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I think I'm gonna go with this AM3+ mobo :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757

Also, I'm wondering if I should go with the gtx 470 because of this benchmark:

http://www.techspot.com/review/405 [...] page5.html

It seems odd that the gtx 470 outperforms the 6950. I thought the 6950 was the better card.
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Blasko1223: I think I'm gonna go with this AM3+ mobo :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757

Also, I'm wondering if I should go with the gtx 470 because of this benchmark:

http://www.techspot.com/review/405 [...] page5.html

It seems odd that the gtx 470 outperforms the 6950. I thought the 6950 was the better card.
I don't know what "benchmark" you were looking at there, because it's a broken link, but the majority of the ones I've seen show the HD 6950 well outperforming the GTX 470, even before you up-flash it to a 6970.

The nVidia card that's competitive with the 6950/6970 is the GTX 570, not the 470.

See http://www.techspot.com/review/349-amd-radeon-6950/

If you're willing to make a step up on the motherboard, consider the ASUS M5A99X EVO instead. It has SLI support (this would come into play if you get an nVidia GPU and then later double up on it), better Crossfire support, and slightly better performance overall.
Post edited June 28, 2011 by cjrgreen
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Blasko1223: I think I'm gonna go with this AM3+ mobo :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757

Also, I'm wondering if I should go with the gtx 470 because of this benchmark:

http://www.techspot.com/review/405 [...] page5.html

It seems odd that the gtx 470 outperforms the 6950. I thought the 6950 was the better card.
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cjrgreen: I don't know what "benchmark" you were looking at there, because it's a broken link, but the majority of the ones I've seen show the HD 6950 well outperforming the GTX 470, even before you up-flash it to a 6970.

The nVidia card that's competitive with the 6950/6970 is the GTX 570, not the 470.

See http://www.techspot.com/review/349-amd-radeon-6950/

If you're willing to make a step up on the motherboard, consider the ASUS M5A99X EVO instead. It has SLI support (this would come into play if you get an nVidia GPU and then later double up on it), better Crossfire support, and slightly better performance overall.
Thanks thats a good mobo and it isnt too much extra money compared to the other one. I think Im gonna go with that.

But I cant decide between getting an nvidia or Ati card.
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Blasko1223: Thanks thats a good mobo and it isnt too much extra money compared to the other one. I think Im gonna go with that.

But I cant decide between getting an nvidia or Ati card.
It's not an easy choice. I have both makes of card. I like both. The overall package has always seemed a bit more polished with nVidia. But as of now, AMD/ATI, with the 6950 that can be flashed to a 6970, has the edge on price-performance.
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cjrgreen: I don't know what "benchmark" you were looking at there, because it's a broken link, but the majority of the ones I've seen show the HD 6950 well outperforming the GTX 470, even before you up-flash it to a 6970.

The nVidia card that's competitive with the 6950/6970 is the GTX 570, not the 470.

See http://www.techspot.com/review/349-amd-radeon-6950/

If you're willing to make a step up on the motherboard, consider the ASUS M5A99X EVO instead. It has SLI support (this would come into play if you get an nVidia GPU and then later double up on it), better Crossfire support, and slightly better performance overall.
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Blasko1223: Thanks thats a good mobo and it isnt too much extra money compared to the other one. I think Im gonna go with that.

But I cant decide between getting an nvidia or Ati card.
Watch it. U may start a real fanboy shitstorm here ;].
In the end its what color U prefer. Greens pays to most of games developers to get final game build first(and the logo in game) and optimize drivers at day 1. Reds are usually about week late with new drivers/hotfixes cause of that. Greens have a lot of mostly unused functions for some games like physX for mafia 2, or CUDA that takes care of tessellation better than reds cards in titles like Crysis 2 with dx11 patch in example. Reds have raw power stripped from other features. Greens eat more power(Wattage) from PSU as well. And so forth.
I think im gonna go with the 6950. Should I go with the 1gb or 2gb version? I heard that the 2gb version is only necessary when playing on resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
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Blasko1223: I think im gonna go with the 6950. Should I go with the 1gb or 2gb version? I heard that the 2gb version is only necessary when playing on resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
If you got the monies go for the 2 GB version :). Though I reckon the performance gain in that resolution is negligible. I recently upgraded my rig to Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.8 GHz, 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz and GTX 560 Ti. I'm getting an average 40-50 fps in most situations (low 30s under heavy action)...
1 GB should be fine for any of your gaming needs. If you have lots of money that you can throw at new components, obviously get the 2 GB - you only need 1 GB now, but the extra 1 GB will probably help with higher-res textures in future releases, even if you stick with 1080p resolution.

