Thread: Graphic Cards

BTW: Why did you lock my last thread Mega Brain? Thats messed up.


Anyways: I am considering building a new computer so that my days of ownage in CSS can once again be realized. My price goal is $750; I determined that I can get a killer comp for that price if I look around enough and use E-bay.

One thing though, I noticed that almost all graphic cards are upside down from what I think they should be. Take for example the one in the link; don't you think that heat should rise from the card? The way its configured, the heat wont really go anywhere and will just linger around the GPU's processor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowIm...56H+Video+Card

Originally Posted by Cold Fusion

BTW: Why did you lock my last thread Mega Brain? Thats messed up.

Dude, PM the guy.

Originally Posted by Cold Fusion

I am considering building a new computer so that my days of ownage in CSS can once again be realized. My price goal is $750; I determined that I can get a killer comp for that price if I look around enough and use E-bay.

For $750?? Not unless someone is both extremely charitable, and a liar.

A single "killer" graphics card, like an 8800U/GTS, will go between $350 and $650.

Plus the graphics card isn't even half the issue. Fast proc, fast RAM, a mainboard that can utilize both, plus the graphics card(s), not to mention the HDD's that are up to snuff.

Yea, if your gonna upgrade you'll have to build one yourself and make sure that all the hardware and software are in sync with each other. Oh and if you want killer graphics-like Wolf said, you'll need killer everything, so make sure to get a killer heatsync or you'll have a killered computer.

This isnt really related to which card owns more than another.

Anyway, did you guys know its possible to use a graphics card for more than just playing games ? you can acctualy access the card and make it do matrix calculations(at which its very fast). With the right software it may be possible to convert a graphics card into a second cpu on your system.

Although as far as i know this technology is in its infant stages and gfx cards in general arent like cpu's which are good at everything, gfx cards excel at certain types of calculations but are slow at others. Although in theory it could help speed up matlab alot becouse of the matrix calculation speed.

Originally Posted by Twilight

Anyway, did you guys know its possible to use a graphics card for more than just playing games ?

Of course. If you're using any sort of 3D rendering/modeling engine, or a CAD system, yer pretty much toast if you don't have a decent graphics card under you.

Personally, I don't know what I ever did without my SLI-8800GTX cards. 3DSM8 and CAD2k6 have never run better, yet still choke on some of the heavier stuff.

Of course, the better the card, the better your overall performance. Higher-end PC grade vid cards more and more do all the work for rendering on the card themselves, freeing up the rest of the system for other tasks. So if you have a kick-arse system, you can still suffer if yer shoveling graphics crap back onto the system.

Ahh, right Wolf. Let me expand on my claim then. You can actually use a gfx card to perfrom more than just graphics related calculations.

I know some people were doing research on it at my old university. Although im having trouble finding links to the topic, i did find one:
http://www.supercomputingonline.com/....php?sid=14848

This one referes to using gfx cards for seismic and reservoir simulations. I also heard you can apply it to stock market simulations.

Im not too clued up on it but i think its basicaly like what opengl/directx would do, matrix calculations except you could reimplement it for non graphics related applications.

GPU's are almost exactly like CPU's, except that GPU's are optimized and "geared" towards the processing of information related to the calculation of objects associated with rendering and other visual output functions.

In the end, both the CPU and the GPU do the same math, but each has its own set of optimizing functions that make it particularly useful for its own tasks. The world of the visual display is far different from the world of pure data manipulation.

Many of the processes handled by modern GPU's are ideal for use in scientific studies where there is a highly dynamic influx of a particular band of response. To really cut down the wax, GPU's deal with propogating the results of small bits of information across a wide range of particulars according to pre-defined rules, while CPU's are concerned merely with 2+2 and this-goes-there.

Of course, today's GPU's are getting so powerful, that in many regards all a computer really needs is a decent GPU, because the GPU can handle both the graphical output, and the processing, of the whole machine. Doesn't work too well for gaming machines, but scientific instruments and field equipment like it.

'Sigh'


Not everyone is rich you know!

I can't afford dual GTX's man!

As I said though, all I need is a 800$ comp.

I will be using my old computer case, HD (The one from the manufacturer broke under warrenty, so they sent me a pretty damn good new one), DVD/CD burner drive, sound card, and all the cables. I'm only putting in a MB, CPU, 800 MHz ram 2Gig, graphics card worth around $150 and maybe some lighting bling.

I think the point we're trying to make is that if you want to build a "killer" gaming machine, $800 ain't gonna cut it.

Originally Posted by Wolf

I think the point we're trying to make is that if you want to build a "killer" gaming machine, $800 ain't gonna cut it.

A killer PC in the UK would cost over £2500. Thats $5000.

Originally Posted by svwillmer

Originally Posted by Wolf

I think the point we're trying to make is that if you want to build a "killer" gaming machine, $800 ain't gonna cut it.

A killer PC in the UK would cost over £2500. Thats $5000.

No way! You could build an amazing one for 1000 easily. Anything more than 1500+ and I'm not sure if you would really notice a difference.
If one is 2500+ I'm guessing you're either paying for the name (like alienware) or paying for hardware like a huge arse monitor or something.

My two primary rigs cost about $3k and $2.5K respectively. But then again, I hit these machines rather hard, so it's both worth-it and needed.

You could build a respectable gaming machine for about $1,200-1,500.

My current comp (2.8 GHz hyper threading, 1gig 500 mhz ram, 160 gig hard drive, X1800 pro, sound blaster sound card), the Gateway, can run HL2 at all max settings and still get 75 fps. It can even run some of the new games at mid level settings.

I know some people with dual core comps, 3 gigs 800mhz ram and 7800 GT's that only get a 30% increase in FPS than me. Yet I also know others that have similar configurations that completely blow my computer away.

I'm trying to say that you don't need a $%$%$ expensive computer to run most things.

The only way that I could ever feel the need to break my bank and make a $2000 computer, could be to do heavy rendering and encoding, 28 section digital audio coding and transforming, use a hard core digital CAD program, or to play games like Crysis at full settings on a 70'' 1920X1080 sceen.