whats the best Graphics card for my system

jimmynodeal · May 27, 2013

Im not a hard core gamer but I like to play games every now and then. I would love to have a decent system. I have an older build thats mainly used as a DAW. But here is what im working with.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit OS
Gygabyte GA-EP45-UD3P 48XIntel
Quad Core Q9550 processer overclocked at 4.0 ghz
Cooler Master’s V6 GT CPU heat sink -X2 120mm dynaLoop CPU Cooler dual fan *need to switch to water cooled system
Corsair Dominator 8GB (4x2GB) PC2-8500 DDR2-1066MHz RAM
Generic 450 psu
Samsungs 128gig 840 Solid State Drive (SSD) as the boot drive
Western Digital 150gig SATA hard drive for project files
Western Digital 80gig SATA for audio content and sound librariesWD drives are set up as hot swap
1TB Western Digital Passport external drive for a back up drive and extra storage
Cooler Master’s new HAF XB

I definitely want to upgrade a kick ass graphics card spend 200-350

Should I upgrade to 16gb ram...

Yes I plan on a new up to date build but I want to max this guy at first.

Thanks everyone

warrior_richard · May 27, 2013

You might have to upgrade your power supply. If you want to go for gaming I would chose amd because they make good cards for the price. I would wait for the new series to come out first. The nvidia 700 series is about to come out with some cheaper cards and the 8000 amd series is about to come out.

killerhurtalot · May 27, 2013

warrior_richard :

Ya. The 760 ti should be around $350 (it's basically a factory overclocked GTX 670)

At that price, and that your CPU would only slightly bottleneck the GPU would make it a great buy.

and OP. do not upgrade to 16GB ram. it will have ZERO benefit to gaming. (and unless you're doing HEAVY video/photo editing or rendering)

jimmynodeal · May 27, 2013

warrior_richard :

Thanks ... as for the psu I kinda figured that .ne suggestions..
I also wanted to get two cards sli I think its called or is that over kill ...

killerhurtalot · May 27, 2013

jimmynodeal :

Do not go SLI with the current build. your CPU will bottleneck it really badly.

Since you're planning on going SLI later on, I would recommend a good 650w PSU if you're going to SLI the GTX 760 ti.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

jimmynodeal · May 27, 2013

killerhurtalot :

warrior_richard :

Ya. The 760 ti should be around $350 (it's basically a factory overclocked GTX 670)

Cool thanks ... 16gb sounds awsome ... but not for extra 400 $ now I'll stop thinking bout buying that ddr2 16gb kit and put that money to a psu and graphics card

At that price, and that your CPU would only slightly bottleneck the GPU would make it a great buy.

and OP. do not upgrade to 16GB ram. it will have ZERO benefit to gaming. (and unless you're doing HEAVY video/photo editing or rendering)

trogdor8freebird · May 27, 2013

jimmynodeal :

You may need to upgrade your Power Supply Unit. I don't know the exact PSU that is, but if it's generic, it may not be powerful enough. Also, you'll need two PCI-E 6-pin connectors for pretty much any powerful modern graphics card above $200.

On the subject at hand though, I think your CPU will be able to handle a decent amount, at least for gaming. You don't need 16 GB of RAM for gaming btw. Even with it being DDR2 RAM, it's going to do the job perfectly fine with almost every game out. The only game I can see using 8GB of DDR2 RAM is Planetside 2, and I'm not entirely sure of that (I don't remember what the requirements were, but it was pretty high if I remember correctly).

So the graphics card. You can get a new GTX 660 from Newegg for $200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699

A GTX 650 Ti Boost is great as well, considering the FPS will be similar (Consistently lower, but not too far off from the 660) and you will be saving some money (Although, you may want to look at benchmarks to see what you want):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699

Now more onto the AMD side...

The Radeon 7870 GHz Edition is a great video card, but with that being the case - it may actually be too powerful for a Q9550. However, I don't know much about older CPUs other than my own, so I can't say for sure what the bottleneck will be in games:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161411

The Radeon 7850 is also a great choice, and considering this card is at a low price for it's normal value (I think, anyway) and it's overclocked (You can look at that any way you want really, though):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

Just to let you know, I kept it modern and I didn't recommend much simply to keep this post readable, and not overwhelming with choices.

killerhurtalot · May 27, 2013

jimmynodeal :

killerhurtalot :

Even more of a reason not to buy 16GB. you're still on DDR2 ram lol.

jimmynodeal · May 28, 2013

can I use 2 GTX 650 Ti Boost with my current build (as well with a upgraded psu 850w Corsair HX 850)

jimmynodeal · May 28, 2013

killerhurtalot :

jimmynodeal :

Do not go SLI with the current build. your CPU will bottleneck it really badly.

Since you're planning on going SLI later on, I would recommend a good 650w PSU if you're going to SLI the GTX 760 ti.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

I should not go withr the sli because of my cpu or my psu?

killerhurtalot · May 28, 2013

jimmynodeal :

killerhurtalot :

I should not go withr the sli because of my cpu or my psu?

both.

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whats the best Graphics card for my system

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