Hi guys,

I'm upgrading my PC next year so I would like to how know what would be the best hardware (graphics card, etc) to enjoy Fallout: NV to the fullest including little to no clashes. Any suggestions please?

Thanks-in-advance!

Will need more info first, such as:

1.) your budget in your country's currency
2.) what country you reside if not listed in your avatar area
3.) pre-assembled PC? ...or can you build your own?
4.) what is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can jack up the price.
5.) product preferences, preferred seller, and intended aim


...or post your question http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1145193-the-community-tech-thread-no-94/

Hi,

1) Less than USD$4000
2) Singapore
3) Most likely build my own
4) I'm more concerned about the microprocessor, graphics card, sound card and motherboard. The rest like keyboard etc doesn't require to be too high-end.
5) No specific product preferences, however it won't a Mac of course. I think I can source the parts by myself in my country because we have several IT hub shopping centres in my country. My aim is to play in HD, smooth running but no over-clocking.

Thanks for asking and including the link. I hope I've answer all your questions. Anyway, I asking about some rough suggestions and wasn't expecting anything too specific though. I'll work it from the suggestions. Thanks again!


:foodndrink:

4000$ is a waste.

I'll say build a 2,000$ gaming computer.
It should give you have enough to buy the following MAJOR components to the computer.

-Latest cards
- 12GB ram
-32inch screen (asus?)

Anyway you'll be able to build a computer that should last 4-6years for games atm.
(High quality for all of them)

Thanks, Bob. What are the hottest cards right now? I've lost touch....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133318 is the GPU I have installed now. I have no problems with it. There are even better cards on the market. depending on how much you really want to spend on one.

Honestly you might get quicker responses if you post this in the link I provided earlier though.

USD $4,000? For comparison sake, you could build an $800 PC that runs it at max to be honest. But if $4k is your budget, I'd be asking for a system that could run metro 2033 or dirt 2 (dx11 mode) maxed out at 60+fps. As an after effect, NV will run perfectly fine (minus the crashing of course)

If you spend that $4000 wisely it'll be the gift that keeps on giving. Do you want to play games on a PC, with max settings and a modicum of stabilty, don't cheap-lick. This forum (and MANY others) is full of people who think they're superior for buying an $800 box. This same folks tend to harp on the devs for not optimizing the game to run on low-power, mismatched machines composed of bargain parts. The hottest card right now? That depends on whether you want to be bleeding edge. The 5-series nVidia cards are good and getting better with each iteration. The AMD 5970 is a dual GPU beast that'll do you good. The 6-series AMD cards haven't reached the enthusiast segment yet, IMO. I'm running dual GTX 480's they eat FO:NV alive, and they just hit the upper $300 price point.

You seem fairly knowledgeable in hardware that you can make decent decisions on your own with some guidance. And I have found Singapore to be a difficult country to research on where to shop at, so you'll have a better idea of where to get stuff. If you have links to stores where we can look, that would help a great deal if you're looking for suggestions. Otherwise, I can give my opinion on what's hot right now.

For video cards, we've had a few nice releases from both Nvidia and AMD (formerly ATI). Nvidia just released their GTX 580, which is currently the fastest single GPU on the market. The release of the GTX 570 has followed for more mainstream prices and performance. Both are plenty for the game. AMD has just released their Radeon 6970 and 6950 video cards..the Radeon 6970 trade blows with the GTX 570. There is currently no answer yet for the GTX 580, but AMD still has the dual-GPU Radeon 5970 in the market. AMD is more for the bang for your buck market....pricing their cards lower than Nvidia for the same performance bracket. Nvidia is more about retaining performance crown.

