GTX670 Build

[T4C Fantasy]

*facepalm*

That benchmark results that you just copy-pasted and posted is CLBenchmark results, they use OpenCL based application, NOT OpenGL.
C and G is different, my friend

As far as I know, 3DS Max does not use any OpenCL routine without help from 3rd party plugins (like V-Ray RT, SLG LuxRender, etc.).

If you want to do some little works with 3DS Max (default use out of the box without any renderer/plugins that support GPU acceleration via OpenCL or CUDA) and a lot of gaming, get any gaming cards you want. AMD or NVIDIA, you won't notice the differences in that usage scenario.

lol if you think you wont notice a differance when renderign then you have never used it, pre-render andrendering takes hours to compile

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is 15% faster than the GeForce GTX 670
HD 7970 OC is 23% faster than GTX 670 OC

Battlefield 3:
The HD 7970 overclocked is 9% faster than the overclocked GTX 670.

Skyrim:
Radeon HD 7970 overclocked is 4.6% faster than GTX 670 overclocked.

Batman Arklam City:
The overclocked Radeon HD 7970 is 13% faster than GeForce GTX 670 overclocked

comparing a gtx670 to a stock clock hd7970 isnt really fair if you ask me , out of the box you can oc it to 1125 on air, thats what i did and i have the preferance cooler model

I did say 95% didn't I?

 

[Atham]

I am not too sure about the Zalman Case. I am having my doubts about it. I don't like the way the cables should go through the back of the motherboard tray. I prefer the grommet/hole for the PSU's cables like in the 300R.

Is the Asrock Z77 PRO3 really good motherboard? I mean if it supports 2way SLI/CF and is a solid board I don't really care.

I will update the system with the new motherboard and case.

If I take the Zalman case I have more room for getting a better GTX 670 i.e. the windforce edition which costs about 20 € more. However, if I take the Corsair 300R then I can't get a better GTX 670.

About overclocking, how much could I overclock with the ASRock Z77 Pro3? Would I get to 4.0GHz? I do plan on getting dual GTX 670 in the future; will the board be good enough for my needs? not sure about the board. Is it worth not getting the MSI board and getting a SSD?

 

[T4C Fantasy]

I am not too sure about the Zalman Case. I am having my doubts about it. I don't like the way the cables should go through the back of the motherboard tray. I prefer the grommet/hole for the PSU's cables like in the 300R.

Is the Asrock Z77 PRO3 really good motherboard? I mean if it supports 2way SLI/CF and is a solid board I don't really care.

I will update the system with the new motherboard and case.

If I take the Zalman case I have more room for getting a better GTX 670 i.e. the windforce edition which costs about 20 € more. However, if I take the Corsair 300R then I can't get a better GTX 670.

About overclocking, how much could I overclock with the ASRock Z77 Pro3? Would I get to 4.0GHz? I do plan on getting dual GTX 670 in the future; will the board be good enough for my needs? not sure about the board. Is it worth not getting the MSI board and getting a SSD?

youll beable to overclock to w/e your cooling allows it to go the mobo can handle it

 

[Atham]

Only thing bugging me is the reference GTX 670. I mean, is the SSD worth it? I could get a better GTX 670 or a i7 3770K if I didn't buy the SSD.

 

[JrRacinFan]

I would skip the SSD altogether and get a decent 500GB. The only difference between mine and wife's is boot time, her's is twice as fast at startup but all around very VERY close. I am running matrixed RAID 0 750GB's, a shortstroked 300GB stripe and the rest in a stripe for storage.

EDIT:

SSD is something you can add at a later date if you really really want it, also they shoudl either A. come down in price or B. bigger capacity for same price.
http://www.pixmania.sk/sk/sk/5518413/art/hitachi/pevny-disk-deskstar-7k100.html these are the 500GB versions of my 750GB

 

[T4C Fantasy]

Only thing bugging me is the reference GTX 670. I mean, is the SSD worth it? I could get a better GTX 670 or a i7 3770K if I didn't buy the SSD.

an ssd is definetly worth it... get the cheapest gtx670, at the end of the day its still a 670... you can overclock it to be better than a none preferance one just buy better cooling, 15 second boots and instant file transfers are great

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I've got to say, a 90 GB SSD is pushing the very limits of an acceptable size.


Yes, nearly instant boots are a nice feature. Yes, having certain programs on demand within seconds is great for the impatient. These benefits are nice, but the problem is storage space.

