The Computer Megathread

[PJ Boy]

how much are you paying for it? do you personally know the guy?

Paying $617 for it. My dad's work works with this guy all the time. I met him too. He's a real character.

[Ad Bot]

[Sulfate]

Paying $617 for it. My dad's work works with this guy all the time. I met him too. He's a real character.

I suppose you'll be fine then .. but I don't like the idea of paying for something that you don't know the specs for. Do you know how many cores the CPU will have? How much RAM, anything like that? Did he tell you anything other than "it'll come to $617" ?

[Ethan]

So I have a scenario followed by a question.

So I'm getting a gaming computer built with a whole bunch of great hardware. I don't know the specs because I'm having a computer expert build it, and he knows a lot about computers.

To keep the price down, I'm recycling the graphics card that is in the current computer, a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. 512 MB of Memory. It's kind of old.

I'm planning to run Battlefield 3 with it at hopefully high settings, but I'm not sure it would actually work. The new computer will have Windows 7 64-bit Professional on it.

Old graphics card won't do it, sorry.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127592R

DO I GET?

It's just a standard 560, which are pretty much equal if not a little worse than a 6870.

[PJ Boy]

I suppose you'll be fine then .. but I don't like the idea of paying for something that you don't know the specs for. Do you know how many cores the CPU will have? How much RAM, anything like that? Did he tell you anything other than "it'll come to $617" ?

From what I remember of the conversation, 8 Gigs of RAM, i5 processor(s?), and a 1 TB Black Drive (A fast hard drive.) It was quite some time ago.
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.

Old graphics card won't do it, sorry.

Darn. Time to save up some dog sitting money.

[Ethan]

From what I remember of the conversation, 8 Gigs of RAM, i5 processor(s?), and a 1 TB Black Drive (A fast hard drive.) It was quite some time ago.

Should be a good build.
You will definitely want a better card though. It would be a mistake to keep that.

[steve5451]

I'm planning to run Battlefield 3 with it at hopefully high settings, but I'm not sure it would actually work. The new computer will have Windows 7 64-bit Professional on it.

I would get a better card, I do not believe that card can keep up much at all.

[PJ Boy]

It works pretty well on the current system it's installed on. It runs most games at max settings. It's a shame. It works so freaking well too...

[Ethan]

It works pretty well on the current system it's installed on. It runs most games at max settings. It's a shame. It works so freaking well too...

Keep your current system and go for a dual computer setup :D
It's amazing how handy it is.

Or you could install it as a PhysX card in your new system.

[PJ Boy]

Keep your current system and go for a dual computer setup :D
It's amazing how handy it is.

Or you could install it as a PhysX card in your new system.

The current computer is already dual boot if that means anything. One hard drive is for work and stuff, while the other is used for gaming.

And PhysX? Could you elaborate a bit more on that? The card has it, but what does it have to do with installation?

[HerpaDerp]

Hey Ethan how much do you think the 6870 will run on BF3 on Ultra max settings on the rig you showed me with 1440x900?

[Nickelob Ultra]

And PhysX? Could you elaborate a bit more on that? The card has it, but what does it have to do with installation?

PhysX is an Nvidia-acquired technology which is basically a really well-built emulation of real-world physics.

Some games feature so much PhysX that it can be applicable to add in a separate graphics card for the sole purpose of calculating everything that is PhysX, and taking the load of PhysX off the main GPU so it can work on rendering solely.

See this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UNRp7Wrog&feature=player_embedded

Some games feature this technology greatly, some don't.

[Righteous One]

bf3 is pretty demanding. it should do great on high, but i wouldn't expext to be playing it on ultra-max. bf3 also favors nvidia cards

[Ethan]

bf3 is pretty demanding. it should do great on high, but i wouldn't expext to be playing it on ultra-max. bf3 also favors nvidia cards

One of my older rigs with a first-gen Phenom triple core, and a nearly equivalent HD5850, runs BF3 on completely max with 8xAA edge detect.
It runs at about 40 to 50fps with just a small resolution drop to 1366x768.

PhysX is an Nvidia-acquired technology which is basically a really well-built emulation of real-world physics.

Some games feature so much PhysX that it can be applicable to add in a separate graphics card for the sole purpose of calculating everything that is PhysX, and taking the load of PhysX off the main GPU so it can work on rendering solely.

See this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UNRp7Wrog&feature=player_embedded

Some games feature this technology greatly, some don't.

And AMD cards struggle, because nVidia pretty much made it nVidia only.

[devildogelite]

PhysX is an Nvidia-acquired technology which is basically a really well-built emulation of real-world physics.

Some games feature so much PhysX that it can be applicable to add in a separate graphics card for the sole purpose of calculating everything that is PhysX, and taking the load of PhysX off the main GPU so it can work on rendering solely.

See this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UNRp7Wrog&feature=player_embedded

Some games feature this technology greatly, some don't.

Well if you run like a 9800 with a 580 you get bottleknecking, seperate phyx cards arent that great

[BladeOfTheHorizon]

at what point would anyone ever need a 2k watt psu