What Graphics Card Should I Get?

[matt6fx532]

Hi,

I have a AMD BULLDOZER SIX CORE FX-6100 (3.30GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3+) CPU and a 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 630 GPU.

I am wanting to upgrade my GPU to a better one, i have a budget of around £100-£250 budget. Can anyone help me out?

My computer specs are;

ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3 (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 3Gb/s)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
SPIRE GEMINI REV.3-THERMAX HDT TWIN FAN CPU COOLER
InWIN MANA-136 BLACK GAMING CASE
WINDOWS 8 PRO

 

[EzioAs]

Can you give us the specific model of your power supply? Want to make sure it's good enough for the cards I would like to recommend.

 

[matt6fx532]

Im not sure what the specific model is, i got my pc build from PCSPECIALIST.co.uk.

I logged in to see what my specs where for my whole pc and what i put in my first thread was what i got off the website.

Sorry if thats no help.

 

[EzioAs]

Assuming it's a good quality unit, you can either get a GTX660ti or Radeon 7950. Don't ask me which is better, they both perform about the same. Anandtech's bench is a good way to compare the cards but remember that after newer driver updates, there are performance increase on both sides. For example, after the 12.11 driver, AMD cards no longer struggle behind their respective counterparts from Nvidia in games such as Battlefield 3.

Features and advantage wise, if you get a GTX660ti, you'll get Adaptive V-Sync, TXAA and PhysX. If you get the 7950, you'll get the extra 1GB VRAM, bigger memory bus (which will suffer less from high resolution and AA), better compute performance and a large overclocking headroom which can bring the card around the performance of a GTX680.

 

[matt6fx532]

Ok thanks, i think i will go for the Radeon 7950, but i have just looked on Scan.co.uk and there are a few makes like: XFX/MSI/Gigabyte/Asus/Sapphire which one would you say is best?

 

[exeedorbit]

If you're not planning on playing at or over 1080p, the GTX 660ti should be more than sufficient. However if you are planning on playing at 1080p or higher resolutions than that, go for the HD7950.

 

[killerchickens]

Be Quite make very good power supplies.

 

[exeedorbit]

Ok thanks, i think i will go for the Radeon 7950, but i have just looked on Scan.co.uk and there are a few makes like: XFX/MSI/Gigabyte/Asus/Sapphire which one would you say is best?

Unless you're planning on overclocking the card, the brands don't really matter. They all perform very similarly, and for the most part handle things such as cooling and noise rather similarly. Your determining factor in that case should be things like price and warranty.

Remember, this is only if you do NOT plan on overclocking the board.

 

[matt6fx532]

No i dont plan on OC anything. So the GTX 660 ti would be better then?


Reply to exeedorbit - i play games at 1920-1080p resolution

 

[killerchickens]

Checkout this review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/11/12/fall_2012_gpu_driver_comparison_roundup/

 

[Angry Bellic]

No i dont plan on OC anything. So the GTX 660 ti would be better then?

The GTX 660 Ti is a Kepler card so you should see performance increase against the HD 7950. Also, The GTX 660 Ti has the new NVIDIA GPU boost feature which is very nice. I don't agree that the HD 7950 delivers better Compute Performance. The AMD offering is good if you are looking for a card that can Handle 1080p resolution. Overall, the GTX 660 Ti is better in my opinion.

Reply to exeedorbit - i play games at 1920-1080p resolution

 

[matt6fx532]

what would be best for a 1920-1080p resolution?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-xfx-radeon-hd-7950-double-d-5000mhz-gddr5-gpu-800mhz-dvi-dvi-hdmi-mdp

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-evga-gtx-660-ti-superclocked-28nm-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-980mhz-boost-1059mhz-cores-1344-2x-dl-dvi-dp

 

[matt6fx532]

Also i play games like;

DayZ
World of Warcraft
Skyrim
Minecraft
WarZ
Arma 2


would my specs with either one of the graphics cards i have linked above make these games run at good fps (40+)?

 

[DarkSable]

A 660ti should make most of those games run at max settings, 60 fps. Skyrim is the only one that I'd be doubtful of.

(And your CPU might make the multiplayer games a bit laggy, since it's the processors' job, not the graphics card's, to determine position and actions and such.)

 

[Tom Burnqest]

Checkout this review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/11/12/fall_2012_gpu_driver_comparison_roundup/

LOL @ that review you posted as it claims the 660ti has consistently higher mi framerates than the GTX 680.

 

[matt6fx532]

What would you recommend for the cpu?

 

[Angry Bellic]

LOL @ that review you posted as it claims the 660ti has consistently higher mi framerates than the GTX 680.

GTX 660 Ti in an SLI Configuration gives 26% more performance than the GTX 680. Watch this if you do not believe me Linus Tech Tips GTX 660 Ti vs single GTX 680 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Youtube Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJI8f81a9IA