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Which CPU for my SLI 580GTX? (GTA4 is SLOW!)


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So I upgraded my old Q9550 based PC from SLI GTX280 to SLI GTX580...

 

Yes, it made almost NO difference.

 

Unfortunately, my MB - ASUS Striker II sucks and the systems becomes unstable above 3.2GHz, no matter what voltage...

 

The performance in GTA4 is simply chaotic, I have a tripple LCD system and wanted to play in 5760*1080, but I can simply forget that. SLI has almost no effect and going from 1920*1200 (which has also bad performance 50% of the time) to 5760*1080 makes only a rather small difference.

 

 

Am I right, that GTA4 is an INSANE cpu intensive game?

 

 

Which CPU + MB combination would you recommend me? My budget is kinda limeted, but I guess sandy bridge in the way to go now.

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What do you mean by SLI because the way you say it make not damn sense.

If you mean that GTX 580 says "SLI" on the box, then you've got the wrong idea.

 

GTA IV is multi-threaded so it will take advantage of multi-core CPUs, but not frequency intense where you need to

ramp up your CPU like a nuclear power plant to run the whole town!

 

My specs:

Xeon X3350 (the desktop varient is Q9450) running at stock 2.66GHz

Asus Rampage Formula with 4GB DDR2 800MHz

HD5850 CCC 11.1a

Creative X-Fi

Game patch to 1.0.7.0

The game works runs great, no lags or whatever. And it's been working well since the day I've bough it (2 days after it was released).

You can do is update your motherboard bios.

Frankly for a video card setup like, you shouldn't have anything less than an i7 980x. But GTA doesn't need that much power. SLI does nothing for GTA IV, and some even say it hinders performance. I'm really not sure why you want to run IV on 3 monitors anyway, the AR gets really screwed up stretched that far.

Buy SLI I mean 2 identical cards running in SLI ofcourse.

 

GTA4 in 3 LCD mode is AMAZING! It supports ALL necessary aspect ratios! If you have not experienced it, you don't know what I'm talking about!

 

This is a very old video showing pre-patch SLI bugs.

 

Edited by MMhardKy

You can achieve the same panoramic experience with a single AMD graphic card and its a lot cheaper, but

that isn't the point. With 2 GTX 580 in SLI and 3 monitor setup, you planning to run 3D vision surround?

If that is the case you will need the 3D Vision kit, but if your screens ain't 120Hz, you can't do it.

And did you update your motherboard bios?

 

Asus Striker II Formula Bios history (some examples)

 

Striker II Formula 1802

1. Enhanced CPU compatibility with certain CPU of 1333MHz FSB.

2. Add warning message to explian the limitation of maximum supported DIMM of SLI memory and disable SLI memory support when system detects more than two SLI memory modules.

Striker II Formula BIOS 2102

Enhance the stability of certain memory.

Striker II Formula BIOS 2402

Fix it might take long time to recognize ATI 5850 VGA card at POST

The latest one should have all of the fixes from the their previous versions.

One more thing to try out is head into the bios and disable Loadline calibration.

No 3D, just regular 2D.

 

The only thing I want to know is people's recommendation on a good CPU/MB combination for GTA4.

 

But as I read other topics, GTA4 is extremely CPU intensive and and no matter what CPU I will get, it will still be the bottelneck. I'm planning to get the i7 2600k, but all the good SLI mobo's with NF200 are so expensive!:(

Buy SLI I mean 2 identical cards running in SLI ofcourse.

 

GTA4 in 3 LCD mode is AMAZING! It supports ALL necessary aspect ratios! If you have not experienced it, you don't know what I'm talking about!

 

This is a very old video showing pre-patch SLI bugs.

I know what you mean by SLI. What I'm saying is that SLI doesn't help GTA at all. And 5760*1080 is a 5.33:1 aspect ratio, from what I've seen, the game only supports 1.78:1, 1.33:1, and 1.6:1 so what you are getting is a stretched video.

 

As far as CPU/Mobo, I would go i7-980X Extreme Edition and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7. (If money isn't an issue.)

 

The Sandybridge platform is having issues right now, and the LGA1366 CPUs are still holding up amazingly.

 

@Stinky12: Yeah, you get more ports on an ATI eyefinity card, but you don't get the processing power behind it.

Come one, let's leave fanboysm where you found it, Nivida has a terrible price performance ratio with the 580 a let that be the end if it.

Not talking price to performance, I'm talking ports to performance. An eyefinity card has 4-6 ports on the power of one card, where an SLI setup has 4 ports on the power of 2 cards.

 

Yes, a crossfire setup would give you 8-12 ports on the power of 2 cards, but that wasn't what I was arguing. The poster before said 1 ATI card, versus the 2 nvidias OP already has.

