Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Graphics card replacement(In two weeks)(Good read)

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share

Well I currently have a computer running primarily 4 games which are : League of legends, Borderlands 2, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 3.

These are my computer specs :

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard - ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
CPU Cooler - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Storage - SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive
Optical Drive - ASUS 24X DVD Burner
Grahpics Card - XFX HD-667X-CNF3 Radeon HD 6670 2GB
Power Supply - Antec Basiq BP500U 500W


Now for some reason I can play everything relatively well. Exacpt for Borderlands 2. This game I hear is very graphics intensive. Feel free to take a look at the specs of my grahpics card

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Video-Graphics-Cards-HD667XCN...

This is the link for it the info seems correct to what I have. Now I have been killing myself. I CANNOT run it my screens resolution which is 1920x1080.

It is a 2gb card and I assumed with that I would be able to run without lag. After all, none of my other games lag but then again none of them really use much GPU. Well I have to run in at 1024x768 I believe to not get lag. This is very frustrating.

Now I took a good hard look and realized that it may be my graphics but I wanted to ask you all and take a look at what could be the issue here. GRanted I run all other games at 1920x1080.

My solution is I am going to (In two weeks) buy one of the two graphics cards

Galaxy GTX 660 Ti 3gb

http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-GeForce-Express-Graphics-6...

or

Galaxy GTX 670 4gb

http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-GeForce-Express-Graphics-6...

And I plan to upgrade my PSU to a 750w Corsair Modular power supply:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E98FVS/ref=ox_sc_a...

Now two questions arrive :

1. Which of the video cards do you believe I need to run Borderlands 2 on Ultra settings with a 1920x1080 24" Benq RL2450H.
I do not plan on going more than one monitor as of now So running it Ultra to one screen no 3D surround. And with my motherboard(posted above) Do you think it is possible or even neccessary to SLI a similar card. Again I ask about these two cards because I see them alot in B2 builds and I see it can run on ultra.

and

2. Is this power supply sufficient for the rig I am trying to run and a possible SLI of one of the forementioned cards ?

Please let me know.
A lot of reading I know but I hope you can take the time to read my problem and help me out.

I have email notification so I will answer as soon as possible. Thank you.

More about : graphics card replacement weeks good read

Register or log in to remove
Related ressources
Ask the community

Wait a minute...you already HAVE a decent CPU. It won't be as fast as an i5, but to scrap it and spend another $300 doesn't seem worthwhile. Overclock your 965 for more performance. You can probably hit 3.8GHz without too much effort, and 4GHz is not unrealistic; some people get more.
Right now, as you have surmised, your system's weakest point is the graphics card. Get something like a HD7850 and then see where you stand. You might be entirely satisfied right there.

I have to agree with Onus. I don't know why but people here are too quick to blame the CPUs. What you need to understand is that CPU affects performance in games very little in the end. Yes you may be bottlenecked if your processor is too old, but having owned that particular model not 2 months ago I can say it won't throttle your performance in most games.

Also how come nobody has yet said that if you're buying the GTX 670 do not get the 4Gb version!! You only need 2Gb VRAM when you're playing at that resolution. The 4 gig version will end up costing more and actually performs worse than the 2 gig model.

It should be able to run the card as is, even with the current PSU. Although this can be a bit tricky to estimate as 500W is a bit 'there on the edge' of what is required for GTX 670 + if it is old and not a very high quality one. You might be on the safer side by getting a new one...

Honestly a 7850 2gb will keep you happy for a while man and it will not tax your PSU so it will be a safe bet. The best 7850 is the powercolor PCS+ 7850 2gb and is performs in between a GTX 570 and GTX 580 all for under $200. Also the AMD 965 is a good CPU for gaming I would be happy with is and I know I am happy with the AMD 955 so ...

alucardseres said:
Can you give me a link so I can take a look at the best Radeon card that can run PhysX high and B2 on ultra. Thank you all so much for your imput

Honesty you don't want Physx as it takes a big framerate hit and is only in 18 games many of which are really old and or crappy games.

Read all of that Best Graphics Card for the Money monthly article (if you didn't already). The discussion after it may also be interesting.
Really though, at this point, it gets easy to second guess yourself into a stupor. Considering what you have now, ANY of the cards that have been mentioned would be a dramatic improvement. Hell, a $120 HD7770 would look great, if you want to go cheap.

alucardseres said:
It is a 2gb card and I assumed with that I would be able to run without lag.

