Building the Ultimate mATX SLI Gamer PC [Build Suggestions]

Thread in 'Hardware / Gaming Gear' started by Blagg Zear, Jan 7, 2015.

  1. Michael

    Michael Grand Poobah

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    I'm running SLI 980 Ti in the Ti Fighter and have not had any problems yet with Witcher, Batman (other than what everyone else is having issues with ) and the Mass Effect series.
     
  2. POOTYTANGOSAUR

    POOTYTANGOSAUR Well-Known Member

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    I was just suggesting 980ti in place of dual 970s. Dual 980 or 980ti are the performance boss setups of course (for people not dumb enough or willing for dual titan x).
     
  3. Michael

    Michael Grand Poobah

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    Oh so now I'm dumb ;)

    I was "THIS" close to going for a dual Titan-X setup. For real. But when the 980 Ti came out and was 2/3 of the price I went for that instead. I've got some breakdowns of my benchmarks on my YouTube channel...

     
  4. POOTYTANGOSAUR

    POOTYTANGOSAUR Well-Known Member

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    Well you chose the 980ti didn't you? So no I wouldn't call you dumb. But I do recommend you overclock those beasts. The in game performance improvement is almost always larger with graphics card overclocks, rather than cpu overclocks. Only exceptions being times when your cpu is bottle necking the gpus. You should be able to get about a 100-200 mhz core overclock without overvolting meaning about 5-10% better performance at no loss to you.

    But that is just my opinion take it as you want. I am addicted to overclocking; graphics cards primarily.
     
  5. Michael

    Michael Grand Poobah

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    I just learned to do my CPU. Version 2.0 of Project Ti Fighter will have dual loop cooling and I'll do the GPUs. I may even bring in a third. We will see what time and money allow.
     
  6. Remarius

    Remarius Star Lord

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    Because using a higher frequency RAM isn't always better .... You need to have a careful look at the timings too. :)

    If you're overclocking the RAM timings are critical. The worst issue though is that each generation of architecture (Haswell etc) varies on whether it prefers frequency or timing.

    Ram frequency nets more band width and low timings lower response time. The secondary and tertiary timings will also boost band width but not as much as a frequency increase.

    Timings are the amount of ticks (of ram frequency) it takes for something on the ram to be accessed or done. So if you have 1600 9-9-9-24 it will have less bandwidth and higher latency than a 2400 10-12-12-34 kit.

    If you're really going for performance then you can pay through the nose for lower cas timings at a higher frequency.

    What are you using the computer for - do you need to access the RAM data faster or more of it simultaneously?

    PS: My old sandybridge machine that has been running a stable 4.8 OC on the CPU since the chip was launched uses G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-27. I had mine running at CL8 with an 1800 speed. This article gives you an idea of how things work: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GSkill/F3-12800CL9D-8GBBRL_Ripjaws/4.html
     
  7. Remarius

    Remarius Star Lord

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    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611 600521523&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=30

    Either way you're looking for the lowest CAS Latency in the frequency you're getting because as frequency climbs so does latency. The RAM you picked is 2400 at CAS 16. Theres easily available 3000 at CAS 15 if you really feel the need for the fastest. ;)

    But lets be honest ... is the performance gain worth the money? ;)

    Edit: Sorry should have mentioned that DDR4 is so new that there's not a great choice atm anyway imo as they're still developing their RAM.
     
  8. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    Hmmm, what do you say yourself? Any benefits worth the extra cash from your own experience with gaming?

    With DDR3 there was no big difference in performance, since bottlenecks were most times not found at the RAM anyway. And what i have read about DDR4 ... looks like it's no big change.

    Here's a Bench Review:
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8959/...to-3200-with-gskill-corsair-adata-and-crucial

    What i know is that if you want to play with a A10 APU from AMD, then performance is depending on the RAM Speed, since the iGPU is sharing the RAM with the CPU Unit.
     
  9. Remarius

    Remarius Star Lord

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    I might be getting confused - I didn't think you were using an a10 ergo my comments?
     
  10. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    No, i'm not using an A10.. but i have built one htpc for a friend of mine with the A10-7850K in the past. And there i learned that Memory Speed had a big impact on gaming performance.

    But with a Intel CPU and GTX980 SLI, i myself think even using DDR3 with much lower Speed you still might not notice a big impact on performance.. Maybe there is some change with DDR4, idk.
     
  11. Michael

    Michael Grand Poobah

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    I've had a colleague at work tell me the same thing (about RAM). If you OC the CPU you need to be very careful and match the RAM to the CPU OC. Since I haven't learned to do RAM yet I've stepped back my CPU OC to 4.0ghz
     
  12. Remarius

    Remarius Star Lord

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    Well in fairness current generations of CPU take far lower overclocks anyway but arguably the genuine performance improvement you gain from that overclock is larger because of the way CPU's have improved. Its just that as core numbers/out of the box speed etc have increased so has heat. Running an equal overclock on a 8 core generates far more heat than a 4 core for example. Wafers also got far more variable in later generations to the point where a lot of suppliers pick out good ones to sell at a premium in their own systems. As an example my sandrybridge has a stable 4.8 thats run on air for years now and even with a good haswell you'll not reach that... but then haswell is generally a much better gaming platform.
     
  13. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    Thought about CPU Delidding? lol
     
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