So i wanna play GTA IV....

[playerboy8]

I'm gonna buy a Haf 932 and a 750w. corsair PSU soon.
After that i will save for parts so i can build a good gaming rig.

The question: what parts aside the ones mentioned above, do i need to play it in normal res(16xx 10xx - 19xx 1xxx) and with good details(BUT NO AF or AA)

these are possible parts, are they good enough??

CPU: core i7 920

GPU: 5850

RAM: 6gb ddr3

MOBO: IDK?? (i would like help on this particularly)

BTW, os is AWESOME win7!

[Andy]

to get max detail in GTA IV you need a video card with 2GB of memory, when all the settings are turned up to max (textures, shadows, detail & distance view etc) the game uses about 1.6GB of video RAM, so either go with the 5970 (I know, expensive and overkill for your needs) or wait until the 5870 Eyefinity edition is released, which will have 2GB of GDDR5.

Also incase you're choosing Windows 7 Ultimate, it is better to go with Windows 7 Home Premium, ultimate offers no extras or improvements in performance or detail in games, if anything, all of the extra programs and processes running will slow the game down, it's why I picked Home Premium

[mattering]

to get max detail in GTA IV you need a video card with 2GB of memory, when all the settings are turned up to max (textures, shadows, detail & distance view etc) the game uses about 1.6GB of video RAM, so either go with the 5970 (I know, expensive and overkill for your needs) or wait until the 5870 Eyefinity edition is released, which will have 2GB of GDDR5.

Also incase you're choosing Windows 7 Ultimate, it is better to go with Windows 7 Home Premium, ultimate offers no extras or improvements in performance or detail in games, if anything, all of the extra programs and processes running will slow the game down, it's why I picked Home Premium

+1 i agree or u could wait for the Fermi's to come out 

[playerboy8]

to get max detail in GTA IV you need a video card with 2GB of memory, when all the settings are turned up to max (textures, shadows, detail & distance view etc) the game uses about 1.6GB of video RAM, so either go with the 5970 (I know, expensive and overkill for your needs) or wait until the 5870 Eyefinity edition is released, which will have 2GB of GDDR5.

Also incase you're choosing Windows 7 Ultimate, it is better to go with Windows 7 Home Premium, ultimate offers no extras or improvements in performance or detail in games, if anything, all of the extra programs and processes running will slow the game down, it's why I picked Home Premium

thx, but i don't really need to max it out, i just wanna play it in a way where it still looks good(and if i need 2gb video ram, could i not just throw a extra 5850 in there??)

oh, and i allready have win7. i was just braggin' about  (fix'd text in OP)

[mattering]

yeah 2 5850 should be able to work

[playerboy8]

yeah 2 5850 should be able to work

awesome! but what about 5870??(those new ati cards are a little confusing )

when is this "pricedrop" for new ati cards gonna happen? i think i heard about it in another thread... will the drop be "international"?

[mattering]

yeah they do get confusing .__. well 2 5850 would give you more graphic memory for textures and playing in hi res rather than the 1GB that the 5870 gives you .__. i wonder if im helping 

[Andy]

i'm not sure if dual video cards use all of the available memory or just the memory on the first video card

[playerboy8]

Ok, so now that we know what CPU, GPU, PSU and CASE i need, i want to hear suggestions for RAM and MOBO.
RAM has to be 6gb ddr3
MOBO has to be compatible with all other parts chosen so far.

just to add: i will be using my sata HDD 750gb.

[LogicReaper]

You don't need to go Crossfire for GTA IV maxed.

It's the viewing distance that shoots up the total of video memory used, you'll only need a 5850, or a 5870 if you want some headroom.

[mattering]

Asus P6T btw how fast will ur ram be?

[Elton]

You guys are insane.

Set everything to high/very high.

Set shadow density to 0(makes almost NO difference).

Set maximum view and detail distance to about 50 or 60.

You'll be able to run it fine, in fact better than that.

I have a 512mb HD4850 and I run everything on high except textures(damn configs, plus i'm too lazy to change it) and view distance at 40 with detail at 30.

Avg is 30-50fps. With an E8400, you'll be able to blow my rig to pieces, just get the patch.

You'll be able to use Very High AF without any performance hit, and GTA IV doesn't support AA anyways.

[playerboy8]

Asus P6T btw how fast will ur ram be?

i dont know ANYTHING about ram speeds    btw, that asus p6t looks really nice! and it's affordable too  i will get it

[lamborghiniV12]

No when Crossfiring or using SLI you don't gain additional video memory from the other cards and If you use a 512mb and a 1Gb card the 1Gb cards memory will cut in half to make it equal to the other card

[raserei408]

No when Crossfiring or using SLI you don't gain additional video memory from the other cards and If you use a 512mb and a 1Gb card the 1Gb cards memory will cut in half to make it equal to the other card

...but 2 1GB cards would make 2GB, am I right? Because each card would have the necessary information stored in its RAM for what it is processing, and they're processing different things simultaneously?