PCIE 3.0

[MADe]

I have a couple of GTX 550's. The fan failed on 1 of them. I was a dope and lost the receipt. I put back in the 2 gtx 260's, they were better than the 550 ti singled. I use a 9800 in my bench/backup machine. It was the only time I spit away big bucks on a vid card. The 2 260's were cheaper by half....

my ma needs a new machine. I been itchy to build one. But I will not build 1 to just make a cheapie. Might as well get the modern stuff if I'm gonna spend it.

[Pudgie]

No biggie, MADe....................

The only reason why I brought up the possibility of adding more RAM was due to seeing you're using Win 7 Ultimate 64 OS as--this is an assumption--Win 7 of all stripes will have SuperFetch enabled (unless you turn it off) in which it will try to load as much data into available mem if it thinks it needs it ahead of time or data for any apps ahead of time that are currently running to try to minimize data reads from storage into mem or writes from mem back to storage to enhance it's own operations or any active apps operations. If you don't have enough mem available to accommodate this OS itself & the active app(s) running it will be doing more reads/writes to\from storage & thus slowing down overall computer operations\performance................

Depending on the apps\games run the 6Gb capacity might get overrun w/ Win 7 using SuperFetch causing slowdowns that might show up as a stutter in game................ By putting in more RAM this issue could be minimized further or eliminated altogether................

As far as I know you may not have had any issues w/ this but this was what I was thinking about w/ your setup................
 
Since w/ X58 came Tri Channel mem modulation (mainly due to the growing popularity of multi-GPU setups at that time) I figured that your setup would be 3-2Gb mem modules which would enable Tri Channel where all 3 modules would be read\written at the same time in 1 FSB clock pass to improve mem thruput performance.................. ..

Sometimes it's not easy to subdue the geek in me.......................

 

 

[MADe]

since I use ssd's I have superfetch disabled. 1ms seek time Game does not use the drive so much after load anyways.
w7 itself does require 1gb all itself. when I fly the only app running is the game. I reduced what processes I can.
the only thing that ever really bugged me was the way the different pc's interact. but that can't be helped until you can get faster connects worldwide.
I think that the greatest limitation for me is my isp.  dsl service 3gb dl/ 600KB ul

I found the sweet spot for my hardwares OC. I am very reticent to upset the balance. All the little os tweaks, I prolly cannot remember all them.
if it ain't broke...
the game still does not deal with multicore cpus, its gonna be all about gpu ram. upgrading the vid card is prolly the 1 hardware change that will not upset the apple cart. he he

[MADe]

kind of a no brainer, price diff being minimal, 4 GB of ram gotta win.

[bustr]

For this game GDDR5 RAM and Bandwidth will be more telling about the outcome of your experience.

1G GDDR5 and 80Gbyte sec band width will allow you to play with an average experience. When your BW is below 80, things will get choppy and you will have to turn things off and lower sliders. Some experiences will vary in response to how many of what functions are built into the GPU. But, band width is the key number to just how fast your processed function results will get out there.

My ATI 6770
GDDR5 - 1G
Data Paths - 128bit
Band Width - 80 Gbyte sec.

GTX 750
GDDR5 - 1G
Data Paths - 128bit
Band Width - 80 Gbyte sec.

GTX 960
GDDR5 - 2G
Data Paths - 128bit
Band Width - 112 Gbyte sec.

GTX 980
GDDR5 - 4G
Data Paths - 256bit
Band Width - 224 Gbyte sec.

[Pudgie]

Looks like you got all in hand, MADe.

I completely understand your process as I make choices as well based on available research, others thoughts & opinions tempered by my own knowledge\understanding w/ the goal of all parts working together...................

See ya up there!

 

 

[MADe]

the 700 series is prolly more than up to it. but for a few bucks more, and it is a few considering, I would get something that would be markedly better.

[Chalenge]

MADe, I know I already indicated that the 750Ti would be adequate, but I want to point out that newer game titles are going to quickly outpace these cards. You will be stuck at 1080p resolutions, for instance.

I would not buy a card based purely upon the VRAM bandwidth. It's an 'okay' yardstick when you are talking ballpark numbers, but it is not a definite measure of anything tangible.

However, if one of these cards will satisfy you until another day when you can get something for higher resolutions (those days are coming), then you will have that going for you.

[MADe]

good to know.
I use a SONY Bravia LED TV. 1080p is plenty. My screen is right there in front of me and I will have no need to change for a long time. I would not even be considering a new card except for game. AH's really the only card intensive thing I do. resolution, after a point, the eye cannot tell. gaming has a tendency to suffer under super high object details, so in past less was more. now with all the new processing power cpu/gpu, objects de every where is coming out.
ie:knee high grass

I wish they'd work over the transmission/receive end, gotta be some new software innovations for faster....................... ..


what I want is something that works with my bravia well. hdmi connection, native res, its about getting real time as possible...........