Re: Building computer
On 10/1/2013 12:29 AM, Rhiamom wrote:
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Sep 30, 2013, at 10:33 PM, Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> wrote:
...
>> It's quite funny to see someone of your knowledge level tell me I'm
>> wrong by quoting the cardboard box as your evidence, while I'm
>> demonstrating how the transistors and everything else work to get to a
>> realistic set of requirements...
>
> This is the crux of the matter. Your requirements are not realistic for how
Actually they were, up to the point you finally told us what screen
resolution you use. That changes things quite a bit, or I should say
changed one thing dramatically.
I recommended a fast dual core CPU because more cores will be wasted.
The i3-4340 3.6GHz Haswell would have been as fast as the quad core you
bought, and saved ~$40-50. 4GB RAM, more than 4GB is wasted, but as I
said previously it's cheap so buy more if you want, won't hurt. An SSD,
and APU graphics. The only change in that recommendation, now that I
know your screen resolution, is shifting to a very fast high bandwidth
discrete card. 2560x1440 is a pretty insanely high gaming res if you
want high frame rates and smooth rendering at high detail. Most "hard
core" gamers wouldn't touch 2560x1440 without SLI/Xfire.
If going w/a single reasonably priced card you're going to want/need a
model with a 384 bit bus. Extremely high resolutions require extremely
high memory bandwidth. The 384bit nVidia models are all above $600.
The AMD 7950s can be had in the low $200s, and the 7970s in the low
$300s. Both are 384bit.
> I want to use my computer. You may be able to happily exist on your minimal
> memory, ruthlessly eliminating background processes and OS features. I do
> not choose to do that. Your expert knowledge is worthless to me, because it
> requires me to alter the basic way I use my computer. In fact, it is worse than
> useless, because some poor sap might follow your advice and then wonder
> why they have performance issues with their brand new computer.
No it doesn't change the way you use your computer. Because the specs I
gave actually match how you currently use your computer. You simply
don't know it, because you're not using the tools at your disposal which
inform you of what system resources you're using.
Run top, install Munin, etc, and look at the percentage of each CPU core
that is used, and how much memory is used by your applications. You'll
be very surprised. Then look at the GPU driver control panel while
running WOW and see how much of the video RAM is in use. At 2560x1440
it may be pretty high.
The 7950/7970 both sport 3GB of VRAM do you shouldn't fall short there.
>> It doesn't matter as you already bought your system. But I find it
>> interesting that you will be running integrated graphics for the time
>> being, after you stated this is wholly inadequate.
>>
>> I also find it interesting that not once did you mention that you may
>> try your old 6970 in the new box, before plunking down unnecessary cash
>> on yet another high end video card.
>
> Yes, I will be running the integrated graphics for a few weeks while I adapt to
> the new box. It is only temporary.
>
> The 6970 is in my iMac, and will remain there. Note that even with 2 gig of
> dedicated video memory I am not able to play WoW on all high settings with
> the 6970.
Again, that's not because there's not enough GPU memory, it's because
the DRAM bus isn't fast enough, or the chip itself isn't fast enough, or
both, for that insanely high resolution.
--
Stan
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