Posts by Lawrence Phillips

gentlehawk342 said:I mean, I honestly don't know the first thing about these graphics cards—like, what am I even supposed to look for to tell which one is better? So, yeah, I really can't tell you much, to be honest! I wish someone would just give me a specific model and be done with it so I could just go out and buy it... because right now, I have no clue if yours is better than the one the other guy mentioned, or whatever else someone might write.

Long story short.
If you're looking at the budget stuff, AT&T actually has more going for them than Nvidia.

Just hop onto Best Buy and search through the cards in order of their power levels.

7730, 7750, 7770, 7790, 7850
Each one is basically up to 50% faster than the last, and the price jumps are only like $20 at a time. Only the 7850 has that weird price hike that, honestly, doesn't even seem worth the extra performance. It's like paying an extra $30 just for a 20% boost over the 7790.

Christian Vaughn3 said:Hey everyone! I'm popping back into this thread after like three years. I finally finished paying off my PC, so I guess it's officially time for some upgrades. 🙄

So, I'm basically looking at the build from the third post in this thread, except mine has an Asrock motherboard.

Do you think it's worth upgrading so I can play games normally for another couple of years, or should I just bite the bullet and buy a whole new rig?

And hey, if an upgrade is doable, I'd love some part recommendations or even a full build suggestion... you guys were super helpful last time.

Thanks in advance! 👍

With a Phenom, you could toss in a GTX 650 Ti Boost, a Radeon 7850, or maybe an R7 260 x. igrati.
It'll probably hold up for another year or two—you might just have to turn down the settings on the really demanding titles, but that's about it.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Man, just grab a GeForce GTX series for $571. With a card like that, you'll be able to crush all the latest games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/product_info.php?c...ducts_id=13723

p.s. What kind of power supply are you running?

Anyway, my take—and I guess the second question really depends on what your budget looks like.
He mentioned the GeForce GTX 780 as the ultimate goal, but since he's rocking an i7, maybe he could actually stretch it to a GeForce GTX series or even a GeForce GTX 770

So, what else is left in the build?😕

GTX 760 vs R9 270 x

The cheapest GTX 760 I've seen is roughly $567. On the other hand, you can grab an R9 270 x for about $500.

Do you guys think it's actually worth dropping those extra $67 bucks just to go with the GTX 760? I mean, what's the deal with the outlook on "Mantle" and how much better AMD cards might get with future optimization?

hiddenpilot4 said:Alright, so which one should I grab? I've got maybe around $167 total to spend, so that's my budget for gaming stuff

http://www.amazon.com/s?k=ddr5

Based on what I’ve been chatting about with the crew here, I kinda feel like jumping straight to the 7870 might be a bit too much to chew for a Phenom. If you don't want to just throw cash out the window—which, let's face it, we all hate doing—the sweet spot would probably be the 7850 or maybe even just a 650 Ti boost.

Hey, I've got a quick question for you guys.
Since everyone’s talking about how much we should expect from the FM2+ platform and those new "Kaveri" processors with built-in graphics, I was wondering—how does Crossfire even work when you're pairing them up with a standard dedicated card?

So, take this scenario from the link here

http://videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.ph...0+Dual&id=2572

I’m guessing there’s some kind of ceiling where it stops making sense to try Crossfire with integrated graphics, right? Like, is there a specific tier of dedicated card you shouldn't go above if you're trying to pair it with the onboard stuff?
Honestly, though—does this whole setup actually make any sense at all, or is it just a total bust?🤷

crimsonstag84 said:What are you even talking about... those are just overclocked HD 7790s (though they're way too pricey if you ask me), overclocked HD 7870s, and overclocked HD 7970s. The flagship cards—the R9 290 X and R9 290—are gonna be going head-to-head with the GTX Titan, and I think they’re dropping this week 🙂

We'll just have to wait and see what the prices look like here in the States.
Since there’s barely any performance jump compared to the cards you mentioned, I'm really hoping we see some price cuts on those—or maybe some new cards stepping into that same price bracket.

