Gaming PCs: Best Performance for the Price (March 1, 2010)
Table of Contents
i. Introduction
ii. Methodology
iii. Terminology
iv. Graphics Card Rankings
v. $800 Build (Mid-End)
vi. $1,400 Build (High-End)
vii. $2,000 Build (Extreme)
viii. What’s Ahead
ix. Closing Comments
x. Disclaimer and Terms of Use
i. Introduction
I’m starting a new series which will be updated monthly and will showcase the most value and performance that can be bought for a gaming PC at 3 price points. These price points will be: $800, $1400, and $2000, providing a good range of builds. I’ve seen many threads on the forums asking for help building a PC or buying parts at a particular price point, so hopefully this guide will prove useful for many people. The following will be the guidelines to my methodology, along with a glossary containing brief definitions and descriptions of commonly used phrases and abbreviations that you will see a lot when reading about hardware. You can skip around by using Ctrl+F to get to the section that you want.
ii. Methodology
Builds must have an acceptable performance in most of the latest games at high to highest quality settings. While there may be a graphics card out there for under $100 making it cheap and probably good value for money, there’s no point in getting it if it will only play games at low-medium settings at 20fps. “Acceptable performance” is defined at a minimum of 40fps, above 60 preferably. High settings is normally what you can enable in the game options menu minus things like high antialiasing and ambient occlusion (extremely taxing for most systems), highest settings is all slider bars and resolution pushed to max (1920x1080/1200 to 2560x1600), as well as things like forced antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
All pricing will be from newegg.com, the largest North American e-tailer of computer components. Its prices are competitive, it has a good reputation amongst customers, and sticking with one website will keep pricing consistent. In many cases you may be able to find the item slightly cheaper at places such as Amazon or TigerDirect, but Newegg prices serve as a good guideline in the vast majority of circumstances. For Canadians there is newegg.ca, where prices are generally about 10% higher in Canadian dollars. Combo deals, rebates and sales will generally not be considered because they are extremely transient. I will give myself about a 5% leeway in the final cost (meaning an “$800” build may cost up to $840).
All components will have a reasonable amount of quality to them. If a poorly-reviewed generic motherboard is $20 cheaper to a brand-name, well-reviewed motherboard while carrying the same specs, I am likely to choose the brand-name motherboard because long term stability is worth more than $20.
Build considerations will not include exterior features to components such as overclockability, core unlocking, wattage, temps etc. Many of those things are subjective as to their value, and excluding them will keep build methodology consistent. Components will be considered based on their stock performance. Because of the disregard for overclockability and temps, coolers will not be included in builds.
I will not be personally testing any of my builds, but I will be using cross-analysis from several established hardware sites to give relatively accurate evaluation as to final performance. There are an abundant amount of reviews for each hardware component out there, and I will do my best to provide a fair conclusion for performance based on benchmarks.
Builds will not include monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers or OS cost as it is presumed the buyer will get these based on their tastes and needs. In general, to add the cost of a typical monitor and OS you need to add $300. Mouse, keyboard and speakers’ costs are highly variable depending on the quality you want to get. It should be of consideration however that the newest 3D development platforms such as DirectX 11 will only be available on the newer OS’s, in this case Windows Vista and Windows 7; Windows XP can only run up to DirectX 9, meaning paying for DirectX11 functionality will be wasted if you decide to go with that OS.
Builds will also not include shipping or tax fees, for obvious reasons.
iii. Terminology (Alphabetical) (work in progress)
Ambient Occlusion – Technique that provides realistic lighting effects on irregular surfaces. Generally very GPU-intensive, sometimes with only negligible results.
Anisotropic Filtering – Filters textures so that they look more accurate over a distance at certain angles. A cobblestone road without AF will look like a muddy road in the distance; with AF turned on, it will still look distinctly like a cobblestone road even as it approaches the horizon. AF is generally not very GPU intensive, even on its highest setting (which is 16x at the moment).
