I often get asked to look over a set of components that someone is considering for their new gaming rig or am asked to come up a set for the best gaming rig within a certain budget. Occasionally - when I'm very lucky - that limit is really, really large. Unfortunately, that type of budget is almost never for my own system. Still, I find it fun to spec out and build all types of systems. The system specs herein will be just the main box; the monitor(s), keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. are not included here. The operating system will be.
I had a number of real-life-events take up most of my time for the last few months, so I've been remiss with updating this section. I apologize, but life's like that sometimes. Those are past now, so lets see what's been going on. With any luck, the longer time between build reviews will mean some big changes in the recommendations. Let's find out.
In March's intro, I lamented the disappearance of high-end Nvidia graphics cards from the market. The GTX 270, 285 and 295 were practically non-existent. The new Fermi line was released (at the end of March) as the GTX 470 and GTX 480, but it was not generally available and those that were available were selling over the MSRP. Luckily, a few months later, supply has increase and the market adjusted. Nvidia also added a slightly wounded version - the GTX 465 - presumably as the mainstream gamer's video card. Fairly extensive benchmarking shows that the 470 and 480 are faster than their 5850 and 5870 counterparts, but initially with only minor increases at best. In March, I was disappointed that they were not clear price/performance leaders over the current crop of ATI cards and wrote, "They are new though, so maybe they are just a driver revision from being worth the cost." Not a bad guess. On June 15 2010, Nvidia released WHQL ForceWare 257.21 drivers, which yielded some significant increases in performance in a number of games. Nothing like a free upgrade. With these drivers,the GTX 470 typically falls smack dab in the middle between the benchmark numbers of the ATI Radeon 5850 and 5870. The GTX 480 is now pretty clearly beating the 5870 in the benchmarks. The differences aren't huge, but are consistent. Speaking of driver revisions, Nvidia just released the beta version of the 258.69 drivers that includes 3DVision Surround support, which is Nvidia's counter to ATI's Eyefinity multiple-monitor gaming technology. Interestingly, Nvidia's 3D Vision Surround is supporting older graphics cards back to the 200 series. That said, one would have to have an SLI setup (in order to have the requisite three connectors), Nvidia's 3D glasses and 3D compatible monitors. I'm hoping a non-3D version of this technology is released.
The GTX 400 series prices have adjusted such that the GTX 470 is closer to the 5850 in price. (I just checked at Newegg and saw one price of $300 on the GTX 470 from MSI while the cheapest Radeon 5850 was $290. That's a no-brainer in Nvidia's favor, in my opinion.) The GTX 480 price is higher than the Radeon 5870, but now only by $30-50. The benchmark numbers I'm seeing make me think that's pretty much worth it at this point. (The GTX 400 series still suffers from power and heat issues though.) The new Nvidia GTX 465 is also priced between the ATI Radeon 5830 and 5850 with benchmark numbers in between as well. All-in-all, the prices and speeds make me think that Nvidia's got itself positioned almost perfectly in the price slots around ATI. My only problem with all this is that I still see a mainstream graphics card as one in the $175-200 range. In that range is the ATI Radeon 5770 (as low as $150 or so) and the Nvidia GTX 260. The 260 is now 2-year-old technology based on nearly 3-year-old technology. It has no DirectX 11 support, which is becoming important with the recent crop of games released. I still feel that the Radeon 5770 has the mainstream market to itself. Nvidia needs one more entry in the 400 series that addresses the sub-$200 mainstream market.
I'd like to spend a moment reflecting the exodus of what I consider(ed) one of the major players in the gaming graphics card market, BFG Technologies. On May 18th and 19th, several sites relayed this quote from their press release, "After eight years of providing innovative, high-quality graphics cards to the market, we regret to say that this category is no longer profitable for us, although we will continue to evaluate it going forward", said John Slevin, chairman of BFG Technologies. "We will continue to provide our award-winning power supplies and gaming systems, and are working on a few new products as well. I’d like to stress that we will continue to provide RMA support for our current graphics card warranty holders, as well as for all of our other products such as power supplies, PCs and notebooks." As the current and former owner of a number of BFG Tech OC (overclocked) GPUs, I have to say, I'm sad to see them go. Their cards were always top shelf, no-worries-mate cards. Their customer service was reported to be fantastic; I wouldn't know since nothing I bought from them has failed. That's a statement in its own right.
By request, I've written a breakdown of the heat I'm currently packing. That is, the gaming rig I'm using today. If you're interested in what I've chosen for myself, I invite you to check out my current rig page.
A couple caveats/disclaimers before we get into the specifics. First, except where noted, I haven't actually built the systems given in the specifications. I fully believe I could if someone wants to kindly send me the parts so I can test that theory, but I haven't. If you discover something that just doesn't work, I'd love to hear about it. (Email me) The systems will be put together using prices from Newegg. I don't work for Newegg or receive anything for using their prices as the example (with the exception of a hat and trackpad for giving them a good review on some web site). Newegg has earned this themselves. Newegg's prices in general are very low - often the very lowest, but not always. Their service is a rare phenomenon. If they say they have it in stock, it's in stock. The shipping on most items is reasonable. Newegg sends emails tracking everything all along the way. On the 2-3 occasions that I had to return an item, I've had no problem with doing so whether I ordered something wrong or just couldn't make the component work. I'll happily ignore emails stating you could get this from <insert some other e-tailer here> for $5 less. That said, I'm also going to bypass Newegg's "combo" deals and rebates as those are usually for a limited time, but the time is not specified. I may mention I saw one, but I won't include it in the price. Now, on with the show.