There are a few "the way it's meant to be played" games that not only run faster on equivalent ATI hardware, but also work well with crossfire too, so to be honest, I consider that meaningless these days - just as I do ATi sponsored games being better, it's all marketing and no meaning.

MARKETING....>-(

im suer you have heard of a particular game that implemented dx10.1 that gave a huge boost to ATI cards...but then they were NTWIMTBP, and got told to remove the DX10.1 capabiites in their next patch, which jsut got released.


m8, money talks.

Indeed, because if you saw how the DX10.1 features had been 'added' to the game, you'd want it removed as well.

care to explain?

if its gives your competitors a boost, and you have had many chances to add it to your 2 year old tech, and your too lazy to implement, and you have a stake in the game, you would use that to your advantage.

dirty tactics by nvidia, and it makes me support them less

drivers and underhandedness.....

i hope the 4870 comes in at less than £200 (its better than an Ultra (has GDDR5 512MB with a 512bit interface) and ONE 6pin plug)....im sold.

unless the GTX280 is priced competitively (which i doubt) then its a no brainer.

Nope, it was the other way round this time, it gave ATI a sneaky 25% performance boost for the HD3870X2 by cutting out some things to render. How the tide turns eh?

....link?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/12/...marketing-war/1

I'll take the IBM Blue Gene/L any day lol!

131,072 processors, 360 trillion calculations per second--360 teraflops.

Uhh do I have this correctly?

Isn't this the ultimate dream computer forum?

We should be talkign about the best performance, not money and/or marketing techniques.

My Current System-In Progress Specs are:
Coolmaster 830
1200W Thermaltake Modular PSU
750 Hatachi HD
Samsung Dual Layer burner/Blu-ray/HD reader
Noctuna ULPH...Processor Fan
8 Noctuna PF... Fans
Q6600 2.4
XFX 790i MB
Patriot Viper DDR3 2x2GB 7-7-7-20

and soon to come GTX 280


This is not the best there could possibly be, but hopefully it will be a 'dream machine'

NO

THIS IS A DREAM MACHINE

Some sound choices there... :)

Originally posted by shaffaaf:

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NO

THIS IS A DREAM MACHINE

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cept for the 3870's.....why get a $1600 processor, only to get second rate video cards?

Also I wouldn't get the skulltrail board...I hear there is lots of little finicky things to deal with on it.

Originally posted by TheftAuto:

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cept for the 3870's.....why get a $1600 processor, only to get second rate video cards?

---

Lol now that's just fanboyism... The HD3870s may be a bit buggy, but when they're in their stride, they can really pull some big numbers.

3870X2 TIMES TWO, FOR Quadfire.


thats why they are there. becuase the skull trail cant do Quad SLI

Originally posted by sammorris:

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Lol now that's just fanboyism...

---

I think the 9800's are better than the 3870's from a numbers perspective...same with some randoms here (http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mode=showthread&forum=215&threadid=1629846&pagenumber=1&msgcount=4&subpage=1)
but also most places on the net...and I think its the fan boys actually who think the 3870's perform better than the 9800s. Apparently the 3870 perform better in 3dmark slightly, while the 9800's perform significantly better in the actual games and not through a synthetic benchmark, which has little to do with real world performance.

Kinda of like the difference between Xbox and PS
Xbox 1 was better in terms of technology than the PS2, hands down.
PS3 is better in terms of technology than Xbox 360, hands down.
You can be a fan of whatever system you like..in terms of games avaliable, and multiplayer online yadda yadda...but performance is...well performance

Anyways I would ditch the skulltrail and 3870's on a "dream machine" and get a 790i and some 9800's...I think it would be a better performing "dream machine",

omg, 3870 X2, not jsut a 3870.

and no this would out perform the 790i, as half the time, the 790i wont OC, or if they do provide headaches with stability.

yes graphically haveing Quad-sli 9800GX2 would be much better than Quadfire 3870X2, but in other (folding, decoding encoding etc) the skulltrail system would win. also for OCability, i would always choose an intel chipset, due to stability.

yes, i maybe an ATI fanboy, but if nvidia can sort out drivers, id jump to their far superior products (note atm, i am using a 7800GT)

oh and the Xenos GPU in the 360, is superior to the 7800GT in the PS3, but the cell processor and XDRAM are much better than the eDRAM and the Xenon Processors in the 360.

