I Hate Computer Hardware, Part Un

"Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura" (sundowne36)
03/22/2014 at 15:14 • Filed to: Computers, Supercomputers, Computer

As it turns out, I cannot - for the life of me - find reference design graphics cards instead of the horrendous aftermarket products you'd find in Fry's. For me, it makes it a bit difficult to find a proper waterblock for it.

For now, here is my rig.

If you're wondering why I am missing a fan on the 360mm radiator, I shattered a fin earlier and somehow nicked myself with it in the process.

DISCUSSION (20)

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 15:18

Specs on that thing? Looks beastly.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/22/2014 at 15:23

It's not much on the inside, but from what I can gather from my old build..

ASUS M4A87TD-EVO motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 6-core 1100T

Radeon HD6850

8x2GB Corsair Dominator RAM

Custom Koolance Watercooling System

She needs a complete overhaul from what I'm looking at.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 15:28

It may not be much, but it ain't bad either, it all depends on what you run on it. Pretty much the same specs (translated to laptop specs) as my 18'4" laptop (yes, it's watercooled, no, it's no longer a laptop). I use it to edit videos and stuff, it's running linux, and it's quite the beast :) But I guess you use this as a gaming rig?

Victorious Secret > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 15:30

Just get EVGA ones. And leave ATI.

Signed a former ATI user who happily dumped their overheating pile of garbage cards.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/22/2014 at 15:38

Well.... Either a gaming or editing (photoshop, Premiere and it runs hella slow!) rig.

seater > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 15:50

just get a universal one? EK VGA Supremacy works well for my non-reference 6770.

AthomSfere > Victorious Secret
03/22/2014 at 15:57

But, Ugh, NVidia drivers are a nightmare compared to ATI's...

Signed a former NVidia user who got tired of NVidia's horrible drivers and software. ;)

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > seater
03/22/2014 at 16:09

I have one and it sucks. It only cools 1/4th of my card and it's not efficient.

Axial > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 16:39

What model of GPU are you looking for?

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Axial
03/22/2014 at 16:43

Possibly a 770. Or less. One that's reference design and not the cheapo aftermarket models.

Victorious Secret > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 16:58

FYI aftermarket ones are superior in their PCB design and overclocking headroom, as well as power delivery and VRM solutions.

Reference ones are pretty shit in their headroom, restricted voltages, lack of multiple BIOS options and unless you get a factory freak, generally inferior performance compared to an EVGA, MSI or ASUS card, not to mention paying more for a reference design if you can even find it.

Case in point? The R9 290x is hamstrung by ATIs crappy reference design and has its performance throttled because of terrible thermal management. I'd never trust a reference card for real performance unless its a Quadro card, in which case those cards are binned for long term durability and intense load operations all the time, so thats a non-issue.

Axial > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 17:08

Ah. I was about to say that if you were looking for an HD 7970, I have two reference ones I'd trade for aftermarket-cooled models. Only hitch is I need two to replace them, because I'm not about to step down from this setup.

PS9 > Victorious Secret
03/22/2014 at 17:18

I hate having to agree with you...

...but nVidia stepped up their game big time. That + CUDA is pretty much a pre-requisite for Blender. There's just no reason for me to turn my back on 10x or more rendering performance just because AMD can't (* inhales* AND STILL WILL NOT!!!!) give us an answer to CUDA. And no, OpenCL does not count, and will not count until we get a non-shitty kernel and language that can do pointers and function calls.

Made the switch to green land. Never looking back. You know, until nVidia screws up and AMD gets their act together.

Victorious Secret > PS9
03/22/2014 at 17:24

I also like NVidia naming schemes better.

God damnit ATI. Such a mess.

PS9 > Victorious Secret
03/22/2014 at 17:27

Wanna hear some bad news?

AMD hardware from CPU to GPU is sitting under the hood of both PS4 and Xbox one. You know what that means? Guaranteed success for AMD for at least a decade, every dev and their mom optimizing for AMD/ATI hardware forever and no impetus at all for AMD to change their course. YAY!

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Axial
03/22/2014 at 17:32

FFFUUUU

Welp, gotta start saving up.

Victorious Secret > PS9
03/22/2014 at 17:32

Fuck it, NVidia has Titans, blackjack and hookers.

Aesthetically their Quadros make Firepros look bad as well. Because I need to know what my GPUs look like, sitting behind the side cover.

Axial > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/22/2014 at 18:40

Remember that an R9 280X is the same as a 7970. :p

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Victorious Secret
03/23/2014 at 01:54

Forgive me for asking, but how good's the Quadro?

Victorious Secret > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
03/23/2014 at 10:56

For compute tasks, editing, photoshop, Maya, 3D, CAD and anything else that you could throw under 'real work', Quadros are amazing. Even a 4000, its going to demolish what you throw at it better than a mainstream GeForce card.

The only GeForce card that encroaches on good Quadro performance would be the Titan, since thats basically a Tesla card with GeForce drivers but it has uncapped double precision performance.

So while you can use a 770 or 780 for compute tasks, a 780 in particular would get spanked by the compute of a Titan. Its all a numbers game though.

A 1 grand Titan is 1/3rd the price of a Tesla card, but it gives 1/3rd the performance too. It also scales well in SLI.

A full on Quadro card is almost useless in gaming, but in workstation use they are really, really good. And the 8/10 bit colour output is great to have.