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Advice on graphics card setup for my build

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  • Intel
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February 28, 2014 10:12:55 PM

Ok guys I'm making a build, typically in the past I have always done bang for buck builds (radeons & amd)

This time I wanted to make a PC with a bit muscle and mess around on the other side of the tracks, so I'm doing an intel / nvidia build

I have an intel 4670k and a 256mb ssd, plan on getting a z87-a asus motherboard and a popular 750w power supply and either 8 or 16gb or ram (might get 8 and upgrade to 16 later)

Here is the problem...

I'm really bad at saving money so I've decided to buy my pc piece by piece, I know this can be bad because if i wait too long to build it my parts can become obsolete or ill end up losing money on them as they drop in value, so I'm trying to get this thing up and running ASAP

my dilemma i'm having is with my video cards, I have enough to buy a 770, however if i get a 760 i'll have some spare cash to buy other parts and get my system up and running asap and later on down the line (maybe a month or so) i can get another 760 and have the power of a 780....i would like to get a 780 but saving 500$ for one is going to be very rough for me and slow down my build

I know a lot of people suggest to buy a 770 and then wait down the line when I need more power and get another 770, i've bought sli setups in the past and in my experience when I get to that point where i'm ready to sli I usually want a whole new graphics card or a new build

so my question is to you guys if you were in my shoes would you buy the 760, get your rig up and running and plop a second 760 in there in a month or two, or get a 770 and sit on it for a while until i come into some money or feel like updating it

to give you guys an idea of my computer use....i wont be going past 1080p, i may be doing mmo gaming on 2 monitors (2 accounts farming at the same time) might do some fps on one monitor but nothing too crazy

I do want to run my games at high-max settings because like I said in the past I always did budget rigs and it never allowed me to experience that before

thank you

More about : advice graphics card setup build

a b U Graphics card
February 28, 2014 11:04:46 PM

I would get the 770 because you could immediately play on high-ultra settings. And in a few months or a year, pretty much whenever your ready and have the money you could get another one. But there may be a power issue. What PSU do you have?
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a b U Graphics card
February 28, 2014 11:04:54 PM

On the graphics card, if you won't be doing any FPS gaming beyond 1080p, no need for a 780, that would be overkill at 1080p. The thing about going SLI (with 760's) is there is no guarantee that SLI will work for every game. I had a 295GTX which is essentially SLI on a single card. I had a couple games that I played that didn't support SLI so my doubly expensive card worked like a single 275GTX and I was very disappointed in those cases. Along with SLI comes it's own set of problems too. Graphic anomalies, poor scaling, game crashes, etc. In my opinion it's always better to spend your money on the single fastest card you can afford. So if you think that you'll want more performance than a 760 GTX will give you, I'd get a 770. My son just bought himself the ASUS Direct CU version of the 770 and it's a great card. He has every game that he plays maxed out at 1080p. Maybe not quite maxed out on Metro Last Light. It's a great GPU.

As for your motherboard choice, you may want to look at it's dimensions a little closer. It says it's an ATX board, but it has an odd width. It doesn't quite reach the third column of standoffs which means that the motherboard has no physical support when your pushing in the ATX connector. Not a big issue if your aware of it and keep your fingers under the board will pushing the ATX connector in. It's not the only board ASUS does that with either. The Z87-C, Z87-K, and Z87-Plus are the same. Not sure why they didn't spring for another 1 1/2" of PCB.
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a b U Graphics card
February 28, 2014 11:24:45 PM

techgeek said:
On the graphics card, if you won't be doing any FPS gaming beyond 1080p, no need for a 780, that would be overkill at 1080p. The thing about going SLI (with 760's) is there is no guarantee that SLI will work for every game. I had a 295GTX which is essentially SLI on a single card. I had a couple games that I played that didn't support SLI so my doubly expensive card worked like a single 275GTX and I was very disappointed in those cases. Along with SLI comes it's own set of problems too. Graphic anomalies, poor scaling, game crashes, etc. In my opinion it's always better to spend your money on the single fastest card you can afford. So if you think that you'll want more performance than a 760 GTX will give you, I'd get a 770. My son just bought himself the ASUS Direct CU version of the 770 and it's a great card. He has every game that he plays maxed out at 1080p. Maybe not quite maxed out on Metro Last Light. It's a great GPU.

