Hardware Discussion Thread

[Garteal]

(01-02-2015, 02:46 AM)Xtreme2damax Wrote: I want to, man do I want to. The GTX 970 makes me drool for the performance I could get out of them, being able to run pretty much all my games on ultra with excellent fps including Skyrim with graphical and enb mods. It's too bad that friggin gpu's are expensive as hell and the msrp never goes down ever and I don't trust buying anything other than new hardware.

They're amazing GPUs well worth their price imo. I recently got two MSI GTX 970s and damn they overclock well.

Quote:Btw sli compatibilities aren't the issue but the fact one or both my gpu's may be defective or failing or have some kind of other underlying issue. Even with a single gpu performance isn't so good with some games that should be seeing better performance with my hardware.

I'm reading quite a lot of problems (usually with games that aren't supported), but that's even worse. Have you not isolated the issue yet? Ran them one by one and see which one performs worse or not? How are the clocks, temps and VRM temps?

Quote:It doesn't matter the cooler I've always got subpar temps. So far I've tried two cooler and my current cooler is the Thermaltake Frio, the fan control knob/circuit is broken so the fan control is an open circuit. I'm not sure if that has any effect on fan speed and consequently temps. This was my previous cooler back when I originally assembled this system. I forgot to update my profile so I'll go ahead and do that later.

Have you dusted out your PC yet? How does the airflow in your case look? Snap a pic of it if you want.
What are you monitoring your components with?

Quote:I meant plastic or rubber washers not anything metallic that would short the board out. It seems like resting directly on the standoffs might case damage if the system was moved around or jarred or so I mistakenly thought it seems. I've had two of these boards fail on me so far and I doubt this one will last either but that may just be the crappy manufacturing and quality control where practically everyone had problems with this board at some point.

I wouldn't put em on and if you secured your motherboard properly then you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever.

Quote:It's not too bad but it's still kind of messy and could be improved. There are a couple case parts - a gpu holder and vga fan duct, one of which can be used for cable management and both for better ventilation. If I could figure out how to properly install them but it seems I have trouble fitting them in. My case is the Cooler Master HAF X 942.

Glancing over it, that's a good case with decent cable management options. Would love to see a pic or so to perhaps be able to give a tip or two.

(01-02-2015, 03:17 AM)Xtreme2damax Wrote: ^ I like Nvidia better. The only time I had AMD/ATI hardware was when I got a laptop and in old prebuilt systems from way back. From what I've read Nvidia hardware and drivers are better with less issues. AMD also isn't a good choice for Dolphin since buffer_storage doesn't work as well with AMD as it does Nvidia. Is that AMD gpu equivalent to the 970, how much would I save over purchasing an equivalent Nvidia gpu? AMD may be cheaper but not by much and Nvidia/Intel are better for my needs. Keep in mind I don't only want to run Skyrim but other games and applications some of which perform better with Nvidia than AMD.

As someone who had a 4870 -> 6870 -> 280x, I haven't had too much problems with an AMD card. They're a good purchase for the buck but if you can spare a little more cash, I would definitely recommend an NVIDIA card over an AMD card.

And no, the 290 isn't the equivalent. They 290x comes close, but I'd suggest you save up for the GTX 970.

[Anti-Ultimate]

Considering getting a GTX970, wait for R9 390 instead? Currently on a kinda broken HD7970

[Garteal]

If you absolutely can't wait, go for it. So far there's been nothing but improvements: it runs cooler, is more efficient and uses less power.

[AnyOldName3]

DatKid said the GPU he recommended was enough for Skyrim at 4k, 60 FPS with texture mods. That doesn't strike me as realistic given that I usually get 45 ish, with peaks at 60 and troughs of 10 (discounting really long frames while textures are loaded in) with a reasonably modest ENB and slightly fewer/lower res texture mods than I want at only 1080p. The radeon isn't hugely more powerful than what I've got.

[DatKid20]

I didn't say with texture mods. I said 4k 60FPS. I meant vanilla for 4k 60fps.

[AnyOldName3]

Vanilla's another story. However, there are cheaper cards than what you suggested that can do that, and besides, playing without an ENB is just asking for regular seemingly random CTDs. You can't shy away from your texture mod claim, though, as you said it.

[Xtreme2damax]

I presume no one had any suggestions for the following questions I posted?

Quote:- For the VGA card holder I need an 80x15mm fan but am having trouble finding such a fan fitting those exact dimensions. I searched via Amazon but results didn't come up as just 80x15mm but came up as either 80mm or 80x15xXXmm etc..

- A better heatsink than stock Nvidia/EVGA heatsink for my gpu. A less bulky fan guard assembly to give the gpu's breathing room since the pci-e slots are so close together. A preferred thermal paste to reseat the gpu heatsinks.

- Is there not anywhere I can purchase spring retensioned screws for a gpu heatsink or am I forced to risk making my own and potentially screwing something up? I can try to snap a picture of the screws on the one gpu if I feel like taking it out.

- How good is the ceramic heatsink on the northbridge of my Sabertooth X58? I was thinking of pulling it and replacing with an actual heatsink and fan.

I found out it does not matter if the gpu bios appears to be different between the two gpu's, it should not cause any issues. I'd like to try resolving the gpu issues until I have enough for a GTX 970, besides if I decide to sell them I could get more off of them since no one is going to want to purchase failing or faulty hardware at anything other than a rock bottom flat price if even that. I might end up using at least one GTX 460 when I get a 970 to set up another box for lan play with my sibling and any friends. All I would need is to repair the mobo power connector my spare psu, a new cooler, spare hdd and use my LGA 775 mobo with the Core2Duo, a stick or two of ram. The good news is I have pretty much everything here for a spare box sans a case and some odds and ends.

[DatKid20]

(01-03-2015, 12:17 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: Vanilla's another story. However, there are cheaper cards than what you suggested that can do that, and besides, playing without an ENB is just asking for regular seemingly random CTDs. You can't shy away from your texture mod claim, though, as you said it.

No I didn't. You read my comment wrong which isn't my fault. Get over it. You don't need a ENB to get over the CTDs. ENBoost has been a easy download for a while. 

[kinkinkijkin]

enboost is enb, datkid.

[DatKid20]

*Facepalm* It doesn't have the effects on the CPU or GPU that AnyOldName3 was talking about.