[zeta16]

I know it's a little bit early to know for sure but I'm putting a new rig together with a z77/i5 3570k combo and a 670ftw and wanted to know if it would be able to run "next gen" games (like W3, Watch Dogs, Cyberpunk, etc.) at 1080p. If it lasts at least 2 years it's ok. I know if I wait there will be better tech but I keep thinking that way and I end up buying nothing and playing games in my old rig with sub-par graphic settings.

Thanks for the attention.

[M4xw0lf]

You will be able to run them, no question. The quality settings might need some tuning (regarding antialiasing mostly, as it is the major performance hog), but as long as you don't need to compulsively set all the quality sliders to the maximum, your config is good for at least two more years of carefree gaming.

[zeta16]

Thanks for the answer.
Not using AA doesn't bother me, my problem is not being able to put very high settings that change the models and textures of objects and characters, I don't like missing details you can't destinguish in lower setting. And the most impotant thing is the fluidity, I just can't play at less than 30 fps.

[Senteria]

zeta16 said:

Thanks for the answer.
Not using AA doesn't bother me, my problem is not being able to put very high settings that change the models and textures of objects and characters, I don't like missing details you can't destinguish in lower setting. And the most impotant thing is the fluidity, I just can't play at less than 30 fps. ›››

I think if you wait with it, prices of new hardware should go down. Or for the same price you can something even better. This is said without being up to date with the latest pc hardware.

[Gilrond]

Nvidia Geforce GTX 670 is a good GPU. It's superseded only by 680 (that can bump the price for another $100-150). Such GPU can be usable for gaming way longer than 2 years. As for CPU - you can try getting the i7, but even i5 will last for a long time.

[Luc0s]

I dare say the Core i7 3770k is WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY overkill if your primary activity will be gaming. Video-games are usually not very demanding on the CPU and most games don't even make use of the special features that the Core i7 has to offer (such as hyper-threading).

Only get a Core i7 if you also plan to do other things, such as graphics design, 3D modeling or video-editing. If gaming is all you do, a Core i5 should be more than enough for you.

[Gilrond]

i7 is great for general purpose computing (for running virtual machines for example). And you'll like compiling time on it As for games - well designed games use multithreading, so you'll still get benefits.

Actually while we are on the subject - can anyone advise a good setup in regards of saving the GPU when it's not really needed? I.e. modern Intel CPUs have an integrated GPU in them. What is a good way to disable extra Nvidia card from using any energy and wasting the fan while you use the Intel's GPU for regular desktop work, and to be used actually during the gaming only? Does it requires switching settings in the BIOS/UEFI, or you can do it at runtime?

[freakie1one]

Gilrond, I don't see how you'd go from using your onboard video to GPU card during runtime for the simple reason that your monitor would be plugged into either one or the other. I suppose it might be possible to plug a monitor into both the onboard video and the GPU card if your monitor had multiple ports and you could select which port you wanted your monitor to display, but I think your GPU fan would still be spinning and not idle. And I'm not sure if you'd be able to use both simultaneously or if you can only use one or the other (by selecting it in the BIOS) since I haven't used onboard video in quite a while.

However, in the Nvidia control panel you can select different performance modes which will lower the clock and fan speed of your GPU until an application needs it. There are also third party applications which give you more control over your GPU to fine tune it to your needs (such as EVGA Precision).

[Gilrond]

I know you can control the performance in the Nvidia settings (I'm doing this on Linux), but even when the fan spins at lower rate - it's still a waste (it collects dust and etc.) if you can simply use the integrated video since the modern Intel integrated GPU is getting pretty good even for OpenGL compositing in desktop effects, and you only really need the dedicated GPU for either gaming or some parallel processing. I know in laptops Nvidia pulls this trick through with Optimus, but I'm not sure if the same thing is possible on the desktop, that's why I'm asking. If something, I don't really mind switching the cards in BIOS/UEFI when needed (and yes, you need to attach the monitor with 2 cables, most monitors have several inputs so it's not a problem).

[Guy N'wah]

Gilrond said:

I know you can control the performance in the Nvidia settings (I'm doing this on Linux), but even when the fan spins at lower rate - it's still a waste (it collects dust and etc.) if you can simply use the integrated video since the modern Intel integrated GPU is getting pretty good even for OpenGL compositing in desktop effects, and you only really need the dedicated GPU for either gaming or some parallel processing. I know in laptops Nvidia pulls this trick through with Optimus, but I'm not sure if the same thing is possible on the desktop, that's why I'm asking. If something, I don't really mind switching the cards in BIOS/UEFI when needed (and yes, you need to attach the monitor with 2 cables, most monitors have several inputs so it's not a problem). ›››

It's not entirely seamless, but kludges like Lucid Virtu come close to doing this, at a usually small performance penalty and a lot of confusion when software doesn't play nice with it.

With this style of solution, you connect only to the integrated GPU, and the discrete GPU's output is routed through the integrated GPU's framebuffer. Which GPU actually does the rendering is controlled by the software; when the discrete GPU isn't being used, it is commanded to idle.

Unfortunately, Virtu is specific to DirectX and does not support OpenGL. Optimus doesn't exclude OpenGL, but neither does it support it in any useful way.

[Saoe]

i3770k Is good and not that expensive, 3930k is around 20% better tho. Those are only two I would pick.
You can easily OC i3770k to around 4.5-4.7Ghz using liquid cooling like H100 and run stable windows without getting bsod.

But GPU is more important, GTX 680 is pretty impressive. If you run Crysis 3 on ultra, I am pretty sure you will be able to run TW3 on high.