Eyefinity setup - best graphics card to use with it for world of warcraft?

[Guest]

Hi,
I'm either going to custom build a ps with i7-870 processor, 8GB, and 1TB or get this dell with the same stats: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Studio+XPS+8100+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1.5TB+Hard+Drive/1244502.p?skuId=1244502&id=1218240957609

My question is, the dell comes with an ati 5770 GPU...would that be good enough to run wow with eyefinity on 3 monitors that each have a 1920x1080 resolution?

If it wouldn't be good enough, then I would have to go with a custom build and select a higher ATI card...which ATI card would be high enough? A 5870? Or 5970?

By 'good enough' I mean that I would like it to run smoothly, have great graphics, and no noticeable lag.

Thanks for your help!

 

[wa1]

Oh, c'mon, do not buy pre-build PC, better BUILD it by yourself, it's cheaper and you can choose the right components as you wish...

 

[snoogiloo]

If ur gonna run with 1 card and that high settings i would go for a 5970. I was running 5850CF and that went pretty good (50+ FPS at all times before cataclysm but after 4.0 patch).
A 5770 aint gonna be able to run it good at all. i think u would even get laggs at lowest graphics ^^ i ran one 5850 in the start and that wasnt good enough.

Chosing a i7-870 aint a very wise choise, i would rather go with and i5 760 if u want socket 1156.

8GB RAM is overkill if ur gonna play WoW since WoW can only allocate 2GB memory, and if u exceed that 2GB limit the game will crash. So 4 GB RAM is enough if ur only gonna play WoW.

 

[Guest]

What's better about the i7-870 vs. the i5-760? Isn't the i5 slower of a processor?

 

[snoogiloo]

The big difference between i7 and i5 is the HyperThreading and that aint used in games, people actually turn HT off while gaming! HyperThreading is used while working in Photoshop, rendering videos and stuff like that.

So the reason i said i5 760 is coz u will save 50 bucks or something.

But if ur willing to pay 50 bucks more for geting HT and a few more MHz stock then sure, go for the i7 870.
Its really simple to overclock the i5 up to 3GHz too if thats what ur worried about

 

[Guest]

Yea, I want to get the i7 870 because it's faster at 2.93 vs the i5 at 2.8 or w/e Thanks for your help!

 

[Guest]

Would I notice a difference in gaming with the 5870 vs 5970 with an eyefinity 3 monitor setup (1920x1080 for each monitor)? I just play world of warcraft. Going to build my own: i7-870 processor, 8GB, 750 PSU, and 1TB

 

[wolfram23]

Yea, I want to get the i7 870 because it's faster at 2.93 vs the i5 at 2.8 or w/e Thanks for your help!

If you plan to render images or convert an assload of movies I can understand wanting hyperthreading.

Otherwise, waste of cash. Stock clocks don't mean much unless you buy the Dell. Build yourself and either of those CPUs will hit 4ghz with aftermarket cooling. I run an i5 750 at 3.75ghz with turbo boost on, up to 4.3ghz... Sure an 870 could probably do that as well (but with more voltage and heat), and maybe you need more CPU power... BUT if you're just going to game on it, then you definitely do NOT need a hyperthreaded quad core. It will show no benefits to FPS in gaming.

Plus, you'd be much better off with an i7 920/930/950 depending on budget on an X58 mobo with 6gb triple channel RAM than going with P55 mobo and dual channel RAM (i7 870).

Furthermore, if you can save cash on the CPU you could put it towards an SSD, which will vastly increase load times in WoW (and everything else you put on it like Windows), and get a 1TB drive as media storage/other games. The SSD will make a huge difference when entering large cities as well, as that needs to load a TON of stuff and it tries doing it real time. GPU power won't matter as much as having a SSD for that.

