Getting a gaming rig. Buy or Build?

[Squilliam]

Garcian Smith said:

Squilliam said:

Compute shader! Its more than just an improvement in gaming, it also makes the GPU more useful in the short, mid and longer term for modeling as well. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,689924/DirectX-11-Compute-Shader-Three-times-faster-than-DX101-due-to-Local-Data-Share/News/ + http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f943b2b-53ea-4f80-84b2-f05a360bfc6a&displaylang=en Its also much more efficient than the Shader Model 4.1 GPUs. Its not just about over-buying, its also getting the required features now which will be used, and a DX11 class GPU is much more useful for someone doing modeling and gaming than a GPU which is just as powerful but limited to the DX10.1 feature-set.

Both of those articles were written before the release of DirectX 11 (and the first is just talking points from an AMD exec). Do you have any links showing actual benchmarks on actual video cards regarding 3D modeling?

ATI Radeon HD 4890 Reference Design*

65 W

268 W

ATI Radeon HD 5850 Cypress Reference Design*

24 W

157 W

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=420&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=14

Gives you the first good reason. 100W difference load, 40W difference under idle.

Another good reason:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Abzoru/action/BK_2_demo/Battlefield_Bad_Company_2_Beta_1920x1080.jpg

Note, the scaling on DX10 for the most modern of titles.

Another good reason: Anisotropic filtering

http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-5870/tunnel-cypress.png

As I don't know the modeling software I can't pull up any benchmarks on that. In any case the performance from the 5850 is proportional to price and that performance will get used. You're always advocating for the present, what about the future? Its a much better card all around, just becuase DX11 games haven't started to really take advantage of the technology now doesn't mean that in 6 months time there won't be numerous examples of a distinction between the two cards. At this point the HD 4890 is at its peak and time will not be as friendly to it as a card which carries the latest technology and which still has room to grow.