Part 3: Building A Balanced Gaming PC

[Guest]

What does it mean to build a truly-balanced PC? How great would it be to piece together a machine bottlenecked by neither CPU or GPU? We set forth to measure the perfect balance in seven different games and four resolutions in this third of many parts.

Part 3: Building A Balanced Gaming PC : Read more

 

[fatkid35]

first!

 

[ColMirage]

[citation][nom]fatkid35[/nom]first![/citation]
Facepalm...

Glad to see the last part of the series. Very useful!

 

[liquidsnake718]

I love how on the first page picture of all the games on this article show the games that truly take a toll on GPU's and CPU's. You are however missing Metro 2033 and Dirt 2 in DX11 which obliterates some GPUs in DX11!

 

[IzzyCraft]

A metro 2033 graph wouldn't be interesting it would start at 0 and end at 5 for most set ups

 

[Guest]

The choice of Corsair Dominator for the RAM is surprising, given that there are equally fast and stable choices at a much lower price point. OCZ, G Skill, Crucial, etc. I still love their power supplies though.

 

[duk3]

[citation][nom]ColMirage[/nom]Glad to see the last part of the series. Very useful![/citation]

They mentioned a part 4 in the article, with overclocking AMD processors.

 

[kaintfm]

The choice of Corsair Dominator for the RAM is surprising, given that there are equally fast and stable choices at a much lower price point. OCZ, G Skill, Crucial, etc. I still love their power supplies though.

 

[agnickolov]

And where is the Core i3 530? This is the real gaming gem of a CPU, but I hardly see it in any reviews @ Tom's...

 

[manitoublack]

Bought 2 GTX295's on release and run them on my i7-920, in SLi at 640MHz. Still over a year on and there still almost top dog.

Great review Toms, and makes it easier to sleep at night knowing that 14months on little can touch what I've got regardless of the $1600AUD buyin.

 

[FUtomNOreg]

Very enlightening though, given my current rig's specs, thoroughly depressing. Curse you for breaking my delusion that my PC was adequate! I feel an overwhelming urge to upgrade coming on.....

 

[micky_lund]

haha...the i5s so close to the i7 in everything ....such as an awesome buy for gaming, on the intel side at least

 

[Lewis57]

A great article. I'm impressed with the I5 in all these charts. It would of been nice to use something a bit beefier than the i7-920 to see if that itself is causing a bottle neck.

 

[gti88]

Wolfdale will still be a decent CPU until 2012, I guess.

 

[bikermicefrmars]

Where's i3, please include it in tests with same clock speed as E8400 and show its performance!

 

[kartu]

5770 wasn't even considered?

 

[Guest]

I am very suprised that the quad core processors seem to give better results with the 5870. I wonder why that is. I still have my Q6600 OC'ed to 3.2...I was thinking that I should upgrade to teh i5 750...but after seeing this article...I am struggling to find a reason.....well unless I have a lot of money for a dual GPU card.....NOT.....;(

 

[Guest]

Its total nonsense, buying pc for gaming today. I have Xbox360 and PS3 + Nintendo DS and also QuadCore based gaming PC. I dont play on PC anymore, im only using it for browsing, listening music and communicating with others. Netbook should be totally sufficient for such task, i will never buy PC for gaming in future. GO and buy gaming console, if you have good TV, and you will be sitting around 2 - 2,5 meters from screen, graphics is pretty good - totally sufficient.

 

[builderbobftw]

Its total nonsense, buying pc for gaming today. I have Xbox360 and PS3 + Nintendo DS and also QuadCore based gaming PC. I dont play on PC anymore, im only using it for browsing, listening music and communicating with others. Netbook should be totally sufficient for such task, i will never buy PC for gaming in future. GO and buy gaming console, if you have good TV, and you will be sitting around 2 - 2,5 meters from screen, graphics is pretty good - totally sufficient.

if the diffrence bewteen console and PC isn't night and day, you must be using a 5450.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Looking forward to reading the next article in the series.

 

[shin0bi272]

so you guys claim we should be looking to buy a 285 (dx10 card) and a core2 duo 8400 (socket 775)? Exactly what are you smoking? yeah here go buy this 1982 ford mustang... its a mustang for crying out loud... its just the WORST mustang ever made. And its old technology so you could do a lot better by buying a newer one that will last longer and have better technology.

 

[fatfatr]

Thank you god!!! I've been waiting for part 3 half a year now

 

[pauldh]

[citation][nom]liquidsnake718[/nom]I love how on the first page picture of all the games on this article show the games that truly take a toll on GPU's and CPU's. You are however missing Metro 2033 and Dirt 2 in DX11 which obliterates some GPUs in DX11![/citation]
Migrating to DX11 games presents a bit of a problem for the series. We aim to have have more DX11 hardware in the mix and likely will replace Shift with Dirt 2 for parts 5 & 6. Alternative is an all-DX11 follow-up at a later time.

 

[pauldh]

[citation][nom]agnickolov[/nom]And where is the Core i3 530? This is the real gaming gem of a CPU, but I hardly see it in any reviews @ Tom's...[/citation]
We have to draw the line somewhere in terms of additional hardware, as each CPU adds a substantial amount of lab-time. Not to mention these charts are about at capacity with 5 CPU's on the axis. Agree with you though, I'd like to bring an i3 into the series in place of a S775 chip.

 

[fisshy]

[citation][nom]complain[/nom]Its total nonsense, buying pc for gaming today. I have Xbox360 and PS3 + Nintendo DS and also QuadCore based gaming PC. I dont play on PC anymore, im only using it for browsing, listening music and communicating with others. Netbook should be totally sufficient for such task, i will never buy PC for gaming in future. GO and buy gaming console, if you have good TV, and you will be sitting around 2 - 2,5 meters from screen, graphics is pretty good - totally sufficient.[/citation]

Go away...

What customization can you perform on any of those consoles? "oooh Look i stuck a superman sticker on the back of my DS!"

Wheres the fun in having the same performance as everyone else?

Console fanboy-isim is a sin.