Maxxtraxx

Just now, App4that said:

Drivers, one thing you have to give AMD is the 200 series has become more powerful over the last year. Roll back to year old drivers and the 970 has a chance.

Can you show any proof in numbers that the amd drivers have made any meaningful increase in performance? Any firestrike score examples? Data that would show their drivers improving the 290x to meaningfully above the 970.

Also 200 series cards are pretty terrible overclockers while the 970s seem to be very good at it.

970 is basically equal to 290x... unless your mining

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

oh yeah. A 290x overclocked is definitely more powerful than any 970.

 

no

Well check out anandtech... here... without overclocking

And 970's tend to overclock VERY well

290x is in a dead heat with the 970 in games.

Forget any "gpu horsepower" concerns, a r9 390 will work great for a 1440p monitor, I know first hand as i ran my monitor with a gtx 970 with no problems at maxed or nearly maxed settings.

1440p is a great choice for monitors right now as 4k is still in its early phase and has some teething pains.

I have and can highly recommend this Acer monitor Here.

Its a 25 inch monitor which is slightly smaller than normal for 1440p but the IPS display is beautiful, no dead pixels, mine overclocked to 85hz easy, the lack of bezel on 3 sides looks sexy and the price is really appealing.

Witcher 3 if you Love a great story, melee fighting and a pretty decent challenge.

COD if you want multiplayer

SLI is nice because... (IMO)

1: a great upgrade path

2: works great... when it works(which is most of the time)

Why Single card over SLI when there is a choice:

1: A single card has more stable framerates

2: Possibly Better/Newer GPU chip/architecture and/or More VRAM

3: SLI likes to disable itself whenever...(driver updates, system updates, windows updates, randomly...)

4: Can take up PCI-E lanes that could be used/needed for other peripherals like NVME drives, Raid controllers, ect

5: produces less heat and consumes less power

6: leaves options for a further Graphics upgrade (adding another GPU in SLI) unless you have a High end cpu/chipset

So, I like SLI!

...but I do believe that a single more powerful card is a better choice when selecting between 1 powerful or 2 less powerful cards when the performance is similar.

IMO SLI is best used as a "down the road" upgrade path to add another 70%ish GPU performance for the lowest possible cost.

Does this give some reasons why many consider 1 more powerful card better than 2 slower cards(but possibly better in SLI)?

So it appears your looking for a LED fan then... Most of the good SP fans are not illuminated. Get whichever you like best!

Noctua nf-f12

Fractal Venturi HP12

ect

Any dead pixels or light bleed?

 

Can all monitors be overclocked? I don't know much about monitor overclocking 

No dead pixels.

If there is light bleed my untrained eyes can't see it on dark/black screens.

It's super easy with Nvidia, go to:

Nvidia control panel

Change resolution

Customize

Enable resolutions not supported by the display

Then add 5 to 10 hz to the refresh rate until you get a black screen(it will revert to default after 15 sec if it fails) and use your last good refresh rate.

Not all monitors will overclock to the same level.

 

I am looking to get a 1440p monitor for gaming but I have a really tight budget and wold like to spend as little as possible. I was looking at the

 

Acer G257HU: http://pcpartpicker....itor-umkg7aa002

 

or 

 

Asus PB258Q: http://pcpartpicker....monitor-pb258q 

 

My questions are which one is better and is there a better monitor at this price point? or is $260 too low for a good 1440p monitor? Thanks

 

I can vouch for the acer g257hu, I own one myself,

1: I love the slim bezels on top and sides

2: I love the IPS panel

3: mine overclocked to 85hz

4: 25 inches is great for me, fits on my desk well and I sit relatively close to my monitor(Between 2 and 3 feet away)

5: the price is great for the quality!

Sooo...

Would anyone rather have a 120mm CPU AIO and a 240mm GPU AIO vs the opposite?

Does that make sense? Thoughts?

power draw does not equal heat output, but yeah, GPUs output more heat.

power draw does not equal heat output? My impression is that more electrical power consumed by the silicon "engine" equals more power lost in the process of performing the needed calculations in the form of heat.

Just like a gasoline engine, a higher horsepower/performance level consumes more air and fuel and necessitates more cooling ability to remove the extra excess heat generated by the engine.

Well, You would need to do some checking... but I am assuming that the 980 and the 970 share a nearly identical PCB and imagine that the EVGA 980 hybrid cooler might work on your 970.

Your 970 should be a reference PCB, i believe evga starts changing the PCB with the FTW model and up.

The 980 Hybrid cooler is HERE and IMO the most normal/complete looking AIO option available.

Hi all, had a thought swirling around in my mind and wanted to see what other LTT peeps think.

Sooo... My setup:

i7-4790k has an 88 watt TDP when stock, maybe a 130 watt draw when overclocked?

Nvidia Titan X has a 250 watt TDP when stock, maybe a 300 watt draw when overclocked?

for the CPU a "good" AIO like my H100i GTX uses a 240mm radiator to dissipate 130 watts.

for the GPU a "good" AIO like my EVGA Hybrid uses a 120mm radiator to dissipate 300 watts.

