iRacing rig suggestions please.
 

I want to build a rig mainly to use for iRacing and then later on processing GoPro video with data overlays.

I'd like to be able to run 3 monitors at/near max settings. I will assemble it, so no pre-built stuff.

My main questions:
1. Suggestions for good brands of motherboards.
2. Video card suggestion
3. AMD or Intel? Minimum clock speed I should be looking at for either?

Any other tips/tricks/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I believe you will have to run 2 video cards in SLI to get enough outputs to run 3 monitors. I know with my current Nvidia 760 if I try to run 3 monitors off the single card it will not work.

My Radeon HD7850 (or 7950, or 7870, I can't remember) can run 3 monitors. Actually I specifically bought that GPU for the specific reason of running iRacing on 3 monitors.

And then I bought three monitors.

And then I never actually ran iRacing, on the three monitors. :dumb:

Anyway, last I checked, iRacing isn't extremely resource intensive. Any ~$700 mid level build with a good GPU should be able to run it at good FPS. Just make sure to get a GPU that can run three monitors. What little reading I've done is that the Radeon cards multiple monitor software (Eyefinity?) is better than the Nvidia...

1. ASUS has been pretty good to me ($$$) (budget friendly)

2. Nvidia 780/780ti ---- AMD R9 290x/R9 290 are the top GPU choices right now, you don't NEED SLI or Crossfire for 3 monitors but FYI currently on the R9 series CF scales better.

3. No choice on brands... Intel i5 is all you'd need for gaming but if you do a little Media/Photography editing grab an i7. I'd start looking at the Intel i5-3570K (or going into a store may get you a deal on an older but equally good i5-2500k)

nvidia/intel for sure right now for gaming. Best bang for the buck

Nvidia is far from the best bang per buck, AMD will always rule that... Nvidia imo has the best performing GPU at the moment.

"In this evaluation we have looked at the new GeForce GTX 780 Ti for $699 against the AMD Radeon R9 290X for $549 at Ultra HD 4K display gaming. In our original evaluation of R9 290X, we found that it dominated gaming at Ultra HD 4K display gaming against the GTX 780 and GTX TITAN. The new GeForce GTX 780 Ti changes this.

In our evaluation today we have found out that the new GeForce GTX 780 Ti equalizes the gameplay experience with Radeon R9 290X at Ultra HD 4K display gaming. In most of our games we were able to play at the same gameplay settings on both cards. There were a couple though that were different. In Far Cry 3 the Radeon R9 290X had a clear advantage that allowed us to play at a higher setting compared to the GTX 780 Ti. In Metro: Last Light though we could enable PhysX due to the support on NVIDIA GPUs. If the R9 290X could support this, it certainly had the performance to pull it off." HARDOCP - Conclusion - GeForce GTX 780 Ti vs. Radeon R9 290X 4K Gaming

I've had such a pain with all of my radeon products (mostly drivers and crashing), and the AMD cpu's always fail on paper despite having more cores and a higher clock speed.

However I'm not up to date on the most current stuff, this is my rig right now and it would damn sure play I racing on high settings.

gigabyte p67a -d3-b3
Intel i5 3570k
2x gtx460 1gb cards in SLI
8gb ram

Not the best machine, but it plays BF4 on high settings at 1920 res @50-70 fps, which is pretty awesome imo.

While I agree on the Intel, when it comes to the GPUs it is not so black and white. You can get a comparable AMD GPU for less than nVidia and some of the better cards are actually AMD.
The same can kind of be said for the CPU, but the power efficiency and archiutecture of the Intel CPUs make them worth the added cost, even if you can actually get the same performance for less money from AMD in the form of a coal burning 8 core.

The main reason I went to a GTX770 from my old HD5850 (other than upgrading) was that the nVidia cards have functional drivers on linux and I want that option.

Yup ^^^

Nvidia has some GPU software options that might sway people but nothing worth their premium again in my opinion.

You don't need a $500-600 GPU do run iRacing.

I think my video card was $270ish and it is more capable. My CPU is an old sandy bridge i3-3xxx and it's also more than enough.

Their Linux driver support is well worth the premium to go with NVIDIA at least for me. I will never buy an ATI video card simply because every one I have ever tried has had horrible Linux driver support. With NVIDIA it is one commend from the commend line and I am set, which has been the same process for the last 10 years I have been installing NVIDIA cars.

He wants to run multi-monitor/max settings and do some video editing.

That is another factor to consider, Linux hasn't piqued my interest enough to look into it yet though.

I run Windows 7, I'm not a computer whiz. No interest in Linux.

Did some more reading today, I think I'm going to go with an Intel based CPU for this build. Mainly for the power consumption/heat aspect.

Since it seems all the BitCoin miners have significantly raised the cost of good video cards other the last 4-6 months, I may just build a hoss of a computer with a budget video card and run 1 monitor for now.

From what I can see, many of the cards are up 30-50% since Oct/Nov. What was a $289 card is now a $375-450 card. It's kind of ridiculous.

Nobody who can do basic math has used a graphics card to mine bitcoins for over a year now. The power consumption costs more than you would make. Everybody has long moved onto ASICs and FPGAs to stay profitable.

Im not sure what price increases you are seeing, but they cant be from bitcoin mining.
You sure youre not comparing 2 different generations of cards?

As mentioned, not a computer whiz, it was my best guess as to the price increases.

I'm basing that off this:

The Best Video Cards For Your Money | Hardware Revolution

Assuming his prices were correct when he made his post in November.

So it may be different generations, I wouldn't know how to tell.

AMD card still have the perception of better performance for mining so the value is raised

a good single monitor solution would be an GTX760 which costs $250-$280 will max most things on 1080p Robot Check

The higher end ATI cards are still being used for Altcoin mining, not bit coin mining. The prices on specific ATI models are up a good 30%-50%. Realistically that should not change anything for z31maniac because he does not need one of those to max out iracing on a single monitor.

I run a GTX760 and had no trouble maxing iracing out on a 27" 2560x1440 monitor, I don't doubt that if I would have to also run it full screen on my 24" 1080p monitor right next to it. I just never gave it a try and currently don't have my iracing membership renewed so I can't test right now.

Thanks for the info.

A buddy here at work said he has a 1.5 year old card that is running 3 monitors at probably 75% of max settings and it looks pretty good to me (played on his rig before).

Any suggestions on a 3 monitor card that would be capable of that? He said he'd have to go home and check today after work what card he has.

The two previous posts recommend a GTX760.

I have a Radeon HD7850 or 7950, either of those would also work