The 7790 is sitting at $850-$300, and the 7850 is already starting at $367. You think they'll squeeze the R7 260 in between them?

I mean, an R9 270 would sit right between the 7870 and the 7950, where there's a bigger price gap, so that might actually make sense. There’s only about $167 difference in price there, so it could totally work.

Timothy Kim60 said:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
ASUS GeForce GTX 770 GPU top - Crossfire test
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 x Twin Frozr 270 x

270X

Man, this was a total disaster.🤷

Grab an fx, pair it with a decent motherboard and a solid cooler—honestly, you’re probably getting pretty close to the price of an i5 3350p setup with a cheaper board anyway.

Man... I think you're totally right when you say people overthink this stuff way too much. 🤷😁
We'll just see how my bank account looks later on, and then I'll probably scrape together whatever I can to make something happen.

Timothy Kim60 said:Honestly, I wouldn't sweat CrossFire too much right now—it’s probably not worth the headache early on. You’ll be able to cruise through games just fine with a single card, and whenever you feel like you need more juice—you know, once things get intense—you can just sell that one and grab something beefier. Like, maybe something hitting the levels of today's HD7970 or GTX770, which an overclocked fx 8320 can handle without breaking a sweat (and by then, those cards will be way cheaper, I bet). Plus, you won't even need a massive power supply if you aren't doing CF/SLI, and you won't have to deal with all that annoying troubleshooting when certain games don't play nice with multi-GPU setups.

Yeah, some mid-range Nvidia stuff should be dropping soon—though who knows if it'll happen before the end of the year? But hey, if you're dead set on CF, you could always go for an asymmetrical setup if money gets tight—like pairing a solid platform with a mid-range card. That way, you can catch up on all the big titles you missed, and later on, you can just pop in another one like it. Or, you know, just swap it out for something better altogether.

There's definitely some logic there. Personally, I'm leaning towards a symmetrical setup, but man, these cards are getting pricey! The 7870 is sitting at a decent price point, maybe around $140-$$167, but the 760 is already pushing $200, and those others you mentioned? They're closer to or even over $300. That's just way too much cash for me, I guess.

I was thinking about starting a whole new thread for this, but I figured I'd just toss it in here.
I'm really looking for that "sweet spot" balance between the GPU and the CPU—I know they won't match perfectly, but I want to avoid any major bottlenecks.

Here are the combos people usually talk about for gaming builds:

radeon 7850/650 Ti boost - Athlon ii x4 750
radeon 7870/660 - fx 6300
660 ti/760/7970 - i5 or FX 8320

Anything beyond that is kind of overkill for average gaming needs—the performance jump just isn't worth the extra money you'd be throwing away.

Most people looking for advice here (myself included!) are basically just trying to build something that runs everything out right now while still being somewhat future-proof. Most of the time, the goal is to find a balanced configuration, even if things aren't perfectly matched.

Timothy Kim60 said:I'm not totally sure about this specific setup, but—honestly—you could definitely pack a much beefier GPU in there. Since it's overclockable, I think it’ll be way more future-proof than just grabbing a standard i5.

EDIT

If you're planning on buying something soon, maybe just hang tight for a bit? We should see some new AMD cards hitting the market around October or November, so that'll give you a better idea of where prices are at. Especially since the 7 series will probably drop in price, and everything usually gets noticeably cheaper leading up to Christmas.

There are even some new shops popping up, check this out

7870 ghz

I'm definitely waiting until Christmas. My plan is basically either going for a budget build (maybe $750 with a 7850 or a 650ti boost) or stepping things up significantly (like an i5/FX 8320 paired with a 7870).

I was kind of banking on the CPU being able to handle adding another 7870 in Crossfire a couple of years down the road. But if you're saying a basic i5 wouldn't cut it, then I guess I really have to consider overclocking the FX.

