Least expensive top end PC

GnomeWizardd

Looking to start saving for a top end pc with at least a 24 in LED monitor, Was wondering What hardware I should be looking at to play the games on max settings but Without going crazy on price. I know it will be expensive and thats ok just want to build the cheapest High end machine I can

Thrax

Depending on the game "max settings" could mean $200 in GPUs or $800 in GPUs. It could mean $200 in CPUs, or $500 in CPUs. What games?

pragtastic

I can testify that my current rig feels quite powerful and runs pretty much anything I throw at it right now (with 3x 24" monitors), important specs being an i7 2600k, an ATI 7970, 16Gb of ram, 120Gb Vertex3, and a 750w PSU. Can pretty much fill in the rest of the build with whatever.

If you wanted to drop some of the price, I'd bet lesser video cards (7850 perhaps) could handle the single display setup with ease.

GnomeWizardd

The benchmark that is crysis

Thrax

Okay, 1080p max settings for Crysis 3. That's the "very high quality" preset, 8xMSAA and 16x anisotropic filtering.

A Core i7-3960x, 8GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (the fastest GPU in this game) will give you 32 average FPS. That means the FPS will dip below 30 in some areas. Therefore, if you want to run Crysis 3 at maximum settings, you'll need dual GPU.

CrossFire HD 7870 will ensure a constant >40 FPS at the settings described above. If you want 60 FPS, you need 2x HD 7970 or 2x HD 7970 GHz Editions.

You'll want a 3770k, 3570k, or 2600k. Ooooor: AMD FX-8350 which is the fastest sub-$1000 CPU in Crysis 3.

Cliff_Forster

There was a time where I would have said it would have been foolish to start a build considering multi GPU's as a value proposition, but as nice as my 7870 crossfire rig game's and considering you can get a pair for about what you would spend a single 7970, I'd say it's a great option. I'm running an FX-6300 with 7870's in crossfire, I'm playing everything in 1080P high details with solid frame rates.