[Fozzik]

Um...well. Okay.

So I guess at some point the site got put back online?

I only discovered this today when someone linked to SV on the MMORPG.com boards. I'm sad I'm not in the loop, but it's cool to see the old stomping grounds again.

[Loampounder]

What? Someone linked to us? Oh, they still remember!

Just to be on topic, Fozz, in your opinion is there a big performance jump for a modest gaming rig between i3 and i5 considering the price jump? Also, what is the right video card midpoint these days to run modern games?

I am interesting in building a new rig but have not kept up on performance vs cost balance. Modern games don't see to be pushing the envelope any more, probably considering how much power we all ready have in mid-level equipment. For example, I am surprised how well my 4-year old machine (core2 6600, 2 GB, GeForce 9800 GTX) handles recent games.

[Fozzik]

The market has changed drastically, in that it no longer changes nearly as fast. If that makes any sense.

Hardware is staying relevant and useful for much longer than it used to...and I only just recently replaced the computer that I built during Vanguard's friends and family beta.

In terms of i3 vs. i5... I think the i5 provides a great deal more flexibility and power. The graphics card is still of primary importance to games...but at this point it's a good idea to provide games with either more cores or higher clock speed depending on how they are programmed.

There actually are quite a few games which will utilize more cores, and more games like that are on the way... but for those games that don't, the i5 provides their up-clocking feature which boosts the clock speed of two cores when the other two aren't seeing use.

The hyper-threading in the dual-core i3 processors is not nearly as effective in a wide range of applications as legitimately having 4 physical cores. I think the current i5-2500K is probably pretty much the best price-performance CPU with a bit of a leaning towards performance, and it's been that way for quite a while now. It's pretty easy to put together a mid-range (around $1000) gaming PC with that CPU and a whole bunch of RAM.

For video cards, what price range are you looking at? What games are you looking to build the new machine for?

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by Fozzik

For video cards, what price range are you looking at? What games are you looking to build the new machine for?

Generally, I am still looking for a good excuse, but BF3 looks appealing.

The video card question is a bit circular. I'm looking at lower price because I don't know what performance is needed. What is in the $200 price difference between a GTX 460 and GTX 570? The difference going up the GeForce 5 family seems to be stream processors, but at what point does increased processors have trivial increase in performance (assuming something like an i5-based machine and modern games)?

I am considering just buying CPU, MB and RAM and just reusing my GTX 9800 for a while.

[Fozzik]

The numbers of stream processors, or any of the other internal architectural buzzwords, really don't tell you anything or give you any solid way to compare. They all should be left to the gee-whiz factoid bin just in case you feel like learning them to sound like a proper geek.

The only thing that really matters is performance in games. Heat and noise of a particular card is second. How they arrive at their performance is really a very distant third.

If you'd like some great charts to directly compare the performance of most graphics cards in numerous applications...go here -

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...marks,123.html

You're current card doesn't show on the chart anymore, but you can assume it has a bit better performance than the 9800 GT, which is on the chart...so it should give you an idea of where you are in the current scheme of things.

It makes a lot of sense to get the other components, use your current graphics card, and see how you feel about the performance. Newer cards will provide a substantial boost...but you won't notice unless your personal preferences (games, resolution, settings) are such that it makes use of the additional power.

[AsheMan]

I bought a new computer and it has a gtx 570 in it. I'm very happy with that card.

[Fozzik]

I also got myself an eVGA GTX570 in the new machine I built. The drivers have been a little bit buggy with WoW, but it certainly has all the power for any game I've tried...I'm happy with it.

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by Fozzik

If you'd like some great charts to directly compare the performance of most graphics cards in numerous applications...go here -

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...marks,123.html

Very helpful; thank you.