Thanks a lot guys...appreciate it.
I used to know just about everything there was to know 10 years back on hardware.
After I got out of IT support and been running Linux for years (and still will) - buying a Windows system is now foreign to me.
One more question...looking at Ringel's link and offerings on Cybermax I can get two video cards and stay within what I want to spend. I understand that motherboards today will automatically split the load between the two cards. Sooo...why not buy a 2GB card instead of two 1GB cards?
That totally depends on the motherboard. It needs to be Crossfire(ATI version)/SLI (Nvidia version) compatible.
The problem is not the amount of ram on the card, but the processor and what things have been "taken out" to save money. You have to be a bit careful. I bought a 5670 from Gigabyte, it was a great price.. or so I thought. I now know I should have spent the 20 extra Euros for the more expensive version.. why? Because on the cheap version only 2 of the 3 ports could be used at the same time. So I could have only 2 screens connected at the same time despite there being 3 ports for 3 screens and the chipset supporting it
Now, running Crossfire/SLI. I personally have never dabbled in it, but from what I understand it decreases the load on the individual card so that you can run with more features in the game on. Hence Crysis 2 with everything on will run much smoother with SLI/Crossfire cards than an individual card with double the ram of the 2 cards. You can also with SLI/Crossfire increase the resolution or so I believe... beyoned, wayyyy beyond the 1920x1080 full HD of most modern screens. Of course you need a screen to do it with hehe.
Also ATI and Nvidia both have a system where you can expand popular games over 3+ screens.. Starcraft on 3 screens is.... interesting and you get a much larger view.
But it also requires that you have 2 of the same card for it to work correctly.
It also means, that you can use one card for a game, and the other card for some video encoding or viewing or whatever.
Now saying that.. with the i5 2500k and the correct motherboard, you have access to the onboard graphics card, and with the bundled software you can actually do a cheap version of SLI/Crossfire.
Take my set up. My main 24 inch screen is on my dedicated card, and when I run games it is the card that takes the heat. At the same time my two other screens are run off the on board card, and do not impact the gaming in anyway, which means I can do encoding on the onboard and run crysis or whatever on the dedicated card. It works great.. I can run Star Wars the Old Republic with everything on with no problems, although I have turned a few things off to get a more smooth feel. My card aint exactly the top end.
Basically in my opinion... SLI/Crossfire should only be considered if you are a massive FPS in full effect mode with all the bells and whistles since it is rather expensive (2 x upper tier quality graphics cards) and you most likely will need to buy a new PSU since a modern graphics card eats power like a fat guy at a buffet... and 2 x is even worse. 800+ watt supply is needed as a minimum.. if not 1000 watt.
Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator
good place to calculate if what you are getting can work on the PSU you got.
Lets put it this way.. if I Crossfired my machine by buying a second card like the one I have.. not only would I need a bigger PSU most likely but on the bright side I would most likely have zero problems running any game in full graphics mode even the heavy hitters like Crysis 2 and Farcry 2 or whatever they are called. So 2 cards better than 1... if you want the ultimate experience and can afford it!
A good read from a review of a crossfire set up.
ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Crossfire review
You can see that Crysis in 2560 x 1600 with everything on is running at 70 FPS.. which is... impressive. Where as the non crossfire version runs at only 37 FPS.
.. else it would have been 4 heh
