Searching for a new GPU, Please help

[RedLight5]

Hi Forum

so I think my graphics card is broken and since I want to start commentate I'll need a nice sturdy one but I suck at hardware.
Anyway here is the info

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I don't have one since I am a student and don't know my self how much time I would have for my self but lets say in the next 6 months.

BUDGET RANGE: R0 - R3000 ($0 - $350 ) around there is my budget.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Little gaming not much and but most importantly to Render videos ( if my budget is to low you can propose any other card as well but be sure to add his price as well )

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY : Nvidia Gforce GTX 550 Ti and a 700W PSU

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS : Intel Core to 2 duo CPU @ 3.06Ghz and my Motherboard is ASUS P5KPL-AM SE also I own 4 GB ram

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Takealot.com or Kalahari.net

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: South Africa

PARTS PREFERENCES: I love NVIDIA but if there is anything better or has a nice price tag and will hold for the type of card I am fine with it.

OVERCLOCKING: Dont know what it is lol

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Once again I don't know what it is

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1600x900 2 off them

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I have none just a thanks to the forum.

 

[theloveablemoose]

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-graphics-card-2gb,27188593
also maybe if your rendering more than gaming you may want to upgarde your cpu and add some extra ram you may be bottlenecking your 550 ti with your cpu.

 

[-Church-]

EDIT (Re-read thread sorry 'bout the CAD cards, not at all on topic)

Idonno is right, the best choice for your current price range is the 660. Whats sad is in the US you could buy a 670 for that money (350 USD).

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-graphics-card-2gb,27188593

Also if you want to speed up render times (as your GPU most likely wont effect anything that much, from what I understand you need a new one because yours isn't at the performance level you want) get this CPU.

Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 (~R1700)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-2-Extreme-QX9650-3-0GHz-12MB-1333MHz-OEM-Quad-Core-SLAN3-/321057359943?pt=CPUs&hash=item4ac0828847

The trouble is finding one that will ship to where you are currently located. That one showed up under international shipping but the listing says Ships To: United States so I don't know if you could purchase it. You could ask them about international and most auctioneers would be understanding I would imagine. Money is money after all.

With the extra $150 (~R1300) you could also get an SSD which would help speed things up a bit for renders and also help your general performance as far as boot and load times.

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/sandisk-extreme-solid-state-drive-120gb,12795827

I own this one and I'm quite happy with its performance. Make sure it's up to date with the SanDisk SSD tool kit though or you could run into problems.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9328/~/ssd-toolkit-support-information

 

[Idonno]

Well It's to bad you don't have some better web sites to choose from Kalahari.net is pretty poor and Takealot.com is just slightly better.

Here is a link for the comparison of the cards I think are decent choices at Takealot.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2050001315%2040000048&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=48|14-125-445^14-125-445-TS%2C14-125-443^14-125-443-TS%2C14-121-435^14-121-435-TS

Of these three the GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) was only added in for comparison reasons. Your choice should be between the other two.

As you can see the cheapest of these cards (the GTX 650) is substantially better than the GTX 550 Ti (the one you had) with faster core clocks, memory clocks and twice the CUDA Cores.

I don't know how intensive your gaming and video rendering is but if you were happy with your old card you will be quite a bit more so with the GTX 650

The more expensive GTX 660 would improve these areas even more but, for more overall performance I agree with "-Church-" the money saved on the cheaper card (the GTX 650) would be well spent on an SSD.

 

[DarkSable]

The other option is buying from a website that ships to the US and asking one of us on the forums to pass it along to you - I, for one, would be happy to, if you'd get it cheaper / get a better card. I've lived abroad, so I know what it's like to have a hard time getting ahold of anything.

 

[RedLight5]

Hi guys and thanks for the supper quick replies. Just a few questions more.

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-graphics-card-2gb,27188593
also maybe if your rendering more than gaming you may want to upgarde your cpu and add some extra ram you may be bottlenecking your 550 ti with your cpu.

My computer does currently have problems with my graphics, I know this is irrelevant question toward the thread but say I play a game then it would do random black screen then the game crash and a pop up sign from nvidia shows saying drivers stopped working. Could it be the bottleneck ?