 

And your post was as fanboy as you are trying to make me out to be. I will freely admit to being an Intel/Nvidia fanboy for myself, but I do not let that extend to my recommendations for other people.

And your post was as fanboy as you are trying to make me out to be.

Oh, so what I said above is not correct? It's just my delusion? 5-10% more performance for 40-50% more money? Nvidia invented those silly prices, and I'm a fanboy lol

I'm talking about you can get the same 3 monitor setup with a single AMD card, but the setup isn't only associated to gaming.

Many people who does professional work, run stocks, or plainly use it for productivity can benefit from this setup as it gives them more workspace to more things at once. If a person isn't a gamer then a simple HD5670 will provided plenty of pixel power to run up to 3 monitors. Now will that same HD5670 be able to play GTA IV on three 30" monitors? Definitely not as it will be too weak and thus a beefier card is needed. The current best single GPU card from AMD is the HD6970 and it can support up to 6 monitors through its 2 mini-DP via a DP multiplier. Can a single HD6970 run GTA IV and other intensive games on six 30" monitors? Nope as again its too weak thus you will need a 2nd one to get it going.

Nvidia on the other hand can only support 2 monitors on a single card, and you will need a 2nd card just to add that extra monitor for a 3 monitor setup. This can make some sense in some way that Nvidia knew a single card will be too weak to power three 30" monitors thus they decided to make user buy another card so the "problem" can be avoided at all times. Will weak Nvidia cards running in SLI play intensive games on three 30" monitors? Again not, as it will be too weak so you will need 2 powerful cards to achieve this task.

 

For normal use (no gaming) 3 monitor setup: Go with AMD

For gaming use: Go with either AMD or Nvidia depending your preferences

 

As for OP, I think it's pointless to drop in the money before finding out what is the actual cause to this problem. If you take a look at other

threads, there are members here with system setups similar to the one you want to get and yet they still can't play the game.

IMO before you spend more than you already have, take time to see how to fix it before buying more parts.

If you spend another amount of your life savings and yet the game still don't work, will you be pissed?

Edited by Stinky12
And your post was as fanboy as you are trying to make me out to be.

Oh, so what I said above is not correct? It's just my delusion? 5-10% more performance for 40-50% more money? Nvidia invented those silly prices, and I'm a fanboy lol

No, you are a fanboy for reading that into what I said. I said nothing about price to performance, and you just jump in talking about it like that's what I was talking about. I have no argument about the price of ATI, but I do feel the quality isn't there with team red.

Buy SLI I mean 2 identical cards running in SLI ofcourse.

 

GTA4 in 3 LCD mode is AMAZING! It supports ALL necessary aspect ratios! If you have not experienced it, you don't know what I'm talking about!

 

This is a very old video showing pre-patch SLI bugs.

I know what you mean by SLI. What I'm saying is that SLI doesn't help GTA at all. And 5760*1080 is a 5.33:1 aspect ratio, from what I've seen, the game only supports 1.78:1, 1.33:1, and 1.6:1 so what you are getting is a stretched video.

 

As far as CPU/Mobo, I would go i7-980X Extreme Edition and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7. (If money isn't an issue.)

 

The Sandybridge platform is having issues right now, and the LGA1366 CPUs are still holding up amazingly.

 

@Stinky12: Yeah, you get more ports on an ATI eyefinity card, but you don't get the processing power behind it.

 

 

 

No, it supports about 5 - 6 different aspect ratios now. Look at one of them:

 

I think I will go for i7 2600k. I can't afford to invest more than 300 eur into the CPU.

You can't as there is a flaw with Intel 6 series chipset which is used for Sandy Bridge.

You will have to wait until end of February to get it, but that will be in short supply and until April is when

they'll have the whole batch.

By that time, maybe the high-end Sandy Bridge (socket 2011) hopefully may be out too.

It just cares about CPU in general, but nonetheless I'd say that if you expect this game to run fluently on high details you need at least three cores. While the game itself doesn't utilise any more than three, when having more cores there will be also processing power left for OS and programs running in background.

leik oh em jeez!

I'd say a 3.0Ghz quad core or better for running on high settings. Would also say at least a 1Gb GPU (Not a 1Gb 8400GT, something decent.) and 3Gb Dual or Triple channel memory.

 

BTW, using "Auto" aspect ratio allows for use of ANY aspect ratio. I'm playing at 4240x1050 with no stretching. (5:4+16:10+5:4)

Defining particular required clock speed is IMHO quite pointless, since there are CPUs with different architectures on the market and, for example, Phenom II X4 @ 3,0GHz will perform nowhere near as good as SB i5 @ 3,0GHz.

 

Yes I do realise you know that, I'm just saying it for those who don't. wink.gif

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