So I just picked up a pair of 7950gx2 Gigabyte video cards on ebay for an interesting Quad SLI system. Thought I would throw yet another poll out there regarding motherboard/CPU pairing. Considering Core 2 Duo or an AM2 system or maybe a Socket 754. I want to really let these cards loose without going too overkill.
eliminate cpu as a factor then and go with 1366.
Just go with a modern i7 system as these cards are cpu dependent unless you want a period correct 2006/7 build then it would be a core 2 duo. AMD 754 is way way too slow and 939/940 is meh when you got 4 gpus hogging on a single or dual core proc that doesn't compare well to later generations. AM2 is nice with a Phenom 2 but getting a board that isn't trashed or doesn't suck is going to be easier said than done. Personally I would just cough up for a 1366 build and go with that. Considering doing a Xeon/i7 2011 build just for my two GTX 295s.
On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.
Only trouble I found with 1366 builds is that (at least in the UK) the motherboards are still pretty damn expensive or hard to get hold of. I would at least consider a 775 build with a quad, but it's really up to how much you want to spend.
I've got a pretty wide selection of options already. But am not opposed to buying something if I feel compelled to.
I've got a Core i7 960 X58 system which is currently my main system, but I've got the parts for a Ryzen 7 1700+ based system sitting there ready to replace it so it could be available soon.
I've also got a couple of Phenom II based systems 3,4 and 6 core.
I've got LOTS of 775 motherboards. Not sure if any of them are SLI compatible though.
I definitely have quite a few AM2 and AM3 SLI based motherboards.
To be honest I was kinda surprised at the recommendation to go 1366. Most of my builds the GPU is at least the same age or newer then the CPU. Very rarely do I have a newer CPU then a GPU and in the cases that I do it is general on my modern machine where I just updated the CPU and motherboard. Is this Pseudo quad SLI really that taxing? To be honesty I rarely run SLI with the exception of older Voodoo2s. In fact my Ryzen system is getting a pair of R9 390 Crossfire cards. Not because I planned on it but because I was already running one of them in my Core i7 system and my local retailer happened to have an open box of the same card on sale for pennies on the dollar what I paid for the first one so I figured what the hell I'll try it. Never ran SLI or Crossfire at any point in between the Voodoo2s and the R9 390s.
wrote:To be honest I was kinda surprised at the recommendation to go 1366. Most of my builds the GPU is at least the same age or newer then the CPU.
Well to be fair you said
wrote:I want to really let these cards loose without going too overkill.
Seeing as socket 1366 platform is much faster than anything on socket 775 , and 1366 is cheap as dirt , it's the ideal platform for overall cheapness and allowing your cards to "really let loose".
I'm assuming you want the cards to run as fast as they can without the cpu affecting them in any way?
Your right that is what I said. In spite of that I didn't think it would take a first gen Core i7 to do that. I am thinking of it as a High end Retro XP build since this is basically the ultimate DX9 setup. Don't need Vista since the card is not DX10 compatible anyway.
We are talking about Quad SLI but even so we are restricted to 512MB of video RAM per card so that cuts down the games it will be good for considerably.
Maybe, since I been running a 1366 setup as my main I overestimate how modern it is. I guess it's really not newer then most Phenom IIs even though it seems like it is to me. Also, I will say that 1366 is NOT cheap in fact motherboards are getting harder and hardware to find for a fair price. You could buy an new X99 motherboard for the cost of an x58 motherboard used. Now it might be possible to find a workstation motherboard for more reasonable but it's still not exactly cheap.
I'm sure a 775 motherboard would be more than adequate.
Something like a Q6600 would be fine for what you want.
The LGA 1366 is still pretty damn good. I run an i7 950 in my spare PC and it copes perfectly well with GTA V, and I'm talking at high/ultra. I think that would be overkill for the 7950's.
wrote:I'm sure a 775 motherboard would be more than adequate.
Something like a Q6600 would be fine for what you want.
The LGA 1366 is still pretty damn good. I run an i7 950 in my spare PC and it copes perfectly well with GTA V, and I'm talking at high/ultra. I think that would be overkill for the 7950's.
Yeah it's great. I've been running a i7 960 for like 8 years as my main upgraded video cards like 3 times. I can't find anything I can't max out 1080p on and even 4k gaming on it's not too shabby. I finally decided to go ahead and take the plunge on a Ryzen upgrade not because I needed an upgrade or I thought that Ryzen is the best thing ever but because I want to support AMD in their fight to innovate and force Intel to do the same. I'm holding out on a GPU upgrade to see if vega is any good. Intel stuff there will always be plenty of so I can always get their stuff second hand later.
In spite of having my Ryzen build ready to build I find myself post poning it and working on retro builds instead because my First Gen I7 works just fine. Funny how that works.
wrote:I'm sure a 775 motherboard would be more than adequate.
Something like a Q6600 would be fine for what you want.
The LGA 1366 is still pretty damn good. I run an i7 950 in my spare PC and it copes perfectly well with GTA V, and I'm talking at high/ultra. I think that would be overkill for the 7950's.
The problem with 775 is that as a platform there is a lot of bottlenecks and SLI capable boards are slowly getting harder to find in good shape that haven't been neglected or abused by their previous owners. Newer platforms are just better all round and are still xp/win 7 compatible without the bottlenecks plus they use less power and dump a lot less heat which is good for these DX9 era cards.
On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.
go Phenom II, clock for clock as fast as core 2, you already have the boards, and i7 is overkill for that setup, it would make more sense if you where going triple 8800 Ultra to use an i7
wrote:go Phenom II, clock for clock as fast as core 2, you already have the boards, and i7 is overkill for that setup, it would make more sense if you where going triple 8800 Ultra to use an i7
Yeah pretty sure this is where I am going with it.
