Which GPU should I get for?... (in-depth details in thread)

[Billspear]

I'm looking for a decent graphics card that can run some games on Steam and emulators at medium-high settings if possible with at least 30 frames. I don't play anything too intensive. To give you guys an idea, here's a list:

Emu's:

-PCSX2, Dolphin Emulator

Games:

-Skyim, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy XIII, Resident Evil 4/5, Devil May Cry 4, Phantasy Star Online 2, etc.


I am looking to spend between $150-200, possibly a little more. I prefer an NVIDIA card.

I have a Pentium G3258 CPU (will OC if i need to) and 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Ripjaws X.

Any help will be appreciated! Thanks for reading!

 

[TStahler]

What size monitor and screen resolution do you use? What size power supply do you have? For me to give you a quality answer to this question, I need this additional information. Thanks.

 

[Billspear]

Ah, sorry about that. Should have known.

I currently use a 22" 720p monitor but I might be getting a 24" 1080p monitor that I might swap it out for. There's a good chance I'll be gaming in 1080.

For PSU, I have a 650W XFX XTR. Yes, I future-proofed, lol.

 

[TStahler]

Lets assume you play on a 21 or 22 inch monitor which is rather common.

A Pentium CPU can hold back a high end graphics card. Even if it is overclocked. And, If I would recommend too powerful of a graphics card, your power supply might not support it. With the release of the 700 and 900 series cards of Nvidia, The 600 series card prices plummeted. You could probably land a brand new GTX 660 for much less than $200 new. a GTX 660 would need at least a 450 watt power supply. If you don't mind a used card and you have at least a 550 watt power supply, you could land a 680 GTX on eBay for $200, but that would probably be overkill. The key to a great system is that it is balanced.

I would recommend either a GTX 660, or if you find one for less than $200, a GTX 660ti. I think anything more than that would be bottlenecked by your processor performance. A 660 GTX would require a 450 watt power supply and a GTX 660ti would require a 500 watt power supply. The 660 and 660ti each have 2 GB of vRAM which would do well for vRAM intensive games. Granted, that depends upon how much AA and eye candy effects that you like.

A GTX 580 would also work, but with the 3GB variety hard to find new anymore, especially new, the 1.5 GB ones could limit you in Skyrim vs the 600 series cards that I recommended. That, And a 580 requires a 600 watt power supply. The 580 would edge out the 660 in performance by about 9 percent, but would also be bottlenecked by your processor. The 580 GTX can be found brand new at Microcenter on their website for $161.99. But the units are refurbished.

I would recommend a GTX 660 or GTX 660ti and don't look back. Plus, In the future, You could always get another and run them in SLI for increased performance.

 

[TStahler]

If you have any additional questions, Feel free to inbox me and I would be happy to help.

 

[Billspear]

Thanks so much! A lot of great information! I really appreciate your help and the time you spent to type all of that.