In need of help: Graphic Cards.

[JodaSFU]

Ok, cool.. Just out of curiosity, What does the RAID configuration do exactly? And is the cooling stuff sufficient?

Thanks for all the help guys, it's very much appreciated!

Dunno much about RAID, but I think RAID 0 means that your OS considers two identical HDD's as one, splitting the load between the two, theoretically giving you twice the performance.

 

[xenus87]

Ok, cool.. Just out of curiosity, What does the RAID configuration do exactly? And is the cooling stuff sufficient?

Thanks for all the help guys, it's very much appreciated!

Dunno much about RAID, but I think RAID 0 means that your OS considers two identical HDD's as one, splitting the load between the two, theoretically giving you twice the performance.

Thats pretty much what it does, the only downside is that if one drive fails, you lose everything.

 

[megalomania]

Ok, cool.. Just out of curiosity, What does the RAID configuration do exactly? And is the cooling stuff sufficient?

Thanks for all the help guys, it's very much appreciated!

RAID 1 duplicates all of your data on both drives so if one of them fails you still have your information. So you will only have 1.5Tb of space, but you have the redundancy!

 

[not a zaar]

It sounds to me like you have way more money than common sense. Don't buy the "bleeding edge" stuff, because your performance/price ration is very low at that extreme, and as we all know in 6 months it's all going to be much cheaper than it is right now. You're basically being suckered in by hype and fancy sounding words. Take a few minutes to do some research on each piece of hardware before you go blowing all your money. For example, you're buying an i7 quad core CPU for what is obviously a gaming computer, when games these days support 2 cores at most (and some of them not even that!)

 

[Killerabbit]

I always go ATI

 

[Nimbus]

Go with the nVidia card if you want to avaoid microstuttering (Yes, you do).

 

[JodaSFU]

For example, you're buying an i7 quad core CPU for what is obviously a gaming computer, when games these days support 2 cores at most (and some of them not even that!)

Buying a MoBo with socket 1366 or the AMD equivalent would be the only sound choice now, if you want a future proof system. Buying one with LGA775, would result in having to not only replace your CPU, but also your MoBo, when the time comes for an upgrade in a year or two.

Besides, the i7 isn't that much more expensive than the high-end Core2Quad, but the performance is much better. The only big investment would be the MoBo, which, as I already said, you'd have to replace anyway if you decide to upgrade the CPU within the next two-three years.

 

[Agayek]

that had better been a misread, considering the 4gb limit.

Yea, I thought I had installed 64 bit but didn't pay enough attention to the discs. It made me sad in the pants when I figured it out 3 days later.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'm actually looking for some kind of graphics card too- I'm trying to seriously get into WoW and I think I may be able to do it, but in the free trial I'm using, there's some lag, I guess either because my computer's old, or more likely because my graphics card isn't good enough.

Is there a cheap, readily available graphics card out there that can be added to most computers and that can run WoW without lag?

 

[Nutcase]

I was running 32 bit Vista with a pair of 8800 Ultras and got 2.3 GB of RAM, with 6 GB installed (lol@misreadingdiscs).

That had better been a misread, considering the 4gb limit.

Either or, graphics memory does not eat into physical memory - at least, not anymore.

It's misleading to talk about the physical memory. What the graphics card drivers (and some other device drivers) eat is the 32-bit address space. Many devices, including the graphics card, consume address space.

DX10 has apparently lessened the effect in that the drivers don't *have* to lose address space in a 1:1 ratio to VRAM, but some amount less than that. You still have a bunch of reserved memory areas which drop the usable address space way below 4GB.

I still get a full 32bit allocation (which can be up to 3 gigs per program if set right) despite having a 2gb card and 4 gigs of ram installed. It doesn't work like that any more, they developed away from it when they realised "oh shit people are going to run out of ram to allocate soon".

To the best of my understanding, if you run a DX9 app, your addressable physical RAM should tank below 2GB. Have you only tested DX10?

Caveat: if the card is a X2/GX2 kind of thing, I'm not sure if those look like a 1GB card to the system. In that case slightly less than 3GB RAM could be addressable.

The 32bit limit wont start effecting the onboard memory until GFX cards come to 4gb, and by then pretty much everyone will be on, or moving to, 64bit OS.

It already affects anyone who has at least 4GB of physical memory. Out of 4GB of physical memory, 3.2GB is usable on my 32-bit Vista. I have a 512MB nVidia card, and obviously the driver eats address space in 1:1 ratio to VRAM.

 

[Nutcase]

I'm actually looking for some kind of graphics card too- I'm trying to seriously get into WoW and I think I may be able to do it, but in the free trial I'm using, there's some lag, I guess either because my computer's old, or more likely because my graphics card isn't good enough.

Is there a cheap, readily available graphics card out there that can be added to most computers and that can run WoW without lag?

WoW is a special case in that it's very forgiving when it comes to graphics. It's possible that the bottleneck is elsewhere. It's better that we look at the whole system instead of helping you get one new part that might not even help much. I for one have a long history of running WoW on crappy systems near the minimum required specs.

What processor, graphics and screen resolution do you have, and how much memory? Have you tried turning every graphic option in the settings down or off?

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'm actually looking for some kind of graphics card too- I'm trying to seriously get into WoW and I think I may be able to do it, but in the free trial I'm using, there's some lag, I guess either because my computer's old, or more likely because my graphics card isn't good enough.

Is there a cheap, readily available graphics card out there that can be added to most computers and that can run WoW without lag?

