V3 Gaming PC Avenger Review: A New Challenger Appears
by Dustin Sklavos on May 16, 2012 2:20 AM ESTGaming Performance
One of the perks of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 is that NVIDIA is finally able to do single-GPU surround gaming, and that means we can add those results to our testing. You'll see a single card as powerful as the GTX 680 just isn't stressed that hard at the conventional 1080p resolution, making it a fairly ideal choice for a system like the V3 Avenger that wants to have as much headroom as possible.
None of these games are a problem for the GTX 680 at 1080p, and the overclock on the i7-3820 helps keep the system from being CPU-limited.
There's been a lot of concern over the GTX 680 being framebuffer limited due to having only 2GB of GDDR5 vs. the 3GB on the AMD Radeon HD 7970, as well as the GTX 680's lower memory bandwidth. It works fantastically at 1080p, but a lot of reviewers have been checking to see if surround resolutions and/or SLI throw those limitations into relief.
Those concerns seem largely unfounded; the GTX 680 beats the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in almost every test, and is even playable in surround in every game but Battlefield 3. Given that we're testing Battlefield 3 at near maximum settings, there's definitely some room to play around there and get to a playable framerate while still running in surround.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
32 Comments
View All Comments
gitano - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
the case looks awful, and the price a rip-offDustin Sklavos - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Boutique machines are always going to be a little pricey, you're paying for the care of assembly and the customer service.As for the case, that's a matter of opinion. I've reviewed it personally:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4972/corsair-carbide...
I'm rather fond of it, myself.
ImSpartacus - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
I think many of us might've built up false expectations after reading your intro.As you mentioned, using X79 (especially for a quad), 16GB of RAM, and RAID SSDs is anything but a "balance".
Samus - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
I don't think there is anything wrong with the case. The carbide 500 is the only non-silverstone case I'd ever consider. As for it being white, mine has been crammed under my desk for 3 years so I could care less what color it is, as long as its functional.Bonesdad - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
I agree, though the case is not exactly my cup of tea, I have seen MUCH worse come across these reviews. I don't have a problem with the case really at all...now the price...?Samus - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
I generally don't comment on the prices, because when I read these botique reviews, I know I'd never buy one becuase I can't justify the price premium for someone taking an hour to screw it all together. As far as them 'testing choice components' I can already tell you without doing a second of research the best parts to put in any mid-to-high end gaming system ismainstream ASUS motherboard with USB 3.0
3GHz+ quad core i5
16GB GSKILL high speed memory
Corsair H80 water cooling kit
Intel 180GB SSD330 or SSD520
'pick your brand' 3TB SATA drive
Silverstone or Corsair case of your choice
PCP&C or similar 600 watt PSU
nVidia Geforce 670
Bluray drive
23+" IPS monitor (TN if 3ms difference really matters to you)
comfy keyboard and mouse
decent 2-channel speakers or headphones
APC or Tripp-lite 800va battery backup
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM
Comcast or other high speed internet and a Motorola DOCSYS 3.0 modem with a Linksys E3000+ router with gigabit
All under $2,000 and assembled using knowledge from a youtube video in under 2 hours.
watchdogusa - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
This is good suggestion, but it doesn't address this review. To me, a review on a system is how the system stacks up with other systems with price in consideration, i.e, performance vs price. If you put the above system together, it would not compete eye-to-eye with the review system, even with price in consideration. In addition, built quality, warranty and time spent on building/testing the system should be considered too. For many DIY say you can build a system much cheaper, only if your time is not valuable. For example, a lawyer who bills at $600 to $800 per hour spends 2 hours to build the system, you should tag another $1500 to the price tag of the system, because he just lost 2 hours of billable hours. Of course it is not that simple, but when compare DIY and building a system, you can't just compare the part cost alone. If that is the case, why not build everything you want? I am sure with youtube, you can even build an atomic bomb. I think if we are here talk about prices, we should compare it to other boutiques/retailers with similar components and services. This way, it would be an apple to apple comparison. That is just my $0.02.Jakeisbest - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
Samus,You just described my exact setup, even my modem and router.
aguilpa1 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
I'm in agreement. It used to be boutique vendors charged more but went further to present something unique in their cases, whether custom paint or design. This thing is just ugly. I notice the current trend is towards white cases but there is a reason they went away a long time ago. It becomes to obvious and cheap looking when you start to stick black plasticky components in the front and for the most part stick out like a sore thumb no matter where they go.EnzoFX - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
It annoys me when people say this about white cases. Those old cases, they weren't white, they were beige. Can you really not tell the difference?