[Angelina Mayo]

Hi, I need some help (or just confirmation) of which graphics card to buy for my new rig, build with playing skyrim in mind.
The New Rig
i5 2500k (Sandy Core) @ 3.3 Ghz
8Gb Corsair 9-9-9-24 1600MHz Ram
Gigabyte Z68x-UD3-B3 SLi Capable
850W Corsair PSU

Plus I have a 9800 GT which I plan to use as a dedicated PhysX card - hence why I'm buying an nVidia card

My budget is about ￡250, and having heard a lot of positive feedback about the 560 Ti I was considering this card:
(the following links are the pages from the shop I intend to purchase from, they're a good reliable retailer, and as they're really close to me I can pick up from them, thus negating carriage costs.)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-evga-gtx-560-ti-40nm-4000mhz-gddr5-gpu-822mhz-shader-1645mhz-384-cores-2x-dl-dvi-i-mhdmi-plusfre
2GB EVGA GTX 560 Ti, 40nm, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 822MHz, Shader 1645MHz, 384 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ mHDMI
￡233.47 Inc VAT

Then I looked at the cheap end of the 570s and found this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280mb-msi-gtx-570-40nm-3800mhz-gddr5-gpu-732mhz-shader-1464mhz-480-cores-dl-dvi-mhdmi
1280MB MSI GTX 570, 40nm, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 732MHz, Shader 1464MHz, 480 Cores, DL-DVI/mHDMI
￡245.48 Inc VAT

Everything tells me the MSI 570 card is better, but why is it so (relatively) cheap, am I being over cautious, thinking it's too good to be true? Or will the extra memory and higher clock speeds of the 560 make up for this. I would have prefered a card with 2Gb of VRAM as Skyrim (if like Oblivion and Fallout) could be the type of game where extra VRAM is particularly useful.
From what I've read on overclockers MSI are a decent video card manufacturer, as are EVGA. Both only have 1 fan for cooling, which might be an issue with the 570, if I were to want to overclock it (which I don't at present).
Given the choice of these two (and it really is between these 2 now) which would you recommend?

Quick Edit: I should add I have a 1600x900 DVI monitor (LG Flatron28 something or other) so will probably be running it in that resolution.

[Wane Peters]

Does anyone have an easy to follow guide for installing Windows XP from a flash drive? I found a few guides but they all said the same thing and it did not work. I don't know if it matters but I used nLite to slipstream some drivers and updates into the install disc.

[Solène We]

My current specs is I7 860 @ 2.8ghz 8gb ram and a GTX 260 and i'm looking for a new graphics card to run skyrim in it's full glory.
I am intrested in the GTX 580 or the 590,but the question is will my I7 860 bottleneck the 580 or 590.
Sorry for the noobish question since this will be my first Gfx card purchase.

Thanks in advance

[Michelle Serenity Boss]

@Torello
I'd go with the MSI 570 if you can get it for that price. The 560 even with that massive overclock and extra ram is a slower card in general even if it can match the 570 in some games and at the resolution you are at the extra ram will do nothing, it will only be noticable when you go up to 1920x1200 and above with massive amounts of AA.

[Elisabete Gaspar]

My current specs is I7 860 @ 2.8ghz 8gb ram and a GTX 260 and i'm looking for a new graphics card to run skyrim in it's full glory.
I am intrested in the GTX 580 or the 590,but the question is will my I7 860 bottleneck the 580 or 590.
Sorry for the noobish question since this will be my first Gfx card purchase.

Thanks in advance

No problem with the CPU and you can easily overclock it to 3.2 - 3.4 without it getting to hot, with high end cooling close to 4.0 ghz should be possible.
The 590 is extreme overkill for Skyrim unless you plan to run on 3 screens, even the 580 is more than you would need to max the game.

[Peter P Canning]

No problem with the CPU and you can easily overclock it to 3.2 - 3.4 without it getting to hot, with high end cooling close to 4.0 ghz should be possible.
The 590 is extreme overkill for Skyrim unless you plan to run on 3 screens, even the 580 is more than you would need to max the game.

Thanks for the answer!

It's not just for skyrim, i often play BF 3 and other demanding games. Do i need to overclock my CPU since i have no ide how to?

*Edit* I only have stock cooling by the way.