WoW is a special case in that it's very forgiving when it comes to graphics. It's possible that the bottleneck is elsewhere. It's better that we look at the whole system instead of helping you get one new part that might not even help much. I for one have a long history of running WoW on crappy systems near the minimum required specs.

What processor, graphics and screen resolution do you have, and how much memory? Have you tried turning every graphic option in the settings down or off?

I'm actually not sure what specs I have- I'm a neophyte when it comes to actual computer hardware, so is there a way I can get a report from my computer listing the specs? Or something like that?

As for the graphic options, yeah, I did turn them all as down as they would go and still suffered a few seconds' worth of lag when running or taking actions in the outside world of WoW; when inside, though, like a building, the lag inexplicably decreases so there's no lag, but quickly reappears when I go outside again. It's something that I could live with if I tried *really* hard, but it's also really annoying.

 

[RapidCrash]

I'm actually looking for some kind of graphics card too- I'm trying to seriously get into WoW and I think I may be able to do it, but in the free trial I'm using, there's some lag, I guess either because my computer's old, or more likely because my graphics card isn't good enough.

Is there a cheap, readily available graphics card out there that can be added to most computers and that can run WoW without lag?

WoW is a special case in that it's very forgiving when it comes to graphics. It's possible that the bottleneck is elsewhere. It's better that we look at the whole system instead of helping you get one new part that might not even help much. I for one have a long history of running WoW on crappy systems near the minimum required specs.

What processor, graphics and screen resolution do you have, and how much memory? Have you tried turning every graphic option in the settings down or off?

I'm actually not sure what specs I have- I'm a neophyte when it comes to actual computer hardware, so is there a way I can get a report from my computer listing the specs? Or something like that?

As for the graphic options, yeah, I did turn them all as down as they would go and still suffered a few seconds' worth of lag when running or taking actions in the outside world of WoW; when inside, though, like a building, the lag inexplicably decreases so there's no lag, but quickly reappears when I go outside again. It's something that I could live with if I tried *really* hard, but it's also really annoying.

Well I would then recommend you find some computer-savvy techie near where you live to help with that. I find that in most cases, while those over the internet may be able to help you, local techies will save you a lot of trouble. Especially if you aren't computer-savvy yourself.

 

[Nutcase]

Just FYI: these cards have a ton of graphics memory (way above what's needed really), which eats into address space. So if you go with them, you will basically need to use a 64-bit version of Windows. Otherwise the cards limit you to ~2GB of accessible RAM regardless of physical amount of RAM installed, hamstringing your entire machine.

Never has a person said so much for me to understand so little.. Are you saying that without a special windows whatever, there's no point in this graphics card?

Sorry, got a little technical there. Like the other guys said, don't worry about it and just make sure the Windows you get is 64-bit not 32-bit.

You would only need to spend about half as much to get over 80% of the performance of this setup, but I'm guessing your goal is to get (almost) the best you can get pre-assembled from this vendor, and you want the machine to last a good while without having to tinker with it.

Even so, looking at Chillblast's processor lineup for this box, I think you have every reason to drop down to the *lowest* processor offered and save £535. When you look at the technology in the i7 processors, the differences are 1) clock speed, 2) special tinkering features on the highest end model. Chillblast puts a manufacturer overclock on all of the processors and the resulting speeds (3.4GHz on lowest vs 3.6GHz on highest) are indistinguishable in practice. If you aren't going to tinker, that's £535 down the drain.

And drop the network card, it's snake oil. Doesn't hurt, but doesn't help either.

 

[Nutcase]

I'm actually not sure what specs I have- I'm a neophyte when it comes to actual computer hardware, so is there a way I can get a report from my computer listing the specs? Or something like that?

As for the graphic options, yeah, I did turn them all as down as they would go and still suffered a few seconds' worth of lag when running or taking actions in the outside world of WoW; when inside, though, like a building, the lag inexplicably decreases so there's no lag, but quickly reappears when I go outside again. It's something that I could live with if I tried *really* hard, but it's also really annoying.

http://www.notebooknotes.com/blog/find-out-what-hardware-is-build-in-your-computer.html

Run those two apps (CPU-Z, GPU-Z) and you should be able to determine the CPU, GPU, amount of memory and type of motherboard you have. We need the first three pieces of information to determine what your bottleneck is with WoW. Then we can start thinking about if there's an upgrade that makes sense and is easy enough to do. The motherboard is relevant since any new parts need to be compatible with it.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Does anyone know if there's an easy way to check one's system to see what the specs are? Apologies for hijacking this thread again, but I was able to find my old WoW account and the only two thorny issues plaguing me are A) needing to buy game time, which I can take care of, and B) needing a cheap graphics card good enough to run WoW without lag. Any suggestions, or should I make a new thread about this?

edit- I appear to have been sarnath'd!

 

[Agayek]

Does anyone know if there's an easy way to check one's system to see what the specs are? Apologies for hijacking this thread again, but I was able to find my old WoW account and the only two thorny issues plaguing me are A) needing to buy game time, which I can take care of, and B) needing a cheap graphics card good enough to run WoW without lag. Any suggestions, or should I make a new thread about this?

Check the post right above this. CPU-Z and GPU-Z will list what processor, motherboard, RAM and GPU you use, and we can go from there to figure out what you need to upgrade.

 

[DragonChi]

I have a question...how compatible is the 64-bit version of XP with 32-bit apps and games. which is every app and game that i own. i have a super beefed up rig and i want to be able to go further than 2gigs of ram (3.5 being the maximum usable amount). even though they ARE ddr3. can someone explain how the 64-bit xp works and what i can do about it? and do i need to do a full reformat before installing that if i get it or can i just install it over thus replacing it.