Antialiasing = Image quality method that reduces the “jaggies” or pixilation around the edges of in-game objects. Typically carried out using the efficient multisampling method, there also exists supersampling antialiasing which uses brute force graphical power to calculate the image in many times its original size, and then downscales that for extreme detail. This typically looks better than any other form of antialiasing, but is also extremely intensive on the hardware. The standard level of antialiasing is 4x MSAA with 8x MSAA considered standard for the high end, but levels can currently go up as high as 32xQ AA.
Bottlenecking – When one component significantly limits another. Components depend on each other to operate, and if one component reaches its maximum performance level, the corresponding performance level of a component that depends on it will be “bottlenecked”. Example: Game X has a maximum framerate of 100fps using an extremely fast processor and graphics card, and a framerate of 20fps using an extremely slow processor and the same fast graphics card. The graphics card is capable of attaining 100fps, but can’t due to the slow processor, and is thus being bottlenecked. The extra graphical power it is capable of is essentially being wasted. In system builds it is important for components to be both powerful and balanced.
Cache = Can refer to many different things, but in hardware it’s usually used on the processor and hard disk. The processor has a small memory reserve referred to as the cache which contains very fast memory; the larger the cache, the faster your processor will be able to retrieve commonly used data. This is fairly useful for games, and higher end processors have larger and faster cache. The hard disk also has a cache, which is a disc-based buffer kept in RAM that also allows for faster access times.
CF = Crossfire, ATI’s multi-GPU scaling solution. Crossfire generally refers to two cards, Tri-fire 3, and Quad-fire 4. Crossfire Hybrid X refers to a Crossfire relationship between a graphics card and an integrated graphics chip, usually present on more elementary motherboards. Like SLI, Crossfire will not achieve its theoretical 100% performance boost most of the time, but it will be fairly close.
CPU – Central Processing Unit. The “brain” of a computer, it essentially directs all of the actions of the other components. In gaming, it’s usually the GPU that is most important in determining performance but an abnormally weak CPU will bottleneck the performance of the graphics card.
DirectX = An application programming interface for 3D applications including games, usually distributed in runtime libraries. DirectX11 is the newest version of the 3D development platform, sporting features including tessellation, better multithreading support, Shader Model 5.0, and more optimized performance.
Frames per second (framerate) = The amount of time that the game updates the live image per second. Games start to feel significantly laggy below 40fps, and 60fps is currently the standard for optimal performance (though higher frames up to 120 currently exist). The frames per second in games is slightly different from the frames per second in television in movies in that it typically lacks motion blur, so high amounts are needed in order to compensate for smoothness. This is why TV and movies look smooth at 24fps, while games are basically unplayable at that framerate.
FRAPS = Handy program that measures framerates, records benchmarks and movies, and takes screenshots. Generally what reviewers use to measure framerates for their benchmarks.
GPU – Graphics Processing Unit. This powers your graphics card and specializes in processing intensive 3D graphics in real time. In contrast to CPUs, they are highly parallel, with lower clock speeds but many more individual processing units. The most important factor in graphics performance.
GTX = Nvidia’s line of GPUs, the higher the number the better. Currently in the 2xx series.
HDD = Hard Disk Drive. This is your mass storage device that usually runs on the SATA interface. Windows users are probably familiar with it, it is the drive usually labeled “C:\” in My Computer.
Hyperthreading = Intel’s built in feature that allows a single physical core to be divided into 2 logical threads; enhances multitasking. Usually has little effect in games but functionality may increase as games become more multithreaded.
HyperTransport = Replacement for the front side bus, this system has a higher bandwidth and universalizes several different FSB frequencies.
LGA 1156 = Core i5 and i3 socket. The core i5 architecture is similar to that of the Core i7, except it has lower all around specs and lacks hyperthreading. It serves to bridge the gap between mainstream and enthusiast processors. The Core i3 line are dual core processors with hyperthreading.
LGA 1366 = Core i7 socket. Currently Intel’s flagship platform, sporting the most high-end processors with the greatest amount of L3 cache, hyperthreading, as well as the fastest QPI.