As for your motherboard choice, you may want to look at it's dimensions a little closer. It says it's an ATX board, but it has an odd width. It doesn't quite reach the third column of standoffs which means that the motherboard has no physical support when your pushing in the ATX connector. Not a big issue if your aware of it and keep your fingers under the board will pushing the ATX connector in. It's not the only board ASUS does that with either. The Z87-C, Z87-K, and Z87-Plus are the same. Not sure why they didn't spring for another 1 1/2" of PCB.


I will disagree that you don't need a 780 for 1080p gaming. I have a GTX 780 and there are some games that I can't quite get 60 fps in. I will say that I do like to have some form of Anti-aliasing enabled. A good example is Assassins Creed Black Flag. On ultra with minimum anti-aliasing I generally get high 50's fps with dips into the mid 40's. I would like to get 60fps.

I would say that it does destroy most games at ultra on 1080p with some room leftover though.

So if you want a single card that will handle ALMOST everything you can through at it I highly recommend the 780.
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a b U Graphics card
February 28, 2014 11:36:24 PM

I guess that depends on where you are comfortable having your minimum framerate dip to. I'd be more than happy dropping to mid 40's. In fact as long as it didn't drop below mid 30's I'd be OK.

Actually I think my son's 770 (which came with AC: Black Flag) is averaging above 60 with all the detail settings set as high as they'll go. Not sure what level AA I set for him though. Usually set for 2XMSAA in most games, but that was three weeks ago. I don't get home for another 3 weeks, so I can't confirm that.

It does struggle with Metro Last Light, but then so does every card if you turn everything up to max. Its the equivalent to Crysis when it was first released (and for a few years after too).
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March 1, 2014 3:43:20 AM

techgeek said:
On the graphics card, if you won't be doing any FPS gaming beyond 1080p, no need for a 780, that would be overkill at 1080p. The thing about going SLI (with 760's) is there is no guarantee that SLI will work for every game. I had a 295GTX which is essentially SLI on a single card. I had a couple games that I played that didn't support SLI so my doubly expensive card worked like a single 275GTX and I was very disappointed in those cases. Along with SLI comes it's own set of problems too. Graphic anomalies, poor scaling, game crashes, etc. In my opinion it's always better to spend your money on the single fastest card you can afford. So if you think that you'll want more performance than a 760 GTX will give you, I'd get a 770. My son just bought himself the ASUS Direct CU version of the 770 and it's a great card. He has every game that he plays maxed out at 1080p. Maybe not quite maxed out on Metro Last Light. It's a great GPU.

As for your motherboard choice, you may want to look at it's dimensions a little closer. It says it's an ATX board, but it has an odd width. It doesn't quite reach the third column of standoffs which means that the motherboard has no physical support when your pushing in the ATX connector. Not a big issue if your aware of it and keep your fingers under the board will pushing the ATX connector in. It's not the only board ASUS does that with either. The Z87-C, Z87-K, and Z87-Plus are the same. Not sure why they didn't spring for another 1 1/2" of PCB.


That's interesting I didn't realize that about the mobo,maybe the gigabyte ud3h, it seems like a lot of phantom 410ers go with that
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March 1, 2014 3:45:12 AM

16bit said:
I would get the 770 because you could immediately play on high-ultra settings. And in a few months or a year, pretty much whenever your ready and have the money you could get another one. But there may be a power issue. What PSU do you have?


I haven't picked a psu yet but I have my eye on the high end 750watts bronze-gold

like the xfx pro, seasonic, and some of the corsairs

I want a good sturdy psu but I don't wanna go overboard with it, I'm a seasonic fan but newegg has jacked up the price of them recently and it looks like the xfx pros are descent and a good price
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March 1, 2014 3:47:54 AM

16bit said:
techgeek said:
On the graphics card, if you won't be doing any FPS gaming beyond 1080p, no need for a 780, that would be overkill at 1080p. The thing about going SLI (with 760's) is there is no guarantee that SLI will work for every game. I had a 295GTX which is essentially SLI on a single card. I had a couple games that I played that didn't support SLI so my doubly expensive card worked like a single 275GTX and I was very disappointed in those cases. Along with SLI comes it's own set of problems too. Graphic anomalies, poor scaling, game crashes, etc. In my opinion it's always better to spend your money on the single fastest card you can afford. So if you think that you'll want more performance than a 760 GTX will give you, I'd get a 770. My son just bought himself the ASUS Direct CU version of the 770 and it's a great card. He has every game that he plays maxed out at 1080p. Maybe not quite maxed out on Metro Last Light. It's a great GPU.

