Potentially the longest thread in history...

[hikaricloud]

Okay, so I'm pretty sure I need to replace my GPU now. After the reinstall, I'm still getting all kinds of issues. Recently, it cause almost every program with a graphical interface to error and close, as well as fragment and artifact, and it messes with my recording box sound too when I'm working with FL Studio.

So I need suggestions. I'm thinking about going nVidia solely because I have a need to hook my TV up as a fourth monitor, and I can't do that with an AMD (that I know of) without some crazy jury rigging and adapters. I don't do much gaming on my computer at all anymore, but I want something that can handle my graphical stuff, encoding, and every now and then games. I think the absolute highest I would possible go would be a 660ti, but I'd prefer to not spend that kind of money. And if I can get 4 monitors on an AMD setup, I'll totally go with a 7850 or something since it's mucho cheaper and a fair upgrade to my 5770.

I'm going to place building a new machine on hold right now, can't justify it when I only really need a GPU. Might try to get some low profile RAM to fit in my other slots so I can upgrade that too...

Thoughts?

 

[PP Mguire]

660 really. Best bang for your buck card right now. You can hook 4 monitors up to every 600 series card (with the ports) I believe.

 

[hikaricloud]

660 really. Best bang for your buck card right now. You can hook 4 monitors up to every 600 series card (with the ports) I believe.

Are you talking about the Ti version?

Also, I've been doing more research, and apparently since the 6xxx series AMD cards have been able to support 4-6 displays per a single card...so I could still go cheaper and use 4 monitors/3 monitors and a TV.

After comparing the 7870 Ghz and 660Ti, I can't help but want to steer towards the 7870. The benchmarks overall definitely lean in favor of the 660Ti (29 out of 45 benches on Anandtech's benching comparison, 7870 won 14 and tied 2), but the benches it won out on (some of them by a wide margin) were mostly computational...and I do more non-gaming stuff. Noise/temp levels were all fairly even. The 660 is more in line with the 7870 price point (the one I'm looking at it currently $220) and it seems the 7870 beats it out more often than not on the same benchmarks.

So looking at it that way (and since gaming performance isn't as much of a necessity) I'm leaning more towards the 7870 for the moment since it seems like it'll fulfill all my needs and be a fair upgrade from the 5770. And it's cheaper.

One thing I'm wary of is the 7870 being HIS brand. I've heard good things, but I don't have a lot of experience with them.

These are the two cards I was looking at:

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

EDIT: The Eyefinity page I was looking up didn't mention the 7800 series specifically as being able to support more than 3 monitors, but I found elsewhere it'll support up to 6.

 

[PP Mguire]

You need the Flex edition cards IIRC, and those a bit steeper. I was talking about the non-ti version. In games it'll do more than what you want, be very quiet, suck less juice, and you get the better Nvidia drivers.

By Flex, I mean Sapphire Flex which requires no extra cables to do 4 LCDs. The FLex 7870 is almost 300 bucks. The other cards without Flex requires the adapter. With the 660 you don't need adapters. Just plug 4 monitors in and go.

 

[hikaricloud]

You need the Flex edition cards IIRC, and those a bit steeper. I was talking about the non-ti version. In games it'll do more than what you want, be very quiet, suck less juice, and you get the better Nvidia drivers.

By Flex, I mean Sapphire Flex which requires no extra cables to do 4 LCDs. The FLex 7870 is almost 300 bucks. The other cards without Flex requires the adapter. With the 660 you don't need adapters. Just plug 4 monitors in and go.

Fair enough, I see the 660 has two DVI ports which would be nice, and the one DisplayPort I already have an active adapter for...then HDMI for the TV.


Also, you don't need the Flex cards to have more than 3 monitors on a single card (I assume by Flex you mean 6 mini DisplayPort plugs?), but you are correct that I would need an extra adapter if I went with the 7870. You can technically hook up 6 monitors with just the 2 mini DisplayPort adapters, you just need two hubs to do it.

I'll do some more looking at both of them, would be nice to not need any extra adapters.

 

[PP Mguire]

Read the top part of this review. It explains better what I was trying to say as I was in a rush.

Sapphire Flex HD 7770 GHz Edition | Bjorn3D.com

 

[hikaricloud]

Read the top part of this review. It explains better what I was trying to say as I was in a rush.

Sapphire Flex HD 7770 GHz Edition | Bjorn3D.com

Ah, I see what you're saying. With Flex, you don't need to use the DisplayPort at all basically, but if you wanted more than 3 monitors without Flex you would either need monitors that had 1.2 DisplayPort or some adapter. Like on my 5770, I needed an Active DisplayPort adapter (to DVI for my needs) to use my 27" in a 3 monitor setup, but Flex makes it so you don't need anything like that.

This part struck a chord:

Unfortunately, in order to power these displays you would need a monitor that supports DisplayPort 1.2 which supports Multi-Stream Transport (MST) to daisy-chain the displays. Alternatively, you can also buy a a DisplayPort 1.2 Hub MST for the multiple displays.

So it sounds like I'd either need my 27" to support 1.2 DisplayPort (which I don't think it does) or get a hub as well as the active adapter I currently have since the 7870 has two Mini DisplayPorts, and I don't think my 27" even has one of those.

That definitely makes the 660 a viable choice. I'll look more into the logistics of it and make a decision. Thanks for the info.

 

[PP Mguire]

No prob. Idk, the 660 seems more logical anyways. 2 DVI plus HDMI to the TV which should fit your current setup right?

 

[hikaricloud]

No prob. Idk, the 660 seems more logical anyways. 2 DVI plus HDMI to the TV which should fit your current setup right?

Well I'd have the 3 monitors plus the TV, but yeah. Since I already have the Active DisplayPort adapter while will work with my 27" monitor, so I'd be using every port on the card, haha.

You know, as a thought, if you told me 5 years ago I'd have 4 monitors--one of which being a TV--hooked up to my computer and they weren't all CRT style, I'd probably think you were lying. Rofl.

EDIT: So I've pretty much given up on adding more RAM to my machine until I build a new one. Since I have to match the CAS/voltage AND get sticks that can fit under my CCF, options are super limited:

1) Can replace current PI Blacks and get 2x 4gb sticks of DDR2 with stupid high CAS for a minimum of 160 bucks. No thanks.

2) Can replace all the sticks with matching pairs, making sure 2 of them can fit under my CCF, minimum of 100 bucks. Don't like this option because I want to continue using my PI Blacks since I won't use them for anything else...would be a waste.

3) I get a 2x 2gb kit with matching voltage and CAS, but the speed is DDR2-667 instead, which would throttle my PI Blacks down as well. Would cost 60 bucks. Still don't feel like it's worth it and I'd prefer to not throttle my PI Blacks down. Not to mention I may need to remove the heatspreader since it may be a little too tall to fit.

4) Get another kit of PI Blacks (paying 30 bucks more than I did back in 2009 mind you...), yank the spreaders off and stick them in there. 75 bucks.

All in all, I'm not sure it's really worth it at this point since I won't need that extra RAM once I make this my recording box, and I'm not even sure any of the RAM I'm looking at (even without spreaders) would fit under the CCF, so it would be a partial gamble already. Meh.

Unless someone magically has a kit of 2x 2gb sticks that are DDR2-800 with a CAS of 4 and 1.8-1.9v they would be willing to sell?

 

[Mischa]

Re: Today I have...

done absolutely nothing today, been really ill

I finished reading A Song Of Ice And Fire yesterday So hooked on GoT since i found out about it a few months ago.