display but a 60hz display, that is not really a problem.

I would recommand you either
A sandy brigde config or an i7 config for the Cpu.
4-6 Gb ram
A bluray burner (perfect for system backups)
1-2 470GTX or 1*570GTX

With this config you're good for 1-2 years, after that you OC your CPU or exchange it for a newer version and upgrade the GPU.
In all that PC will last you 4-5 years with an initial cost about +-1400€ and a upgrade later of +-500€
 
chromatic9
Agree with saidur_ali on the most part.

Best CPU right now for the money is the i5 2500k.

It must be said though for a budget rig an athlon ii 640, phenom ii 955 or even a decent dual core can run most of the games out there as they're mostly GPU dependant and a CPU costing £70-100 has no probs. Still these are ageing CPUs and AMD should've replaced these by now. There's only a handful of CPU demanding games that could trouble these.

A GTX 570 running Metro 2033 on Very High will only get to around 40FPS whether you use an Athlon or a 990X overclocked to 5.0GHz. You'll need two graphics cards, not a powerful CPU.

Running at low res to lesson the GPU load so very high frame rate is achieved or low demanding games like Resident Evil 5 with a decent GPU can mean 120Hz monitor can benefit as the frame rate will 100-200FPS. An Athlon may bottleneck the GPU to 80FPS. Using an i5/i7 will let the GPU do its thing.

Say your budget is £600 and you want to play crysis etc. Spending that extra £100 on a i5 2500k instead the of the GPU and getting a cheaper GPU like a GTS 450/ATI 5770 instead of a GTX 560 and a cheaper CPU/mobo for example would be very bad. You should get a Phenom and the best GPU you can.

The 6990 GPU is out soon. A Phenom 955 with a 6990 will wipe the floor with a i5 2500k and a GTX 580 in Crysis/Metro 2033, yet both will cost a grand. The i5 2500k will beat the 955 in video editing and many other tasks etc, playing Starcraft 2, getting 300-400FPS in a console port or a synthetic benchmark for e-peen.
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I personally think it is better to get the core of the system right. You recommend Phenom II 955 but that only costs about £100 less than getting a 2500k with Sandy Bridge Motherboards which is also upgradeable to 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs in 2012. As the OP is looking at spending about £1k on a computer then I think getting a CPU nearly twice as slow for just £100 less is not really worth it. Also the resale value of a computer with a CPU and motherboard that is that old would be a lot less so you will lose a lot more money than you save getting a slower computer with ageing core components. It will be legacy with Bulldozer coming out and Bulldozer most likely will lose against Sandy Bridge. The 2500K beats the 980X on quite a lot of benchmarks so AMD will have to step up the game quite a lot considering the i7 980X was a 32nm CPU and architecture alone Intel are beating their own Six Core CPUs while taking less power.

Grapihcs cards on the other hand are the easiest to replace, it is more or less plug and play. If OP was to get a mid-range GPU, he will be able to sell it for not much less than how much it cost him in the system build from say a custom PC shop. As 40nm has been out for some time, I personally don't think it is worth spending big money on a new GPU. The GTX 480 seems good value for money at the computerplanet.co.uk website if you are looking for a more high-end GPU but costing less than both the 570 and 580. Mid-range at the beginning of next year should be as powerful as the 570/580 at least and should cost around the £160-£200 mark.

I can't really recommend getting dual GPU solutions, it is better to get just one single powerful one as it saves on electricity, heat and noise from getting such a solution. Most games will run at 1080p 60FPS on a 5870 and they are very cheap to get now. With the Sandy Bridge CPU, you should be able to play games that are really CPU intensive such as GTA IV easily and any future CPU intensive with relative ease.
 

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