Don't skimp on the PSU. You don't NEED 650w, but it's always safer to shoot above your system's actual draw. The quality of the PSU is what is really going to matter in the end, though - SeaSonic, Antec (Earthwatts series), and Corsair all make excellent PSUs that should be pretty affordable.
As for the RAM issue, 4GB should be plenty. I seldom see it holding more than 2GB and honestly I've seldom ever seen my system utilize half of the 12GB I have.

Stability is a crapshoot though, as the memory management seems a little flaky at times. For me, I still get CTD occassionally when entering cutscenes, or when loading games, although windows doesn't show an error, it has to do with the cpu core
hitting 100%, maybe setting core affinity for all processes prior to launching the game is the only thing left that I haven't tried.

PSU- Don't skimp on the PSU at this point. Although you might not need the extra power now, having to replace it when you add another gpu or add some other power hungry device. Secondly, hopefully someone knows the site, there is a site that reviews psu's that I wish I had taken the time to review as I find my psu wasn't a wise purchase, it just isn't that efficient, and I need around 800+ so they start to get pricey, and paying 20$ more that is more efficient will be worth it in the long run. So I suggest once you figure out what parts to add, use a psu calculator, run it to see what size psu you'll need. Then run it again and see what you'd need if you added RAM, an extra HD, and an extra GPU, Since these are the components most frequently added to most rigs until you decide to replace the mobo.

One thing I don't think anyone even brought up, CPU Cooling, are you planning on air, or water cooled. But definitely buy a serious cpu cooling system. Air cooled I'm partial to the Noctua's but depending on the placement of the RAM and the clearance, for the board you want, there may be better fits for your style. Also buy good heatsink paste, I'm sure the vets that have weighed in will say Arctic Silver 5, or an equivalent.

Also make sure the case you choose has the clearance for the vid cards.
It's the little things, that make building your own rig, worthwhile and aggravating. Like forgetting to order a cable or the thermal paste or not having the right sata cable or ethernet cable, adding that neon flair or customizing the case, and the lack of warning beeps when you power up for the first time.

And remember that the size of the monitor screen(resolution you want to run it at) will determine how hard your gpu will need to work. I say this because your talking about running at 1080p. So I'm guessing you're thinking of attaching to a newer tv, if not just dismiss this. I've heard that to reduce stress that the tv's native resolution and I am just making up numbers here, forgive me, if its something like 3000 x 1500 that you should choose a resolution that's a straight fraction, ie 1500 x 750 would be what you'd choose. choosing something like 2000 x 1500 would cause the gpu to have to work harder to produce the image because more calculations, adjustments have to be made. I don't claim to know the exacts, as it was just one article, but it made sense to me.

Good Luck, take your time and research parts. You probably have plenty of time before the patch is released to find the best bang for your buck.

asus p6t deluxe/ i7 920 /win7 64 pro
12GB OCZ RAM
460 Gtx v2, 260 Gtx *removed since w2
3 Samsung Spinpoint, 2 WD (4.5 Tb)
and a bunch of other crap
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Blasko1223: I think im gonna go with the 6950. Should I go with the 1gb or 2gb version? I heard that the 2gb version is only necessary when playing on resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
1GB is plenty for a single monitor. I have a 2GB because I think MSI's Frozr II is the best heat management in cards today, and it just happened to only be available in 2GB. You also need it to be 2GB if you want to try flashing it to a 6970. I wouldn't recommend doing this, but it was mentioned by others in this thread so I figured I'd throw that in.

My system is really boring - 560W Seasonic, 6950 stock speed, i5 2500K stock speed. If you want to overclock your GPU and CPU, and flash your GPU to a different model, then you can listen to the other posts about big PSUs, aftermarket heat sinks and so forth.
1GB VRAM is plenty for this game and any stock game currently out. If you plan on playing games with a strong modding community, like Bethesda games, and want to run some of the super high res modder made texture packs then 2GB would be worth it, but otherwise 1 is fine.

