I'm wanting to upgrade to the 500 series, i think I'm headed for the gtx 570. I'm fairly certain my cpu is too old to take advantage of this so I found it a good time to do a total system upgrade as its been some time. I'm planning on an intel core i7 950 with asus x58 premium mobo so that should handle the new gpu. I read someone using their old vid card as a physx dedicated card, is this a good idea? I definitely won't have any other use for the card and it seems a waste of whats been a very reliable gtx 285 which I would still use if it had dx11 support. Also if i do this do they have to be linked with sli cables or do they function independently with software. I also remember at one point being able to set an alternate card for AA only processing but i have not delved into this topic since my 8800 sli days.
1st, you would be crazy to buy a I-7 950 when you can get a 2600k. Wait till the fixed boards are released and get a P67 board and 2600k. It blows the x-58s out of the water and since you have to upgrade both the board and the cpu, , you got nothing to lose and everytrhing to gain... not only does it overclock higher with less heat, ghz for ghz,it wins by a xmile. Plus your video cards will all run cooler
You can not set an alternate card for AA. I would recommend selling the card for 100-150, the bonus for the dedicated physx isn't thqat great
Does anyone have an idea when you could expect the fixed product to hit shelves? I'm like a kid when I have the money for an upgrade, waiting as late as March could be an overstretch of patience.
Well, get the video card now, the bottleneck will come in less graphically intensive games and you will still get an appreciable improvement in performance. The good thing about going with a 2600k is you are on the early side of a major intel performance upgrade and the investment will last longer. Also the cost of going the 2600k route is, actually a bit cheaper most likely All the motherboards for P67 are usb 3 and Sata 6 compliant,again longer protection from needing another upgrade
The 2600K is the way to go in terms of most bang for the buck. Not all of the P67 boards that are out now have the bad parts. Do a bit of research into this before you buy or have your favorite PC shop do some investigation too. Get a good ASUS gaming board. They have the best overclocking presets in their BIOS so that you don't really have to know much about overclocking you just select the option in BIOS to make the CPU run "Crazy." There is probably info on the ASUS support site about how to identify which boards have the good parts at this time. Maybe your favorite PC shop can special order your board to ensure it's one with the good parts on it. As for your video card definitely get one of the 500 series cards rather than a 400 series card. It sorta looks like the 500 series cards are what the 400 cards should have been.
you want a P67, not an H67, I agree, I think Asus is the way to go. Also, even a "bad board" has the option to simply run everything thru your Sata 6 controller. I've got 2 bad boards and I'm not worried at all
