i7 input

[rjbarker]

^^^ That is what I'm talking about.....folks tend to forget the importance of Customer Service and Support after the $500 purchase.....my 3 GTX 280's are still covered under a Lifetime Warranty and I know the Support / RMA Process is painless if I ever have to use it ;)

[Fudd Rucker]

Originally Posted by rjbarker

^^^ That is what I'm talking about.....folks tend to forget the importance of Customer Service and Support after the $500 purchase.....my 3 GTX 280's are still covered under a Lifetime Warranty and I know the Support / RMA Process is painless if I ever have to use it ;)

I have a great 3870x2 (cost me an extreme amount of money when i bought it new) thats dead as doornail here. It was about a month before the warranty ran up when the card died on me.Isnt it great when yuou spend 600 on a piece of hardware that dies after 11 months. Sapphire pretty much wanted the fingerprints from the last guy who touched it in the factory to give me my RMA . In the end i still have that piece of shit mocking me hanging on a wall.

[MarkOne]

Why are we talking about overpriced ATI here... 58xx are overpriced and 57xx are... let say not quite a gamer dream. Will not put a $ 150 GPU in a 1366 rigs.. as for xfire... well you all know what I think about it.

I will wait to see the GTX 470 before buy a new GPU. even if the price tag is to high... chances are that it will make drop the one of the High End ATI

[Hunt]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

I wouldnt touch a sapphire card again if my life depended on it. Id spend teh extra couple of bucks on an XFX 5870 with the much better warranty process. Also there is an RMA facility in canada for quick RMA, sapphire you have to send to hong kong and thier terms are outrageous.

Didn't know Sapphire was so bad about RMA. Hopefully my 5770 Vapor-X doesn't kick the can.

I had a similar experience with Antec, and I'll never buy/recommend one of their PSUs again.

[Fudd Rucker]

I game a lot as well as a production machine, so the 5870 was cheap considering my other alternatives and seems to work great.

[rjbarker]

I will wait to see the GTX 470 before buy a new GPU. even if the price tag is to high

Yeah I think thats my next upgrade now...a couple of Fermi GTX 470 / 80's likely around a grand ....will be dumping the 280's for about $170 / each.(one is already boxed up)....the Folders here maybe interested ;)

[Fudd Rucker]

They have to get them out first. They finally just got a name out lol. I dont forsee a DX11 nv gpu out for quite some time and when it does it will be in the usual NV fashion of $500 as a starting price for even the lowest of the high end.

[rjbarker]

^^^^ Yeah your likely right...no doubt the "higher end" models (that I'll want) will be closer to $650 ea.....ouch...oh well.....

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

I game a lot as well as a production machine, so the 5870 was cheap considering my other alternatives and seems to work great.

don't quote me too much on that, rant: I have have always been an ATI fan Boy, but frankly at the price tag they put the 5870, they just abuse of the situation, and make loyal customer for it. What justify the 100 % price increase from 4890 to 5870 (end of the rant )

My point related to the topic, is wait few week if you can to see what happen, it's not a good time presently to buy a GPU. ATI or Nvidia

[Fudd Rucker]

Guess you dont remember teh whole 8800GTS(650 bucks/1k GTX) price gougng lol.And when the 2xxx series card flopped, nvidia still continued to gouge the customer because there wasnt anything to compete with even among the nvidia offerings. And that gouging remained until the 3870 came out.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

Guess you dont remember teh whole 8800GTS(650 bucks/1k GTX) price gougng lol.And when the 2xxx series card flopped, nvidia still continued to gouge the customer because there wasnt anything to compete with even among the nvidia offerings. And that gouging remained until the 3870 came out.

you have a DAM good argument here.

[doggggboy]

Thanks for the input.
Would a 5870 be just stupid overkill for my monitor, 40" 1920 by 1080? I don't mind a little overkill, I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy, but is it too much?
Any good alternatives to the cm 690 case? The cabinet it will be i.n makes access to ports and switches on the sides very awkward. The front works best for that stuff.
Finally, any online suppliers to avoid? I've used Newegg, Tigerdirect and Directcanada before. The products arrived ok but the Directcanada shipping was a gongshow

[Raserei408]

A 5870 is overkill, quite honestly, for a 1920 x 1080 screen. A 5850 (ideally) or a 5770 (> adequate) would suit you fine for a fair bit less. It's just that, based on your budget it's the card to get. If you're willing to drop down to 1250-1500 CAD then you're in 5850 territory (lol).

Sadly there aren't really many cases that will get you most of the connectors on the front. However, there are some that will give you 4 USBs up front, which will be helpful. You might look into the Storm Scout, which has 4 front USB ports and an e-SATA.

[Fudd Rucker]

5870 is a badass card all around. I use mine for 1920 x 1200 resolution and the framerate is phenominal. Add a cheap nvidia 8600 series or higher card for physx(hacked drivers) and your good for some time i think for gpu, and if need be add a 2nd 5870 later when they are cheaper.

NCIX is pretty good when it comes to price matching and going with air shipping. Processing time can be lengthy at times but they usually come through on the price match which is a bonus.

[Raserei408]

Yes, the framerate is phenomenal. In fact, you're probably getting > 60FPS in almost all games. That's called overkill. A 5850 will get similar framerates (less, but not noticeably so) and save about $100.

Also, if you want dedicated PhysX, the best way to go is a GT240. It's weaker than a 9800 GT, but oddly it eats the 9800 for breakfast in PhysX.