Does the anyone else see the connection my mind sees?

Are we as PC users going overkill on the CPU? has GPU AIO cooling just not matured yet?

Why do we consider them both good but have seemingly backwards priorities when it comes to cooling our components?

Would you rather... Have a 120mm radiator for the CPU if you could have a 240mm radiator for your GPU? OR does this current setup seem logical to you?

Just looking for some thoughts on the subject, Thanks everyone!

Noctua nf-a14 are pricy but considered one of the best. Here

My personal favorite is the Fractal Venturi HP-14 (excellent product and price). Here

980 it is sir! And a resounding round of applause for the LTT community! Not a single mention of a r9 390 or 390x, we stayed on point with the question asked!

You're psu will do the job, it's not the highest possible quality psu but it should be capable of powering your system. With an overclock on the graphics card i'm seeing a psu wattage calculation of under 550 watts so a 600 watt psu will work.

I'm a fan of this calculator

A tasteful mod to the front could be a possible solution if it is infact a problem, if you're definately planning on purchasing the case(very nice i might add) then i would recommend to check the ammount of airflow for yourself.

If you're concerned about cooling inside then i would recommend the GTX 980Ti Hybrid model from EVGA(or purchase a reference model and buy the kit to upgrade it later) or the Gigabyte Waterforce and using it as a rear exhaust setup, this would eliminate the problems of a 250 watt card dumping heat into the case and leave only the CPU to be cooled by the case airflow.

I have the EVGA hybrid cooler myself and with a modded bios i'm running over 1500Mhz, so I can say that it works quite well.

​If you want better performance trade for the 980's

If you want the exclusivity of owning one of the rarest gpu's, keep the titan z

Just depends on what you want.

​The performance gains over just a push or pull setup is real but minor, in most cases a simple pull setup is more than sufficient and recommended so you have access to clean the radiator fins more easily.

In all reality the high performance editions spin far faster than anyone would have use for and thus I would say the quiet editions would be a better choice, either way setup a good fan curve to keep those baby's quiet.

Difficult subject, as a disclaimer I do not drink, smoke, chew or do drugs of any kind because I decided during my late teens that I wanted to be in control of my own body at all times.

I have many friends who drink and coworkers who smoke/chew. I have very little first hand knowledge of drugs, but my personal feelings ar that it primarily comes down to the individual that is using the drugs.

IMO if it leads to your body developing an physical or mental addiction to a product then it should be avoided, Many individuals use drugs to escape dealing with problems they have in their life, deferment of dealing with problems is never a good way to improve the problem and will generally always make said problem worse with neglect.

IMO if using the drug causes the impairment or loss of normal mental functions then not ONCE have I heard of the loss of mental functions leading to a good end result or improving the decisions of the person. If your non-drug influenced mind does not stay the primary decider of your actions then the decisions you make while in an altered state will be more likely to be regrettable ones.

In the end MY feelings are that if a person is dependent upon a drug mentally or physically then it is a crutch/impairment/hindrance to that persons life and that wise decisions are often not made when addiction is involved.

Remember, the addicted mind is responsible for its decisions whether those decisions are made when rational or when impaired... and those decisions can have serious consequences not only for the life of the individual...

but also for the lives of OTHERS AROUND THEM whether its family dealing with the pain of an addicted loved one or unrelated individuals dealing with the consequences of that persons actions that may have destroyed or altered the life of a COMPLETE STRANGER in most likely for this circumstance of discussion... in a BAD way.

I don't want this to attack any individuals that support drug use, that is not my intent, please this is my thoughts on what can be a very destructive force if not used with extreme caution, it has, does and will continue to destroy lives of the user and those around them because of completely unintentional decisions when the wrong circumstance arises.

When in comes to fans, I recommend high quality fans that are static pressure focused. I'll leave those 2 determinations up to you... remember that in your computer case the fans are going to be the primary source of noise, so if you desire a quiet PC... then high quality(aka not usually cheap) is the way to go. Noctua's are great, I'm really liking Fractal's Venturi HP-12.

I have had corsair sp-120's but only the Cheap versions(came with my h100i GTX)

They come in TWO varieties:

1: the cheap version (plain black plastic body)

2: the expensive version (have the colored rings and the rubber corner vibration dampers)

The cheap version of the fans for me were very audible(loud) the fans had a coarse feeling to the fan bearings when spun and got very loud with any increase above very low rpm's.

So... I replaced them with Fractal Venturi HP-12's, the looks are fine, the price is reasonable(far less than the noctua's(i do love the noctua's)) and they perform very well.

I get what you mean, but the term bottleneck is not right to use in this sense.

 

he's just lacking performance, thats all.

The GTX 660, while a nice graphics card... Is the limiting factor in his gaming performance. Upgrading the 660 to a better card will improve gaming performance while the CPU upgrade will do very little due to the 660 being the limiting factor.

Witcher 3, no contest for my vote. If you haven't played it... shame on you!