Buying a new Gaming PC

Blix · 08-10-2011, 11:56 AM

My advice is to build your own rig. You have to do some research (which is always a good thing) and putting a computer together is easy and there's lots of videos and articles on youtube, ign and pretty much every computer website has an (obligatory) article on how to do it.

Edit: BTW Agrist, for $100 I think he can get a really good pc if he just reuses the case (the S&H on those is expensive) and maybe the hard drive and DVD burner. A really good gaming card goes for $300 and a good motherboard, I'd say, $200.

magus113 · 08-10-2011, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blix

My advice is to build your own rig. You have to do some research (which is always a good thing) and putting a computer together is easy and there's lots of videos and articles on youtube, ign and pretty much every computer website has an (obligatory) article on how to do it.

Edit: BTW Agrist, for $100 I think he can get a really good pc if he just reuses the case (the S&H on those is expensive) and maybe the hard drive and DVD burner. A really good gaming card goes for $300 and a good motherboard, I'd say, $200.

I think 300 for a good card is steep.

Maybe if you're doing nVidia rigs. nVidia cards are really expensive in my experience. I mean, I have an 8800 now since I haven't upgraded in about 2-3 years, but when I build my new rig, I'm going ATi. I just looked yesterday and an XFX 6750 with 1GB of GDDR5 256-bit RAM and Eyefinity for 170. That's a pretty damn good card, and if you're concerned about a little bit of future proofing a second one is pretty cheap so you can do CrossfireX with it.

CrosssfireX works a lot better for me too because SLi actually doesn't support dual monitors. I kinda need that, my PC doubles as a media center in my bedroom as well.

Blix · 08-10-2011, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magus113

I think 300 for a good card is steep.

Maybe if you're doing nVidia rigs. nVidia cards are really expensive in my experience. I mean, I have an 8800 now since I haven't upgraded in about 2-3 years, but when I build my new rig, I'm going ATi. I just looked yesterday and an XFX 6750 with 1GB of GDDR5 256-bit RAM and Eyefinity for 170. That's a pretty damn good card, and if you're concerned about a little bit of future proofing a second one is pretty cheap so you can do CrossfireX with it.

CrosssfireX works a lot better for me too because SLi actually doesn't support dual monitors. I kinda need that, my PC doubles as a media center in my bedroom as well.

I'm currently an ATI user. I am thinking of going with Nvidia because I always hear that their drivers are better and that they manage to mantain better FPS with higher Anti-aliasing. The 6950 (as far as I've heard) is where it's at. But at least up there, the competition is pretty close. I've heard that the 6850 is the best bang for your buck if you don't want to spend too much and that's $200 or less. I'm doing my research on Nvidia's cards but I haven't had much time. I know that Ati has problems in games like Dirt 3 where the drivers made the sun and the lighting be pink or something like that. But when Crysis 2 runs the way it should on Nvidia but had a significant performance problem on Ati cards, I really started believing what some dedicated PC builders were telling my about Nvidia and how it did some things better.

Overall it seems both companies have their strengths and weaknesses. I might change my mind back but I want to try the Nvidia cards next time. I'm buying a new card at the end of the year ( I hope) since i need a card that's DX11 ready and my 4890 is holding me back on that matter.

magus113 · 08-10-2011, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blix

I'm currently an ATI user. I am thinking of going with Nvidia because I always hear that their drivers are better and that they manage to mantain better FPS with higher Anti-aliasing. The 6950 (as far as I've heard) is where it's at. But at least up there, the competition is pretty close. I've heard that the 6850 is the best bang for your buck if you don't want to spend too much and that's $200 or less. I'm doing my research on Nvidia's cards but I haven't had much time. I know that Ati has problems in games like Dirt 3 where the drivers made the sun and the lighting be pink or something like that. But when Crysis 2 runs the way it should on Nvidia but had a significant performance problem on Ati cards, I really started believing what some dedicated PC builders were telling my about Nvidia and how it did some things better.

Overall it seems both companies have their strengths and weaknesses. I might change my mind back but I want to try the Nvidia cards next time. I'm buying a new card at the end of the year ( I hope) since i need a card that's DX11 ready and my 4890 is holding me back on that matter.

The drivers thing is probably an issue cause I'm sure I've heard about things like that from ATi users, but you also have to understand that when games are coded specifically for nVidia cards, it's all marketing bullshit. How can you expect things to run perfectly when you're not doing your job as a developer and making games that run well on all hardware, driver issues aside? There's a money thing happening behind the scenes, I'm sure of it. Why else would games be marketed with nVidia as "the way it's meant to be played"?

I have friends that are currently ATi users and they haven't had issues running anything current so who knows. I just don't like paying a lot of money for cards that can run just as well for something that costs almost twice as much.

Blix · 08-10-2011, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magus113

The drivers thing is probably an issue cause I'm sure I've heard about things like that from ATi users, but you also have to understand that when games are coded specifically for nVidia cards, it's all marketing bullshit. How can you expect things to run perfectly when you're not doing your job as a developer and making games that run well on all hardware, driver issues aside? There's a money thing happening behind the scenes, I'm sure of it. Why else would games be marketed with nVidia as "the way it's meant to be played"?

I have friends that are currently ATi users and they haven't had issues running anything current so who knows. I just don't like paying a lot of money for cards that can run just as well for something that costs almost twice as much.

Maybe the games being coded with one company in mind has something to do with it. But there's also games with "Runs better with ATI" on them. Nvidia will have the series 600 out by the time I have money to buy a new card and Ati will have the 78XX series too. I'll check them both out later and decide. I don't have much time to do a proper research and even less interest because I have no money for them atm.

gekko · 08-14-2011, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magus113

The drivers thing is probably an issue cause I'm sure I've heard about things like that from ATi users, but you also have to understand that when games are coded specifically for nVidia cards, it's all marketing bullshit. How can you expect things to run perfectly when you're not doing your job as a developer and making games that run well on all hardware, driver issues aside? There's a money thing happening behind the scenes, I'm sure of it. Why else would games be marketed with nVidia as "the way it's meant to be played"?

Your analysis is fascinating. Gave me a good laugh.