Can you guys help me choose a GPU/Motherboard.

Stromcrow

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Sep 24, 2013
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Hey guys, first I must apologize, I searched the forms and articles and could not find quite what I was looking for...
I have around 600 dollars to spend. I would like to purchase a high quality graphics card and a high quality mother board in which it is compatible with, I DO NOT overclock.
What are your guys opinion on the matter. Maybe the GeForce 770 .. but with what mother board?
 
Solution


Well, like you first suggested, the GTX 770 is a great $400 GPU. In fact, I think it's really the only GPU out right now for $400. Below that you have the Radeon HD 7970 which is $300 - $350 for great, though noticeably less performance than the GTX 770, and above that you have the Radeon HD 7990 and the GTX 780 which are both $650 but seriously dominate the GTX 770.

Deus Gladiorum

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Any modern budget or greater motherboard is compatible with any modern GPU. Compatibility is rarely an issue between these two parts. What does matter in terms of compatibility is your CPU. If we don't know your CPU, we can't recommend you a motherboard because there's a huge chance that there will be incompatibilities between your CPU and motherboard. Please list your CPU first.

However, the GTX 770 is a monster. If you can afford it, I highly recommend it. I love mine to death.
 

Stromcrow

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Sep 24, 2013
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Thank you so much for your reply!
I think this is the information you are requesting.

Intel(r) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920@ 2.67Ghz 2.79Ghz
Installed memory(ram) 6.00GB
Gigabyte ga-ex58-ud5

Thank you!
 

whiteknights

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Sep 28, 2013
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go for SAPPIRE or ATI cards if you have a limited money..it gives the same Nivida performance..something like SAPPIRRE HD 7850 or 7770, would be cheaper
 

Deus Gladiorum

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Ah, if that's the case I wouldn't recommend a GTX 770 if you're not overclocking. Don't get me wrong, you could totally buy a GTX 770 right now and it'd fit into that motherboard. Considering basic compatibility alone, there's no reason to buy a new motherboard as a GTX 770 will fit and be totally compatible with your current motherboard and processor.

However, while your i7-920 may have been top of the line in its hay day, time has made it somewhat obsolete. Your once $400 i7-920 has since been slightly outperformed by more budget line CPUs. Because of this, if you do not overclock, you can expect your i7-920 to bottleneck a GTX 770 at least a little bit.

If you don't know what bottlenecking is, it's a phenomenon that occurs when one piece of hardware is too powerful for the other piece(s) of hardware to keep up. In this case, a GTX 770 would very likely be bottlenecked by an i7-920 in at least a few of your games. The GTX 770 may be able to render frames incredibly quickly, but it won't matter if your processor can't execute the lines of code quickly enough to keep up.

You have two options from here if you choose to go for the GTX 770: Buy a brand new CPU and motherboard (because new CPUs wont fit into your current motherboard) to accommodate it, or simply overclock your i7-920. Buying the new hardware is at the very least another $170, and that's assuming the motherboard you buy is crap and the CPU is decent at best. Your current motherboard once cost $280, so why get replace something that expensive with so much potential longevity? The i7-920 and the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 are both built to overclock, so it would be mind boggling if you wasted the opportunity to do so! Seriously, the biggest favor you could do right now is to read up on overclocking. I highly recommend you don't replace such fantastic parts just yet, even if they are outdated.

So in the end, I recommend your purchase be for a GTX 770 and a good heatsink for overclocking (because as you might find, overclocking by large amounts can indirectly cause a hell of a lot heat). I personally use this heat sink, and it's done wonders for my CPU which keeps cool even though I've used it to overclocked by 1.1 GHz at one point.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

However, you'll have another $200 to spare after the GTX 770, so if you do decide to read up on overclocking, you may think about buying an even better fan. Just make sure it supports your CPU socket (LGA 1366) and it'll fit inside your case.

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If you really, really just absolutely hate the idea of going the overclocking route, then I feel it'd be a shame to replace those parts. You could buy the GTX 770 and just install it onto your current setup without replacing anything else, but expect there to be a bottleneck. However, I don't know for sure just how bad it'll be. It might end up being not that bad at all.

go for SAPPIRE or ATI cards if you have a limited money..it gives the same Nivida performance..something like SAPPIRRE HD 7850 or 7770, would be cheaper

You're comparing an HD 7770 and an HD 7850 with a GTX 770? That's like comparing hot pockets with caviar. The GTX 770 blows both away, there's absolutely zero competition, and it's not like price is an issue for him anyway. The HD 7970 is the only AMD card that's comparable to the GTX 770, and in this instance the GTX 770 is significantly more powerful than that anyway, though the 7970 is $100 cheaper. Still, the GTX 770 is an absolutely fantastic high-end card. The two cards you mentioned are low-end and mid-range respectively.
 

whiteknights

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i thought he meant Geforce 770 GT, not Gtx..my bad..talking about HD 7770 or 7850, will they do okay on games like BF3? on mid-high? with an i3-3220 Processor, can you give me a rate for these spec. please >>Poor - okay - good- excellent .. ?
 