For GPU selection, IMO go with a card with more than 1GB. Considering your name you probably don't want me to suggest an Nvidia 470/570, so I'll say a 6950 2GB. If that's too rich for your blood, a 6870 or 5870 might work for you (iirc, 6850<5850<6870<5870<6950<6970)

EDIT: A 5970 2GB eyefinity edition would definitely be better than a 5870. The 5970 has two 5870 GPUs on it, downclocked a bit. I should also point out that you might save some cash by going crossfire, like two 5850 2GB eyefinity models. 5850s overclock really well, while 5970s don't. IMO it would be easier to get better performace from the 5850s - and I say that because my two 5850s beat any stock 5970 and many of the OCed ones too, simply because they don't like to get OCed much (I've read a ton of threads on the issues associated with it)

 

[wolfram23]

Oh and in addition, give this a thorogh read through:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-3.html

(In particular look at the ATI performance at highest resolution, and also check out Intel CPU scaling which shows almost no difference in FPS from 6 cores right down to 2 cores, and also it mentions hyperthreading does nothing)

 

[Guest]

Well if the hyperthreading is useless, what intel processor would you recommend for stock settings? I'm not going to OC anything. I'd like it to be at least 2.93Mhz or faster.

Thanks for that link too, I didn't find that info when I was looking. Makes me think I should go back to my original GPU I was thinking of, the Nvidia 480.

 

[yskhn]

mate build it urself really and choose Nvdia rather than Ati... I'm using Ati and I'm having really bad frame rate issues even though my computer is very well...

 

[Guest]

lol i need to change my username now

 

[snoogiloo]

mate build it urself really and choose Nvdia rather than Ati... I'm using Ati and I'm having really bad frame rate issues even though my computer is very well...

If u read first post u will see that she(?) wants to use eyefinity, and also by seeing the name i think shes a ATI fangirl
Im using 2x 5850 and i have no problems at all with FPS so i think its just *** behind the wheels on ur part

Well if the hyperthreading is useless, what intel processor would you recommend for stock settings? I'm not going to OC anything. I'd like it to be at least 2.93Mhz or faster.

Thanks for that link too, I didn't find that info when I was looking. Makes me think I should go back to my original GPU I was thinking of, the Nvidia 480.

Theres no quadcore i5 with more than 2.8GHz at stock speed. That is unless u want to go for a Sandy Bridge CPU which will be released early next year.

may i ask why are u so against OC? a very minor OC as 3.0GHz is NOTHING for a i5 760.

And remember that if u want to use 3 monitors with Nvidia u need to get SLI.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm...now I'm torn - that link showed that the nvidia 480 vs. any ati had a lot better FPS in WoW and it showed that the ati 5970 was worse than the 5870. I'd hate to spend all that money for eyefinity monitors and the GPU only to find out that it doesn't run really well in wow. I asked a blizzard forum rep and this is what they said "World of Warcraft is capable of running on Eyefinity setups but you'll have to compensate in-game video options for the increased resolution in order to not crash." I'd rather max everything and have 1 screen I think.

 

[Guest]

I'm still not sure what's wrong with getting the i7-870 either...will gaming with that be worse than an i5 or lower?

 

[snoogiloo]

Hmmm...now I'm torn - that link showed that the nvidia 480 vs. any ati had a lot better FPS in WoW and it showed that the ati 5970 was worse than the 5870. I'd hate to spend all that money for eyefinity monitors and the GPU only to find out that it doesn't run really well in wow. I asked a blizzard forum rep and this is what they said "World of Warcraft is capable of running on Eyefinity setups but you'll have to compensate in-game video options for the increased resolution in order to not crash." I'd rather max everything and have 1 screen I think.

That is true, Blizzard is retarded and dont want to raise the max memory WoW is able to allocate coz "DX11 will fix it" but thats just bullshit, therefore if ur running with alot of addons and highest on every setting u might crash when going into the capital (dont know the name of it now in cata).

I played at 4.0 (the first patch where they released the new talent trees and DX11) with almost everything maxed (shadows off) on my 5850 CF and 3,5GHz i5 750 at a pretty reasonable 50+ FPS. Only time the game crashed was after ive idled in dalaran for 10-15 mins.

 

[snoogiloo]

I'm still not sure what's wrong with getting the i7-870 either...will gaming with that be worse than an i5 or lower?

Unless ur gonna OC then no it wont be worse than an i5 760. The only gain u will have tho is the extra 100MHz, and is that really worth 50 bucks?
And if u decide to OC later on the i7 will produce more heat than the i5.

 

[Guest]

Doesn't the i7 also turbo boost itself and can go even up to 3.6 while the i7 one can only go up to 3.2 in turbo boost? That's not the same as overclocking right? The turbo boost is just automatic?

