PC rig upgrades and tips

[Moeboid]

You should definitely consider AMD (ATI) cards. I see no reason not to. The difference between a GTX 560 and a GTX 580 is enormous. A GTX 560 is a upper mid-range card, where as a GTX 580 is top of the line. I also wouldn't recommend a GTX 560 as HD 6870s tend to be a better deal. I'd recommend the GTX 560Ti, but it's very close between that card and a HD6950.

As for what brand, it doesn't really matter. I've had issues with Gigabyte, but I might've just been unlucky. A friend of mine recommends Sapphire, but I'm not sure why. I've always been attracted to cards with custom cooling and sometimes factory overclocked cards. Other than that, I just get the cheapest one.

It sounds like you're just putting a basic system together (1 or 2 HDD's, 1 graphics card, 1 optical drive), a very basic motherboard is all you need. Have a look at my post in this thread as it has a little more info: http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=24832.

[Fiar]

Well, I'm building up. My current specs are:

I7 960 3.2 GHz
Dual Radeon 5770's
9 gigs of ram
Win 7 X64
I don't have to worry about cooling as much, my computer is liquid cooled.
Forgot my motherboard.

So it looks like I'd be going with a GTX 560Ti. I guess I have noticed more nVidia cards tend to be optimized the most with games (Which is why I wanna switch). Some don't even acknowledge ATI cards as a viable means of running it (Metro 2033 comes to mind). Basically, what I want is a GPU, Motherboard, and Power supply that will mesh together and will be able to play games for a couple years to come with little to no worry. Maybe I will need to upgrade my CPU, but I think it's fine for now.

That thread helps though, and I'm thankful for your input!

[Moeboid]

What exactly are you going to upgrade? Looking at your current system, I see no reason to upgrade anything other than possibly the graphics cards. A GTX 560Ti is only going to offer you about a 40% more performance over your current setup.

I'm curios about your criticism of ATI/AMD cards though. What are you basing this on?

[Fiar]

Metro 2033, as I've said, doesn't acknowledge ATI cards at all as a viable option for playing the game. I'm noticing others game suggesting them as well, Borderlands, Crysis, Crysis 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Rage. They all seem to be optimized for nVidia cards.

Now, I've enjoyed ATI cards myself, but if it is true that more games tend to favor nVidia cards over ATI; then it puts my experience at a disadvantage.

And I can't shake a stick at 40%. That's not really a small gap in performance for one card, versus two I already own. Perhaps I do acknowledge when I selected parts for this I should have at least went with the 5870 instead. I did talk to customer service with dell and they said the most my computer could handle is a 5970 with my current motherboard and power supply. Dimension wasn't a worry for larger GPU's.

Anyway, with the initial part, am I being too hard on ATI? Or am I actually noticing something?

[exoclipse]

From what I've seen in terms of benchmarking - tomshardware is a great place for this - there's very little penalty for using AMD cards in games 'optimized' for nVidia. Hell, I'm maxing BF3 on a Radeon 6850, which is definitely not one of their high end cards. Every game I own I've been able to max on it, at 35 FPS minimum, for BF3, and 60 for other games.

Except Dragon Age 2. If you're getting a PC to run DA2, /then/ you may want to consider nVidia.

[Moeboid]

Yay for HD 6850s! I'm using two of them and they're working fine for me. And like exoclipse, I've seen lots and lots of benchmarks and the AMD/ATI cards seem to be extremely competitive. So yeah, I think you are being a little hard on AMD/ATI.

[Fiar]

Alright, then I'll take a gander at your thread you mentioned earlier and go with a capable motherboard, GPU, and power supply.

How is my CPU though? I7 960 3.2 GHz.

[Moeboid]

Your current CPU is fine, as is your motherboard and power supply. As far as gaming is concerned, the weakest link is your GPU and it will still be the weakest with a GTX 560Ti in there.