If you're looking at anything less than 120 GB you're looking at very few programs being installed on the main drive. The instant boots are great, but that's only a small fraction of the time you spend on a computer. If you can give up on a bit of boot-up speed, you'll get a faster overall experience (because your programs won't be on a green drive).

As far as the 670 versus 7970, go with the 670. Drivers seem to be substantially more stable, and updating with more frequency. I'm nursing some hurt from AMD starting a substantial slowdown on driver updating (still angry about the HDMI output issuses with 12.3)


Otherwise, the build looks solid no matter which you choose. I would recommend the second build, though there isn't any substantial differentiation between the builds.

 

[Atham]

The agility 3 120GB SSD costs about 90.95€. Should I get that instead?

 

[JrRacinFan]

Just trying to think of ways you can save some cash without hurting performance much

http://www.alza.sk/thermaltake-v4-black-edition-d222818.htm
and maybe to a 2500K.

 

[Atham]

I need the grommet holes in a case, or else I would be using my fanless case.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Get a stock gtx 670 or a Gigabyte gtx 670OC for same price. I would recommend skipping MSI, I've had troubles with their gpus and motherboards. Unless you personally want to stay MSI.

The SSD option isn't all to great if it breaks down within the first year or two, compared to a reliable HD.

 

[Atham]

The Agility 3 SSDs are not good?

 

[silapakorn]

The Agility 3 SSDs are not good?

No they are not. All Sandforce based SSDs are crap and have known issues. If you must, get an Agility 4 or Vertex 4, but I think you shouldn't since you are on a budget.

Personally, I would say forget the SSDs. They are great, but not a necessity. A decent adequate-sized HDD (e.g. WD black 1TB) is more than enough for gaming and etc. I bought my Plextor m3 128gb last year and couldn't complain about its stellar speed (especially when booting OS). However, in some games the "now loading" screen is still there and isn't shortened by that much comparing to when loading from HDD. I wouldn't say my SSD is a waste of money, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who doesn't have much money to waste.

BTW, if you are to cross SSD off your list then you might be able to get a more decent GTX670. I got Galaxy GC edition (or KFA2 in UK) and it's far better than reference design cards. It's a little bit hotter, but all in all a very decent card.

 

[Aquinus]

No they are not. All Sandforce based SSDs are crap and have known issues. If you must, get an Agility 4 or Vertex 4, but I think you shouldn't since you are on a budget.

Bullshit. SandForce firmware used to be bug ridden, but that was a while ago. There really is no basis for that statement unless you're talking about a year or two ago. SSD isn't necessary, but there is a reason why people say an SSD will make a slow computer fast, and it is true but only with loading times for I/O. If you don't mind waiting, go with rotational media hard drives. Otherwise, it woud make sense to use the SSD just for boot and using a rotational media drive for applications and such.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

3ds Max is not my main concern. It is only a hobby sort of thing, as I have access to a student license. Technically it is "just" for gaming.

My goal is excellent performance in gaming and I want the rig to last me a couple of years.

Well yeah.. basically stating a pc to be used for "gaming" would pretty much cover "Using 3dsmax, maya, for homework and et cetera" as well. Even wondered why you put those requirements up there in the first place

 

[phanbuey]

Well yeah.. basically stating a pc to be used for "gaming" would pretty much cover "Using 3dsmax, maya, for homework and et cetera" as well. Even wondered why you put those requirements up there in the first place

When he said homework, he meant killing hordes of monsters in Diablo 3.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

If you're still interested in a SSD that's reliable, go for either an Intel or Corsair.

 

[Atham]

So what corsair SSDs would you suggest? I am mainly looking at 60GB SSDs due to the price point.

Is this SSD any good?

 

[Raw]

GeForce GTX 670 commands a decisive lead past its competition

well its your choice 670 is good for gaming.... but according to rumors i would actually wait for maxwel if your going nvidia, because maxwell is rumored to be 12x better in performance than fermi... if your going to pay 400 for a graphics card it should beable to do extreme precision

for 60 dollars more you can get a 10%~ boost in gaming and 3x boost in everything precision compute related
MSI R7970-2PMD3GD5 Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR...

plus with 3gb of memory your are future proofing yourself

"for 60 dollars more you can get a 10%~ boost in gaming and..."

Haha, not to rain on your parade or anything but..get out your umbrella.

