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

Yes, they both recommend that card 1 monitor maxed, not 3.

That's why I rephrased it to 3 monitors nearly maxed.

The GTX760 will not run 3 monitors at once. Let me do some research a bit later today about what individual cards could do it. It might be cheaper to buy 2 $100 cards and run them in SLI to get 3 monitor outputs then spending $300-400 on a single card that can output to 3 displays.

Much obliged.

Also, if 2 $200 cards would work, I'm open to any suggestions.

My rule of thumb is to run SLI / crossfire when adding more monitors. Even the expensive cards can chug along. Plus not everyone can afford the newest $800 card.

Another thing i think i'd like to remind people, we're not trying to push crysis 3 through 3 monitors here. It's just iracing, it's not very demanding. I still suggest two or three cards though.

Also, i always like to add that i've always bought used parts. Even hard drives. Refurbished stuff on newegg usually has a warranty too. So i try not to always buy new stuff if possible.

A four to five year old Radeon HD5850 will run iRacing maxed out (or mostly maxed out) on one monitor.

My Sapphire Radeon HD7950 (which was $275 in June of 2013) can run iRacing basically maxed out on 3 monitors.

You don't need 3 video cards. iRacing just isn't that graphics intensive.

Any of today's $250-300 cards should be able to run iRacing on high settings on three monitors (if the GPU card has the ability to run three monitors that is).

Like this ---> Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100364-4GL Radeon R9 270X 4GB GDDR5 Video Card

There's a $230 card that should be able to run iRacing on three monitors with no issues. All you need is one special adapter (SAPPHIRE Model 100924 - Newegg.com) to get the third monitor to work. At least that's what I need for my Radeon 7950.

If you NEED to spend more money, the next step up from ATI is this ---> Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 14-202-099 Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

Again, should run iRacing on three monitors maxed out.


Honestly I think running 2 GPUs in crossfire/SLI is just making things more difficult for no reason.

Here's a $250 nVidia card that should also work ----> Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2765-KR GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card


AGAIN, iRacing is not that graphics intensive, even on three monitors. You don't need $400 worth of GPUs to run it.

I've always been a firm believer in going for a single card solution if you can (as Efini says; it will just add complexity). I assume it won't just be for iRacing and in that case not having to fiddle with possible compatibility issues with other programs is enough for me to warrant spending the extra $100 or so compared to 2 cards of a lower caliber (especially for a game that is not that taxing on a graphics card).

Just for an example I can call on; my GTX680 can run Arma 3 almost maxed on a single 1920x1080 screen. The newer, more powerful equivalents of it should be able to run 3 screens of iRacing no problem provided the rest of your system doesn't bottleneck it to bits. (you will likely need an active Display Port adapter for 3 screens from 1 card)

With regards to motherboards; Asus' top-end boards are top notch but be wary of their lower to mid-range boards (but from what you've listed it doesn't look like you're going for a midrange board anyway). Gigabyte is a bit more even across their range and have served me well in the past and present. MSi is similar to Asus in that their top end stuff is very well made and will last but their cheaper offerings are bit less consistent.

The only reason why anybody should consider using SLI/Crossfire for a game like this would be if they already had a decent, old card and wanted to get another on the cheap.
The drivers for multiple cards have gotten significantly better, but there was a lot of room for improvement. The computer E-Peen society didnt like to admit the sad truth that SLI/Crossfire often resulted in lower framerate than single cards because the drivers were so hopelessly broken. They are much better now but still require a lot of fixing to be optimized for specific games and its still a bit hit and miss.

Even my old HD5850 could run 3 monitors, and I bet it could run this game pretty well.
I bet my 4GB GTX770 could run this game like cake.

I ended up bumping the ram to 8gb, getting a 750w power supply, and a Sapphire 4gb R9 290. After reading the tests the "X" didn't seem worth the extra.

Also bought 3 27" monitors (which take up a bit more real estate than expected) and the Fanatec CSL seat bundle.

Still working on getting everything setup, hopefully in the next week or two.

I was really close to buying the Fanatec CSL seat kit the other day, so definitely review it when you get the chance!

Finally have everything setup. Still need to tweak the monitor settings as far as viewing distance, viewing angle, etc. a bit, but for the most part it's pretty good.

The CSL seat kit is a damn good value IMHO. The seat is a bit finicky to put together, but overall it's solid and has a lot of adjustability (although adjusting it isn't particularly quick). The Porsche wheel feels much better than any G25/G27 wheel I've ever used and the entry level pedals are nice as well. Overall I'm happy with this purchased. I wanted to go with this cheaper setup to make sure I was really going to get into iRacing and the like. If my interest continues/grows, I'll probably step up to the top of the line Fanatec stuff with something like an Obutto Revolution.

I need to try some of the other racing games once I get everything dialed in, but right now on iRacing (I know not particularly graphics intensive) with everything maxed out in testing it's still typically pulling between 155-175fps.