Multi GPU – Either SLI or Crossfire configuration. To get an idea of the performance that multi-GPU yields, refer to these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCj4r2Gskqw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5800-crossfirex_5.html#sect0
http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/HD%205870%20TriFire/P1.html
OS = Operating System. For gaming PCs this will be Windows. The newest version of Windows is Windows 7, and it along with Windows Vista supports DirectX11.
P55 = A chipset that works to connect the QPI of LGA 1156 processors with peripheral devices. Used in reference to motherboards.
PCIe = PCI express. This high bandwidth slot is where your graphics cards are inserted. The current version is 2.0, with a 2.1 revision.
PhysX – Nvidia’s onboard physics solution. Many of Nvidia’s newer cards come with an onboard PhysX chip, which allows for the efficient processing of physics in games that support it. Physx actually doesn’t require much hardware power, but it will take up an entire graphics card in a multi-GPU setup. ATI cards are also unable to run Physx. That is why some people opt to buy a single, cheap Physx capable card such as the GT 220 and use that as a dedicated card to do Physx. There are other cards where an additional PhysX chip is actually onboard the video card itself, such as the GTX 275 Co-Op Edition: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/evga-gtx275-coop-physx_8.html#sect1
QPI = Quick Path Interconnect. The successor to the front side bus and originally seen on AMD chips in the form of HyperTransport, it allows for extremely fast transfer rates from the memory controller to the CPU.
Radeon HD = ATI’s line of GPUs, the higher the number the better. Currently in the 5xxx series.
RAM = Random Access Memory, also referred to as “memory”. These act essentially as worktables for the applications that you run, storing the data of currently active applications to be used. The more and faster RAM that you have, the better games will run (to an extent).
Resolution – This will affect the overall detail of your game. Changes in resolution decrease performance, as more pixels need to be processed per frame. Standard high end resolutions are 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, and 2560x1600.
SLI – Scalable Link Interface. Nvidia’s multi-GPU solution, it allows 2 or more graphics cards to communicate to each other over the PCI express lanes, achieving a theoretical x-scaling in performance where x is the number of graphics cards. In reality you usually see less than the theoretical scaling, but the performance benefits from multi-GPU can still be very significant, typically resulting in a 80-90% performance boost rather than the theoretical 100%
Socket AM2/2+ = Socket for AMD’s previous generation processors including the Athlon 64 and Phenom lines.
Socket AM3 = Socket for AMD’s current generation of processors including the Athlon II and Phenom II lines.
SSD = Solid State Disk. Fast and efficient storage resembling very large flash drives. They’re still very cost-prohibitive at the moment, with even the smallest ones containing only a few dozen GB costing over a hundred dollars. At the moment, generally used to speed up Windows startup time (benchmarks exist that demonstrate startups as short as 20 seconds), and load times. Not a very good choice in builds based on value, but something to keep your eye on in the months/years ahead.
Vertical sync – Locks your framerate to that of your monitor (usually 60). The benefit of this is it prevents screen tearing, which appears as a thin horizontal line that stretches across your screen momentarily due to the frames exceeding that of your monitor and not matching up.
X58 = A chipset that works to connect the QPI of LGA 1366 processors with peripheral devices. Used in reference to motherboards.
