This Day and Age Computer GFX card buyGuide

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Ok guys, rumors swirl about GTA V for both new consoles and PC, and perhaps still using Euphoria and the RAGE engine though messaged a bit since it's inception with GTA IV. We need to discuss an update on how well your gaming PC is standing the test of time, what cards have you purchased that you're still using, what are or have you looked at for upgrades, and does GTA IV's PC versions define what you're looking for in benchmarked performance, settings, etc.

 

Let's get some current discussion going on what's out there that you find does the job of handling previously known ailments and sketchy performance of GTA for PC work on your platform.

 

The discussion should certainly not be limited to PC or desktop, but laptops as well. I'm setting up an Asus Republic of Gamer using Nehalem Core i7 and DDR3 RAM, and it's soon to be supplanted with new technology in the next year or two.

 

As such, we need to focus on what the new products will also offer in gains one can really sink their gaming teeth into.

 

So, give us some feedback and background as to what you're using and happy with, have you tried both AMD ATI and nVidia, or are you a fan of one versus the other?

One of the things I read that likely was not brought up is that new machines are reported to support 32GB of system Ram, and the review stated that that's just too much RAM to effectively use at this stage in the game, is it too forward thinking? 

 

Is 3GB of video Ram too much overhead? Is 2Gbytes? What do you think of Crossfire and SLI gains over single cards? Dual versus 4 core and HyperTheading or multi threading games performance? Another thing that's true about technology is that even with more threads and cores to use, if the software application makes better use of just one or two, a simpler and less expensive CPU will outperform the more feature laden processor!