[Rachael]

Ok guys, I've come to the conclusion that I want to build my first PC, but I don't know where to start! Primarily for gaming (SC2, Skyrim, etc....). My budget range is 500-700 US dollars. Help?

[jess hughes]

Thanks for the answer!

It's not just for skyrim, i often play BF 3 and other demanding games. Do i need to overclock my CPU since i have no ide how to?

*Edit* I only have stock cooling by the way.

BF3 is a whole other thing, very demanding compared to Skyrim and in that game a GTX580 sure is a nice thing.
What you really need for BF3 is a fast 4-core CPU for those 64 player multiplayer maps. Luckily you have such a CPU so you should be just fine.
Overclocking is just to get some extra performance for free but if you are not comfortable with it or don't know how you're better off not bothering with it and in your case I see no real need for it as you already have a fast CPU.
Get yourself a GTX580 and you should be a very happy gamer.

[Quick Draw III]

@Torrello
I'd go with the MSI 570 if you can get it for that price. The 560 even with that massive overclock and extra ram is a slower card in general even if it can match the 570 in some games and at the resolution you are at the extra ram will do nothing, it will only be noticable when you go up to 1920x1200 and above with massive amounts of AA.

Thank you for the response, I'd pretty much figured the above, but nagging doubt was clouding my judgement :confused:
I did find out today that there's a new 560 Ti coming out and it's got 2 GPUs on it! But thats gonna be like, $500, so will probably be about ￡430. Man, living in rip-off Britian svcks

[mimi_lys]

Ok, looking around at Laptops in regards to my church (as I posted before). My eye is drawn to the Asus K53SV-V2G-SX669V with i7 QuadCore Processor, 8G RAM, 540M 2GB, Bluray, 15.3" screen and a 750GB HDD from CPL. http://www.cpl.net.au/notebook.htm

Do the techies among us consider this to be a good deal for $1149 and suitable to my needs?

[Je suis]

Gaahhh, this BSOD's won't end! I've installed my new GPU, but this error keeps coming up:


http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/316383_510604628672_160100387_30202219_1190480791_n.jpg


Anyone? Help? This is driving me insane, to no end!


This one just came now:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/300643_510605122682_160100387_30202222_1269654355_n.jpg

[Matt Bigelow]

Gaahhh, this BSOD's won't end! I've installed my new GPU, but this error keeps coming up:


http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/316383_510604628672_160100387_30202219_1190480791_n.jpg


Anyone? Help? This is driving me insane, to no end!


This one just came now:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/300643_510605122682_160100387_30202222_1269654355_n.jpg

1. do a clean install of the latest drivers for your GPU

2. run a chkdsk /f on your hard drive

[liz barnes]

1. do a clean install of the latest drivers for your GPU

2. run a chkdsk /f on your hard drive

Ok, did all that. Do I just wait a day or two, to see if it's fixed?

[Jarrett Willis]

Hi, I need some help (or just confirmation) of which graphics card to buy for my new rig, build with playing skyrim in mind.
The New Rig
i5 2500k (Sandy Core) @ 3.3 Ghz
8Gb Corsair 9-9-9-24 1600MHz Ram
Gigabyte Z68x-UD3-B3 SLi Capable
850W Corsair PSU

Plus I have a 9800 GT which I plan to use as a dedicated PhysX card - hence why I'm buying an nVidia card

My budget is about ￡250, and having heard a lot of positive feedback about the 560 Ti I was considering this card:
(the following links are the pages from the shop I intend to purchase from, they're a good reliable retailer, and as they're really close to me I can pick up from them, thus negating carriage costs.)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-evga-gtx-560-ti-40nm-4000mhz-gddr5-gpu-822mhz-shader-1645mhz-384-cores-2x-dl-dvi-i-mhdmi-plusfre
2GB EVGA GTX 560 Ti, 40nm, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 822MHz, Shader 1645MHz, 384 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ mHDMI
￡233.47 Inc VAT

Then I looked at the cheap end of the 570s and found this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280mb-msi-gtx-570-40nm-3800mhz-gddr5-gpu-732mhz-shader-1464mhz-480-cores-dl-dvi-mhdmi
1280MB MSI GTX 570, 40nm, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 732MHz, Shader 1464MHz, 480 Cores, DL-DVI/mHDMI
￡245.48 Inc VAT

Everything tells me the MSI 570 card is better, but why is it so (relatively) cheap, am I being over cautious, thinking it's too good to be true? Or will the extra memory and higher clock speeds of the 560 make up for this. I would have prefered a card with 2Gb of VRAM as Skyrim (if like Oblivion and Fallout) could be the type of game where extra VRAM is particularly useful.
From what I've read on overclockers MSI are a decent video card manufacturer, as are EVGA. Both only have 1 fan for cooling, which might be an issue with the 570, if I were to want to overclock it (which I don't at present).
Given the choice of these two (and it really is between these 2 now) which would you recommend?

