GeForce GTX 770 EVGA vs Gigabyte vs Something else

Afonso_CR

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Feb 11, 2013
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I'm currently thinking about building my first PC and I'm not sure about the graphics card
So far I've thought about the GeForce GTX 770 but I'm not sure if this is the best graphics card for my money
(this is my current build, I will be playing a lot of games like Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2/3)
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1vrXk

If I go with the GTX 770 which one should I get? The EVGA or the Gigabyte? If this isn't the best graphics card for my money (e.g. I can get a similar card that costs less than that and does pretty much the same job) which one should I get?


Some additional information,

My budget goes pretty much up to 1300$ even though cheaper things make my wallet happier

Don't think I will overclock, I just don't have the knowledge and the experience with that (again, this will be my first build)

I won't SLI

I have no preferred website (mostly because I most likely won't buy from american sites since I'm from Portugal and we have our own websites and there is a higher chance things get broken during the shipping overseas, among other problems)

I will play games at 1920x1080 but I want to know that I can use triple monitors in the future

Like I said, this build is made so that I can play games like Battlefield 3, Crysis 2/3 and upcoming games like Watch_Dogs with the best settings (not sure if I can play games at the best of the best settings but I would like to play with settings somewhat close to that)

Any opinions and tips on my build are welcome even if they aren't directly related to the graphics card (e.g. I should get another motherboard or another PSU)

Anyway, thank you for helping me, this is my first build and I want it to be special!
If you find spelling/grammar mistakes I'm sorry, English is not my first language
 
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Deus Gladiorum

Distinguished


Your English is excellent. I had no idea it wasn't your first language until you wrote that you're from Portugal.

Wow, that's a lot of criteria. Well, the first thing I want to establish is that a GTX 770, I think regardless of manufacturer, will certainly get you 60 fps at 1920x1080 for pretty much any game on ultra settings assuming you turn off SSAA/MSAA for some of the most intensive top tier games such as Metro: Last Light or Crysis 3. However, aside from those 2 games, my GIGABYTE GTX 770 Windforce edition GPU never reaches 99% usage. I personally have issues with my CPU bottlenecking me, but that's just because of my CPU. When it comes to GPU intensive situations, the GTX 770 certainly keeps up.

However, if you're planning on doing a multi-monitor setup, the GTX 770 won't cut it if all monitors are going to be 1920x1080. It only has 2 GB of Video memory, and for multimonitor you'll notice a serious performance decrease in games. If you're going to use the extra 2 monitors to multitask, but only play games on 1 monitor, the GTX 770 will handle that just fine. If you're really serious about playing on 3 monitors at a resolution of 5760x1080 though, both EVGA and GIGABYTE make 4 GB models of the GTX 770 which are both about $450 compared to the standard 2 GB which is only $400. The 4 GB models WON'T guarantee 60 fps on ultra settings, because 5760x1080 is hugely hard to handle even for a GTX Titan. However, the 4 GB vs 2 GB will certainly help. Either way though, if you want bearable frames you'll really want to look above the GTX 770 (or just not play a triple monitor setup).

As for which manufacturer is better, I'd say GIGABYTE. Yes, I am a little biased, but to be fair the GIGABYTE edition has a higher base and boost clock than EVGA. However, realistically they perform about the same. Maybe around 1-3 fps difference in games from benchmarks I've looked at, but that's about it.

Other GPUs include the Radeon HD 7970 which can be anywhere from $60 less to $40 more depending on where you look, but either way there's not much of a difference between it and the GTX 770. I recommend going with the 770 if you want to enable PhysX in games and maintain good frames.

Make sure you get a good PSU (I have 650 W, Bronze rated and it's never failed me) and make sure you don't bottleneck your GPU with a bad CPU. I have an AMD FX-6300 and honestly the bottlenecking really kills me when it occurs. I recommend an Intel i5-3570k or an i5-4670k to pair with your GTX 770. It'll do wonders! A good Motherboard with that is a Gigabyte Z87. It'll work very well and have plenty of ports. Good luck!
 
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Afonso_CR

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Feb 11, 2013
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Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I always try to use proper English when writing on English forums ahah

I'm just narrowing choices :p

Yeah, I guess it's easier for me to stay away from multi-monitor since it requires that much power

Ok, Gigabyte does seem better in that aspect

I was thinking about getting the Intel i5-3570k I heard that it's pretty good

Thank you for you extensive and detailed answer!
 

Deus Gladiorum

Distinguished


No problem. And if you're going for an i5-3570k, I made the mistake of suggesting a Z87 motherboard. That's only for a Haswell (i5-4xxx) CPU. The motherboard you'll need to be looking at needs to have the same socket type as the ivy bridge series (i5-3xxx), so go for a Z77 which has an LGA 1155 Socketype. I can't recommend any from personal experience, but from multiple sources it seems that the ASRock 77 Extreme 4 is one of the most popular and efficient for a pretty great price ($130). It's great for overclocking as well from what I've read, which is a plus in case you decide to do so.