Galaxy GTX 660 Ti 3gb
or
Galaxy GTX 670 4gb


You're making a HUGE, fairly common mistake. The ONLY thing 2GB refers to is the amount of video ram the card has. This works just like normal ram - if you don't have enough, you need more desperately; if you have enough, adding more does nothing. 2GB is plenty for 1080p, and I'm going to emphasize this:

MORE VRAM DOES NOT IMPROVE PERFORMANCE. (in your case)

That is to say that a 4GB 670 will not run ANY faster or less laggy than a 2GB 670. The entire thing is a good deal more complicated; this is the simple, easy to digest version.

Don't waste your money buying "more GB" when it doesn't do anything for you.



Edit: Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party, aren't I? Still it's an important thing to know.

alucardseres said:
It's all right. It just so happens that I am still new to knowing about all this in computers all I had was a general idea but I did learn from all of you. I am getting a 2gb as I hear that is the best all around for my resolution DarkSable thank you so much for your input.

The only game that will push the 2gb Vram envelope @ 1080P is modded Skyrim and BF3 will use almost 1.5gb Vram at that resolution. In short 2gb Vram is good now in days for running a single 1080P monitor.

You know though I can't remember who it is bigmac I believe it was him and I were talking about Skyrim and how with his amd cards no matter how much ram the card had it would use the ram and the same thing with the nvidia cards. He was saying how on the forums that people haven't been complaining about the nvidia cards so I would imagine its a non issue. Now I have a GTX670 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... this one in particular and I wouldn't suggest it because of there customer service but for me there are two companies that I would suggest.

For reference I would go EVGA. You can not deal with a better company for warranties and customer service. I've had a plenty of cards with them and always a joy to correspond with.

If you have the money which I know everyone is tight on money right now I would get this card from ASUS.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Also for a power supply I would look into something like this. I feel if you are going to put as much money into your graphics card as you are you wise as well make sure your power supply is quality basic power supplies and builders power supplies do not come with great OEM's.
XFX Core 550w (!!!!!SEASONIC BASED OEM!!!!!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

@Sumukh_Bhagat
I always really like what he has to say I really do think though a CPU bottleneck can be a contributing factor. If you only really plan on using one card you can save a little on motherboards by getting a single 3.0 slot motherboard which is fine for most people SLi and CF are for people who can really make use of it more then just for show and benchmark EPEEN.
This board for example.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

alucardseres said:
THat's the thing I always thought moe vram would be better but I am learning here that buying the 4gb card would just be over kill. I am glad i learned before I overspent. Thank you all.

In most cases the actual GPU will be the bottleneck before it even uses up the Vram and that's why you will only see more than 3gb of Vram on only the most powerful cards and dual GPU beasts.

Because SSD's will blow away any Hard drive EASY! And I just bought that hard drive today :p  finally getting rid of my final sata 2 hard drive all sata 3 from now on. I had a 25 dollar gift card with newegg to spend from the holidays. And the main reason why I made a recommendation for a different SSD is because the higher grade SSD's use different NAND that pushes the performance over the cheaper drives that use a cheaper NAND.

bigshootr8 said:
Because SSD's will blow away any Hard drive EASY! And I just bought that hard drive today :p  finally getting rid of my final sata 2 hard drive all sata 3 from now on. I had a 25 dollar gift card with newegg to spend from the holidays. And the main reason why I made a recommendation for a different SSD is because the higher grade SSD's use different NAND that pushes the performance over the cheaper drives that use a cheaper NAND.


As if you need the desktop to be faster LOL my programs open instant with an HDD.

bigshootr8 said:
It makes a different man I'll race your HDD on startup, on loading programs, on rendering large files quickly on a drive and then moving it onto a storage drive. My Samsung 830 256GB would run circles around your HDD (not literally)

I don't care as I am not in a race. Your comparison is moot kind of like how a race between a ford F150 Raptor and a Jet plane is moot. Of course the Jet Plane is faster but the Pickup truck is what I need everyday because it has lots of room for storage and is still plenty fast enough and is cheap.
Register or log in to remove
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Graphics & Displays categories
!