What GPU do you Suggest?

[MtitaniumM]

Hey, so my current GPU is basically finished.. its whats causing me so much problems so i said enough and i want to upgrade it.

So bascially my machine looks like this

E6600 *2.4Ghz with seperately bought fan (i didnt want the crappy stock fan) (afaik Socket 775)
2GB Corsair 667mhz DDR2

GA-965P-DS3 - (some details about just incase you are interested in them) http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2510#ov

7900GTX 512mb(not for long...)
Tagan 600W PSU
HDD ~232G 7200RPM i forgot the brand.. it was a good one though
windows XP confused)... will look into getting win 7 once i have money to waste

The whole machine is about 4years old.

I`m looking to spend around 100 euros/130 US dollars
I `m open to all cards, i just want bang for my buck

I want it for mostly FPS gaming, but i have no particular favs and in the end i play all genres.

additional info
I `m open to all cards, i just want bang for my buck
I live in the EU (Malta to be specific)

In the close future i want to be able to use DirectX 11 which i cant use with XP

Which GPU do you suggest?

 

[Helltech]

If you want DX11 and your Budget is 130 USD, then I don't think you can go wrong with...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product

Obviously you'd have to get that rebate to get it that cheap. If not you might be able to find a 5750 in your price range.

 

[asteldian]

The 5770 is as low as £115 in the UK, so you should hopefully find one around your price range

 

[jyjjy]

For DX11 cards in your general price range you want to be looking the HD5670/5750/5770. Which one is the best choice depends on your monitor's native resolution and what prices are where you are located.
Whatever card you get you will want to overclock your CPU. Your motherboard is good for overclocking and your processor does so very well especially considering you have replaced the stock fan/heatsink with something better. I would recommend putting it up to 3.3-3.5ghz which should be fine for current games and be easy to accomplish.

 

[MtitaniumM]

If I’m not mistaken newegg don’t ship to Malta… or to EU for that matter.

Do you know any really good and newb friendly guides to going from start to finish to overclock the things you mentioned.. I’m really not confident with overclocking.


Currently I have 2 monitors hp pavilion f1723 (max resolution 1280 x 1024… I think, lost the manual) and a “Samsung Samtron 75E” (CRT), both are old and have their fair share of dead pixels so I wouldn’t mind buying a new one.

So would it be better for me to say save up for both a GPU and a monitor and buy them simultaneous so I can ensure as much compatibility as possible?

I`m willing to wait a few weeks to earn to more money to be able to spend on additiona hardware like the monitor and perhaps to get the next level GPU which is even more cost effective in terms of its performance and capabilities

 

[jyjjy]

Well, if you are going to upgrade the monitor(a good idea) then you should get a card that can handle the resolution on the new monitor. The standard at the moment is 1920x1080 and would be a good choice. For that resolution I would recommend at least the HD5770 which would be pretty good and the GTX 460 instead if you can afford it.
As for overclocking a googling came up with this which looks like a good beginners guide;
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/1-c2d-overclocking-guide-beginners.html
For a brief summary basically you will just be raising the voltage of the core slightly and putting the front side bus(fsb) up to the speed you want. Your processor has a x9 multiplier and a stock fsb of 266mhz(266x9=2.4ghz) For an OC up to, let's say, 3ghz you would set the fsb to 333mhz(333x9=3ghz). That is probably around the limit without raising the voltage so you'll want to put it up a tiny bit. A fsb of 366mhz will get you 3.3ghz which would be a good goal and will make your processor adequate for even intensive current games.

 

[MtitaniumM]

To be honest, I would prefer getting the next GPU after the HD5770/gtx460, but I wouldnt want to create a bottleneck and perhaps the hd5770/gtx460 gives more value for money so it wouldnt be worth getting the next gpu in the hierarchy

Do you think in the range of 350 euros / 461 USD / 291 sterling is enough to get a good GPU (like i mentioned above) AND monitor?

Which ones should i be looking at?... especially for monitors.. my knowlegde on monitors has always been absymal

 

[jyjjy]

Well the GTX 460 is on the next level up from the HD5770. Really it should do well at 1080p especially if you OC the card(very simple to do.) I don't think a better card will fit in your budget anyway.
I'm not sure what prices are like there but a decent 1080p monitor in the US is $170-200 while a GTX 460 is $200-230 depending on which version you get. So that's $370-430 which if you are lucky will fit into your budget considering the markup you guys always have.

 

[MtitaniumM]

hmm thx i will look into prices a bit...

 

[MtitaniumM]

I have decided that I will get 460GTX
Its either
Palit 768mb - 150 GBP / 239 USD
Asus 768mb - 170 / 271
Msi 768mb - 176 / 281
EVGA 768mb - 176 / 281
palit 1024mb - 176 / 281

I`m not so familar with the Palit brand but which one do you suggest i get?
[prices are for comparison purposes only]

What do you suggest i get for a monitor?

