Better buy

[Imprenion]

Instead of buying the 1000$ GTX Titan and 690, would buying the GTX-780 which is comparible to the Titan but with less memory or SLIing 770s work better?
With the new games coming out, maybe even 1 770 would be a good choice, then SLIing it later? Trying to figure each and every piece out at a time so i can make this build cheap.

Then there's the case. I know metal conducts heat and that can be a big problem for most computers, especially being the GPU conducts a tonne of it. I am looking for a good case that draws air in the front and dispenses it everywhere else. Also for fans, ther new bearings work great, but microdust is a issue. Anyone know ways to fix this issue or know of good heat syncs and thermal paste?

For a proccessor, there's the i7-4770k Haswell which seems to work really well being it draws less power and has a powerful base performance. I know there are old pentium processors which are still powerful when compared to i5s, but I'm looking for one that would work best for this computer. Also, there's the AMD 8cores vs Intels 4cores which you can hyperthread. Is it best to do a expensive Intel or do a cheaper AMD?

 

[PP Mguire]

A 770 is a 680, and a single 4GB 680 handles everything today. Adding another later is feasible, but only if you want to buy within a year.

The 780 is only slightly faster than the 680/770/7970 for a few hundred more. IMO if you don't want to drop the cash on a real card then just go with a 4GB 770.

This could have been put in the other thread BTW.

 

[Imprenion]

Thanks Mguire, you're all over the place on here. So a 4Gb 770 would work just fine for now.

 

[PP Mguire]

Sure will. I can only think of 2 games off the top of my head that would cause you any problems, but only with AA at max levels. Playing games at 1080p maxed with no AA will give 0 problems in all games.

I'll mention here, that the 770 has a higher TDP than the 680 due to its 6+8pin power configuration and new Boost specification. If you want to SLI, I bump the power supply from 650/750 to 850w recommended. Still Seasonic or Corsair though.

 

[Imprenion]

What 2 games would that be? Something like Battlefield 3 and the Metro Last Light? One thing i am curious about is when the next series of GPUs from Nividia wiill release. Alright I'll keep that in mind. But if i did a SLI i should be able to run everything? Ok, I was gonna go with a 1000w just to be on the safe side. But for a processor the 4770k would work or would a AMD 8core be a better solution?

 

[PP Mguire]

Neither actually. Crysis 3 and Metro 2033. Last Light ran good on a single 4GB 680 for me and I can run BF3 maxed out on my 5850. Battlefield isn't actually a demanding game at all, neither will 4 be. Like I said, those 2 games will only give you issues with max amount of AA but everything will run fine on a single card. 2 cards is just icing on the cake.

As long as it's a good brand (I can't stress PSU quality enough) then 1000w is fine but overkill. Considering 2 770s and a 4770 will only run about 600w tops max load.

A 4770k is vastly superior to any AMD chip.

 

[Imprenion]

Metro 2033 realy now.. and Last Light is new. 600w max? Being that the CPU is a Haswell it'll run half of what most run at if I'm right. Ok so good choice for letting me know about it, thanks again about that. I'll jot all this down.

 

[PP Mguire]

Metro 2033 is actually more demanding as Last Light is more optimized. 2033 is when the 4a engine was brand new. I actually run Last Light on Very High with tessellation at Normal and no AA @ 1920x1200 with my 5850. After a much needed update to fix performance issues with Logitech Gaming Software I was able to play lag free at those settings.

Crysis 3 was a matter of VRAM trying to max it with 8xAA capped VRAM.

 

[Imprenion]

Ah okay, and VRAM is when your GPU doesn't have enough RAM to support the graphic settings you're wanting? So a 4GB 770 should have no issues with this video random access memory?

 

[PP Mguire]

VRAM is just the amount of memory on the GPU. Not all settings are dependant on large amounts of VRAM, just like not all lag is due to running out of VRAM.

A 4GB 680 ran everything I played with no issues, as did my SLI 580 setup. Only a few times did I run into actual issues. So yea a 4GB 770 would have no problems unless you run the absolute max on those couple of games.