RocShemp

I find the Ikea DAVE useful for my PC gaming needs. I place my PC and mouse on it and relax on the couch. That way I use my 60" TV as a monitor and game on my home theater in the living room. It's also how I browse this forum.

flashburn

Microfiber cloth couch. Laser mouse (G700). No issues with it.

shizawn

Definitely a computer monitor guy. Been gaming at 2560x1600 for the last 7 years, something not possible with a TV until very recently. I have no plans to get a 4K TV, but I will be getting a 4K monitor before the year's out.

I do have a gaming notebook, but if I'm playing in my livingroom, I usually have the TV on in the background. Most of the time I just sit in front of my coffee table, but I did buy one of those lap desk type thingies so that I can lay on the couch, but I could never really get all that comfertable.

Supermallet

Maybe I'll just get a breakfast tray and keep the PC connected to the TV.

Nausicaa

I prefer a monitor, sitting at my desk. In fact I don't even own a TV anymore.

As far as monitors go, go for 120 hz. I never looked back. Bought it for 3D gaming originally but it is far superior in regular use. Especially with a decent mouse, the tracking is so buttery smooth and the display feels totally static with no perceptible flicker at all.

The only problem is these are mostly TN panels at this point, so color and viewing angles are suboptimal. I believe the ASUS VG278HE and BenQ XL2720Z are the best of the bunch at this point for a reasonable price (there are 24" models of each as well). I think the BenQ is more highly rated. I have an older, 24" version of the ASUS that I've used for years and I've been happy with it, although I'm looking to replace it now.

I think IPS 1440p 120hz monitors are on the way towards the end of this year - so it might be worth waiting.

DthRdrX

I was going to use my 42 inch LG LCD as my PC display but picked up the Asus PB278Q instead. 27' and 1440p at 60hz. The extra resolution is awesome and quite honestly I'm hard pressed to tell the difference between 60 vs 120 hz.

RichC2

PC Gamer has a write-up on 4K gaming: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/29/ga...es-per-second/

Also, their video on Watch_Dogs retail vs TheWorse Mod.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MLNjtLMIyi0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Trevor

Probably not worth mentioning, but if you have a Dollar Tree near you, they do get PC games in occasionally. It's usually the family compilation fare, but the recent batch also has Warlock: Master of the Arcane DVD with steam code.

wlj

hmmmm, interesting. i will start checking now and then. What aisle are they usually on if I may ask?

Trevor

You never know with Dollar Tree. They are usually with the DVDs, which could be almost anywhere. I've found PC games in the toy/game aisle, in the electronics/auto parts aisle, on various endcaps, in the checkout aisles, etc etc

starman9000

Sorry if this was covered already, but you can get Sims 2 Ultimate collection free via Origin:

http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to...te-collection/

Dan

So I'm sure there's already been some discussion but I'm curious...
- What video cards are you guys using on your own machines?
- How much system RAM do you recommend without being insane? 4GB?
- Will any recent i5 CPU be good enough?

RichC2

- GTX 760
- 8GB of RAM, recommend 8gb to 16gb of RAM -- Call of Duty Ghosts requires a minimum 6gb, recommends 8gb. This is becoming common.
- Generally speaking, yes

What are you trying to do/build/play?

To note, nVidia and ATI have their own "Experience" programs now. nVidia's is called GeForce Experience, what it does it take your specs and graphic cards and automatically set your game settings to what it thinks is optimal for your configuration. It's pretty nice, takes the guess work out of it.

On top of that, they have really detailed guides for bigger games for those that want to get into the nitty gritty of it:

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gui...tweaking-guide

I still have no interest in using Shadow Play but it's nice to know it's there

fumanstan

For me...

-I'm using a GTX 770
-8 GB of RAM should probably be the minimum these days for a gaming PC. I have 16, but honestly don't use it all.
-I'd say just about any i5 or i7 from the 'Sandy Bridge' version of Intel CPU's are good enough for gaming. Plenty of benchmarks have shown that games are more GPU bound and the latest 'Haswell' processors don't really offer that much of a performance boost over Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge in gaming, at least clock for clock.

Dan

I want to finally take advantage of my Steam library. Plus, my wife may or may not want to play Sims 4.

Okay, so here's where I get a little confused. I have a local retailer that sells this stuff (760 & 770 search results) and they range from $260 to $780 with various RAM options and other specs I no longer understand. So, if I'm going to get a 760 or 770, what else should I be looking for in these cards? Branding? RAM? etc.?