Quick Edit: I should add I have a 1600x900 DVI monitor (LG Flatron28 something or other) so will probably be running it in that resolution.

At that resolution, get the GTX 570. The 570 isn't the card that's cheap...it's just the 560 Ti has the 2GB VRAM, making it more expensive than the standard 1GB ones. Not going to need that much VRAM at that resolution.

Thanks for the answer!

It's not just for skyrim, i often play BF 3 and other demanding games. Do i need to overclock my CPU since i have no ide how to?

*Edit* I only have stock cooling by the way.

I also don't think you need to.

Ok guys, I've come to the conclusion that I want to build my first PC, but I don't know where to start! Primarily for gaming (SC2, Skyrim, etc....). My budget range is 500-700 US dollars. Help?

What else is needed other than the tower? Mouse, Monitor, KB, Speakers, OS disc? All these will certainly affect your choices.

Also, the Hard Drive market is suffering from inflated prices at the moment due to the Thailand floods. Drives are costing double of their usual value...can only hope prices drop soon.

Ok, looking around at Laptops in regards to my church (as I posted before). My eye is drawn to the Asus K53SV-V2G-SX669V with i7 QuadCore Processor, 8G RAM, 540M 2GB, Bluray, 15.3" screen and a 750GB HDD from CPL. http://www.cpl.net.au/notebook.htm

Do the techies among us consider this to be a good deal for $1149 and suitable to my needs?

Not bad. Interesting site...bookmarked.

[Mrs. Patton]

Not bad. Interesting site...bookmarked.

Haha, I'll take that as a good sign. I'm a bit of a noob at this, but I'm guessing a laptop like this with a 540M would work in a dual-monitor setup yes?

[Katie Louise Ingram]

I'm (still) getting a new gaming PC (mainly because of Skyrim ). Would this do nicely?:

P67 SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz
8GB DDR3 1333MHz
1TB SATAII
AMD Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5

It costs 999€

Is the price-performance ratio good?

I'm not building it myself.

[jess hughes]

Duncan Harris (http://www.deadendthrills.com guy) often renders screenshots at 2160p. Could someone explain to me how on earth he is doing that? His specs are:

Motherboard: Intel? Desktop Board DX58SO2
CPU: Intel? Core? i7-980X Processor Extreme Edition (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel? QPI)
Videocard: Nvidia GeForce GTX580
RAM: 6gb Corsair DDR3 @ 1351MHz (2gb DIMMs)
Storage (OS): Intel? Solid-State Drive (Intel? SSD) 320 (120gb)
Storage (Games): 2x Samsung HD250HJ 250GB Internal SATA 8MB 7200RPM (500gb RAID configuration)
Monitor: Samsung 2333SW 23″ Widescreen DVI LCD Monitor

Also, how does he use FXAA in games?

[A Dardzz]

System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: NC768AA-ABA a6719f
BIOS: BIOS Date: 02/03/09 15:24:58 Ver: 5.08
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 8729MB used, 2209MB available


Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 9800 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0614&SUBSYS_83141043&REV_A2
Display Memory: 2287 MB
Dedicated Memory: 495 MB
Shared Memory: 1791 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz


How well will this run Skyrim?

[J.P loves]

Haha, I'll take that as a good sign. I'm a bit of a noob at this, but I'm guessing a laptop like this with a 540M would work in a dual-monitor setup yes?

The notebook has a VGA port and HDMI port, so dual-monitor setup is possible.

I'm (still) getting a new gaming PC (mainly because of Skyrim ). Would this do nicely?:

P67 SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz
8GB DDR3 1333MHz
1TB SATAII
AMD Radeon HD 6850, 1GB GDDR5

It costs 999€

Is the price-performance ratio good?

