Gaming RIG Upgrade; CPU, GPU or RAM ???

lol i just started testing with orthos just before reading your posts

with the stock cooler @ 3GHz speedfan was reading temps of 66c+ when running orthos

so instead i reverted all voltages back to stock, but my 800 was running at 900MHz, so eventually the ram overheated, but orthos and my cpu alarm alerted me before any damage could be made.

so now again i have reverted all voltages back to stock, with x10 FSB multiplier at 2.5GHz & memory at 800MHz

now idles @ 39c-42c a bit lower than what it was. averages at about 59c under full load, which is about right, maxes at 62c, allot lower than previously, still above 60c tho, but that's fine because even Crysis & WiC doesn't use 100% cpu like orthos right, because when i switch between cysis & speedfan, the reading is not as high as 62c on both cores

well got my arctic cooler 7 pro coming in, that should resolve the issue, right?

and does anyone know how reliable speedfan readings are?
 
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now the prices have dropped in both ATi & Nvidia ranges

i think i will be getting this: Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 £125

it's roughly £20 - £30 more expensive than any OC or standard 8800GT, but performs better in the benchmarks against the 8800GTX & 9800GTX, @ a fraction of the cost of a GTX 260/280 board or a 9800 board

please tell me if you think i'm wrong

here's the cards benchmarks:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14967/7
 
yeah the freezer 7 will lower your temps, and games do use 100% of the cpu but may not get them as hot as orthos or other testing programs (as they are designed to produce maximum heat and use maximum power to properly test your overclock) and that ati card seems good. its at a good price too. i would snap it up. keep checking temps when you install your new freezer 7 cpu but be warned it takes about 200 hours of use to properly set in the thermal paste that somes with arctic cooling heatsinks so you might not get brilliant results straight off the bat.
 
yeah got the 4850 & arctic freezer pro 7 on its way.. yeah i was readin abt arctic coolers thermal compound.. on a customer review of it, as the compound hardens over 200h, the better it will perform
 
yeah it has what is called a "burn in" period of about 200hours before it reaches its full potential. let us know how the upgrade goes. maybe you could do a 3d mark test before and after your upgrade.
put your cpu back to stock settings and run 3d mark 05 then put your new graphics card in and overclock your cpu to about 3.0-3.2Ghz and run 3d mark 05 again and let us know the results. would be interesting to see how much difference it would make lol good luck with the upgrade.
 
yeah will do, y 3dmark05 not 06?
 
you can run 2001se 03 05 06 or even 3d mark vantage it was just the one that came to the top of my head lol
 
oh ok lol

well here's a benchmark at 2.5GHz with 3dmark06 (is it just me or does my score suck)
 

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i dont know how you attatched it but i cant see it. it just says "Attatched Thumbnails"
 
i click the thumbnail and the image loads in java i think?
 
there was no thumbnail before and now there is but i click it and it doesnt load up properly, might be my pc's so can anyone else see it?
 
Received the order today, all installed, so here's the results:

(I couldn't get the benchmarks for 2.0GHz, as my 3dmark06 wouldn't work when I clocked it back down, GPU drivers went funny, my x1950 had no temp sensors either)

I also couldn't get a stable config @ 3.2GHz, so stuck @ 3GHz (9x333)
_______________________________________________________________

Triplex x1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 (stock clocks: GPU @ 573.75MHz Mem @ 648MHz)

e2180 stock fan @ 2.5 GHz (no voltage increase 10x250)

3dmark06: 4665

WIC (1680x1050, dx9 very high) benchmark fps: average: 6 lowest: 1 highest: 21

ATI Tray Tools Benchmark: 12114

CPU temps Using Orthos, Speedfan & Real Temp: Idle: 40c Load: 59c

average case temp: idle: 28c load: 29.5c
_______________________________________________________________

Sapphire HD4850 512MB GDDR3 (stock clocks: GPU @ 500MHz, Mem @ 750MHz) (OC clocks: GPU @ 680MHz, Mem @ 1140MHz) with Antec VCool (under GPU air-intake)

GPU OC temps: idle: 66c load: 87c

Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro MX-1 Paste e2180 @ 3GHz (9x333) (vcore 1.4v (stock 1.325v), mch ov +0.1v, fsb ov +0.1)

3dmark06: 11046

WIC (1680x1050, dx9 very high) benchmark fps: average: 37 lowest: 17 highest: 81

ATI Tray Tools Benchmark: 23854.42

CPU temps Using Othros, SpeedFan & Real Temp: Idle: 35c Load: 59c

average case temp: idle: 27c load: 29c
_______________________________________________________________

as you can see, the e2180 is bottlenecking the (still toasty HD4850 even after the hotfix)

& the ac freezer 7 pro is just awesome!!

but overall, I am very happy with the upgrade!
 
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Playing Crysis @ most high settings, a few medium, 8x AA, 1680x1050. average fps about 33, x1950 averaged about 19 FPS on lowest settings & lowest resolutions!

had to bump down clocks as Crysis was glitchy, a large number of artefacts were seen & mainly it crashed my pc.

