• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

Building a Gaming PC

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Minimum: "LOL! and we dont mean League of Legends"
 
I will clear up that while I only play Blizzard type of games on my laptop now, that's because I've had a console for so long. If I invest a sizable amount of money into a gaming rig, it's going to have to be able to play pretty much any market game. I'm assuming the games I play now will run no problem at max settings but I want more 'traditional' fps, rig, etc. games to run well too. Still love all this information - ESPECIALLY the websites you guys recommended.

1000$ was a vague figure I threw out there. When I get really into the process, 1000$ won't be a firm point; I just didn't want you guys throwing out 2k+ rig ideas out there. Should it come to a matter of value, I can definitely see my self spending a few hundred bucks extra to invest in higher quality parts. I want this thing to last a while. I'll also be leaving upgradability as a huge factor, like Gouri mentioned in terms of planning on getting a second GPU down the line.
 
gourimoko said:
That sounds like a GPU issue, not CPU. There is just no way to account for a 20 FPS difference between those two processors considering BF3. The most likely difference was that one of you had MSAA turned on and the other had it turned off as that would account for such a discrepancy given the graphics cards you listed.

Also note that BF3 is optimized for the Intel i5-2600k (which is a great processor), but on a GeForce 580, you will get roughly ~80 FPS no matter what CPU you use. BF3 simply is NOT CPU bound. Only with multiplayer is the CPU an issue, and quad core or better configurations will all fair just fine.

Also, procedural asset generation (something I know quite a bit about) is almost always done on-demand and using a dynamic LOD (level of detail). It's not something that you would notice frame-to-frame as that would be VERY poorly optimized code. The assets should be generated and distinct points in the given timeline and this is assuredly offloaded to a particular thread on the CPU with a progressive return value (again, LOD). There's almost no chance that BF3 would cause such an issue with respect to your CPUs.

The graphics card and settings or another issue (perhaps different Catalyst drivers) was certainly the cause. BF3 is simply not CPU bound.



Ehh.. If you have a limited budget of $1,000, and you know your only goal is to use this machine for gaming, the money spent on an Intel processor could be put into a better graphics card. Same goes for Nvidia GPUs; they drive up the cost of the potential motherboard to support SLI. A complete AMD solution CPU/GPU is fine, and in a dual-GPU configuration could give you substantially more performance while staying under budget.

Now, if budget isn't an issue at all, surely Intel is the choice processor, SLI is likely more performant (slightly), and Nvidia cards will do fine (for now). But we're not really talking about building the ultimate gaming rig are we? We talking about building one under $1,000. My money would be on AMD.
Click to expand...

I did quite a bit of testing as to why my FPS was different then the nearly identical PC, even switching the cards to the other PC etc. Had a few diagnostic programs running on both PC's, and while his CPU was only running at 50-70% on all 4 cores load at most during stressful times, mine was running at 80-100%. So either it was bad drivers, or the CPU was bottlenecking it. Researched a couple articles off of tomshardware and it all pointed to my CPU being the bottleneck.

Again, I'm a different gamer in that I play a lot of old games, which AMD notably doesn't support that well. But AMD hasn't been good to me over the last 3-4 years so I personally would not recommend them.
 
Ren said:
I did quite a bit of testing as to why my FPS was different then the nearly identical PC, even switching the cards to the other PC etc. Had a few diagnostic programs running on both PC's, and while his CPU was only running at 50-70% on all 4 cores load at most during stressful times, mine was running at 80-100%. So either it was bad drivers, or the CPU was bottlenecking it. Researched a couple articles off of tomshardware and it all pointed to my CPU being the bottleneck.

Again, I'm a different gamer in that I play a lot of old games, which AMD notably doesn't support that well. But AMD hasn't been good to me over the last 3-4 years so I personally would not recommend them.
Click to expand...

The good thing about AMD is that you can upgrade your CPU like once each year for three years for the price your friend paid for his one Intel CPU. :chuckles:
 
my graphic cards alone cost 1400 lol. 2x 780ti Superclocked -- Custom water loop was 1000 -- everything else about 1500 -- of course this was all slowly put together in a year and half...


Case: Corsair 900D
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z77
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k 3.5 GHz (overclock to 4.5GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1600 (overclocked to 1866)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6.0GBs
SSD: 256GB Samsung 840 PRO Series
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 780ti Superclocked
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
Water Cooling: XSPC Photon - d5 Pump - CPU/GPU Waterblock - 2x 480 rad - 1 140 rad
OD: Pioneer BD/DVD/CD Burner
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Monitor: Yamakasi Catleap 2B Extreme Overclockable
 
ClevelandOwnz said:
my graphic cards alone cost 1400 lol. 2x 780ti Superclocked -- Custom water loop was 1000 -- everything else about 1500 -- of course this was all slowly put together in a year and half...


Case: Corsair 900D
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z77
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k 3.5 GHz (overclock to 4.5GHz)
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1600 (overclocked to 1866)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6.0GBs
SSD: 256GB Samsung 840 PRO Series
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 780ti Superclocked
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
Water Cooling: XSPC Photon - d5 Pump - CPU/GPU Waterblock - 2x 480 rad - 1 140 rad
OD: Pioneer BD/DVD/CD Burner
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Monitor: Yamakasi Catleap 2B Extreme Overclockable
Click to expand...

Benchmarks please!
 
You guys are making me want to build a new PC, even though I just built this one last year. Gotta stay out of this thread before I get $1500 poorer, lol.
 
Jack Brickman said:
This is the CPU in my PC:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4904561&CatId=7339

$169 for an eight core 4GHz unlocked CPU. That's a hell of a deal, and AMD offers even cheaper options for a budget rig. You're just not going to get that kind of performance on a comparably-priced Intel rig.

Note: I think this CPU was either $200 or $250 around a year ago when I bought it. Still a great value.

My GPU is the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 4GB edition, which I'll probably be upgrading sometime in the next year. Probably when the third Witcher game comes out. Not sure my current rig can handle that beast on the highest settings. :chuckles:

For the best budget rig, go AMD for CPU and nVidia for CPU imo.
Click to expand...

This processor looks nasty and I'm baffled at the low price. 8 cores and that speed under 200$? Somebody tell me what the catch is. Compatibility? Cooling?
 
Cassity14 said:
This processor looks nasty and I'm baffled at the low price. 8 cores and that speed under 200$? Somebody tell me what the catch is. Compatibility? Cooling?
Click to expand...

your penis will shrink, figuratively at least
 
Cassity14 said:
This processor looks nasty and I'm baffled at the low price. 8 cores and that speed under 200$? Somebody tell me what the catch is. Compatibility? Cooling?
Click to expand...

I've had it for a year and it's still going strong. I believe I read that it does run hot, but I have a nice water cooling system in my PC and haven't had any overheating issues.
 
That leads to my next stupid question: cooling.

Do I need to purchase a separate cooling system? Liquid cooling seems to be a buzzword everywhere I look. Is liquid cooling reliable? Is it just another 'lego' that gets plugged in? Do cases normally come with cooling systems already installed?
 
Cassity14 said:
That leads to my next stupid question: cooling.

Do I need to purchase a separate cooling system? Liquid cooling seems to be a buzzword everywhere I look. Is liquid cooling reliable? Is it just another 'lego' that gets plugged in? Do cases normally come with cooling systems already installed?
Click to expand...

Fans are always fine, you may want to add a fan or two to your case if you want. Downsides to fans are they can be loud and if you are gonna over clock then you probably want liquid cooling, or at least beefier heatsinks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-14: "Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:14: " Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey."
Top