 

[nforce4max]

If ur gonna run with 1 card and that high settings i would go for a 5970. I was running 5850CF and that went pretty good (50+ FPS at all times before cataclysm but after 4.0 patch).
A 5770 aint gonna be able to run it good at all. i think u would even get laggs at lowest graphics ^^ i ran one 5850 in the start and that wasnt good enough.

Chosing a i7-870 aint a very wise choise, i would rather go with and i5 760 if u want socket 1156.

8GB RAM is overkill if ur gonna play WoW since WoW can only allocate 2GB memory, and if u exceed that 2GB limit the game will crash. So 4 GB RAM is enough if ur only gonna play WoW.

Actually 8gb of ram is ideal for a multy boxer ( two or more accounts) while a single 5770 might not be much of a card any (ware are the fanboys who said that it was a red hot wet nipple dream of the gaming world) but I am doing just fine with my GTX460. ATI and Nvidia both fair well in wow depending on the quality of drivers being used.

 

[snoogiloo]

Doesn't the i7 also turbo boost itself and can go even higher than 2.93?

Both the i5 760 and i7 870 have turbo boost.

Actually 8gb of ram is ideal for a multy boxer ( two or more accounts) while a single 5770 might not be much of a card any (ware are the fanboys who said that it was a red hot wet nipple dream of the gaming world) but I am doing just fine with my GTX460. ATI and Nvidia both fair well in wow depending on the quality of drivers being used.

Well thats different, then ur running 2 or more clients of WoW and each client can allocate 2GB RAM. So if ur gonna multibox then u should have more RAM

one 5770 in 5760x1080 is gonna suck balls sure when i was using one 5850 card it was back in 10.3 or 10.4 (its now 10.12, new version is released every month) i had to go on low setting to not get low framerates ^^ so i doubt its THAT much better now

 

[wolfram23]

atigirl,I don't think the i7 870 is bad, it's just that the amount of performance to gain for the price over the 760 really isn't worth the cost. Like I said if you say the money you can buy an SSD which would have a pretty big impact on overall system performance. Over clocking can be quite safe especially if you buy an aftermarket cooler like the hyper 212 plus which is only around $30.00. If you're buying 1600 MHz ram you're going to have to set the base clock up to 160 which means the 760 will be running at 3.5 GHz and turbo up to 4 GHz. This is an easy over clocked to achieve and will not stress the CPU much.

As for GPUs, yes a 480 would be very fast. However they are also quite expensive. A 470 or 570 would still perform very well and they are comparable to the 6970 and 6950.

When making a new computer it's important to match the components to each other. Considering the amount of cash you seem to be able to lay down, I would almost recommend going to an X58 motherboard with an i7 930 CPU and 6 GB of ram along with whichever high and graphics card you like as well as a solid state hard drive. Another thing is if you're going to get that much power like in a 480 GPU you will have to upgrade the Power Supply to at least 850 W for a brand name like corsair or antec.

Perhaps if you give us a budget we can help a little more with balancing out to all those components to get the best computer possible

Edit: sorry for some of the grammar and spelling errors but I'm using speech recognition because my wireless keyboard died. I'll be getting batteries tomorrow

 

[Guest]

Do I get a SSD on top of my other hard drive so I have both or does it replace the other hard drive? There's only a $20.00 difference between the i5-760 and i7-870 so I don't care about cost for that - ugh but now I can't decide between the two, help me! LOL

Also, he threw in a PCI network card, is that good to have?

This is what I'm going to have my friend build me:

Case Apevia X-DREAMER3-BK N\A
Processor Intel BX80605I7870 LGA1156
Motherboard ASUS P7P55 LX LGA1156
Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-750TX 20+4 Pin
RAM Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 240-Pin DDR3
DVD Drive Sony AD-7261S-0B SATA
Hard Drive Western Digital WD1001FALS SATA
Video Card EVGA 015-P3-1482-AR PCIe
Mounting Screws StarTech SCREW632R15 N\A
Operating System Microsoft Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full N\A
Network Card Intel EXPI9301CTBLK PCIe

 

[snoogiloo]

the pcie network card aint needed.

If ur gonna get SLI later on u will need another motherboard. that card is running one in 4x.

 

[Guest]

that card is running one in 4x.

what's that mean?

 

[Guest]

What SSD would work with that motherboard (ASUS P7P55 LX LGA1156)?