Anyone who likens comparing graphics cards to comparing consoles is stupid, the arguments are completely different. Solo, the 9800GX2 is better than the HD3870X2, but due to the comparative effectiveness of Quad crossfire, for the ultimate PC, two 3870X2s will beat two 9800GX2s for several reasons.

Originally posted by shaffaaf:

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omg, 3870 X2, not jsut a 3870.

and no this would out perform the 790i, as half the time, the 790i wont OC, or if they do provide headaches with stability.

yes graphically haveing Quad-sli 9800GX2 would be much better than Quadfire 3870X2, but in other (folding, decoding encoding etc) the skulltrail system would win. also for OCability, i would always choose an intel chipset, due to stability.

yes, i maybe an ATI fanboy, but if nvidia can sort out drivers, id jump to their far superior products (note atm, i am using a 7800GT)

---

But how much of a difference is there in OCability to make having the 3870 X2's over quad slis??? Also, I think its the eVGA's that are having the stability problems, and the XFX releases of the 790i are supposed to be better. Anyways Im not so sure as far as graphics OCing go, but the 790i's can easily overclock a q6600 to 3.6GHz which is alot from 2.4 (on air),

Anyways Im not too into this, so you likely know more than I do, but I've been researchign and reading lots of persay "internet chit-chat-crap" and the skulltrail apparently is an intel downfall while the 3870 X@ doesn't compare to an 9800 GX2 in games

I agree with XFX being better than EVGA, however, getting a Q6600 to 3.6G isn't especially difficult, even a low end P35 board can do it easy.

I don't claim to know anything about Skulltrail, but I wouldn't certainly advise against an SLI board in any "dream" machine.

no the 3870x2 doesnt compare to the 9800GX2 in games, (although will DESTORY it in folding at home)

and most nvidia chipsets, are unstable, and with having first hand experiance (and so does sam), are not as good as their intel compadres.

if you can get an nvidia board to work (DO NOT GO FOR ASUS OR EVGA) it will OC superbly, and be the best chipset you can get. but its a handfull that do. thats the problem.

and the x48 chipset is alot better for storage due to the ICH9R southbridgde. I/O devices are quicker, as are HDDs.

Quote" This is really just a server board with SLI and Crossfire. No other modifications seem to have been made, which, leaves you with outdated PCI-E slots (1.1) and the limits on memory. Hopefully 8 core processors will eliminate the need for this type of board soon or Intel will release and actual extreme desktop board with all the features up to date for dual processors. LGA 775, DDR3 1600, and PCI-E 2.0"

Anyways I'm a n00b....,but most places tend to agree the skulltrail was a pitfall from the moment it was concieved. All I do all day is read reviews on comp for this stuff

That doesn't make you an expert - far from it. However, I will agree that Skulltrail doesn't seem an ideal gaming board.

Oh, and shaff you know that 'dead' A8R-MVP?

Actually just one of the PCIe 16x slots and the front USB header don't work - the rest is still running, now the GPU's in slot 2.

i dont think many of us qualify for experts. but hands on is the best way to gain experiance, not paid for reviews.


and sam....OMG

HAHA

hows that work then HAHA

why not get it RMAed then. broken pci lane (which will be form the NB/SB) is a reason to.


i feel it for you though. you and asus = me and xblade

lol

As I said before, I'm not spending the vast amount to get the board sent to the US when I might not see it until Autumn.

well get a replacement first


and then ebay it or the replacemnt :)