What's the best graphics card my cpu can handle?

notfromuk

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Nov 25, 2014
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I have phenom ii x3 720 @ 3.4Ghz (stock voltage, 4th core is dead), gigabyte ga-ma790xt ud4p motherboard , 8gb 1333Mhz ram, and 750w Corsair psu.

I am wondering what's the best graphic card that will make sense putting it side by side with my cpu. Now I have ati hd4770 gpu and it can't handle any newer game on 1080p resolution.

Budget: around 300£ ... I will use this card with better cpu and mb (2016) or just sell it.

Thanks for reply!
 
Solution
That is a nice overclock on the 720. If you are planning on upgrading later on you have 3 options:
- just the best you can get for that money now which is a GTX 970, which will be incredibly bottlenecked by the cpu, but will be fully utilized when you upgrade in ~1 year.
- get a mediocre card now that will let you max out everything you can with that cpu and save the cash, like coolboy suggested something around a R9 270/270x.
- get a full motherboard/cpu/ram and videocard upgrade for the ~ £300, which is not impossible:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.83 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI A88X-G41 PC MATE ATX FM2+...

notfromuk

Reputable
Nov 25, 2014
2
0
4,510


Cpu will stay at 3.4 cause temps and voltages for like 3.6 are much much higher (1.475V - not best cpu chip) ... what is max for that cpu speed than (that will not bottleneck gpu too much)?
 
That is a nice overclock on the 720. If you are planning on upgrading later on you have 3 options:
- just the best you can get for that money now which is a GTX 970, which will be incredibly bottlenecked by the cpu, but will be fully utilized when you upgrade in ~1 year.
- get a mediocre card now that will let you max out everything you can with that cpu and save the cash, like coolboy suggested something around a R9 270/270x.
- get a full motherboard/cpu/ram and videocard upgrade for the ~ £300, which is not impossible:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.83 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI A88X-G41 PC MATE ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£137.71 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £294.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-25 13:46 GMT+0000
 
Solution


Run catlyst control and Click auto tone itll basically find the best overclock settings for your CPU