 

[jyjjy]

The cooler on the Palit GTX 460s is supposedly rather poor and loud so you might want to avoid those. All of the other brands you listed are quite good.
As for the monitor it really depends on what you can get for what price. I don't know about there but in the US brands like Asus, Samsung and LG generally offer good monitors for the money.

 

[MtitaniumM]

what inch do you recommend?

 

[jyjjy]

For a 1920x1080 monitor I would go for 23" or above.

 

[MtitaniumM]

Since i was going to get a better TV for my PS3 would you recommend that i get a monitor/tv that is good for both purposes?
In this case I think I`d be interested in perhaps a 24/25", I obviously dont want to sit infront of a huge screen whilst I`m using my PC and at the same time I dont poop money.

What is your opinion?

 

[jyjjy]

That's not a bad idea. You should be able to plug the monitor directly into the PS3,
Alternately you could keep the monitor you have now and just get a new TV. You can then connect the TV to the video card and game on that. Of course then all your general computing would still be on the old, small monitor with dead pixels which isn't very nice. It's an idea though. It is up to you.

 

[MtitaniumM]

it has been suggested to me that the ram will bottleneck and that i should upgrade to 4gb. what are your thoughts?http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum-15-208.html

Ignore the link, it was a mistake.. strangely enough its not letting me remove it but lets me add extra characters

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, some more ram would be a good idea. You will still be able to run games with 2gb but 4gb will definitely help performance.
Speaking of which there are two things you should keep in mind about your operating system. The first is that the card you are getting is DX11 but you will not be able to actually use DX11 features in games that support it on your current OS. XP as it is limited to DX9 so that applies to DX10 as well. The second thing is that on your current operating system you will be limited to approximately 3 to 3.3 gb of ram. So even once you upgrade to 4gb you will not actually be able to use it all until you upgrade the OS. This limit is not specific to XP but rather to all 32 bit versions of Windows. So after these upgrades your next goal should be moving up to 64 bit Windows 7.

 

[MtitaniumM]

thanks for that piece of valuable info! Seriously!

I think i`ll just wait and buy them all at once, the gtx460, the new OS and the ram.

Regarding ram.. i`m guessing my best bet is 4 1gb 800mhz (highest my mobo supports) but is the upgrade in mhz worth the money i will spend on it? (as opposed to buying just 2 667mhz)

i dont want to spend an extra 60 euros/ 70-80 dollars for a 10% increase in performance... or am i asking to much for just a jump to 800mhz from 667mhz?

 

[MtitaniumM]

scratch that... i`m getting 2 kingston 1gb 667mhz modules for 50 euros / 66 USD... I`m giving money priority for the RAM... unfortunately.

Regarding gpu, i`m going for the EVGA due to their 10yr warranty

taking a closer look at the models
http://www.evga.com/articles/00561/

From the top 3 of the list, which one would you suggest? I ask because maybe i`m better off getting the one without an external exhaust (What ever the hell that is) and buying a seperate cooler which would be better.
At the same time maybe its not even worth shelling out a bit for the 1024mb and the difference between that and the 768mb version is tiny if any.

what do you think? (once again thanks for all the help, its really appreciated)

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, just get two of your old speed. Ram is too expensive these days to ditch your old ram just to gain a little speed. You can buy some 800mhz if it is cheaper though. It will just downclock itself automatically to match your current ram.
The cooler on any of those cards is fine, don't worry about that. The differences between the two versions are the memory bus size, 256 bit vs 192 bit, and the memory amount, 1gb vs 768mb. In terms of performance at 1080p they differ by about 8%.

 

[MtitaniumM]

i decided on an EVGA GTX 460 1gb overclocked with 10yr warranty... what do you think about it?

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1373-AR&family=GeForce%20400%20Series%20Family&sw=

(the one i`m going to get doesnt have the vent.. or it doesnt state it has the vent)

 

[jyjjy]

It's a good card.

 

[MtitaniumM]

It seems like the deal feel through.

Out of these cards.. which do you suggest i take a closer look at? (in terms of overall best bang for buck)

Gainward
GTX 460 1 GB "GS-GLH" 790 MHz
GTX 460 1 GB "GS" 700Mhz

Gigabyte
GV-N460OC-1GI 1 GB 715 MHz

Asus
ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/1GD5 775 MHz

MSI
N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC 725mhz

Palit
Sonic Platinum (1 GB GDDR5) 800MHz,
Sonic (1 GB GDDR5) 700MHz

 

[unknown_13]

It seems like the deal feel through.

Out of these cards.. which do you suggest i take a closer look at? (in terms of overall best bang for buck)

Gainward
GTX 460 1 GB "GS-GLH" 790 MHz
GTX 460 1 GB "GS" 700Mhz

Gigabyte
GV-N460OC-1GI 1 GB 715 MHz

Asus
ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/1GD5 775 MHz

MSI
N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC 725mhz

Palit
Sonic Platinum (1 GB GDDR5) 800MHz,
Sonic (1 GB GDDR5) 700MHz

I think the MSI model is the best. Right behind it the ASUS one.