I'm going to have a PC made around Sapphire Radeon 5850 Vapor-X

[mike1]

Hi, I'm going to have a PC built around Sapphire Radeon 5850 Vapor-X crossfire.
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102872 )
I'll probably have to order the PC without the Vapor-X card then add the card after the PC arrives,
At first I 'll just install one Sapphire Vapor-x card, then when I need more GPU power I'll buy
another Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X card. Why the Vapor-X? Because, according to toms hardware
reviews it's stable, runs cool, has mature drivers, eyeinfinity and uses relatively little power.
I've read the card is very big >10.5" in length with power connectors extending from the back of the card.
which size case and m/b do I need? What else do i need to know when selecting hardware for these cards?

I currently have a very nice 24" Samsung 1900x1200 monitor all of the 24" monitors i see now are 1900x1080
can I add one of these monitors to my new PC or do I need to repalce my 1900x1200 monitor with two 1900x1080p monitors?

Did I fail to ask needed information?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[shadow187]

Motherboard should be a ATX motherboard. 890GX chipset recommended.

Size case? Not sure, but some popular cases are the HAF 922/932, and the Antec 900/1200.

Other hardware does not interfere with the graphics cards, other than you needing a good CPU to compensate for the good GPU horsepower (EG: Phenom II x4-955 or Phenom II x6-1055/1090T).

If you're looking for eyefinity, you WILL need same-size monitors. However to have a single-monitor gaming with multi-monitor benefits, they do not need to be the same size.

 

[mike1]

My current PC is a ZTsystems midtower atx case, i7 - 870 (2.93Ghz) w/ DH55TC m/b. This combo is too small for the 5850.
it is not capable of crossfire and I'd have to cut out half of the drive cage before the card would fit.
I'm looking for a case & motherboard that'll support sapphire 5850 vapor-x crossfire configuration.
I'd like to stick w/ i7 9xx if possible.

 

[shadow187]

Any intel x58 motherboard supports crossfire and SLI, so you're fine,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&cm_re=antec_900-_-11-129-021-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119224&cm_re=haf_922-_-11-119-224-_-Product

Both are excellent products.

 

[bruce555]

Is it too much to wait 1 week for 6850 or 6870? Probably be worth it.

 

[mike1]

x850 cards are to large for my PC case and I think the 6850 will be very expensive w/ unstable drivers and probably more expensive then two 5850s.

my current PC

ZT Sysytems 7391Mi
Intel i7 Processor 870 (2.93GHz)
Intel DH55TC motherboard
8GB DDR3RAM
sataII 1.5TB HDD
sapphire Radeon 5670 1GB video card
samsung 24" 1900x1200 monitor (will add at least another monitor)

windows 7 performance Assessment
processor 7.5
memory 7.5
graphics 7.0
gaming graphics 7.0
hard disk data transfer 5.9

How much GPU memory is required for three monitors?

 

[shadow187]

You can not successfully perform eyefinity on an HD5770 unless you plan on lowering all settings. The 5770 is a mid-range card and you're trying to do extremely high-end tasks on it.

2GB is minimum for eyefinity.

Also, the HD6850 will likely cost $200...less expensive than today's HD5850.

 

[deweycd]

Stick with a 5850, great card.

 

[mike1]

I will use three monitors with a more powerful card then the 5670. Actually, I'll start with two monitors.
It seems technology changes too quick for me. After a lot of research I'm feeling quite comfortable with
a proven product the 5850 vapor-x. I like ati/sapphire products and I'm sure the 68xx will be great cards.

 

[wolfram23]

Wow people are giving you crazy advice here...

You have a great system, that CPU is awesome.

Go shop for a full size case that you really like. Antec 900/902 and HAF (9 something) are good choices for the price. Then buy a new motherboard - I recommend an Asus P7P55D because it's awesome. Gigabyte UD3 or UD4 are good too. As you can see on Tom's main page they just put up an article on the ECS P55 AK which has an NF200 chip onboard which allows for both USB3/Sata 6gb AND for trifire/tri SLI set ups with equal performance to X58 mobos. If you might go with 3 cards then get that mobo.

There's seriously no need to upgrade your whole PC. If you do, tho, please sell me your CPU

As for Eyefinity, 1GB VRAM is ok. If you can get 2GB models you'll be great, but even so a pair of 5850 1gb models will do fine you just might have to lower the AA to keep from filling up the VRAM.

As for the eyefinity monitors, I know for sure the vertical resolution has to be the same on all 3 monitors. So if you have 1200, you'll need 2 more 1200 monitors or else sell this one and get three 1080p, or if you don't mind a little stretching you could try two 1080p on the sides and the center monitor will just have a slightly stretched image (possibly you could have it letterboxed). The only other possibility is to get monitors with 1280x720 or something like that resolution (1200 horizontal is the main thing) and flip them sideways.... I think that works... but don't quote me on it.

EDIT: I'm assuming this is for gaming, of course. And if so, two monitors is a terrible idea because think about how important the center of the screen is in basically every single game. For aiming and looking... with 2 monitors you'll have an inch of plastic in the middle lol. Now if you're not doing this for gaming, then you probably don't even need a second card...

 

[mike1]

The replacement PC is for web browsing, Word, Excel, flight simulator and gaming. My PC is a very good PC for what I use it for however for heavy duty gaming it's just not there.

I thought about keeping what i can from it then buying parts to build the new pc but nixxed it after realizing I could probably only use the CPU, RAM (if I don't overclock) and the DVD writer. I can send it back for a full refund.
It didn't take very long for me to decide that buying a system w/ a warranty is not a bad idea. The sales people at Cyberpower haven't been much help. I configure PCs at their site but don't know if the boards will accept vapor-x crossfire as these cards are very wide and 10 1/2" long.

good point about the two monitors.

