[mralexosborn]

Is anyone thinking of upgrading to Sandy Bridge...

*raises hand*
 
From what I've been reading over @ XS, it looks to have as much as 20% more OC headroom and run games up to 20% quicker w/ 20% less power consumption.

Not to mention the price, oh the price. Not even $350 for the top quad core chip coming out in January. 

 

[Somnambulist]

If you want to OC Sandy Bridge you need the processors with K on the end of the names. Also the ones coming out are the mid-range ones, you'll have to wait later in the year for the 'enthusiast' processors, although the mid-range may well be better than the current i7 quad cores.

 

[Somnambulist]

Quote:

The 570 is looking very tempting at the moment.  More powerful than the 480 and it stays way quieter.  I am a little disappointed with the performance of the new ATI offerings (although I'm still waiting for performance testing with newer ATI drivers).

Well, the thing is BOTH brands refreshes are really only 10-15% improvements over the first lot of DX11 cards, so it's not really surprising that NV still have the fastest single card because the 480 was a fair bit ahead of a 5870 and it was the dual card 5970 that competed with it (beats it in most games, loses in the benchmarks with a lot of tessellation e.t.c.). AMD/ATI have played the 'value for money/efficiency' card for a long time now; two 6950s cost less than a 580 at the moment (v. low availability = even higher prices) and beat it by like 25% or something. What you have to remember is the new AMD cards cost less than the 5850 and 5870 when they launched but offer cooler, quieter cards that while only having a bit more general performance, offer massively better tessellation performance (in order to have some parity with NV) and also scale almost 100% in CrossFire; two 6970's beat SLI 580s at high res because the scaling is so good they close and pass the gap the single cards have. Not really worth upgrading if you already have 5850s or 5870s, but then the 570 and 580 weren't really worth it if you owned 470s and 480s.
 
Regards the 570, it depends what res you play at. The 6970 pulls ahead of the 570 in games at high res (i.e. 1920x1200 and above), particularly DX11 ones, but in other cases they trade blows fairly equally. The 58xx's improved quite a bit with drivers, so you can expect the same with the 69xxs. Also there's the fact that a single 6970 can power up to 6 screens, the 570 will only do 2 AFAIK and for only a bit more money has 2GB of RAM which is essential for high res/multiscreen gaming since they are creeping up in terms of memory usage. If you game at 'below full HD' then it's likely you'll want to apply a fair bit of AA to your games, in which case the 570 is right card. However like the 580 stock is slowly dwindling away and I doubt they'll be in supply in large quantities till a bit into the new year. By contrast AMD seemed to have delayed releasing their cards in order to built up plenty of stock, and so go into the new year having far more availability. If you can't buy a 580 anywhere and when you do find a place they have them at crazy inflated prices... then you see 6950 CF for less money and plenty of stock...
 
EDIT - the NV cards are obviously better if you're desperate for Physix in games (which isn't really worth it) but more importantly you can 3D game with them right now, which is obviously still a relatively new thing and requires a 120hz monitor (which are all naff TN panels )

 

[Jodiuh]

...the ones coming out are the mid-range ones...

With the potential for being over 40% quicker, I don't know if I'd call the $311 2600K "mid-range."

I briefly owned an i7 930, but couldn't make use of HT, don't have anything that needs triple channel, and had no intention of running 3 video cards. The lower heat output from the 760 was very welcome.

 

[Nebby]

Well I'm currently in the odd position having three monitors, but only enough pcie slots for one card. When I upgrade, I'm tempted to pick up an Amd video card if only for the ability to run three monitors straight out of the box; the extra benefit being that it doesn't turn off power-saving mode when more than one monitor is hooked up (thanks nvidia!). It also looks like the new cards from Amd also have decent performance at high resolutions, which is important to me since my main monitor is a 27" with a 2560x1440 resolution. Personally speaking, I'd look into picking up the 570 over the 470 with the power and noise level changes alone. That's just me though, YMMV.
 
Quote:

Quote:

I'm still running a gtx280, but I'm considering switching to the new amd cards.

Booo! Hisss!
 
Newegg's got an EVGA GTX 470 SC for $230 AR w/ free shipping right now. Why anyone would put another $120 down for a 570 that "might" offer 15% improvement's beyond me.

