What graphics card will perform high to mid settings for 2-3 years

[vayron]

i am i the marked for a upgrade my budget is ZAR RAND 7000- 8300

my idea
i5 2400
asus p67
GPU ??? help
power supply 650-700watt
2-4 hard drives sata

futhere proof

 

[Griffolion]

The concept of future proof is a null argument in modern PC building.

The best term to use is upgradeable.

For the most part it looks fine. We could do with some proper brands though, perhaps shop through your preferred online retailer and provide links so we have a more specific idea.

If you're looking at a single GPU system, you will only need a 650W supply at most. Also consider RAM too, you haven't included it.

 

[Ahelpinghand]

How much are you willing to spend on the video card?

 

[vayron]

sorry 4gb ram


GPU

http://nivo.co.za/#buy~club.3d.ati.radeon.hd.6950.graphics.card~p23636

http://nivo.co.za/#buy~club.3d.ati.radeon.hd6870.graphics.card.cgax.68724fo.~p23521


psu
http://nivo.co.za/#buy~cooler.master.650watts.atx.12v.power.supply.unit.rp.650.pcar.~p10143

http://nivo.co.za/#buy~cooler.master.gx.series.650watts.atx.12v.power.supply.unit.rs.650.acaa.e3.~p19290

http://nivo.co.za/#buy~huntkey.650watts.atx.12v.power.supply.titan.650.~p17865

 

[Griffolion]

None of those PSU's are suitable, stick to brands like Corsair, Antec, Silverstone or OCZ.

The 6950 is a really nice card so that's a pretty good choice.

 

[wolfram23]

I disagree, Cooler Master is a decent brand. That GX 650 has 52A on the 12V, and 25A each on 3.3V and 5V. This should be sufficient.
A Corsair 650TX is rated nearly the same, 52A on 12V, 24A on 3V, 30A on 5V.

As for GPUs, either the 6870 or 6950 are going to give "mid to high" graphics for the next few years. I'd say go with the 6950 because you might be able to BIOS flash it to a 6970, if you're willing to take the risk. However, either way if you're at 1080p gaming they should be adequete. Right now you wouldn't be able to max out Crysis or Metro 2033 but nearly all other games would be on high or better.

I also think a 6870 is slightly better value if you consider crossfire in the future as two of them will perform really really well.

The only other consideration is whether you might upgrade to eyefinity, ie: 3 monitors. For those super high resolutions the 6950 would be better due to having 2gb VRAM.

You might also want to look at a 560 Ti or 470 from Nvidia.

 

[Griffolion]

The 560ti will best the 470 for the extra £10 while being cooler, quieter and less noisy. Not to mention the increased amount of over clocking headroom the 560 will give.

The only reason why i suggested not going with cooler master is because a number of people on the homebuilt forum that have had problems involved a cooler master PSU.

I may just be being susceptible availability heuristic but that's what i know.

 

[vayron]

will a gx 550 be good or must i go for the coolermaster gx 650

 

[wolfram23]

550 should be fine for a single card but I wouldn't recommend tyring CF or SLI on it.

 

[minitron815]

Total wattage doesn't matter nearly as much as the number of amps on the +12V rail(s); this is the wattage you are interested in (amps x volts = watts). Considering a CPU uses ~100 watts and gaming GPUs are ~150-180 watts then 300 watts over the 12 volts is plenty (24-25 amps). 40 amps is more than enough for SLI/CF if it's a good power supply.

Another thing is do not combine the totals amps on all your 12V rails. It's usually not additive but is telling you what the maximum number of amps you can get over that specific rail is. For example a PSU may have 3 rails at 18 amps each but a total of 40 amps over the 3 rails (so 40 amps is the total not 54).

One a side note: Antec and Corsair generally make better power supplies than OCZ, Coolmaster, etc.

Depends on your pricepoint but anything GTX 460/HD 5850/6950 or better should be fine for 2-3 years. I would strongly suggest a GTX 560 or HD 6950 at $250 but obviously you aren't in the US. 9800 GTs still run most games at relatively high settings so don't feel the need to go overboard.

 

[jjb8675309]

From my experiences OCZ is definatley not always a reliable brand on some of their models they definatley do not produce the specs they promise, and for the money go with an antec corsair or seasonic or silvertone....

on a side note I have the XXX 650w XFX psu which actually a seasonic psu its 80+ bronze, has 4 pci-e connectors and modular cables and is quite nice, and silent

 

[jjb8675309]

will a gx 550 be good or must i go for the coolermaster gx 650

go for the gx650 if you plan on going mainstream crossfire ie 6850s, imo