Mookeylama Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntt=gtx%20670 wanting to get one of those^. was thinking about the 4gb superclocked EVGA but was told there's no way i'll ever need 4gb, or if i ever did in the future it would be better to SLI. right now tho i just want a single card, but i'd like to grab a ton of hires texture packs just to see the eyecandy. so will 2gb be enough for it ALL! oh and which of those cards do you favor? heard non-refernce like the Gigabyte was good because of the fans and OC potential but i kinda like the idea of the heat dumping out the back. is the EVGA superclocked clocked higher than the others? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoestring6 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Sigh. I wish I could afford a gfx card with 2 gigs vram. This thread is worth reading: mods and vram usage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demidekidasu Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I don't remember ever running out of VRAM on my 1.2GB 470 with hi-res texture packs, so I assume it would be fine :P Bear in mind though, that Skyrim might not actually take advantage of that much VRAM, being a console-oriented game. But a storming graphics card would be essentially pointless if the rest of your machine is not up to scratch, so bear that in mind too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookeylama Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Sigh. I wish I could afford a gfx card with 2 gigs vram. This thread is worth reading: mods and vram usagedaaamn. thanks for that Shoe! seems 2gb is NOT plenty in a lot of cases. guess i'll be getting the EVGA superclocked 670 4GB or maybe 7970 3gb in Crossfire, but really didn't want to do crossfire now. don't know enough about it. heard lotsa games don't play well with it. how's Skyrim handle SLI & Crossfire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeraphTC Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Sigh. I wish I could afford a gfx card with 2 gigs vram. This thread is worth reading: mods and vram usagedaaamn. thanks for that Shoe! seems 2gb is NOT plenty in a lot of cases. guess i'll be getting the EVGA superclocked 670 4GB or maybe 7970 3gb in Crossfire, but really didn't want to do crossfire now. don't know enough about it. heard lotsa games don't play well with it. how's Skyrim handle SLI & Crossfire? Getting 2x cards won't help the available VRAM. In very basic terms: In SLI and Crossfire, the RAM from one card is used for data, the RAM from the other is used to sync the cards. For example, with two 3x GB 7970's you will have 3GB VRAM available, NOT 6GB. So if this was the reason you were looking at SLI/Crossfire, don't bother. I'm using 2x 2GB 6950's in my rig. I don't notice any particular issues with Skyrim and Catalyst 12.8. Game performance with SLI/Crossfire is very driver dependent, and you can see wild variation in performance from one driver release to the next (sometimes better, sometimes worse). If you are gaming at resolutions of 1920x1200 or lower then don't bother with SLI or Crossfire - you won't see any improvement. A single card will handle those resolutions just fine without any of the driver complications. If you are looking at NV Surround or Eyefinity then you should try your games with a single board and see how they perform - if you need more juice, then consider adding a second. You will need a serious system to keep up with it though - there is no point putting high end GFX boards on an older system as the CPU will be a bottleneck. If you are looking at crossfiring the 7970's make sure you have a nice new shiny I7 and a PCI Express 3.0 motherboard to get the most out of it. (A single 7970 isn't going to stress PCI Express 2.0, but 2x of them could flood it at higher resolutions, and PCI Express 3.0 would then be of benefit). Trust me when I say that SLI/Crossfire is currently a bleeding edge toy that can be more hassle than it's worth, so do your research before spending the cash and being disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demidekidasu Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Same here, SLI works perfect in Skyrim with my GTX 470's. However, just as SeraphTC said, SLI can bring hassle in the wider picture and you will sometimes need to get your hands dirty with tweaking and whatnot. Also, it will not work at all in many games, leaving you with one card that may be underpowered in some cases. A good bit of advice I once heard: If in doubt, just buy one powerful card, then you can put a second one in down the line when that card drops in price and the performance demands of games increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoestring6 Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I have a friend who runs crossfire and he's finally admitted defeat in trying to get it to work nicely with Skyrim, now just uses the one card. It's only got 1 gig vram so despite it being much more powerful than mine he can't run that many texture replacers. This game just vacuums up vram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookeylama Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 thank you Seraphic and folks! here's what i'm considering my final build. many tell me i don't need the i7, Sabertooth, 16gb memory. while others tell me it'll come in handy down the road. i'd like to make this easily upgradable in the future. and the 4gb gpu is for LOTS of texture mods. and i play on a 55 inch HDTV...... i really have no idea what i'm doing lol, so please look this over and see if everything is compatible or if i have too much of one and not enough of the other ect. i'm buying it today.a list of my specific needs and goals follow the build. and i'm getting the 4GB 670 gpu because after reading this... http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1407295-whats-your-vram-usage-with-mods/page__p__21483399#entry21483399 i see that lotsa texture mods really eat up VRAM. i'm an old fella and health conditions would make this tough for me to builds so this is all getting built at Microcenter. http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx`````````````````````````````````````````````````` NZXT Crafted Series Phantom ATX Full Tower Gaming http://www.microcenter.com/product/357935/Crafted_Series_Phantom_ATX_Full_Tower_Gaming_Computer_Case Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 Processor http://www.microcenter.com/product/388575/Core_i7_3770K_35GHz_LGA_1155_Processor ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherbhttp://www.microcenter.com/product/388088/SABERTOOTH_Z77_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_MotherboardPC Power & Cooling 950 Watt Silencer MK II ATX Pow http://www.microcenter.com/product/337657/950_Watt_Silencer_MK_II_ATX_Power_Supply Cooler Master TPC-812 CPU Cooler