E8500 (build #2)

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Yes, I think I might fair better with a 4870 1Gig than a 4850 X2 1Gig.

The thread here convinced me. I'm not planing on operating at resolutions above 1680x1050, and I'm not that comfortable with a dual GPU card (I think it appears as an xFire configuration to applications).
 


I thought that the 4870 1Gig was about the same as a GTX 280 1Gig. At least they swap places depending on the game. Is an OC'd GTX 260 1Gig going to outperform a stock GTX 280 1Gig?
 

No, the GTX 280 is a tier above the 4870. ATI doesn't have an answer yet (due to change very soon though) for the GTX 280, or 285 in a single GPU. The GTX 260 216 shader and 4870 1gb are on the same level in terms of performance, depending on whether the game favors HAVOK or Physx determines which GPU comes out on top.

An OC'd GTX 260 216 can come close in performance to a GTX 280, but you have to OC it a lot to beat a GTX 280.
 
The Anandtech benchmarks seem to paint a different picture (here). If I look only at the single card performance at 1680x1050 resolution (ruling out xFire, SLI and dual GPU systems), the GTX 260 is always ranking quite low and the 4870 1Gig is a top performer (swapping places with the GTX 280).
 
Okay, I think I'm settled on the CPU, RAM, mother board and cooler (thanks to you guys!). The GPU I'm gong to hold off on, and the display I'll by from a local shop.

Thanks for the help!

-Fred
 

Fallout 3 is one of those games that favors ATI. In the broad spectrum, the GTX 260 core 216 and 48701gb are very close in performance. The extra memory bandwidth of the 4870 1gb gives it an advantage as you go up in resolution, but you aren't going to be playing at very high res anyway. It really depends on the games you will play, look at benchmarks of the particular games you are interested in for an idea of how it will perform. The OC on the MSI GTX 260 though will make up a lot of ground, and I think it will be a better GPU for you, especially for the price I think its a great deal.
 
I'm postponing making any commitment to a graphics card for now, maybe the gtx 285 will come down in price soon :)

(Actually, you can get a gtx 285 for a little over $300 now)

I can't make any claims about the validity of the Anandtech benchmarks, but they do show the 4870 1g as leading the gtx 260 core 216 on all the games they tested (in some cases they're very close). OTOH, both cards are way behind any of the SLI, xFire or dual GPU rigs. These tests probably emphasize certain types of settings, so I don't know how much to generalize from them. Still, even at 1680x1050 these dual GPU's rule (erm, according to Anandtech).
 
So I guess I should no better than to trust a single benchmark, here's are a few (probably more recent) ones that shows the GTX 260 core 216 consistently ahead of the 4870 1G:
ATI HD 4870 1GB vs. NVIDIA GTX 260/216 896MB: Follow-Up
Top 10 games Radeon 4870 1 GB & GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 test
ASUS GTX 260 55nm & 4870 Dark Knight 1GB

That last one is ineresting. It was done recently using both cards made by the same manufacturer. The conclusion they have is that both cards are nearly identical in performance.

So that means a gtx 285 could really smoke 😛

(bumped you guys +1 because, well, you were right :) )
 
Yes, I can see how tricky this gets. I guess even a well run benchmarks could be completely invalid after a driver update or some such thing.

The 4890 is out there, are there any reliable benchmarks on it?

I'm actually starting to favor the idea of an nVidia card. Maybe the prices or the GTX 285 will come down (I guess it depends on how long I'm willing to wait :) )
 
Oh, I was just checking out the benchmarks here at THW. It looks like the GTX 285 definitely owns the 1-card/1-gpu slot. But it also looks like the performance increments are at under 10% increases in frame rate (averaging between low and high settings):

4870-1g -> gtx-260-core-216 (+2%) -> 4890 (+8%) -> gtx-285 (+7%)

and price step up by about 30% (stock):

$190 -> $180 (-5%) -> $250(+30%) -> $325(+30%)

I'm definitely leaning towards nVidia. But at the high end it looks like a 15% increase in performance comes at an 80% increase in cost (that from the gtx-260-core-216 to the gtx-285).

So yes if I had to decide today I'd definitely go with a gtx-260-core-216 :)

I'm not at all sure I got those details right though...
 
Yes, I think for a single card those two are at the sweet spot.

What's amazing to me is that even at 1680x1050 the 2-card/2-gpu system look like they double the performance. I'm hard set against getting into the SLI/xFire/2core approach for myself, but I can definitely see why people have gravitated towards it.
 
I have a few monitor questions and it would be great to hear some opinions on this. Is there a preferred resolution between 1600x1200 and 1680x1050? I was assuming I wanted the latter, but now I'm not sure (maybe old games work better with the 1600x1200?).

Also, I think I can handle anything up to a 20" monitor. Does anyone have any recommendations for one of these?

Thanks!

-Fred
 
My fist post linked a 20".

Widescreen is pretty much the standard now. Although, there is a good argument for 1080, as that is the HD standard.... But I don't think you'll find any monitor small enough that meets that.


 
Thank Proximon! I was looking at that monitor and though it looked good, but wasn't sure.

I noticed that most of the 20" monitors don't have USB ports on them these days (or maybe they just charge a lot more for the ones that do).
 


Great guide Proximon, thanks!

I was just wondering, I take it the stock Xigmatec TIM is not recommended. I have some Antec Formula 5 (I was looking for AS5 but couldn't find it at microcenter). Is this stuff any good? I've done a little googling and based on that I'd say it's Okay (not neccesarily the best). It'd be great to get another opinion :)
 
The Xigmatek DK manual says it comes with "High Performance Thermal Grease" and the picture makes it look like a condiment package (Heinz Thermal Lube). I suspect it's a silicone type, but I don't know.

I'll go ahead and try the Antec Formula 5. It seems to do okay on a few reviews I looked at. I think it's trying to mimic AS5.

I was curious about "lapping" (saw you mentioned it in your guide), so I looked it up. Wow, that look frightening :O. I'll wait 'til my cooler and CPU go out of warranty before I apply sandpaper to either of them. :)
 
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