Which graphic card should I buy ?

[alexsuo]

So I am trying to put together a new system, reusing no more than current HDD and monitor.

I am planning to go for i5 3570K and now the graphic card is the question. Currently I am owning a HIS 4870 IceQ. My budget is $250 - 400 which covers quite a lot; but I am not sure which level of card should I go for.

I will play with a single Dell 2410 monitor running with 1920 x 1080 and 10 bit color depth. My favorite games are World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III etc which are not really demanding. However I'd like to continue play with this card for 3~4 years without upgrading / changing it.

I looked at HIS/MSI 7870/7950/7970 and EVGA 670/680; but I am now really puzzled. Do you think the additional performance of a 7970/670/680 is overkill for my games and my monitor? If I really go for 7870/7950 can they last 3~4 years?

Also, I'd like to build a relatively silent box - so the card better not too loud. I won't OC on CPU or GPU if the card isn't defaulted to.

I can buy a ~750W 80+ good PSU to reserve upgrade capacity if needed.

Thank you very much.
Alex

 

[Guest]

the games you mentioned do well with an nVidia card:

you could go down to a GTX 660 for around $220:

 

[ndslite]

great processor choice but also consider the fx 8350. for the GPU, a 7970 is overkill for those games, I would just go with the 7870

 

[babernet_1]

Ignore the AMD fan boy pushing inferior gaming processors.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-core-i7-3770k-gaming-bottleneck,3407.html

For gaming, the I5-3570K is as fast as the I7_3770K, and faster than the AMD_whatever

You always want to get the most powerful graphics processor you can because the games get more and more demanding year by year. Far Cry 3 brings a 680 to its knees even with a 1920 X 1080 display.

With $400 you can get either a 7970 or 670. Again, which one to get is a massive debate. I'd suggest one or the other. Either one will max out your games and should last for a few years.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103201
This seems to be the best rated 7970 card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162109
This seems to be about the best rated 670. Personally, I'd go for this one.

 

[alexsuo]

Best answer selected by alexsuo.