Did I buy the wrong everything?

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stafa2266

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Jan 25, 2012
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I recently purchased a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 motherboard, i5 2500K, and a GeForce 550ti. I am obviously new to building and did not realize the motherboard supports crossfire, not SLI. After reading I now understand crossfire is for ATI. I got the 550ti for about $120.00 (after mail in rebate). Should I have gone for an ATI 6850 for about $20.00 more? My goal was to keep my build around $500.00, which is what drove picking a slightly older/lower performing video card model. Also, is this motherboard not very good? I have read mixed reviews..

links:

Mboard: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0375352
Video: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0360190


I feel like the 'experts' at MicroCenter really let me down on this one. I went to a 'store' that had 'experts' because I am not an expert - obviously they are not either.. he was telling me how crossfire is a hybrid of SLI and one of the cards only runs at '8x.' He seemed unsure - now I know why..

Some help from a community of people who know what they are talking about would be a big help here. I like the cost of the motherboard and processor as I got them for $230.00 out the door combined - although unsure on the motherboard after doing a little reading. Just need help figuring out if I should box half this crap back up and take it back.. I was 'in the mood to buy' and went in unarmed..

Thanks in advance community! :hello:
 
That board only has one high speed PCIe slot (16x) so if you were to add a second GPU (AMD in CF in this case), it would be running at 4X in the second PCIe slot. This isn't ideal, but isn't horrible... Most boards will run multiple GPUS in an 8x / 8x configuration and running 16x / 4x will show only a single % slowdown between these setups. IMHO, return the GTX 550ti and pickup a HD 6950 / 6970 and call it a day running a single GPU setup. That system with an overclocked 2500k and overclocked HD 69x0 would game nicely.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523
 
Thank you for the feedback. Is the 6850 a worthy upgrade from the 550ti? I ask because I am trying to keep this rig on a pretty low budget. There is a $100.00 price difference between the 6850 and 6950.
 
ok, couple of things here:
1. no where does it say Sli isnt supported. AFAIK any current board will support either as long as the physical support is there.
B. with the above said, your gfx card will do just fine if you dont want to return anything.
3. your monitor resolution is the ultimate factor in deciding what card to buy. my wife uses a 6870 on a 22" 1680x1050 screen, and runs bf3 with zero issues. now, i havent looked at the benchmarks for your card, but im pretty sure your preformance on a simular set up would be about the same. if your screen is 1920x1080, you may concider an upgrade, but i would look at performance benches to check.

last: seeing as you are new to building, i DO NOT recommend multi gpu set ups. (unless you enjoy headaches, unsupported games, driver issues, and a feeling of wasted money that accompanies those)
 
Do you plan on using two graphics cards? You mentioned that you only purchased one GeForce, but then you were concerned about SLI/Crossfire?

If you don't plan on purchasing a second card, the board will work just find with the GeForce. You did get a pretty good price on it.

I would have recommended a board that supports both cards and has at least 2 x16 slots, but with a 500 dollar budget, you may not find one.

Summary:

If you don't want to use two graphics cards, keep your current system build.
If you may want to use two in the future, return your GeForce for a 6850 or 69xx.
 
I am running a 28" monitor at 1900x1200. My concern with the card and mobo are this: it seems to me that motherboards are designed with a 'type' of card in mind. This one was designed for an ATI-based card it would seem. Hence my reservations about the 550ti... I do not plan to xfire or SLI. I went down that path a long time ago and it was a PITA to get working. I'm sure things are better now...
 


sli or cf are going to be coming off the northbridge anyway, which is an intel chipset. in the old days, mobo were designed with certain set ups in mind. but, IMO, that all just marketing now. looking at your screen size, (i have the same) your are going to need more than what you have, and more than a 6870. i use cf 5870's ( when the game allows it) or even one at times for BF3 and i can put it on high with out issues. so, if you got 6950 2g youll be set. (or the nvidia equivalent)
 
It sounds to me like 2GB of vram is critical for gaming performance due to my resolution, is this a true statement? If so could you look at the following list of cards and tell me what would fit the bill without busting my bank? http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?sortby=pricelow&N=4294966937%2B4294945785

Perhaps they don't have the right selection there and I need to order from the egg. I just went locally because of their great deal on the core i5 and motherboard... oh and there is that 'I am impatient and want to play now' factor... but lets not split hairs, eh? :)
 
Let me summarize my budget and decision making, I feel maybe I am leaving out details that are wasting your time. My budget was 500-600 for the new rig. I spent 580 out the door with about $80.00 in M.I.R's to claim. So my total spend was exactly $500.00. Out of that $500.00, $115 was the video card. So my total available cash to work with is really around $215.00 if we hit the upper threshold of my budget (115+100). Yes, I can spend more if I want to, but I wanted to keep this thing reasonable because I like sleeping in the same bed as my wife.

So lets do this. I am returning the video card and I am giving myself a slightly inflated budget of $250.00 for this card. What card do I get? :) BTW - THANK YOU for taking your time to read and respond. I realize responding to people like me can be like herding cats sometimes.. so call it your good samaritan deed for the day to help the hopeless. 😉
 
If you are willing to turn a few settings down (mostly "high," not "ultra," a GTX560 or HD6870 should do pretty well for you. The recent reviews I've read show a lot of new games (e.g. Skyrim and BF3) looking pretty good even on "medium" settings.
Having 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB may make a difference if you turn up AA. Turned down or off, it shouldn't matter. AA becomes less important as resolution increases. I don't think my eyes are all that great, but I don't see much difference at 1920x1080 (although there is some).
Make sure your PSU is able to run whatever you ultimately get. Although near its limit, you can run a HD6870 on a 430W Earthwatts (like Tom's did in the September $600 SBM build). More reasonably, I think a 500W PSU of similar quality would be a good choice, and could handle the stronger cards as well.

Edit: Based on your last post, if your PSU is up to it, you will be able to find a GTX560Ti or HD6950 for that price. As previously stated by another poster, the HD6950 is a little stronger, but check benchmarks for the games you want to play in case any of them strongly favor one architecture over the other.
 
I did have the foresight to sneak a CoolerMaster GX 750 single rail power supply in there.. I figured I'd need some more juice for the new hardware.
 
Hmmm, the Crappermaster GX line is not great, but not bad, although it does not live up to its claims (the smaller GX-650 failed over at HardOCP). Still, it will be enough for either of those GPUs as they will let it operate in a comfortable part of its range.
 


Ironically I own that exact power supply. I purchased it when I upgraded my cases a year ago. So that is part 2 of my scenario. My 'old' rig is becoming a Windows Home Server/NAS. I do have a couple of old power supplies laying around.. but that home server will be running a Core 2 Duo e8500 and 6 7200 RPM drives (2 for OS in a RAID 1 and 4 for data storage in a RAID 5 with a spare). The 2 power supplies I have are the Antec NEO 480 and a RAIDMAX 420.

You guys think the old 650w earthwatts will run 2 drives (1 SSD for OS, 1 7200 RPM for storage) and a 6970?

If I don't need a power supply I just freed up cash for the 6970...
 
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