That's subjective to say the LEAST!!! Why would you lead him to believe that thinking???
I don't see that at all for MOST games currently popular. As a matter of fact, the amount of games that the HD 7970 beats the GTX 670 seems awful minimal. A few games at best from searching te internet.
And look, the HD 7970 is AMD's "FLAGSHIP" card.
And the GTX 670 is NOT Nvidia's "FLAGSHIP" card.
The GTX 680 is. Well, the 690 is now, BUT try to find one.

All you have to do is Google GTX 670 vs. HD7970 and see all the benchmark reviews on the net.
It's common information that the GTX 670 is a superstar video card and is right up there in the stratosphere for a great gaming card.

In case you think I'm a fanboy or something, I'm not.
I also own AMD cards and like them, a lot.
But, facts are facts.

Here - read for yourself...Benchmark Reviews...just one of many reviews out there

In the DirectX 10 game Crysis Warhead, the GeForce GTX 670 was ahead of its predecessor (GTX 570) a full 11 FPS at 1920x1080 while still leading ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 by 4 FPS. DirectX 11 tests also had the GeForce GTX 670 ahead in most tests. The demanding DX11 graphics of Batman: Arkham Asylum made use of Kepler's optimized architecture, delivering a staggering lead of 18 FPS to the GeForce GTX 670 over the more expensive Radeon HD 7970. Battlefield 3 continued the run, pushing the stock GTX 670 more than 8 FPS beyond the Radeon HD 7970. Lost Planet 2 played well on all graphics cards when set to high quality with 4x AA, yet the GeForce GTX 670 still surpassed Radeon HD 7970 performance by 6 FPS. In one of the few exceptions, Aliens vs Predator gave back the lead to AMD Radeon products over their NVIDIA counterparts. Metro 2033 is another demanding game that requires high-end graphics to enjoy quality settings, but like AvP this game benchmark favors Radeon products.

Synthetic benchmark tools offered a similar read on these products, mirroring some of the results seen from our video game tests. Futuremark's 3DMark11 benchmark suite strained our high-end graphics cards with only mid-level settings displayed at 720p, forcing the less-powerful Radeon HD 7970 to occasionally trail the GeForce GTX 670 by 4 FPS when it wasn't holding even. Our Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark tests used maximum settings, which might explain why Radeon HD 7970 pulled ahead. Taking all our benchmark results into consideration, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 670 commands a decisive lead past its competition while occasionally surpassing AMD's flagship graphics card.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=916&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=11

Or read Wiz'z review here for a super review (ALWAYS read WiZ'z reviews - he won't steer ya wrong)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670/
PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT

 

[Atham]

I am not sure whether to get a better GTX 670 or get a SSD or invest a bit more in the motherboard. These are my 3 options. I can spend up to 80 € on the SSD/better GPU/better motherboard to reach the 1000 € mark.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

So what corsair SSDs would you suggest? I am mainly looking at 60GB SSDs due to the price point.

Is this SSD any good?

That specific one you linked is a reliable SSD. The force series 3 and force gt are really good.

Personally, I would choose the gtx 670 over an SSD. But others may want to chime in?

 

[silapakorn]

I am not sure whether to get a better GTX 670 or get a SSD or invest a bit more in the motherboard. These are my 3 options. I can spend up to 80 € on the SSD/better GPU/better motherboard to reach the 1000 € mark.

Get a better 670. You can always add SSD later in a couple months when you have more money, and still think that loading speed is your top priority.

 

[Atham]

Well, I will not upgrade in a month or so. Maybe in a couple of years, when I need better speeds i.e. 2 240GB SSDs in RAID 0 and a couple of hard drives.

So I should invest more in a GTX 670. What about the motherboard? Should I spread some money into that area.

 

[Atham]

So without the SSD I get more out of the components.

CPU: i5 3570k - 214.50 €
MB: Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 - 133.00 €
PSU: OCZ ZT 750 - 87.30 €
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - 33.44 €
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB - 14.10 €
RAM: CORSAIR DDR3 8GB 1600MHz CL9 - 51.51 €
Case: Corsair Carbide 300R - 62.74 €
GPU: Gigabyte Windforce x3 GTX 670 - 378.10€

Total: 974.69 €

For the motherboard I am thinking of the MSI Z77A-GD55 instead of the ASrock Board, but I am not sure which is better. The MSI one costs 144 €.