 

[wolfram23]

Well, if you're going to make an HTPC, I still stand by what I said. Use the current case and mobo for an HTPC and buy an i3 530 for it with 2gb RAM (4gb if you really want). You could put the current PSU and 5670 in the HTPC as well, and even the HDD if you want although it's a decent one for either. Then buy some good parts to upgrade the gaming rig, basically a nice mobo (like the ones I listed) and a PSU (maybe a Corsair 750TX). If you want crazy fast load times, an SSD is the way to go.

Most P55 boards will support crossfire if it's a regular ATX form factor. My Asus P7P55D Pro is currently running crossfire 5850s and a GT 240 and a sound card

 

[mike1]

I hear you but I'm only interested in PC for use w/ heavy gaming, browsing, word and Excel.
What size psu and case are you using for your crossfire 5850 PC? Is there anything the crossfire 5850s aren't capable of doing that you need/want? why do you have a GT 240 in there?

 

[jjb8675309]

I hear you but I'm only interested in PC for use w/ heavy gaming, browsing, word and Excel.
What size psu and case are you using for your crossfire 5850 PC? Is there anything the crossfire 5850s aren't capable of doing that you need/want? why do you have a GT 240 in there?

It appears as though the he has the gt240 as a dedicated phys x card. Not sure of the current benefits other than being able to run physx on high in games that use it. It seems that people who are running ati cards commonly have this configuration although ive never tried it

 

[wolfram23]

I'm using a Corsair 750 TX PSU in an Antec 902 case.

At 1920x1080 the crossfire 5850s blow everything out of the water. This includes Crysis at Very High with 4xAA. Metro 2033 at Very High, DX11 with Tesslation and Depth of Field. Cryostasis at max settings etc.

The GT 240 is indeed for PhysX. ATI cards can't do PhysX so I bought a cheap NV card for it. Needed to run a driver hack for it to play nice but it's been great in games that use it, like Metro 2033, Mafia 2, Cryostasis, Mirror's Edge...

 

[jjb8675309]

I'm using a Corsair 750 TX PSU in an Antec 902 case.

At 1920x1080 the crossfire 5850s blow everything out of the water. This includes Crysis at Very High with 4xAA. Metro 2033 at Very High, DX11 with Tesslation and Depth of Field. Cryostasis at max settings etc.

The GT 240 is indeed for PhysX. ATI cards can't do PhysX so I bought a cheap NV card for it. Needed to run a driver hack for it to play nice but it's been great in games that use it, like Metro 2033, Mafia 2, Cryostasis, Mirror's Edge...

question, does the physx card actually give you higher frames by taking the physx load off of your other card (that obviously can't run physx to begin with) or does it just keep the same frames which your 5850s power and make physx playable on high say for example. Basically does it increase your overall frames or would it run the same disregarding any physx processing

 

[mike1]

wow, according to wikipedia a whole lot of games use it. This is getting complicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

 

[jjb8675309]

wow, according to wikipedia a whole lot of games use it. This is getting complicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

I wouldn't worry too much about it man, I was just curious, the 5850s will be golden for many years to come just because your not running physx doesnt mean the game will not look great with 5850s crossfired you will have silky smooth frames ie 60+ in any game out there for a while

 

[wolfram23]

The FPS doesn't change from what the 5850s can do. The GT 240 usage is usually under 50%. I know of only 1 time that it actually dropped my FPS and that was in Mafia 2, during a huge explosion (blew up a hideout).

Also that list is very misleading. There's PhysX that works in the same way as every other physics model, which is to say, passively. Only like 15 games are actually hardware accelerated. Off the top of my head you have Mafia 2, Metro 2033, Mirror's Edge, Batman Arkham Asylum, Cryostasis, Dark Void, Darkest Days, and.... well that's all I can think of. So yeah, not many use the acceleration.

 

[mike1]

Thanks for all the replies.

In the hardware cyberpower forum I posted a configuration for my new PC please take a glance and make suggestions.

www.tomshardware.com/forum/297330-31-like-assistance-configuring-cyberpower

I didn't see the following boards on the cyberpower website: Asus P7P55D , Gigabyte UD3 or UD4 or the ECS P55 AK.

 

[mike1]

"Most P55 boards will support crossfire if it's a regular ATX form factor. My Asus P7P55D Pro is currently running crossfire 5850s and a GT 240 and a sound card "

Wolfram, which case are you using?

 

[wolfram23]

I have an Antec 902 case. The mobo is an Asus P7P55D Pro, which happens to have two PCIe slots in 8x/8x and another PCIe 1.1 slot at 4x (run through the south bridge. Which, btw, upping the ICH voltage from 1.05 to 1.15 helped stabilize my GT240).

 

[mike1]

"...which happens to have two PCIe slots in 8x/8x and another PCIe 1.1 slot at 4x (run through the south bridge. .."

Would you mind translating that for me

 

[wolfram23]

Well most P55 boards don't have three PCIe 16 slots, but this one does. However the first two lanes are direct to the CPU (PCIe 2.0) but the third lane is controlled through the southbridge chip, which also controls SATA and USB stuff, so it's only PCIe 1.1... which is a lot slower than 2.0. It's like a PCIe 2.0 2x slot. the 8x, 4x, 2x just represents how many pipes (lanes) are feeding data. P55 CPUs only have 16 lanes total, but the X58 board has (iirc) 32 so you can do quad SLI/CF easy.