iv. Graphics Card Rankings (strongest to weakest, “=” implies similar average performance)
Radeon HD 5970 = Radeon HD 5850 CF (best value at $600)
GTX 295 = GTX 260 SLI
Radeon HD 5870 (best value at $400)
Radeon HD 5850 (best value at $300)
GTX 285
Radeon HD 5830
GTX 275 = GTX 280
Radeon HD 4890
Radeon HD 5770 (best value at ~$200) = GTX 260
Radeon HD 4870
(anything under this point is not really worthwhile to get in terms of a new gaming PC)
v. $800 Build (Mid-End)
Case:
Cooler Master is the overall best in computer cases, and is topped by only Lian Li at the extreme price ranges. For a mid-tower case, there is no better in terms of price and quality.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068 ($50)
Processor:
AMD provides very good performance for the price, with the Athlon II series essentially beating out any of Intel’s offerings at the same price point in the budget to mid-end area. The X3 435 is a triple core processor that can play most games at acceptable settings, and has performance in line with much more expensive processors. The only notable problem is its lack of L3 Cache, which makes it significantly slower than its more powerful brethren. But at $75, it’s a steal.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3663&p=8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724&Tpk=x3%20435 ($75)
Video Card:
The Sapphire Radeon 5850 Toxic Edition is factory overclocked, cooled with their proprietary Vapor-X system, and has a cool design to boot. The stock 5850 already has amazing games performance (the second fastest single-GPU on the planet) and the Toxic Edition marks about a 10% performance increase on top of that. All of these features make the extra $30 premium over the stock version well worth it, and the card itself is the best card in its price range.
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 ($105)
Hard Drive:
Western Digital is the leader in hard drives, and the 500GB Caviar Blue model is fast and should fit the storage needs of most people. Priced at $56, there is nothing much to compete with it at that price and performance level.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/500gb-hdd-disk,2150-8.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 ($56)
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392 ($77)
Power Supply:
Antec is a good brand in power supplies, and its 500W Earthwatts model will power most mid-end gaming PCs, and definitely those with only one graphics card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007 ($70)
Optical Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 ($27)
Net specs:
Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-Tower Case
AMD Athlon Phenom II X3 435 2.9Ghz Triple Core
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic Edition
G. Skill 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM Caviar Blue HDD
Gigabyte AMD AM3 770 ATX Motherboard
Antec 500W Earthwatts Power Supply
Liteon DVD/CD read/writer
Total cost: $800
Conclusion: Except in relatively demanding games such as Far Cry 2, Crysis or World in Conflict, this setup will give you outstanding performance at high to highest settings. Few games will limit it graphically.
vi. $1400 Build (High-End)
Case:
The Antec 1200 is a favourite amongst enthusiasts for its size, cooling and aesthetics. Though expensive, every dollar is worth it.
Alternatively, you could get Cooler Master’s HAF 932, which is equally good (but arguably not as cool looking):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160&cm_re=haf_932-_-11-119-160-_-Product ($160)
Processor:
The AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU is great value for money, while not as fast as Intel’s Core i7 line, it’s not nearly as expensive either. You will see great performance in most titles.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-965,2389-8.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727&cm_re=965-_-19-103-727-_-Product ($180)
Video Card
At $310, The Radeon HD 5850 provides some of the best performance there is. What can beat that then? Well two 5850’s certainly can. With this GPU setup, you will be running with power equivalent to the HD 5970, which is currently the fastest discrete graphics solution in the world. Aside for a small minority of titles, you will be able to run everything maxed out smoothly.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3679&p=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161302&cm_re=5850-_-14-161-302-_-Product ($310x2 = $620)
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 ($105)
Hard Drive
At 1TB, 7200 RPM and 32MB cache, nothing really beats Western Digital’s Caviar Black HDD at $100.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 ($100)
Motherboard
The Asus 790GX has two PCIe slots, meaning it can support CrossfireX.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366 ($140)
Power Supply
For a dual GPU setup, a minimum of 600W should be used. For maximum stability and quality, I have chosen a 750W Corsair Power supply that has been very popular and very well-received on newegg thus far:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 ($120)
Optical Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 ($27)
Net Specs:
Antec 1200 Full Tower Case
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4 Ghz Quad Core
HIS Radeon HD 5850 Crossfire
G. Skill 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM Caviar Black HDD
Asus AMD AM3 790GX ATX Motherboard
Corsair 750W Power Supply
Liteon DVD/CD read/writer
Total cost: $1452
Conclusion: Except for games like Crysis, Stalker or Arma 2 at the very highest settings, this will play everything at highest settings at 60fps or above (way above in some cases). This is arguably the “sweet spot” in terms of buying gaming PCs. It should be noted however that with an additional $60, both of the 5850’s can be upgraded to their superior Toxic versions, yielding around another 10% in performance.
vii. $2,000 Build (Extreme)
Case:
The Antec 1200 is a favourite amongst enthusiasts for its size, cooling and aesthetics. Though expensive, every dollar is worth it.