But yeah, like you said... we really ought to wait and see what AMD brings to the table, and if NVIDIA decides to drop some mid-range 7xx series cards anytime soon.

Timothy Kim60 said:I mean, I think it'll hold up just fine, but you probably won't be hitting max performance if that's what you're asking. It’d definitely be better to have an unlocked CPU and maybe even overclock it a bit a little
If we're being super strict about it, the ceiling would be a GTX 760 or an HD 7950—though some folks say even with that last one, you might see a tiny bit of a bottleneck in certain spots.

What I'm really wondering is, would they actually be used to their full potential? And honestly, if you're thinking about a future upgrade using CF, it doesn't seem like a super smart move if you're looking at high-end cards later on.

I'm guessing even an FX x8 8320 wouldn't quite be able to fully push two 7870s...🤷

Quick question for you guys...

Do you think an i5 3350P can actually handle running two Radeon HD 7870s in CF?
And maybe—just maybe—could it even hold its own with a card that's even beefier than those?

What’s actually the best GPU I could pair with an i5 3350P without hitting a massive bottleneck?

Maybe an EVGA GeForce GTX 770?

Honestly, just ignore the question—it's probably not even worth spending the cash when the performance jump is that tiny.

Brian Campbell36 said:Now I'm kind of thinking about grabbing this

But hey, if I just added another AMD Radeon HD 7770 into a CrossFire setup, I'd probably get even more FPS!

Honestly, you can't really be any smarter than that right now, haha.🤔

Just sell 7770 and add maybe around $667 to get a Nvidia GTX 760. They already told you above that your CPU should be able to keep up with it.
If money isn't an issue, that is.

Andrew Fox74 said:So what if it’s overkill? You already mentioned you’re planning on setting up CrossFire, which means you’ll probably grab a beefier CPU later anyway—so why not just grab the best thing you can afford right now? That way, when you finally upgrade the processor, you'll actually see the jump in performance from the graphics cards in CF. This card will work regardless; it's just that some of its power might sit idle for a bit...

CF is definitely an option, but maybe not tomorrow. Honestly, I'm hoping to stretch out my current setup for as long as possible.

I totally get where you're coming from—like, if my goal is to squeeze every last drop of juice out of this E8400 (plus maybe a little overclocking), I have to think about when I'll eventually swap everything out for a CF rig. It's all about seeing how the card I buy today would actually hold up in a CF setup against whatever new stuff hits the shelves down the road.

If we assume that, in a best-case scenario, you're looking at almost doubling your performance, you can kind of weigh whether it makes sense to invest in a CF-ready platform to reuse your current card, or if it's better to just go for a whole new platform with a completely different card altogether.

Basically, I'm banking on this 7790 lasting me another year or two (assuming the rest of my gear doesn't kick the bucket), since I'm not exactly a hardcore gamer. Then, whenever I decide to ditch this whole rig, I'll just pick up a CF-capable motherboard and a new CPU, and maybe hunt for a used 7790 on Craigslist or eBay to pair with it.

If the 7790 is pretty much the ceiling for an E8400 (say, clocked at 3.6 GHz), then the 7790 is definitely the move for me. 🙂

crimsonstag84 said:It’s not totally overkill, but you might as well try an OC.

It's not really overkill, though maybe it's pushing it a little? I guess anything beyond that probably wouldn't even make sense...

Is a 7790 total overkill for an E8400? I mean, would it actually help much if I managed to bump the clock speed up to 3.6 GHz?

The plan is basically just to squeeze a bit more life out of my current rig—and maybe start sketching out my next build with Crossfire support, maybe even tossing in another 7790 for a specific year down the road.

I know a 7770 would pair fine with the E8400, but man, that tiny price difference for the massive performance jump you get with a 7790 is just too tempting to pass up.

And hey, when we're talking about it being "overkill," let's just ignore those newer games that absolutely munch through quad-core CPUs for now.

Thanks!