Interested in your thoughts on GPUs

[chambered]

I'm currently in the market for a new GPU. I play at 1440x900 (I like it what can I say). My question to you the viewers is this.What card would give me the best chance of maxxing out games on my resolution for a year+ ? Money isn't an object though I can't imagine at my low res it would run more than 500 or so.

Single GPU preferred with the option of sli/xfire later on.

Cpu = i5 2500k
Mobo = asrock P67 extreme4 gen3
Ram = 8g gskill
PSU = hx850
Case = haf 932

Thanks for the insight all.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

500 what ? Roepies, yen's, roebels, beads ?

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Assuming it's dollars you can have a top high end card you defenitely don't need at your res. A HD 6870 will do fine at your res. On the other hand you'r sure you never gonne wanne play on higher res. ? ( i love it ) You tried it somewhere ?
Anyway ; if you stick with your res a HD 6870 or a GTX 560 TI should just be fine.
Good brands ; Asus, EVGA, Sapphire, MSI, HIS en XFX maybe.
If money is really no issue i would go for a HD6950 2GB now ( altough it would be a litlle overkill at your res. ) or if you can wait ( don't think you can because you don't seem to have an GPU now ) for the new upcoming 7000 series.

 

[ram1009]

My opinion is that ATI/AMD GPUs have buggy drivers and that's why I don't use them. Assuming you're spending dollars you can buy just about any single card you want.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Think the driver problems are solved now. They had problems in the past that's true. Nowadays Nvidea seems to be struggling a bit with the drivers for the 500 series imo.

 

[geofelt]

If money is not an issue, just get a GTX580. It will cost <$500 today, and it is the fastest single gpu card you can buy today. Yes, it is a bit of an overkill for 1440 x 900.

But, there is nothing better.

 

[chambered]

Sorry. Yes it's dollars. I don't plan on changing resolutions but who knows? I think my 19 inch at this res is just the right size for me. A 580 seems more like a killing spree than overkill. At most I think a 570 but the 560ti's look pretty nice.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

560 ti is nice and you can always sli later on as you stated. Or since you seem to have the money maybe go now for sli, why wait ?

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Still a bit of a waist from the pci-e 3.0 slots. ( altough not sure if the new series will use 3.0 actually, whatever. )

 

[_Pez_]

an hd 6950 or hd 6870 or a gtx 560ti. or an hd 6770. I would go for an hd 6870 this card is cheap and good for 1080p gaming.

 

[chambered]

as long as it will max or get close to it it's no worries. I'm tired of gaming on low

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Sorry. Yes it's dollars. I don't plan on changing resolutions but who knows? I think my 19 inch at this res is just the right size for me. A 580 seems more like a killing spree than overkill. At most I think a 570 but the 560ti's look pretty nice.

TRUST ME when i say you would not regret upgrading your monitor. Something in the 23inch range is good. I couldn't believe the difference when i recently upgraded from an old 19" like yours, my new 23.6 inch samsung craps all over it, everything looks so much better. Id rather play with lowered detail settings on a bigger/higher res monitor than play 19"/1440x900 maxed out. you wont be able to see maxed out detail at that res.

 

[guavasauce]

dont waste your money on a boss hog card if you have no intention of upgrading to higher res.

as stated above, a 6870 or 560 will keep you in Dx11, maxed games (@ your res for a good while im sure) and its not gonna make you over pay.

considering your current set up though, i cant imagine why you would at least upgrade to a 22" 1680x1050 monitor and still get the above mentioned card.

to me, amd/nvidia battles are............yeah. eiather card maker will do you justice, however, xfire/sli are both plagued with issues. i would recommend either, instead upgrade single card set ups ever 2 years or so.

 

[chambered]

i started my gaming with counterstrike in 800x600 and just kept it low. I raised to 1440x900 for battlefield lol. So then If you guys could point me towards a nice monitor in the suggested size range that would be appreciated.

I've heard a lot of issues with sli/xfire which is why I prefer a single card setup. Sli/xfire is just a future option. On a 22inch or whatnot at those higher resolutions how hard would it be for s ingle card to max or close to max for a few years?

 

[geofelt]

What graphics card do you now have? The reason I ask, is that if you do not make a significant jump of several tiers in gpu power, you are likely to be disappointed.

Your 2500K is as good as it gets for gaming. It will drive ANY graphics configuration well.

I agree with going to a larger monitor. You will see more of the game at one time. Currently 1080P seems to be the resolution of choice. If your budget is $1000 or so, then 2560 x 1600 is great. At 1080P, the load on the graphics card is the same, regardless of the size of the monitor, be it 22" or 27" or even a 60"TV. Something like 24" would be good for a desktop user. Plan on keeping your smaller monitor if you can fit it on your desktop. It is most useful to hold static stuff like e-mail,performance m onitors...etc. It will not hurt gaming performance on the main monitor.

As to which monitor, I like Samsung. They make the panels for many, if not most, monitor vendors. I think they keep the best samples for themselves. I have never seen a dead pixel with a Samsung monitor. You will pay about $230 for a good 24" one. Go ahead and do it. A good monitor will last you through several generations of PC's. You will see it and touch it every day, so get the best you feel comfortable paying for.
Here is one for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001388

A GTX560ti will drive a 1080P well. A GTX570 is really about as good as you need to be. The 6950 and 6970 are the equivalent cards from ati. Do not worry much about minor differences and benchmarks. The graphics card business is very competitive so you get what you pay for. I would also avoid multi-gpu solutions. They may show well in FPS benchmarks but are prone to microstuttering which is very annoying.

 

[chambered]

Very Informative Geofelt. I'm currently using a 9600 gt. So yeah anything would be a huge jump haha.