Making a new PC

[neighbortaru]

Re: Making a new PC

chipset has nothing to do with graphics (well, technically it does, but not for this context). if you still want to buy a radeon x1600, go ahead. I'm just recommending a different motherboard.

This one for instance.

[kuu]

Re: Making a new PC

Heh ffxi can use any GPU that has 128+megs of vram. Doesn't really care more then that.

If you're insane enough to push it upto 1900x1900 pixel hack. Then maybe 256.

Other then that... choose based on budget, need.

[Omniblast]

Re: Making a new PC

Is anyone waiting for the Core 2 Duo chipset to be released before building a computer? I wonder how they handle ffxi?

[Palom]

Re: Making a new PC

Is anyone waiting for the Core 2 Duo chipset to be released before building a computer? I wonder how they handle ffxi?

hmm maybe I should wait and see how it goes..but isn't AMD better for gaming??

[kuu]

Re: Making a new PC

hmm maybe I should wait and see how it goes..but isn't AMD better for gaming??

Core duo 2 supposely beats AMD since it's new. Since Core Duo2 isn't offically out ( sort of end of july) it's only selective reviews.

It's more about prices at this point and power usable.

Core Duo 2 can/should meet or beat AMDs while having almost half the power usage(thus people will hope to OC it, or just save money), and should be cheaper.

Ultimately it's prices, and Core Duo 2 looks to be able to be cheaper.

Personally give it a month or two, to see the dust settle a bit. Most likely AMD will lower their prices to match Core Duo 2, or something to that effect.

AMD still makes good Gaming chips, jus that Intel is stepping up in the war.

Is anyone waiting for the Core 2 Duo chipset to be released before building a computer? I wonder how they handle ffxi?

I posted the reply on the Core Duo 2 thread about how Core duo 2 should do on FFxi.

Basically, not very good, for the price. Naturally, it'll do better, but ffxi's coding make its gain less then what Core Duo is capable of, much less any modern CPU.

To condense my reasoning from other thread: ffxi doesn't care for many of the things that make Core Duo powerful.

So it's like two racers on a straight. No matter how skilled both are, it's mostly pedal to the medal, you're only going to shave off a few seconds at most.

[Khaeos]

Re: Making a new PC

I just put in the 6600GT. I used to have an old GeForce4 MX440. That might have been it.

[Thrasher]

Re: Making a new PC

Well SLI isn't really about speed, but about the VRAM.

Having more VRAM helps trementrouly if a taxed GPU+ higher rez.

The more VRAM you have, the higher more pixels you can shove in there.

Nothing's going to matter if your LCD is only doing 1280, on decent game, but if you're sticking 1600 -> 1920 etc etc.

VRAM is suddenly King. And I think everyone here at least knows what having higher resolution means.

Really SLI while nice for games, should really be ment for hi-end production work.

If you're doing HD-editing, 256 vs 512 can mean a world of difference. RT-editing, litterly drops off like a boulder the moment you run out of vram to shove it in.

SLI is about brute processing power not the memory. SLI'ed cards cannot address each others ram, so memory-hogging data is duplicated in each cards ram. Im not sure how the Quadro cards handle SLI and but gaming cards have this issue, and its one of the biggest issues why extra performance is so low along with the extra overhead of dividing up the processing between two cards.

Plus if you have the money for a non CRT monitor that can hit the resolutions that SLI helps with then I don't think money is exactly an issue. *Note I am not counting professionals who need super high use resolutions for work.

[Thrasher]

Re: Making a new PC

The X2 3800+ is really looking like a good price vs performance processor since the price drop.
http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/07/24/di...rt_with_intel/
Remember to shop around for the lowest price.

[Palom]

Re: Making a new PC

yeah price drop cool, but now I have a new problem since dual video cards arn't much help and a waste of money what kind a MB should I get now?

also If I won't be using dual cards there's really no reson to look for a MB with more then one PCIe x16 Slot correct?

[neighbortaru]

Re: Making a new PC

also If I won't be using dual cards there's really no reson to look for a MB with more then one PCIe x16 Slot correct?

Yes.

yeah price drop cool, but now I have a new problem since dual video cards arn't much help and a waste of money what kind a MB should I get now?

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/613500-post31.html

[kuu]

Re: Making a new PC

I just put in the 6600GT. I used to have an old GeForce4 MX440. That might have been it.

Don't get the 6000 series or 7800GTX . FFxi has a annoying bug, which will make your life miserable.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/env...tml?pageID=win

Basically you have to downgrade your video drivers to play ffxi, which seriously annoys anything not ffxi gaming.

SLI is about brute processing power not the memory. SLI'ed cards cannot address each others ram, so memory-hogging data is duplicated in each cards ram. Im not sure how the Quadro cards handle SLI and but gaming cards have this issue, and its one of the biggest issues why extra performance is so low along with the extra overhead of dividing up the processing between two cards.

Sorta Sorta. Current SLI can use both Vram but is somewhat broken as you said.

It can't shove 512 of information into 2 SLI 256, but you can a good amount of the hit of incuring on hi-rez to both cards. Some programs do it better then others.

Basically it depends on how it's implimented and what type your doing. Basisically SLI is 2 forms.

SFR, both GPUs work on the same frame simultaneously, each performing about half of the calculations required to render the frame.

AFR in which one GPU processes the current frame, while the next frame is processed by the second card.

When both are incurred on super high rez, SLI if implimented well enough will support well enough that both cards are hit in the vram, but still maintains enough to keep the flow.

Tricky, but end up with similar results.

The results...how believable is up to you, that press released quad SLI do very well if you try to do crazy things like 30xAA and 2560x1600 (Ha! beat that 1080p).

But really, consensus lies that a punny LCD with 1280x1024 is going to see almost zero performance on SLI, unless you like your 30x AA. The bait and switch lies there.

Edit:
I guess I should clarify, the way SLI becomes a problem. (not so much a memory bandwith problem)

What SLI does based on the above methods is that it assigns a "mode" SFR or AFR, and each are then done in their own memory buffers, and then through the PCM, the secondary card splits out the results to the main output. Thus you are using theorically all 2x256 amount of vram and their associated processing power, or close to it.

The problem arises on the program. Some things like Slow motion, can't be done in AFR, timing is completely screwed. And SFR, you can obviously spot the problems trying to split a screen.

So...to get to the big point, how does it know when to do AFR, SFR, or a wacky program that can't do both???

It can't! So your GPU company in the drivers has a profile of games/programs that chooses the mode, but if the program is not on the list, tough luck you're in single GPU mode.

You could try to hack it and make a custom profile of the program that isn't on the list, and it gets shaky from there.

Anytime you think you're not getting SLI proformance, most likely that's the reason