I will definitely echo what the others said regarding the power supply. Don't skimp there. I wouldn't worry so much about the wattage as I would the build quality and getting one from a trusted name (Corsair, Antec, Enermax etc). A good psu maker generally underrates their product while a cheap no name brand will overrate it. Also a good quality psu should feel weighty and solid. If it's super light and flimsy feeling it will probably not last very long.
Post edited June 30, 2011 by _Motoki_
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_Motoki_: I wouldn't worry so much about the wattage as I would the build quality and getting one from a trusted name.
This.
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Blasko1223: I think im gonna go with the 6950. Should I go with the 1gb or 2gb version? I heard that the 2gb version is only necessary when playing on resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
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prehto81: If you got the monies go for the 2 GB version :). Though I reckon the performance gain in that resolution is negligible. I recently upgraded my rig to Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.8 GHz, 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz and GTX 560 Ti. I'm getting an average 40-50 fps in most situations (low 30s under heavy action)...
Oh..I thought the 560's were as fast as 6950 (i don't trust review sites, each one has some kind of bias against one manufacturer)...

I get FPS between 40-60 (I use DXtory to set FPS cap at 60 and I use D3Doverrider's Vsync+TripleBuffering). With Average FPS hovering above 30..during fights; most(all) of them..

PC:-
Phenom II X4 965BE C3 @ 2.7Ghz_0.9875v (I use my CPU under-clocked, overclocking on stock fan's weren't upto my satisfaction. I set my speed usually at 2.2Ghz_0.8500v during 90% of my gaming time; except heavy CPU hitters, also never...ever...used 3.4Ghz_1.2500v haha)
4GB DDR 2 800Mhz RAM, 4-4-4-12
6950 2GB, Sapphire (1st Reference design model)
Post edited June 30, 2011 by Anarki_Hunter
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prehto81: I recently upgraded my rig to Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.8 GHz, 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz and GTX 560 Ti. I'm getting an average 40-50 fps in most situations (low 30s under heavy action)...
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Anarki_Hunter: Oh..I thought the 560's were as fast as 6950 (i don't trust review sites, each one has some kind of bias against one manufacturer)...

I get FPS between 40-60 (I use DXtory to set FPS cap at 60 and I use D3Doverrider's Vsync+TripleBuffering). With Average FPS hovering above 30..during fights; most(all) of them..

PC:-
6950 2GB, Sapphire (1st Reference design model)
The 560Ti is pretty much exactly as fast as the 6950, depending on the game. It seems like your data supports this, since both you and prehto81 are getting mid-forties+ most of the time and low 30s in intense scenes (and I assume everyone gets 60fps when in a small house, etc.).
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Anarki_Hunter: Oh..I thought the 560's were as fast as 6950 (i don't trust review sites, each one has some kind of bias against one manufacturer)...

I get FPS between 40-60 (I use DXtory to set FPS cap at 60 and I use D3Doverrider's Vsync+TripleBuffering). With Average FPS hovering above 30..during fights; most(all) of them..

PC:-
6950 2GB, Sapphire (1st Reference design model)
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greg.smalter: The 560Ti is pretty much exactly as fast as the 6950, depending on the game. It seems like your data supports this, since both you and prehto81 are getting mid-forties+ most of the time and low 30s in intense scenes (and I assume everyone gets 60fps when in a small house, etc.).
I use Vsync + Triple Buffering, I do not know if later is using those functions..

To make it simple, when I exit the triss's tent in Prologue and look over the camp..my FPS stays between 51 and 55 until I walk down to the camp below(never dips below 51). The armor I wore were normal stock armor(weapons), when one starts a new game instead of an import.

Apart from that, I also have:-
1. Increase mesh distance to 2.1 (MeshDistanceScale=2.1)
2. Put a foliage distance parameter into the ini file, with 1.6 value (FoliageDistanceScale=1.6)
3. TextureMemoryBudget=1280
Post edited July 01, 2011 by Anarki_Hunter