Input on budget build/ GPU question

JK7521 · Sep 9, 2014

I am going to be building a budget build for my girlfriend some time in the near future and I just wanted someone to look at what I have so far and to tell me if what I got so far is good or if I should change out anything or just make an entire new build? This is what I have in mind for her http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zGL9nQ . I know I can save money on the case but she really likes the way case looks and I figured I would let her pick that part out sense she will be looking at it all of this things life, also the 1tb hard drive I want to keep as I know she will be playing a lot of games and I figured I would save myself and her the trouble down the road. Lastly I'm not to sure on what games shes going to play but I do know she will at least be playing a lot of dayz, sims 4, minecraft, castle crashes,gary's mod, and tomb raider. So i honestly don't know what graphics card to get her, something that can run most games decently (have to be ultra settings on every game) and wont break the bank because I was hoping not break the $400 range sense where both poor college kids but if it's worth it then I will . I'm thinking of going for the 750 ti for her but I didn't know if it's a good choice or not.

P.S. as of right now she only has a monitor that supports VGA but during black Friday or cyber Monday she can go monitor shopping if she needs to....don't know if she has to in order to play of a graphics card or not (I'm assuming she doesn't have to sense most graphic cards come VGA capable).

rhysiam · Sep 9, 2014

That a pretty decent build considering the low budget. A couple of suggestions:
- Try to get 2x2GB instead of a single 4GB RAM. That'll allow it to run in dual channel mode, twice as fast. You're rarely limited by RAM speed, but it shouldn't cost much (if any!) more and will make a bit of a difference.
- I'd really to try to squeeze a better graphics card in there. Any card with DDR3 RAM is going to struggle in gaming. This R7 260 has GDDR5 RAM and is almost the same price at the moment if you count MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127780&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

I don't know much about that PSU, but I appreciate you're on a budget and don't want to throw too much in that area. Might be worth watching/waiting for a special on a better unit though.

Otherwise, I think you've done pretty well there.

Don't worry about VGA - any graphics cards that don't have a VGA (such as the one I linked) will have at least one DVI-I port, which includes an analogue signal. You can use any cheap DVI -> VGA adapter (they're often bundled) to get VGA from them.

JK7521 · Sep 9, 2014

rhysiam :

With the ram I was planning on just getting the system 4 more GB of the same make and model down the road. I did some research (not much so correct me if I'm wrong) and I came across articles stating that there isn't much a noticeable difference in running dual channel ram until higher speeds and more GB's, which is why I thought of just going for a single stick of 4GB for now. With the power supply I might just end up going for one that is at least semi so I wouldn't have to deal with so many cables sense the case doesn't have any cable management really. Thanks for clarification on the DVI to VGA adapters though and also I noticed the graphics card you suggested has 1GB. A friend of mine always told me to just try and shoot for 2GB but I never asked why and I was just wondering what the difference is even for and if it would affect her gaming at all? Becasue I do see cards with GDDR5 and PCIE 3.0 but the ones with both are a bit more expensive then the ones with one or the other. So mainly I'm wondering there if it comes down to one or the other which one should I go for that would least impact her gaming?

rhysiam · Sep 9, 2014

The amount of RAM (i.e. 1 or 2GB at the budget you're looking at) starts to matter as you run higher resolutions, higher quality settings (with larger/more details textures) and higher levels of AA (anti aliasing). Basically the game needs to load a whole bunch of stuff into memory and as long as you have enough memory (doesn't matter whether it's 2MB free or 2GB free), everything will run fine. As soon as you run out of memory though, things get messy as the card will need to start shipping data to and from system memory and performance will tank.

1GB is pretty lean for a modern GPU and if you can stretch to a 2GB card, I'd recommend it. Still, at your budget you're going to have to run things at pretty low settings with minimal AA, so you're probably okay-ish with 1GB.

However, the difference between GDDR5 and DDR3 is massive and will matter in every game. DDR3 memory is simply not fast enough even for entry level gaming. Also, you'll often find it on a 64 bit controller, whereas GDDR5 will usually be running of 128bit or faster. If your budget restricts you to choose between a 1GB GDDR5 card and 2GB DDR card - all else being equal - the GDDR5 card wins every time.

Having ranted on about that, I wouldn't get too hung up on memory speed. Your best bet is probably just to refer to something like the Tom's Hierarchy Chart http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html, or Anandtech Bench http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/815 to get as higher performing card as you can afford.

At the level your looking at PCIE 3 is pretty irrelevant, don't worry about that one at all.

RE the RAM, you make a fair point. I hadn't realised your MB only has two slots, so going 2x2 from the starts means throwing RAM away if you want to upgrade. If you intend to add the extra DIMM in the next little then I agree you're making a good choice.

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Input on budget build/ GPU question

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