Videocard vs. Macbook Air: Buying Advice

So, I ended up getting the GTX 780, as well as a 750W Antec PSU. I should get them later this week. I'll post impressions once I get them. I may still get the MBA at a later time. I think for the time being, the 780 will give me more immediate enjoyment. I'm looking forward to playing Bioshock Infinite on Ultra, as well as some 1080p F-Zero GX. I'm also thinking I might get a new hi-res monitor later this year for some WQHD action - this videocard is supposed to be good for that.

 

good choice over all and im sure the correct one. good thinking on the PSU too

 

+1 for that WHD monitor.

I had a 27" iMac for a while which has a built in 2560x1600 display- boy was it nice to game on that. Nothing compares to the amount of room you get over 1200p. As long as your eyesight is good for small(er) text, you should be fine for things other than gaming.

 

So, I received my GTX 780 and my 750W Antec PSU (took me a few days to get it because USPS messed up the delivery), and I've had it up and running since yesterday. Everything works as expected. This card is really fast. So far the only games I have that really push the GPU are Far Cry 3 and Bioshock Infinite. Both run at near 60fps on Ultra settings, with the occasional slight hiccup. I got Far Cry 3 mainly to test the card, not really expecting much gameplay-wise, but it's not a bad game. It remains to be seen if it can keep my attention, but it's pretty fun so far, and the graphics are amazing. F-Zero GX performance seems to be unaffected, I'm guessing because it's more dependent on CPU power. So yeah, I'm really happy with the 780. It's worked perfectly as far as compatibility with my system. A WQHD display would go great with this system, I just need to wait a little for that. Here are a few pictures of the card and my upgraded system:

The card itself. Definitely the most attractive looking card I've ever owned. Odd thing about this card: the heatsinks that are closer to the display ports are covered by a sheet of glass. I wonder why? Just to look cool (which it does), or does it help with the airflow through the card?




Here's the upgraded system. You can see the PSU in the upper left. I was worried that the PSU might not fit, since my case has a top-mounted PSU port, but apparently it can go either way. Yes, laugh it up. The card's pretty massive too - it just barely fits in the case.

Yep, the text lights up. Makes me wish I had a transparent case.

 

nice, as for the glass covered heatsink, yeah it'll be for the airflow as they want the fan pushing the air through the fins and not escaping gfx cards are pretty damn big these days, i had to get a new case just to fit my 5830s in when i built my current system and they still only just fit lol

 

OOoohhh, I'm currently saving for an SLI upgrade for 2 GTX 780s (EVGA super-clocked ACX cooler versions) from my 680. I've heard the performance of just one of those cards is pretty amazing, and since I don't have any responsibilities at the moment I can afford to throw some money at my PC. Part of me knows it's overkill, but I won't be in a position to buy things like this for ever. I was originally going to buy a Titan, but for a couple of hundred more I could have 2 780s, plus the Titan is more of a specialist card aimed at rendering (animation) rather than gaming being it's primary function.

That card is pretty damn nice looking as well I must say, though I do wish they'd stop making things light up, I've got the creative sound blaster recon 3d which is lit up red inside my computer at the moment which is a complete waste since I have a fractal design case which consists of a giant thick black metal box with a door on the front (keeps any noise inside).

 

That, and the plexiglass allows you to see if dust is building up in the fins, which is a really good idea.

 

REpairs aren't expensive if you do them yourself , Plus I own a total of 3 macs now and none of them have broke.

 

very much so!

on my HD5830s they have the radial heatsink fins which are very close together and can clog up with dust, it's good to check any system out every now and then and give it a good clean

 

Forget the 11" they're just too small. I used a 13" for a year and found it to be easy enough to carry around and it was big enough to get some work done.

 

One cool thing about the 780 is that it's very quiet. If you're sitting next to it, it doesn't sound like a normal fan. Normal PC fans have kind of a windy noise to them. The 780 sounds more mechanical, almost like a tiny engine, but still very quiet. You can barely hear it over the CPU and PSU fans, unless you open the case and put your ear next to it.

And at the moment I'm not really that interested in getting a new laptop. The amount of time in which I would have much of a reason to use a laptop instead of my desktop is pretty limited. My iPhone serves my mobile purposes pretty well. That said, I think if I were to get a new Macbook, I would still want the 11". I like the concept of ultraportability. I think the screen would be sufficiently big for the situations in which I would use it. It's bigger than an iPad, anyway.

 

I dont know, do you need an ultrabook? are you always on the go and need a PC with a good battery and easy to carry around?

Or do you need a good GPU for games?

Whatever choice has the more weight in your life is the correct one

 

maybe a little offtopic, but lately I've been thinking a lot about buying a MBA myself, but as I'm unfamiliar with it, I keep postponing it.
I haven't had a desktop in 3 or 4 years, I just have this 4 (or 5??) year old 17" Laptop which still runs on Vista. I've never been a PC gamer, always been a console guy, the only bit of gaming I do on my pc is through emulators like fusion, zsnes, mame, etc...so I really don't need this hi-end powerhouse.
so I'm thinking of the 13" MBA with 8gig ram & 128/256 ssd (I'm not sure about this yet).

Now what I want to know is: would this be good enough for my daily uses (and as my main pc) for at least 5 or 6 years? the only thing I would use it for is the usual surfing, mail, editing pictures & texts, etc...run a 16 bit emulator every now & then and use it as a media device to stream/watch my downloaded movies with ( how do they handle BR rips, etc...my laptop now, barely can; it heats up very quickly & just dies ?

the thing is, I've just about had it with windows & I want to try something else so I thought it would be good enough for my needs...

thanks

 

For what your purposes seem to be, a Mac will suffice. It can do all of that just fine. The HD5000 in the new ones actually seems to have performance close to a GT650M.