We need pics and final specs of what you did.

Why 3 monitors when there's oculus rift support?

Because I'll wait for that until there is true HD quality.

Then why buy 3 monitors? I'm waiting till either I can get a 24"+ 4k monitor for $120/ea or the HD rift comes out... Or my 10 year old 22" 16:10 shits the bed.

Behold peasants...

Attachment 239020

Holy balls that is awesome.

woah, the jealousy factor is definitely there.

This thread went to hell. I'm feeling particularly poor.

Not as cool as my rift.

A buddy has a rift. I tried it and while it was cool I didn't like the resolution, at least 4 months ago. No doubt it will get better.

And when it does it'll be the rig to have especially for sim stuff.

I dont mind the resolution, the screen door effect is annoying but I stop noticing it when I get wheel to wheel. Its amazing how much more confident it makes me when driving within inches of people.

Relevant to your interests?

I plan on buying that setup at some point, but have no idea when that will be.

Tomorrow seems like a good day to do it.

Balluer RIG

Baller Monitors

Baller Cockpit

Poverty driving wheel?

Some people really like the feel of the G27. I like the G27 pedals way more than some of the more baller wheel setups (IMO its the best of the non fixed mount and load cell stuff that I've experienced), but the wheel is just ok. The shifter sucks though.

Would be if I hadn't just dropped $2500 on car parts and have the wife say she wants out.

i tried a buddy's oculus rift on I racer. he has the beta testing thing.. I can't speak nerd that well. it seriously ruined me. that is amazing. you can detect slip angles so much easier. it seriously cannot be explained how realistic it feels. if you get a chance to try it do so. example you can look over the roll bars by shrugging. i was able to jump into the mx5 and do fast laps around road Atlanta. it felt like i was actually there. the graphics do suck. looking far out for a braking point was staring at one white pixel.. but i'm sold. i did get a moment of motion sickness when i went into the first turn, and there where no G forces. If i could find a motion rig i would sell a race car to finance it.

Here you go. Middle of the road 'home use' version. I highlighted the price for you. Figured you could do without the body kit. You add the PC.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/..._simulator.png

They have much more reasonable motion setups for 3 grand, but they're more diy orientated. IE they're the actuators and controller, you've got to build the frame.

Yeah, actually if your in a dark room the sound (low freq) systems do a good job of simulating road surface and stuff. I think you can DIY for under a grand (without PC & monitors) a decent setup.

I'm not sure how a sub box under my seat would simulate much more than the rumble strips and maybe small bumps and cracks. I'd still want one of the piston looking systems that seem to start at 3k for a basic DIYer package and go up from there.

I thought it was a G25.

Regardless I was a little disappointed with the straight out of the box G27.

My point was there's like $10k worth of computer, monitor, cockpit, etc., but only $300 in wheel/pedals/shifter.

Even if it's only $5k worth of other stuff...

How much for the joystick setup?

wow! When you said DIY i was bummed. thinking i had to do the software side of things (can't do that). but i can bust out a welder make a rig . do you have a link?

build something like this... https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1425583962

maybe it is a g25, I was going based off what I could see in the video preview.

johnny, Stage I Racing Simulator Kit - Red Actuator Covers | SimXperience Stage I Motion Simulator Kit
If you want theres an even more DIY level for these things where a company called x-simulator sells software for it that interfaces with a selection of control boxes and you can build your own actuator setup.

Unfortunately, I was with Johnny testing the same setup, and could not resist the Oculus Rift.

60k has pretty good overhead on components for the rig above.

Here is one DIY base with similar concept for $2400, frame and actuators are there.
I haven't tried one long enough to tell hot it feels when the seat moves, but the wheel and pedals don't.

Stage I Racing Simulator Kit - Red Actuator Covers | SimXperience Stage I Motion Simulator Kit


Add seat, controller and supports.

Stage II Racing Simulator Kit With Red Actuator Covers | SimXperience Stage II Motion Simulator Kit

the stage 3 seams worth it. it has everything you'll need

I use a 2gb nvidia gtx 770 with 3 x 1900x1200 Dell 24" monitors for iracing. PC is an overclocked i7 K series running around 4.6ghz with 16gb of memory. Steering wheel is a logitech g27 on a wheel stand pro wheel stand.

Decent setup but i'm buying an occulus as soon as a production model is available. :vash:

The DK2 for a computer savy person is fine. Its not ready for the mouth breathers, it certainly doesnt have the feel in your hands of a final production consumer product, but its not all that bad. I'm not sure we're ever going to see the consumer version from occulus, I bet the valve gear comes out first, as the first real mass market vr headset that doesnt require a smart phone.

Re the Occulus setup, are you using the traditional shifter i.e. off to the side, or are you using a setup for paddle shifters? Seems to me hunting for the shifter (setup traditional) would be a PITA if you can't actually see it. Just a thought...