Ok, just reread the thread and have some varying thoughts for your upgrades.
"Also is there any Asus board equivalent to ASRock z77 Extreme 4?"
not for the same rock bottom price.
while many consider asus mobos superior to asrock in build quality, you wont
find the same features and performance on an asus board compared to a
similarly priced asrock model due to the asus price premium. that said, not sure
you even need everything the z77extreme4 provides(sli/cf). the 2GB hd7870
performs quite well on even a 2560x1600 lcd, and has no problem maxing
out a 2.1mpixel 1080p panel(even with msaa). an hd7970 will do 3 1080p
panels (6.2mpixel)quite well and performs similar to a gtx670 at 4.1M(for which
both are overkill) for about the same price(both also OC well).the gtx670 might
choke at 3x1080p w/aa tho due to smaller frame buffer & lower vram bandwidth.
the 7950, gtx660ti and 7870 perform fairly similar to one another, usually tiered
by price. an overclocked 7950 can do triple monitor like a stock 7970, but the
gtx660ti is a bit of an odd duck. it has both 25% lower vram bandwidth and
rop count compared to gtx670/680 and the radeons, yet the 2GB versions have
the same frame buffer size as pricier gk104 GPUs and the 3GB version matches
the frame buffer of hd7900 tahiti GPUs. a 3GB gtx660ti may be ok at 3x1080p
without applying msaa, but it and 2GB versions may stumble even at lower
resolutions when msaa is applied. fyi, 660ti has about 100GB/s less bandwidth
than 7950 with less potential to fix it(660ti 144 to 168 vs 7950 240 to 288).
Given currents console specs, leaked specs for next gen, and developer greed,
7870 should run a few years at 1080p/ maxed w/msaa(longevity helped w/OCing).
if you get a korean ips 27in 2560x1440p panel later on, get 7950 for aa and oc.
this may also be ok with aa if instead u add 2 1080p panels in the future. like a
7970 tho, this is just ok now and may not be enough performance for very long.
personally, i think the bezels would drive me nuts with a setup like that.
if considering 1440p without max msaa but w/fxaa instead go 660ti 2GB and oc.
if considering 3x1080p w/o max msaa but w/fxaa go with the gtx660ti 3GB OCed.
best price/perf. at 3x1080p w/msaa would be a 7970(non ghz ed.) overclocked
yourself for about the same price as gtx670. of course radeons do fxaa as well.
dont forget the catalyst 12.7 beta driver that gives a fairly healthy performance
boost to all HD7000 series radeons based on the GCN architecture.
a note on nvidia physx... interesting feature that may or may not be a game
changer depending on the supported title(talking both change to gameplay
experience and performance hit required to enable it in a way you notice the
difference while playing). seems to me that for all the new titles available since
introduction, # of titles where it both enhances gaming experience in a way
you notice while playing and with good performance is kind of lackluster. this
may be because a majority of developers dont want to alienate a large market
of radeon gpu owners by not allowed them to have the same experience as on
a nvidia card(this is pure speculation on my part, but kinda makes sense if you
think about it a little). it may also be due to the additional developement time
required to support the feature in such a way as this that wont function on
about half the discrete cards out there. and as for " the way it's meant to be
played"(TWIMTBP), some of those titles run better on a geforce at a given price/
perf. point, some better on a comparable radeon, most run 'em about the same.
if you dont attempt OCing a 28nm gpu, you are leaving performance on the table.
even the most expensive single gpu card here shouldn't bottleneck on any
current i5 quad(non k). multi gpu has the potential to introduce microstuttering
into your gameplay experience and may sour any higher fps gained from the cost
of adding another gpu. given all that maybe save cash w/i5(non k, w/intel hsf) and
and a lesser z77 or z75/b75 mobo since u wont be changing multipliers(so no evo).
if you really want to oc, get the ivy i5k and the 212evo. with 1 gpu on a pciex16
slot(all lanes firing), v3.0 vs 2.0 makes no difference whatsoever. the next upgrade
you get down the road will likely be an even faster gpu, so you might want an ivy
i5k for that, but the next upgrade after that might be a on a new platform. 8gigs of
a good brand 's ddr3 1600 should keep you happily gaming for some years to come.
consider these 500w PSUs (more than plenty for now and later unless single gpu
video cards become ridiculously power hungry, exceeding 300w tdp)
200+ reviews, average 4/5 eggs, 34A on single 12v rail(408w) vs gs500(39A,468w)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027&Tpk=corsair%20cx500%20v2 200+
tested to provide more than rated wattage w/low ripple @hardwaresecrets
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139033
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