As for your motherboard choice, you may want to look at it's dimensions a little closer. It says it's an ATX board, but it has an odd width. It doesn't quite reach the third column of standoffs which means that the motherboard has no physical support when your pushing in the ATX connector. Not a big issue if your aware of it and keep your fingers under the board will pushing the ATX connector in. It's not the only board ASUS does that with either. The Z87-C, Z87-K, and Z87-Plus are the same. Not sure why they didn't spring for another 1 1/2" of PCB.


I will disagree that you don't need a 780 for 1080p gaming. I have a GTX 780 and there are some games that I can't quite get 60 fps in. I will say that I do like to have some form of Anti-aliasing enabled. A good example is Assassins Creed Black Flag. On ultra with minimum anti-aliasing I generally get high 50's fps with dips into the mid 40's. I would like to get 60fps.

I would say that it does destroy most games at ultra on 1080p with some room leftover though.

So if you want a single card that will handle ALMOST everything you can through at it I highly recommend the 780.


I definetly want that 780 but saving up the money for one is going to be tough for me I don't know if I will utilize it, but I may play day z or star citizen, so you never know

I may just have to bight the bullet and save up for one
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a b U Graphics card
March 1, 2014 3:55:23 AM

hooktrader said:
techgeek said:
On the graphics card, if you won't be doing any FPS gaming beyond 1080p, no need for a 780, that would be overkill at 1080p. The thing about going SLI (with 760's) is there is no guarantee that SLI will work for every game. I had a 295GTX which is essentially SLI on a single card. I had a couple games that I played that didn't support SLI so my doubly expensive card worked like a single 275GTX and I was very disappointed in those cases. Along with SLI comes it's own set of problems too. Graphic anomalies, poor scaling, game crashes, etc. In my opinion it's always better to spend your money on the single fastest card you can afford. So if you think that you'll want more performance than a 760 GTX will give you, I'd get a 770. My son just bought himself the ASUS Direct CU version of the 770 and it's a great card. He has every game that he plays maxed out at 1080p. Maybe not quite maxed out on Metro Last Light. It's a great GPU.

As for your motherboard choice, you may want to look at it's dimensions a little closer. It says it's an ATX board, but it has an odd width. It doesn't quite reach the third column of standoffs which means that the motherboard has no physical support when your pushing in the ATX connector. Not a big issue if your aware of it and keep your fingers under the board will pushing the ATX connector in. It's not the only board ASUS does that with either. The Z87-C, Z87-K, and Z87-Plus are the same. Not sure why they didn't spring for another 1 1/2" of PCB.


That's interesting I didn't realize that about the mobo,maybe the gigabyte ud3h, it seems like a lot of phantom 410ers go with that


Motherboard manufacturer choice is a personal thing. Some like ASUS, some GigaByte, some MSI, and some even like AsRock (don't know why). Personally I'm a ASUS guy, I've never had problems with them. I used to be a GigaByte guy and got burned on a board twice, once in warranty, the second time same problem out of warranty. Once bitten twice shy. So now I stick with ASUS. I'm sure you could find twenty others with anecdotal evidence about ASUS in the same way.

On the PSU side, all of the brands you picked have winners and losers. I like Corsair, but I just read a review at HardOCP where there RM series 750W supply failed some of their tests. Their HX and TX series supplies were pretty good though. Much like anything else you have to find something your interested in and do some research and read some reviews. I personally prefer professional reviews over peer reviews such as on NewEgg. Especially HardOCP reviews on PSU's, they really put them through their paces.

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a b U Graphics card
March 1, 2014 10:58:28 PM

You really don't need a 780 for most things. A 770 with do more than fine for most things. I am just really picky about playing on ultra with minimal drops below 60fps.

For a PSU if you have not got one yet you could get an 850w psu so you would have no problem putting two 770's in SLI sometime down the road. As far as brand goes I would recommend Seasonic or Corsair. If you can't get those then i would say Antec. If you get an 80+ gold your psu will be able to handle more load than a bronze so thats what i would recommend if your planning to do an SLI setup.

As far as motherboards go I like Asus Motherboards have never had any problems. I currently have the Asus Maximus VI hero. It handles my overclock great and it looks nice.

I have the 1050W version of this and I have been really happy with it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... The price has gone up considerably from when I bought it though. So its probably not worth it. The 1050x has gone up 180$ since I bought mine in December.
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