http://www.microcenter.com/product/388729/TPC-812_CPU_Cooler EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked 4GBhttp://www.microcenter.com/product/393433/04G-P4-2673-KR_GeForce_GTX_670_Superclocked_4096MB_GDDR5_PCIe_30_x16_Video_Card Corsair Vengeance Series 16GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800) http://www.microcenter.com/product/383618/Vengeance_Series_16GB_DDR3-1600_%28PC3-12800%29_CL10_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_%28Two_8GB_Memory_Modules%29 Crucial m4 CT256M4SSD2 256GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Inthttp://www.microcenter.com/product/364547/m4_CT256M4SSD2_256GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive_%28SSD%29_with_Marvell_Controller Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB IntelliPower SATAhttp://www.microcenter.com/product/378062/Caviar_Green_2TB_IntelliPower_SATA_6Gb-s_35_Internal_Hard_Drive_WD20EARX_-_OEM Bytecc 6 Slot Internal 3.5" Flash Card Reader Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit OEM PCLG Blu-ray Disc Internal Combo Drive````````````````````````````````````````````````` Here are my answers to spedific usage:Approximate Purchase Date: now! System Usage pure gaming, dedicated to HDTV in family room Major Concern: Heat, I want cool as I can afford while still being able to afford top tier performance. I have very little knowledge on how to achieve this. and running Skyrim at it's BEST! Parts Not Required: monitor speakers kb mouse Country: USA Parts Preferences: Full Tower for possible tinkering later Overclocking: possibly later SLI or Crossfire: very open to this later as an upgrade Monitor : Sony 55A3000 55" HDTV thru HDMI. i have an hdmi cord ran thru the floor, thru basement, into computer room. our home theater is in a big wall unit w/ bad airflow THANKS very much for looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeraphTC Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 thank you Seraphic and folks! here's what i'm considering my final build. many tell me i don't need the i7, Sabertooth, 16gb memory. while others tell me it'll come in handy down the road. i'd like to make this easily upgradable in the future. and the 4gb gpu is for LOTS of texture mods. and i play on a 55 inch HDTV...... i really have no idea what i'm doing lol, so please look this over and see if everything is compatible or if i have too much of one and not enough of the other ect. i'm buying it today.a list of my specific needs and goals follow the build. and i'm getting the 4GB 670 gpu because after reading this... http://forums.bethso...9#entry21483399 i see that lotsa texture mods really eat up VRAM. i'm an old fella and health conditions would make this tough for me to builds so this is all getting built at Microcenter. http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx`````````````````````````````````````````````````` NZXT Crafted Series Phantom ATX Full Tower Gaming http://www.microcent...g_Computer_Case Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 Processor http://www.microcent..._1155_Processor ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherbhttp://www.microcent...tel_MotherboardPC Power & Cooling 950 Watt Silencer MK II ATX Pow http://www.microcent...TX_Power_Supply Cooler Master TPC-812 CPU Cooler http://www.microcent...-812_CPU_Cooler EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked 4GBhttp://www.microcent..._x16_Video_Card Corsair Vengeance Series 16GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800) http://www.microcent...mory_Modules%29 Crucial m4 CT256M4SSD2 256GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Inthttp://www.microcent...vell_Controller Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB IntelliPower SATAhttp://www.microcent..._WD20EARX_-_OEM Bytecc 6 Slot Internal 3.5" Flash Card Reader Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit OEM PCLG Blu-ray Disc Internal Combo Drive````````````````````````````````````````````````` Here are my answers to spedific usage:Approximate Purchase Date: now! System Usage pure gaming, dedicated to HDTV in family room Major Concern: Heat, I want cool as I can afford while still being able to afford top tier performance. I have very little knowledge on how to achieve this. and running Skyrim at it's BEST! Parts Not Required: monitor speakers kb mouse Country: USA Parts Preferences: Full Tower for possible tinkering later Overclocking: possibly later SLI or Crossfire: very open to this later as an upgrade Monitor : Sony 55A3000 55" HDTV thru HDMI. i have an hdmi cord ran thru the floor, thru basement, into computer room. our home theater is in a big wall unit w/ bad airflow THANKS very much for looking! If you have a BD player, I'm not sure I'd bother with a BD drive for the tower. BD playback isn't directly supported by windows - you need 3rd party software. I've got some, and it's ok, but my dedicated player is better. So if you do have a player you might be able to save some money here. I don't see PC Games shifting to BD any time soon. Other than that, the setup looks ok. You'll always achieve better cooling with liquid if you can afford it, but you've got a reasonable aftermarket cooler on the there so you should be ok. Just give the tower as much ventilation as you can. It's something you'll have to keep an eye on and maybe change your setup with time depending on how warm it gets. The only thing I'd recommend is maybe getting a WD Blue or Black edition drive either instead of or as well as a Green as they tend to be faster. I'd probably do this: 1) SSD - Operating System2) 2TB HDD (Green) - windows profiles and other data3) 2TB HDD (Blue/Black) - Games I wouldn't worry too much about putting games on an SSD - I've got several running from a fast Sata III SSD here and it makes next to no difference aside from some loading times. It's not going to have any noticeable impact on framerate over a regular HDD. It will however make a massive difference to system boot times etc, so it's a great option for a system disk. Just make sure it's configured correctly - there are plenty of guides on the net that can help you out with that. The two main points are to make sure that TRIM is operational, and make sure that you never, EVER run a defrag utility on it. Windows 7 should prevent this by default, but just in case you use a third party tool make sure it never touches that drive. I can't give you any advice on pricing as I don't live in the USA, but in terms of components that all seems OK - have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookeylama Posted September 4, 2012 Author Share Posted September 4, 2012 thanks. so glad you mentioned the defrag as i'm sure my dumbass woulda ran defrag on the SSD at some point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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