I'm not building it myself.

Kind of overpriced. Is this just the tower alone? Any monitor or peripherals?

The system would pull at least high at 1080p for Skyrim probably.

Duncan Harris (http://www.deadendthrills.com guy) often renders screenshots at 2160p. Could someone explain to me how on earth he is doing that? His specs are:

Motherboard: Intel? Desktop Board DX58SO2
CPU: Intel? Core? i7-980X Processor Extreme Edition (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel? QPI)
Videocard: Nvidia GeForce GTX580
RAM: 6gb Corsair DDR3 @ 1351MHz (2gb DIMMs)
Storage (OS): Intel? Solid-State Drive (Intel? SSD) 320 (120gb)
Storage (Games): 2x Samsung HD250HJ 250GB Internal SATA 8MB 7200RPM (500gb RAID configuration)
Monitor: Samsung 2333SW 23″ Widescreen DVI LCD Monitor

Also, how does he use FXAA in games?

Might be best to ask him. :shrug: I don't really know considering the setup.

System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: NC768AA-ABA a6719f
BIOS: BIOS Date: 02/03/09 15:24:58 Ver: 5.08
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 8729MB used, 2209MB available


Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 9800 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0614&SUBSYS_83141043&REV_A2
Display Memory: 2287 MB
Dedicated Memory: 495 MB
Shared Memory: 1791 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz


How well will this run Skyrim?

Considering resolution, good chance for high. Processor is a bit aged though...may have some lags with it.

[sarah simon-rogaume]

I have no idea if I should post this here or not, but here goes:

I put on my computer, everything was normal.. But a pop-up window came up and said a "jmicron jmb36x controller" was unable to be installed. I have no idea what that is or why it failed. Googling jmicron jmb36x controller was utterly confusing so yeah, here I am. Bascially asking what jmicron jmb36x controller is and why it 'failed' to be installed when I started my computer.

[JUDY FIGHTS]

I have no idea if I should post this here or not, but here goes:

I put on my computer, everything was normal.. But a pop-up window came up and said a "jmicron jmb36x controller" was unable to be installed. I have no idea what that is or why it failed. Googling jmicron jmb36x controller was utterly confusing so yeah, here I am. Bascially asking what jmicron jmb36x controller is and why it 'failed' to be installed when I started my computer.

From google it says it's: "A controller used on the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO AM3 motherboard to handle IDE functionality."

Which sounds like it has to do with HDDs. Have you added any new ones in? Most HDDs these days are SATA instead of IDE, so that seems an odd thing...at any rate I'd still run a comprehensive virus scan to make sure it's not not an impostor message.

If you don't have an IDE Hard Drive then I wouldn't worry, because without one there's no reason for the controller to be there or no worry if it's not there when it should be.

May want to look into your mobo's support page too, see if they have fresh driver downloads for that kind of stuff.

[sophie]

From google it says it's: "A controller used on the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO AM3 motherboard to handle IDE functionality."

Which sounds like it has to do with HDDs. Have you added any new ones in? Most HDDs these days are SATA instead of IDE, so that seems an odd thing...at any rate I'd still run a comprehensive virus scan to make sure it's not not an impostor message.

If you don't have an IDE Hard Drive then I wouldn't worry, because without one there's no reason for the controller to be there or no worry if it's not there when it should be.

May want to look into your mobo's support page too, see if they have fresh driver downloads for that kind of stuff.

I haven't done anything with my computer at all and now it suddenly said something failed. How do I know if I have a IDE or SATA.. thing?

[Len swann]

I haven't done anything with my computer at all and now it suddenly said something failed. How do I know if I have a IDE or SATA.. thing?

http://prissears.com/ide.jpg

http://satavside.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Sata-Vs-Ide-2.jpg

[Kelly Tomlinson]

Kind of overpriced. Is this just the tower alone? Any monitor or peripherals?

The system would pull at least high at 1080p for Skyrim probably.

Thanks for the reply. It's just the tower... and a mouse pad

So, I think I'll have to keep looking for a PC, probably going to have to build one myself.
I'll come back here if I need more help (most likely will need more help).

[m Gardner]

http://prissears.com/ide.jpg

http://satavside.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Sata-Vs-Ide-2.jpg

So I need to kill my computer and see what's inside it? :cryvaultboy: