Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

AMD or Nvidia - it's all down to personal experience/preference.
I had lots of problems with AMD drivers, which is why I swear by Nvidia now (especially for OpenGL).
 
What (little) I've read about it, GD65 has better power management, making it more stable if you're planning to OC. And there's no such thing as GD45, only G45.
But yes, not much difference really, sticking to G45 is ok to save a few bucks.

Yeah, it is G45, not GD45.. the effects of Cut and paste laziness :eek:

Anyway, according to the reviews I read, G45 and GD65 were on par regarding overclocking potential and performance (actually, a couple reviews put G45 slightly ahead).

Not all that surprising, since Haswell processor moved to on die voltage regulators (FIVR), so the mobo plays a lesser role there.
 
The other old chestnut is that AMD still refuse, as far as I know, to allow you to customise your experience based on the executable name. With Nvidia I can create a custom profile based on the .EXE i.e. Trilinear for this and Bilinear for that.

With AMD the only way to fudge the system and get better performance was to rename the .EXE to something else that used the builtin, and inaccessible, profile that ATI/AMD created so that you can use it.

Is that still the case or have they loosened the reigns somewhat?

Yeah you can do that with Radeon Pro
http://www.radeonpro.info/2010/12/radeonpro-amd-radeon-unleashed/
 
AMD or Nvidia - it's all down to personal experience/preference.
I had lots of problems with AMD drivers, which is why I swear by Nvidia now (especially for OpenGL).

It's funny the old driver thing. For every Nvidia owner that says AMD drivers have problems there's a AMD owner that says they're fine.
 
If you install a new anti-virus program it always finds a virus the old one didn't.

Don't use one any more. I know the risks and accept them. Since I stopped using installed versions, I have not had a virus. Well a few weeks ago I had sniffles.
 
My last 2 cards are/were AMD - no issues with drivers. Before that I had 2 nvidias - no issues with drivers. Next card will be whatever offers best bang for buck in the £350 - £450 bracket (at the time I build my new PC) - Whether that's AMD or nvidia I don't really care. :)
 
My last 2 cards are/were AMD - no issues with drivers. Before that I had 2 nvidias - no issues with drivers. Next card will be whatever offers best bang for buck in the £350 - £450 bracket (at the time I build my new PC) - Whether that's AMD or nvidia I don't really care. :)

Same here, except I usually aim in the £200-£250 bracket instead, cheapskate that I am :) I usually wait until there's some bargain like the 7850 I'm on now, with great overclockability giving performance of a card £100 more most of the time. I do the same with CPUs, I still love my (now relegated) Q6600 for that reason.

No brand loyalty, I've had fun and issues with both over the years, historically for me Nvidia ran hotter and noisier but better drivers, AMD were cheaper and quieter but a bit buggier. The last card or two of each have all been great, though.
 
Wouldn't that push it over budget?

How about 1 8GB DDR3, then buy a 2nd when budget allows and, finally, two more later on?

oh, and one other suggestion, the mobo/cpu both have integrated graphics. Could you put up with on-board graphics until Elite is released then buy a graphics card? If you still end up with the same choice, there's a chance it might be cheaper allowing you to budget for that extra RAM.


All good tips so far - Thanks all.

Budget - mmm - well - I might just have to ask the wife..


:D - I'm Divorced - and I approve whatever I want - just might have to cut back on something else to make it up - so no ice cream for a month for me..
 
I saw in my mailbox yesterday that Scan have the Nvidia 780 Ti cards in stock now. From what I have read they are Titan stompers and at least 200-300 quid cheaper. Seriously considering buying one of these to upgrade by 580 GTX.
 
I saw in my mailbox yesterday that Scan have the Nvidia 780 Ti cards in stock now. From what I have read they are Titan stompers and at least 200-300 quid cheaper. Seriously considering buying one of these to upgrade by 580 GTX.

They are a bit faster than the normal GTX780 and Titan think the only reason to buy a Titan now would be if you are playing on a stupidly high screen res the extra 3gig vram would still make it faster @4k screen res than the 780 TI.

Don't think I would buy 1 from Scan though hehe
 
a shiny new HP Envy Phoenix landed at my desk yesterday.
Intel Core™ i7-4770K (3,5 GHz, 8 MB)
16GB DDR3
128GB SSD
3TB 7200rpm SATA
BR/multiDVD RW drive
GTX770 2GB DDR5
Win8

Replaces a veteran of more than 4 years,
Intel Core2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz)
4GB
GTX260
WinXP

Let the alpha begin!!! :D
Now that I think of it, the last time I bought a brand name PC instead of building one myself must have been april 1993, and the computer was an Atari Falcon030 :eek:
 
Replaces a veteran of more than 4 years,
Intel Core2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz)
4GB
GTX260
WinXP

Let the alpha begin!!! :D
Now that I think of it, the last time I bought a brand name PC instead of building one myself must have been april 1993, and the computer was an Atari Falcon030 :eek:


Very Similar to my current PC. ( upgrade very close at hand )

HP xw4600
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 6MB/1333 CPU
HP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 ECC RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX570 256MB PCIe
 
These are the specs for the computer I have been looking at. It's one of the Alienware ones.

Alienware X51

Video Card 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 645 (DVI-I/HDMI/DP)
Hard Drive 1TB (64MB Cache) 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Wireless DW1506 Wireless-N WLAN Half Mini-Card
Processor 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-4130 processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz
Optical Drive Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW) (Standard)
Keyboard Alienware Standard USB 2.0 Keyboard (English)
FGA Module ANDRO1405_002/HK/AN/AS/BTO
Wireless Driver WLAN Card DW1506 Driver


This is going to cost me nearly $2000 and another two months of saving.

Do your think these specs will do the job?
 
It's the first time I've seen someone mention an i3 here, I think, so I looked up the difference between i3 / i5 / i7.

If it were me, and if you can, I would step up to an i5.

I still don't know enough about graphics cards.
 
I bought my rig beginning of this year aware that it might become a little outdated by release but
1. I'm impatient
2. I wanted to do some gaming and get set up (and me) 'just right' beforehand release, which I think I have done with facetracknoir, Saitek x52pro, war thunder (full realism obviously :D) and Oolite. Out of he country for a few months but will be good to go on the day I am back (after I have kissed the wife).

Rig is self made as per signature, i5 3570K overclocked to 4.2ghz, XFX 7950 3gb, 16gb RAM, SSD, manages Crysis 3 on full whack no probs so should manage ok I would have thought.

Would love laptop to do some casual 'downstairs' flying but think it would involve too much expense, and compromise.
 
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