GPU now @ 600MHz Mem @ 1000MHz & stable I think
 
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the overclocks on your graphics card where very high. 500mhz core stock and you put i tup to 680? thats a huge increase. but you seem to have a good performance increase with your new card and overclocked processor. hope it all works out well. another happy customer :p
 
lol those clocks were what ATi OverDrive auto overclock reccomended

even though it was unstable

hence I'm now I'm running @ 600MHz/1000MHz
 
Hi guys, I found this place thanks to googling graphics cards because I'm planning on building a gaming rig, I was gonna get a Nvidia 8800 series but this topic made me realise how much more power to your pound you get and I'm planning on getting a Power Color HD 4870 cause I'm a cooling freak and a single slot card would keep me constantly worrying and I decided to post here because I found this beauty on ebuyer, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146429/show_product_overview
Just thought i'd share the incredibly cheap price of £180 I plan on getting one because I will be strapped for cash as it is and maybe pick another up for crossfireX
 
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single slot cooling sollutions are ok for standard use but if your overclocking or want thigns to run cooler or quieter then a bigger cooler is always best :p but sometimes a single slot cooler is all you have space for if you got a small case or runing dual graphics cards on a tight packed motherboard.
 
lol i wrote that 1st review for the power color on ebuyer u got there

that is a good buy, it's been on pre-order 4 ages, should be in 3-5 days
 
Whats the most powerful game you can play at max quality and 1680x1050 or lower resolution with more than 25fps average? Crysis doesn't count but feel free to tell me your average for that at high quality :thumbsup:

EDIT: The most powerful game with your 4870.
EDIT 2: And about the small case thing, I plan on getting this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268, yes thats 2 front fans 1 rear 1 side and 1 middle on the HDD cage all of which are 120mm fans plus a beast of a top fan at 200mm!
 
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I don't own a 4870, I put that "review" there so others wanting to buy it could see the reviews & what a treat they're in 4.

I do own a Sapphire 4850 off ebuyer actually, that plays Crysis @ 1680x1050 no AA, medium shadows, medium shaders, everything else high @ average 42 FPS

Mass Effect

UT3

WIC

R6Vegas

R6Vegas2

GRID

Supreme Commander

COD4

Gears of War

ET Quake Wars

Bioshock

DIRT - this is like the Crysis equiv in racing games

All of those games on high settings @ 1680x1050 average over 30FPS using Fraps
 
Wow thats one hell of a card, if a 4850 can do that imagine what a stock core clock of 750MHz 4870 can do! Who would've thought that a single card can do that, what do you think it will be like for future games? Also what is a good FPS for crysis? 30FPS? I'm used to playing FFXI at about 18fps average so I wouldn't know lol
 
And about the small case thing, I plan on getting this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268, yes thats 2 front fans 1 rear 1 side and 1 middle on the HDD cage all of which are 120mm fans plus a beast of a top fan at 200mm!

The Antec 900 is the dogs danglies as most modders would say

<30 FPS very limited gameplay
30-40 FPS average yet very playable
40-60 FPS good gameplay
>60 FPS best possible gameplay

The 4850 will work for a long time yet to come, I reckon in a years time it will be able to play the latest games on medium to high settings (what is high now), at fps above 30

Yes ATi has done well, I was literally just going to upgrade from my x1950 Pro to the 8800GT, heard about the 4800, waited 1 week, a few days earlier because of early release! saw the reviews of the 4850 & literally jumped on it as soon as ebuyer stocked it... & this is the best purchase I've made in yonks!

Your 4870 will be immense!

There's the review of the 4870 again: http://en.expreview.com/2008/06/24/first-review-hd-4870-and-hd-4850/25/

Nvidia's new 9800GTX+ just beats the HD 4850 now but @ a slightly higher price tag

The HD 4870 is on par with the GTX 260 but @ a way lower price tag, in XfireX the 4870 is going to slay the GTX 280, it's already shown that XfireX HD 4850's beats the GTX 280 for the same cost as 1 GTX 260

And we must not forget the arrival of the HD 4870x2 which is supposed to run better in quad fire (2 x 4870x2) than 4 x 4870's

Guru3D's latest 4870 review is here!!
 
I'm sorry if this is off topic but whats the difference between Intel and AMD now? Is there a huge gap in performance and stuff like that? I'm quite new to most computing technology and have never built a computer before, this gaming rig will be my first, Is there any major downsides between intel and amd? Or is it just down to preference?
 
at the moment intel produce the fastest CPU's, amd cpu's are good but not as good as intel. there was a time a cople of years back where AMD where "best for gamers" but intel have taken that title at the moment. as for downsides..... it depends what you want from a pc but intel are the top performers at the moment. preference can play a part (i used to be an AMD man.... untill intel released there core 2 ranges)
 
AMD's Fastest Quad Phenom Processor did actually perform worse than Intel's slowest Quad Core

I'm not sure if that's still the case, but Intel are literally still a generation ahead of AMD
 

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