Deus Gladiorum

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The i3-3220 is well suited for the HD 7850. I'd say that built is very good, coming in at mid range. There's a pretty huge difference between an HD 7850 and an HD 7770 though; you can expect anywhere from 10 - 20 frames worth of difference at 1920x1080 on high settings for BF3 in the HD 7850's favor. In any AMD Graphics series, the 700 line (in this case the 7750, 7770, and 7790) is meant to be low end/entry level gaming. The 800 line (in this case, the 7850 and 7870) is meant for mid-range gaming. If you can afford the HD 7850, go for it as it'll complement that i3-3220 perfectly.

Also, there's no such thing as a GeForce GT 770. There's only a GeForce GTX 770. Nvidia's naming policy (for desktop graphics) basically puts all cards that are "x50" and above into the GTX category (i.e. in ascending order of performance GTX 650, GTX 660, GTX 670, GTX 760, GTX 680, GTX 770, GTX 780, GTX 690, GTX Titan). Anything below "x50" is just considered to be in the GT category (i.e. also in ascending order of performance GT 610, GT 620, GT 630, GT 640).
 

Stromcrow

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Sep 24, 2013
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Thank you so much for your in depth response!
If I didn't want to overclock what mother board CPU would you recommend as an upgrade that was not an overclocking board?
 

whiteknights

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thank you very much for you helpful informations, but unfortunately i can't go for the 7850 one right now, i only can go for the HD 7750 or 7770 1GB GDDR5 ,i found reviews and videos about this card(7770) some people playing High Quality Games(BF3) good enough on medium or even high settings.. on the other hand you've mentioned that it meant to be a low end/entry level gaming..that's mean that on BF3 i can't even play well on the medium setting..so i'm really confuse about the Graphic Card..
 

Deus Gladiorum

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Ah, so you're replacing the i7-920 and the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5? Ah, it truly breaks my heart, as they have so much remaining potential if only you overclocked. I can recommend you a board and a new CPU, but just so you didn't think I was implying otherwise I'll say the following: Just because a motherboard is "built for overclocking" doesn't mean it'll somehow be inferior in other ways as a motherboard. In fact it means the opposite; a board that's good for overclocking is better at just about any task than boards which by comparison aren't as good for overclocking. A motherboard "built for overclocking" just means that it functions so well that it gives a lot of room to overclock if you prefer the option. Sorry if that explanation wasn't necessary, I just wanted to make sure you didn't infer that from my previous post.

Anyway, as for a new CPU this i5-4670 has made pretty incredible gains over your current i7-920:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TBR4/?tag=pcpapi-20

Of course, you need a new motherboard for that CPU, or else it won't fit. Here's an excellent one which will handle an i5-4670 well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157369&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0

$350 is pretty steep, and combined with a GTX 770 that's $750. Even if you do decide that you don't want to overclock, I recommend you just buy the GTX 770 first and see if you're happy with the performance you're getting between that and your current motherboard and stock-clocked CPU because as I said, the bottlenecking probably won't be that bad at all. For example, currently my CPU bottlenecks my GTX 770, but it's not terrible. Most of the time in games I still get 60 fps on the absolute highest settings, and my budget CPU is only a bit more powerful than the one you currently own. I could recommend a motherboard and CPU less than $350, probably closer to the $200 range, however the performance increase would be somewhat marginal over your current setup, so I don't think a $200 price tag would justify that. Hell, I still don't think you need your CPU and motherboard for at least another year or two.
 

Deus Gladiorum

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Just because a card is low end doesn't mean it can't play at medium or high settings. It's just that high end cards will perform better than mid-range or low end cards, and mid-range cards will perform better than low end cards. It's not a 1:1 ratio. Most games nowadays have options for "Very High", "Ultra", "Extreme" or "Enthusiast" settings, which come after "High" settings. But it's not like developers expect everyone to buy Enthusiast rated cards in order to play on those settings, because enthusiast cards cost in the range of $650 - $1,000.

While the 7850 gets around 55 fps on average at high settings at 1920x1080 (without Anti-Aliasing) in Battlefield 3, the 7770 gets around 45 fps on average at high settings at 1920x1080 (without Anti-Aliasing). It'll still be very playable. Every game is designed with completely different demands. Cards designated as low, medium, high, or enthusiast are just reference points.
 

Deus Gladiorum

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Well, like you first suggested, the GTX 770 is a great $400 GPU. In fact, I think it's really the only GPU out right now for $400. Below that you have the Radeon HD 7970 which is $300 - $350 for great, though noticeably less performance than the GTX 770, and above that you have the Radeon HD 7990 and the GTX 780 which are both $650 but seriously dominate the GTX 770.
 
Solution

Deus Gladiorum

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Which then begs the question, what can a GTX 770 do when overclocked?
 

whiteknights

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Sep 28, 2013
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Thank you for your help, i appreciate it