Looking for advice on a Graphics Card.

[WokSz]

Hi guys,

I'm currently looking at building a new PC for my gaming needs. Here are the current parts I've found:

1) Still deciding between the MSI X79A-GD45 and ASUS P9X79.
2) Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor

Was wondering what your opinions were on the Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ 3072MB (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-303-SP)?

Would you recommend a better card for my gaming needs?

 

[ricardois]

That is a great GPU, and it should fullfill any gaming need you have. but personally i would take something like that:

MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127672&name=Desktop-Graphics-Cards

Also would take the ASUS mobo.

 

[WokSz]

That is a great GPU, and it should fullfill any gaming need you have. but personally i would take something like that:

MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127672&name=Desktop-Graphics-Cards

Also would take the ASUS mobo.

¨
Any particular reasons for your choices?

 

[ram1009]

I gave up on AMD/ATI because their drivers are always buggy.

 

[maestro0428]

I have never had driver issues with my AMD/ATI cards. I have heard people say they are buggy, but again, never an issue and I have used them since the 9800pro. I also use Nvidia cards and have no problems with them either. I personally would go with the Sapphire cuz its faster than a 680 in many games. I have heard its a bit noisy though, you may want to look into that if you care about that sort of thing. As far as the motherboard goes, I would get the Asus because I have no experience with MSI motherboards (but have seen their reviews, which tend to be worse than Asus). Why not go with a Z77 combo? They are just as fast, at least when comparing the quad core versions. They overclock better too. The only thing x79 gives you is four channel memory (which isn't necessary) and more PCIe lanes (which is only necessary if you run multiple gpus).

 

[Embra]

ASUS mobo.

Sapphire is a top notch gpu.

AMD drivers might actually be better at this point in time compared to NVIDIA, for single gpu systems.

 

[ricardois]

¨
Any particular reasons for your choices?

On my experiences, ASUS mobo are better over MSI mobos, they are more user friendly and ASUS support is great.

I think that the AMD 7000 series Gpus, are still a little over the price for the performance/quality. i think they will drop prices even more (they did that already a lot).

The drivers are not the point, since nvidia last 600 series are still adapting too, but i think that the 680 performance/technology does worth the little extra.

The nvidia control panel is great, you can customize a lot of stuff, things like Smart V-sync TXAA, FXAA are very easily enabled/disabled and the Boost clock the kepler series added is also a nice feature.

Not so important, but there is also full support to 3D Vision, CUDA, PhysX and all nvidia technologies, i know a lot of people that those items are not the ones that would make you go with Nvidia over AMD but it is an explanation for the price.

Basically, if you want a great performance, user friendly configuration and don't want to look for amd fixes over the internet for playing specific games, go with the 680, that it is also top notch.

 

[WokSz]

Thanks for all your replies.

I've decided to go with the MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr.

Would appreciate your advice on whether these three components would work well together:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
MSI GeForce GTX 680 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

 

[LW_Black4]

Thanks for all your replies.

I've decided to go with the MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr.

Would appreciate your advice on whether these three components would work well together:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
MSI GeForce GTX 680 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

That's an excellent combination of PCIe 3.0 gear and the one I want to upgrade to. You've got a top graphics solution with a CPU that won't hold it back, and chose reputable brands for components that will be reliable and supported by their manufacturer if something does go wrong.

 

[ricardois]

Thanks for all your replies.

I've decided to go with the MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr.

Would appreciate your advice on whether these three components would work well together:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
MSI GeForce GTX 680 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

perfect match.

You will not regret it.

like @LW_Black4 said, it is an excelent combination.

 

[WokSz]

Thank you for all your help guys! The MSI GeForce GTX 670 Twin Frozr is £100 cheaper, and according to the benchmarks only 2-4% less performance on games like BF3 and WoW.

I may go with the GTX 670 instead and spend the £100 on an SSD. I'll be running the 670 on a dual monitor setup. What do you guys think?

 

[ricardois]

Thank you for all your help guys! The MSI GeForce GTX 670 Twin Frozr is £100 cheaper, and according to the benchmarks only 2-4% less performance on games like BF3 and WoW.

I may go with the GTX 670 instead and spend the £100 on an SSD. I'll be running the 670 on a dual monitor setup. What do you guys think?

yes, price/performance wise the 670 is a better option, if the price difference is big on the models you are viewing go with the 670.

About the SSD, i don't think is a good way to spend money, if you really like it, go for it. win some extra seconds on loading speeds is not something that worth £100 on my view.

 

[LW_Black4]

I agree that the GTX 670 is a better buy, and like ricardois I'm not sold on SSDs as a boot drive.

I'm going to add an SSD for the Intel Smart Response Tech caching first, along with my (reasonably) fast 6Gbit/s mechanical drive.

 

[WokSz]

Thank you both for your help. I'll go ahead with the GTX 670 and think the SSD through.