Looking for advice on new PC

[Beirut]

I'm no tech-wizard, but from what I am hearing, I'd go with one better quality card instead of a lower SLI setup. Also, a 560GTX card that costs the same as a 460 is said to be as much as 33% faster. (That's just something I read, take it with a grain of salt.) I just installed a GTX 560 Ti card running at 900mhz for $250 and it works like a charm. Hell, if you have $500 to spend on a video card, get a GTX580. You'll be in dreamland with that card.

In any case, your setup is great, but the 460 is "yesterday's card", so I'm not sure I see the merit in spending the money to buy two of them.

Check out this link for some good stats.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[JeromeBaker]

Thanks Beirut, I will check out the GTX580 and 560. Graphix cards was probably the part I knew least about when I started thinking about the new rig. Your reply is much appreciated!

[Beirut]

Thanks Beirut, I will check out the GTX580 and 560. Graphix cards was probably the part I knew least about when I started thinking about the new rig. Your reply is much appreciated!

My pleasure.

Unilt a few weeks ago, I was completely out of the loop. I had been running an E6700 dual-core/8800GTS rig for a few years and lost touch with tech-reality. But when I decided to upgrade, I read a ton and checked out all the stats and asked a hundred questions on the flightsim forums. Flightsims, especially FSX, are the nastiest programs to run (some guys are running FSX with 500GB+ installs) and they really know their stuff. These guys are tweaking everything to the max just to squeeze out another 5 to 10FPS when using some of the specialized sceneries.

In any case, my i5-2500/GTX560 rig (probably the best bang-for-the-buck setup) runs really well. If you end up with an i7-2600k and a GTX580, you're pretty much running the best rig available. Unless you're planing on taking over the world with your computer, you don't need anything more.

[JeromeBaker]

Only planing to take over the world on Total war games!

I never really had the extra money or could justify having a top end setup before despite being an avid gamer. After many years of running games on middle/average settings I figured it was finnaly time for an upgrade so I can see how awesome the games comming out really look. When I was looking at people posting pics/videos of S2TW with nice systems, I was shocked how much better some of the vids/screen shots looked compared to what I was seeing on my computer. Then I looked at what Crysis 2 looked like and decided it was time for an upgrade.

[Lemur]

I do not believe an SLI setup is justified for a TW game, unless you are running it on multiple high-rez monitors. Second Beirut's opinion that a single good card is a better investment than two downmarket cards. The video card is the first part you're going to replace in a couple of years, anyway. I usually go through three video cards before upgrading my entire rig (but then I like to get an unreasonable 5-6 years out of each build).

[JeromeBaker]

10-4, thanks Lemur. I am going to go the route both you and Beirut are suggesting.

[Furunculus]

always better to get one good card than two average ones.

if i was buying right now i'd get:

£160 - AMD 990FX motherboard (AM3+)
£230 - AMD 6970 2GB graphics
£70 - AMD Phenom II X4 840 (fine for now, stick an 8 core bulldozer for £150 in eight months time.