 

[Omfgnoway]

Just ordered my first build, here are the specs:
 
Case: Antec 300 
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE 
GPU: PNY GTX 460 overclocked
RAM: G. Skill ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333mhz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650W
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Some random dvd drive
 
How'd I do?

 

[mralexosborn]

Quote:

Just ordered my first build, here are the specs:
 
Case: Antec 300 
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE 
GPU: PNY GTX 460 overclocked
RAM: G. Skill ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333mhz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650W
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Some random dvd drive
 
How'd I do?

Why'd you get a Phenom? It would have been worth the set up to a Core i5/7.

 

[Omfgnoway]

Quote:

Quote:

Just ordered my first build, here are the specs:
 
Case: Antec 300 
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE 
GPU: PNY GTX 460 overclocked
RAM: G. Skill ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333mhz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650W
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Some random dvd drive
 
How'd I do?

Why'd you get a Phenom? It would have been worth the set up to a Core i5/7.

My budget was pretty strict at $700 so I doubt I could've squeezed those in. Are they really that much better? I doubt I would make much use of the hyperthreading, but I'm really new to this so what do I know :\
 
Edit: Wow, probably should have looked at benchmarks for the i5 760 before settling on the 965. Oh well, lesson learned...more research next time. 

 

[mralexosborn]

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Just ordered my first build, here are the specs:
 
Case: Antec 300 
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE 
GPU: PNY GTX 460 overclocked
RAM: G. Skill ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333mhz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650W
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Some random dvd drive
 
How'd I do?

Why'd you get a Phenom? It would have been worth the set up to a Core i5/7.

My budget was pretty strict at $700 so I doubt I could've squeezed those in. Are they really that much better? I doubt I would make much use of the hyperthreading, but I'm really new to this so what do I know :\
 
Edit: Wow, probably should have looked at benchmarks for the i5 760 before settling on the 965. Oh well, lesson learned...more research next time. 

 
I personally have the Athlon II X4 630. It is only $100 so it's a good deal but not a great proc. The Phenom just isn't a value buy. 
 

 

[Jodiuh]

     Quote:

Originally Posted by Omfgnoway /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
My budget was pretty strict at $700 so I doubt I could've squeezed those in. Are they really that much better? I doubt I would make much use of the hyperthreading, but I'm really new to this so what do I know :\
 
Edit: Wow, probably should have looked at benchmarks for the i5 760 before settling on the 965. Oh well, lesson learned...more research next time. 

 
760 goes for $180 and the USB3 board's only $95. I got mine for $160 thanks to slickdeals. Setup a keyword alert next time. $100 Triple.Fi's, free UE-700's, free chicken!!
 
EDIT: You haven't put it together yet? Maybe consider a return if they'll let you.

 

[Anjexu]

DX58SO
i7 920
G.Skill 6GB DDR3, don't remember timings/specs (lol)
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB 2.5" SSD
Some WD 400GB HDD (For storage, of course)
ATi HD 4850
ASUS Xonar DX
 
Not sure what my PSU is, I think it's some overkill 750W PSU that my brother bought.  He always spends too much on computer stuff.

 

[Murmaider]

Pentium 4
2.53 ghz
2gbs ddr2100
40gb hard drive
xfi extreme music pci not pci express 1x
nvidia 7600gt
Windows 7 ultimate
2 WD external hard drives 750gb & 1.5tb
all of this in Thermaltake Shark full tower case :]
 
got it for Christmas on December 22, 2002 at Circuit City lol
8 years old and still running like a champ

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

 
I personally have the Athlon II X4 630. It is only $100 so it's a good deal but not a great proc. The Phenom just isn't a value buy. 
 

You have got to be kidding me. The Phenoms, especially the X6s, are the best values in processors.

 

[NomadicAce]

Unlocking Athlon X3s to Phenom X4s is value, but I would say the 965 BE (and the hexacore) and company are a good value as well. Actually the only intel worth thinking about until the new series comes out in the next 2 weeks is the 760. And if you do not need that much processor...most of us do not, then AMD options are bigger bang/buck.

 

[Jodiuh]

Athlon X2 3800 was my last AMD chip. I remember it being SO much smoother than the P4 630 it replaced.