So as it stands....Radeon 6950 < GTX 570 ~ Radeon 6970 < GTX 580 < Radeon 5970

Reputable Nvidia vendors: EVGA, XFX, Asus, Gigabyte, Zotac, Palit, Gainward
Reputable AMD vendors: Sapphire, XFX, Asus, HIS, Gainward


On Intel's CPU front, Socket LGA1366 Core i7 chips are still the fastest chips on the market, but not a necessity for strictly gaming....these chips are quads with 8 threads and is way more than games require. The Core i7 950 is a popular chip in this market, along with X58 chipset motherboards, and triple channel DDR3 memory (triple a necessity here).

Intel's alternate and more mainstream socket market is LGA 1156 Core i7, i5, and i3 chips. With your budget, the Core i7 and i5 chips are probably most meaningful. The Core i7 870 chip is decent, the Core i5 750 is popular. These usually get paired with P55 chipset motherboards and dual-channel DDR3 memory configs.

Be forewarned, these sockets will begin to become dead-end ones once Intel's Sandybridge processors come out next year and they will require a new socket. Intel is changing things up yet again in their lineup and I personally find it annoying. Regardless, any of the chips mentioned will handle games for quite some time...software is still very much behind CPU hardware. We don't have many games that utilize even 4 cores and FNV only really makes use of two.


On AMD's front, we have again the bang for buck market with quads and even 6-core CPU's for Socket AM3. The Phenom II X4 965 and 970 are their flagship quads, while the Phenom II X6 1090T is the flagship hex-core. Six cores is overkill if gaming is the intention, but excellent for those multi-tasking and video-editing purposes. For motherboard chipsets, the 890FX is the latest and greatest. For more mainstream purposes, the 880 and 870 based chipsets are great too. Dual-Channel DDR3 memory a requirement. Intel continues to have the fastest, but more expensive chips. Many go the AMD route to get excellent performance for a low price. The Phenom II 965 flys through a lot of games already if paired with the right card. However, even AMD may be moving on to another socket some time next year with Bulldozer. No official word yet whether the 8xx chipset boards will have support for Bulldozer.


RAM: at least DDR3 1600 dual or triple-channel memory depending on what socket you decide. Corsair, G Skill, Crucial, Mushkin, Kingston, and Patriot are good brands.

Power Supply: Anything from Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, Antec (non-Basiq line), Zalman.

DVD drives: Asus makes excellent drives

HDD/SSD: Western Digital Caviar Black series, Samsung F3 hard drives. If SSD, read the reviews...Intel, Crucial, Corsair, Samsung, G Skill, OCZ, Kingston are all players.

LCD: Asus, Samsung, LG, Viewsonic, Dell, and Acer are major players. Eizo and NEC are more high-end markets. 2ms response preferable.

Everything else like cases, keyboard, mice, etc are user preferences.

$4000 is just the max I can go, in case I end up getting a new monitor and other peripherals. Plus, prices in the US and in Singapore is very different. Of course the less the merrier, I'm just a middle-class worker but I've been saving up to invest in a system that could satisfy my every gaming needs. So if I end up only using $1000-$1500 for it, I'm most happy. Thanks for you recommandations, I'll look into it. :foodndrink:

EDIT: SP

Yes, you're right. The IT shopping malls in Singapore are very difficult to navigate and get the best deals especially Sim Lim Square which is like a maze and there're simply way too many shops inside. The vendors you mention like Gigabyte are in the malls too, maybe I shall start there. Many thanks for the detailed recommandations, this is very useful! I can't thank you enough! Cheers! :foodndrink:

PS: Also thanks to all who replied. You guys have been very helpful.

MSI 790FX
8Gb DDR3
Phenom II 1090T
Powercolor ATI 5870
Creative Labs Xtreme Gamer PCI
WD Caviar Green 2TB x2
120Gb Pony SSD

Running everything in the game full bore on a 1920x1200 Samsung ToC Syncmaster with little to no lag. Will be upgrading to 16Gb RAM and to a AMD 6970 pretty darn soon to play METRO 2033 a bit better.

Here's the trick. Make an NTFS partition on a second HDD that's different from your OS/Programs drive. Use that partition as your Virtual Memory, which is nothing more than a Swap partition. Speeds things up a bit.