Alternatively, you could get Cooler Master’s HAF 932, which is equally good (but arguably not as cool looking):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160&cm_re=haf_932-_-11-119-160-_-Product ($160)
Processor:
Intel Core i7 sits atop the performance chart, with the 920 providing a great balance between performance and value. With the LGA1366 chipset, you also have more motherboard options regarding PCIe and memory. LGA1366 is also better suited towards multi-GPU setups.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=920-_-19-115-202-_-Product ($289)
Video Card:
Running hot and heavy, this rig will consist of THREE Radeon HD 5850s, enough to blow the tops off of games like Stalker, and even enough to play Crysis at highest settings (1920x1080, 8x AA, 16AF, Very High) at acceptable framerates (A GTX 295 which is about half the graphical power plays Crysis at those settings at about 25-35 fps). For an idea of the real world performance look here (HD5850 ~ 0.8HD 5870, Trifire~Quadfire due to PCIe and driver constraints):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88WXAIVj_4I (Resident Evil 5 maxed settings)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJyV8zwDqI (Crysis @ 4xAA, maxed settings)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161302&cm_re=5850-_-14-161-302-_-Product (3x$310 = $930)
Memory:
With LGA 1366, we have access to faster and more memory, going for 6GB Tri-channel DDR3, enough to handle any game:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223 ($160)
Hard Drive:
At 1TB, 7200 RPM and 32MB cache, nothing really beats Western Digital’s Caviar Black HDD at $100.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 ($100)
Motherboard:
An extremely robust board, the EVGA E758-A1 board is the perfect solution for LGA 1366 and multiple graphics cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039 ($270)
Power Supply:
The Rosewill Bronze Series 1000W Power Supply is just extremely good value for money, and enough to power our setup with 3x 6-pin and 3x 6+2-pin connectors.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182188 ($130)
Optical Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 ($27)
Net Specs:
Antec 1200 Full Tower Case
Intel Core i7 920 Processor, 2.66Ghz Quad Core with Hyperthreading and 4.8GT/s QPI
HIS Radeon HD 5850 Tri-Fire
G. Skill 6GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory
Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM Caviar Black HDD
EVGA 3-Way E758-A1 X58 Core i7 Motherboard
Rosewill Bronze Series 1000W Power Supply
Liteon DVD/CD read/writer
Total Cost: $2066
Conclusion: High resolution, high antialiasing, ambient occlusion, high frame rate, max settings and even tessellation should be no problems with this build. The only thing that would beat this in performance is either 2x 5970 or 4x 5870, but both those builds are $3,000-$4,000 and only yield marginal performance benefits over this $2,000 build. For the ultimate PC at $2,000, a core i7 920, 6GB Tri-channel DDR3 memory and 3xRadeon HD 5850 will obliterate any game you put in front of it. Except for Crysis of course :P.
viii. What’s Ahead?
With the release of Nvidia’s next gen graphical architecture codenamed “Fermi”, how will the landscape change? Will we have a new graphics king, and if so will this make ATI lower their prices? What will ATI’s response be, and can Fermi fight back against the massive market dominance ATI has established this year with their robust DX11 5000 series GPUs?
ix. Closing Comments
Thank you for reading and I hope it has helped or at least informed you in some way. This is only the very first edition of the series so there’s bound to be errors and places I could improve, if you have any corrections or suggestions feel free to tell me and I will look into it.
x. Disclaimer and Terms of Use
Disclaimer: This is merely a guide to what is currently available in terms of hardware. It is up to you to buy, build, and use responsibly, and by reading this post you agree that I cannot be held liable or indemnible for any damages incurred as a result of the content in this article, to any party, monetary or otherwise, whatsoever.
Terms of Use: This information may be freely used and distributed J. Happy building.
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