Also, does the motherboard matter at all at this point? There's a billion options for those, too, but I don't see how it's relevant as long as it has the right connections for the video card, RAM, and CPU.

msdmoney

I have the same gpu (gtx 770) with 2gb video card ram and same amount of system ram (16 gb). There were 2 options when i got my 770, 2gb and 4gb, people always buy more video card ram for future proofing, but usually your limiting factor by the time you need more the 2 gb for the video card will be that the video card itself is outdated. I've always found that the mid tier model 570/670/770 was the best price to performance especially factory overclocked. Usually enough to max 1080p games.

Agree about the processor, I have a 4770k because the was the latest processor/mobo at the right price for me.But it's not as critical.

msdmoney

They range in size because of ram and factory overclock mostly.

2gb vs 4gb - I don't think 4gb is worth it for a 770, your limitation is going to be the card by the time games require 4gb. Look at benchmarks for some of the games you will be playing. When I bought my 770 no games really showed a difference, it was just assumed that eventually it would be a problem.

Overclock - I usually get a small factory overclock, but you can really go up in price if you spend to much on extra cooling and factory overclock (you can overclock it yourself with the same results). The benchmarks usually show a decent bump from the base to the first overclock, and that is generally a small $10-$20 premium that is worth it to me. But don't go crazy paying 780 prices for an overclocked 770. I've also had anecdotal experiences on extra overclocking that makes me think they tend to fail sooner. Had a highly factory overclocked BFG card with lifetime warranty, but BFG went out of business after I bought the card.

This is the card I have

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-S.../dp/B00CZIQXBA

Also consider, the 800 series card are heavily rumored in Sept. or October. You might see some decent clearance pricing on the 700 series cards, or you might want to get the 800 series card for a premium once they are released.

DthRdrX

Nvidia has really stretched the 700 series and they know it. They have planned well beyond just the 800 series so we should see some major upgrades over the next 1-2 years. Next round of video cards looks to be aimed at 4K and start at 8-12 gb of vram.

mhg83

I have a question on upgrading. My current specs:

GTX 550 TI I7 8GB ram.

If I get a better graphics card will that fry my computer? Is there a certain limit to how big of a card i can get? I'm still running on my original card.

Matthew Chmiel

I personally would rather hit 120 fps at 1080p or 1440p display thats capable of 120 Hz than say 30 fps at 2160p on a 4K display.

fumanstan

Agreed with the above from msdmoney 4 GB is nice but isn't worth the cost on a 760 or 770, and on something like a 760 the card will be limited in other areas before you hit any VRAM limitations. It also depends on what resolution you play at; the higher the resolution, the more VRAM you'll use. 1080P shouldn't be a problem with 2 GB with the current crop of games, although there's some debate that with the new consoles having 8 GB of shared RAM that we'll start seeing games use more memory. Many like the AMD Radeon options that have 3 GB of RAM. Other then that, most manufacturers have a small overclock so for the most part it's just brand preference. EVGA, MSI, ASUS should be pretty good. Zotac and PNY feel like the cheaper ones to me.

Some of the higher end motherboards are more costly for things like dual x16 PCIe slots for SLI or Crossfire, along with another features like more ports, higher quality parts like capacitors, etc. Personally I've never splurged on a motherboard.

fumanstan

A lot of this would depend on how many watts your power supply is; although if a 550 TI works, I imagine other mid range cards would work. Is your computer from a manufacturer like Dell or something, or custom built? Full details would help.

mhg83

It's a SYX

msdmoney

Good point about resolution, my comments were all assuming 1080p without stating it. I've had good experiences with EVGA personally and I like their customer service. They also have a good step up program which might be perfect for getting a 760/770 now then stepping up when the 800 series card comes out, I think you only pay the difference in price.

Also agree about the motherboard, most of the added features aren't worth splurging too much on IMO. As long as you get a good stable board, that is what matters.

You need to check for the power supply. Check the wattage, make sure it means the minimum requirements listed for the card you want to get. I assume the prebuilt machines also come with adequate 6 pin and 8 pin connectors for the video card power as needed?

RichC2

Check the benchmarks for your graphic card needs. The big things are the speed of the memory, amount of RAM, shader cores, blah blah blah.. there's a lot

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/1001