EDIT (Re-read thread sorry 'bout the CAD cards, not at all on topic)

Idonno is right, the best choice for your current price range is the 660. Whats sad is in the US you could buy a 670 for that money (350 USD).

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-graphics-card-2gb,27188593

Also if you want to speed up render times (as your GPU most likely wont effect anything that much, from what I understand you need a new one because yours isn't at the performance level you want) get this CPU.

Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 (~R1700)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-2-Extreme-QX9650-3-0GHz-12MB-1333MHz-OEM-Quad-Core-SLAN3-/321057359943?pt=CPUs&hash=item4ac0828847

The trouble is finding one that will ship to where you are currently located. That one showed up under international shipping but the listing says Ships To: United States so I don't know if you could purchase it. You could ask them about international and most auctioneers would be understanding I would imagine. Money is money after all.

With the extra $150 (~R1300) you could also get an SSD which would help speed things up a bit for renders and also help your general performance as far as boot and load times.

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/sandisk-extreme-solid-state-drive-120gb,12795827

I own this one and I'm quite happy with its performance. Make sure it's up to date with the SanDisk SSD tool kit though or you could run into problems.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9328/~/ssd-toolkit-support-information

Thanks for the respond will the cpu work on my motherboard or do you think I should rather buy a new motherboard a cpu and ram first ?

The other option is buying from a website that ships to the US and asking one of us on the forums to pass it along to you - I, for one, would be happy to, if you'd get it cheaper / get a better card. I've lived abroad, so I know what it's like to have a hard time getting ahold of anything.

I don't understand your statement ? Buy a card then let it ship to someone in the US and he ships it for me ? If so I am sorry I don't want to take the risk of someone stealing what I bought. I am not stating you would steal but the problem is I don't know you. In which case you could disappear with my hardware, Don't take it offensive please

Thanks again guys for all the replies and sorry this is almost the best website I know off in South Africa have a great day

 

[Idonno]

Well don't get offended here but, I'm going to be insensitive and blunt. Not to be rude, just to help. Your motherboard is a dinosaur and your CPU has 1 foot in the tar pits as well.

Again please don't be offended so was mine before I built the one in my signature and this one will probably be a dinosaur when I build the next one.

With the possible exception of your case and power supply, your whole system needs to be replaced. The trick here is to accomplish this, still have a PC to use in the meantime and of course stay within your financial means.

If your graphics card is broken you need to replace that first.

You should make sure anything you replace on that motherboard can be used on a new build and you should have some idea of what the final configuration/platform will be.

At the moment a very good platform is a socket 1155/Z77 chipset motherboard with a Intel i5 2500k or i7 3770K CPU. Don't upgrade your ram or your CPU on that old mobo because you wont be able to use it on anything that isn't already outdated.

If you have the extra money you can buy the motherboard and CPU now (you will also need some DDR3 ram and a new copy of windows) and use the CPU's onboard graphics until you can afford a video card.

Then (as long as you bought a K series CPU) you can buy an aftermarket CPU cooler and overclock the hell out of it. Both of the CPU's mentioned above are made for that and they OC exceptionally well. They are also just great CPU's even if you don't want to over clock.

Which ever way you can afford to go at the moment don't buy any hardware that won't be compatible with a new build because that is the direction you should be heading.

P.S. A great place to compare CPU's, GPU's and SSD's is here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2

 

[maneeshthegamer]

Dude, you can get along with the 550ti for atleast 1 or 1 and a half yrs. Save up to upgrade your entire system till that time(900 dollars would be good)

 

[RedLight5]

Thanks guys for all the help really. My biggest problem sadly is that I can't afford it I am first year student ( Doing Bsc IT so programming will be my future ) I will get a job later on but I need to settle in here since everything is new living on my own and all the freedom that is handed towards me, I need money for so much things now like food, water, electric bills, party money, petrol money ( Not yet my car is sent in for repairs but when I get it back ) etc. in which I am use to a full fridge at home and regularly have a meeting with my financial adviser aka parents. This is a whole new world for me. So this means I will be lucky if I get a new pc all my new equipment to start commentating etc. at the end of the year.

Thanks guys for all the help