New monitor purchased, new hardware required

[woodbine77]

Hi,

Last year I built my first pc using mostly second-hand parts.

Haf-x case.
i5 3570
Asrock z77 performance mobo
Zalman CNPS9700 CPU Cooler
8GB G-Skill ares 1333 Mhz
SSD & HDD
Blue-ray player and standard DVD-ROM drive
NZXT SENTRY 2 Fan Controller
800W Silent Pro PSU
radeon hd5770 x 2 in crossfire

I just used cheap peripherals, and an old 19" monitor.

After a bit of help from some guys on here, I eventually got it working and have spent the last 6 months or so enjoying some fine pc gaming. It has run the likes of Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Crysis 2, Battlefield 4, mostly on high / ultra settings. Had to adjust down on a few settings from time-to-time but I'm delighted with the results I've got for the money spent.

Now though I want to go for the second stage and pump a little bit more cash into my rig. First thing is a better monitor and I've been offered a Yamikaze Catleap for £100.

What am I going to have to upgrade to be able to play at a decent frame-rate if moving up to 2440 x 1440 resolution?

Obviously my current GPU option is bargain-basement but spending £200-300 on a GPU is not in my budget. The HD5770 were £35 each second-hand and have done me proud in cross-fire. Is there one graphics card that would improve on 2x 5770 for a reasonable cost? Everywhere I look, I can compare graphics card, but it's not easier to find a way to compare one card against 2 in crossfire. I assume that upgrading to just one card would also help with my power consumption and enable me to perhaps look into a multi-monitor set up because I'm concerned that boosting graphics card and monitor would cause issue with this. The fan controller can go if power is a problem because it's crap anyway and software seems to be easier.

Any ideas where I should be concentrating what resources I have on being able to get the best out of what I've heard is an awesome monitor? I made the mistake of buying 1 x 8GB ram and now can't find a reasonably-priced second stick for dual-channel which is a pain, and 2 x 8GB of any RAM seems to be ludicrously expensive, but to me, this would appear to be the first place to upgrade??

Any yeah, looking back I which I'd got the K version CPU, but it was cheap....

Thanks in advance

 

[Y0GI]

Here is a link to Tom's GPU Hierarchy chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

They have a listing for the HD 5770 but not 2 in Xfire. I doubt that the second card really gives you a lot of benefit because it is prolly only operating at PCIe X4 speed, but that is just my opinion.

One card of a higher tier rating is always preferable to 2 cards in Xfire.

So, to get a recommendation, set your budget and then enter the above chart and go shopping.

For 1440 resolution I believe that you'll need a minimum of 3 GB of VRAM.

Yogi

 

[BleedingEdgeTek]

This is really the lowest I would go for 1440p. The 3GB will be useful over 2GB, and the 280 is a pretty good card. Should get you High at 1440p around 40+ FPS or so in most games. And going Crossfire with another 280 in the future would be great and easy

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£167.95 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £167.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-05 18:14 BST+0100)

 

[woodbine77]

Here is a link to Tom's GPU Hierarchy chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

They have a listing for the HD 5770 but not 2 in Xfire. I doubt that the second card really gives you a lot of benefit because it is prolly only operating at PCIe X4 speed, but that is just my opinion.

One card of a higher tier rating is always preferable to 2 cards in Xfire.

So, to get a recommendation, set your budget and then enter the above chart and go shopping.

For 1440 resolution I believe that you'll need a minimum of 3 GB of VRAM.

Yogi

Thanks for the reply. I've got that hierarchy chart in my favourites and am keeping an eye out for bargains. I'm sure I read somewhere (probably on that same page) that it's not worth upgrading unless you go for a card that if 4 tiers above what you already have. I just thought that 2 in crossfire would have moved me up a tier or two...

I guess now is the time I'm going to have splash a bit of cash on this thing.

 

[Y0GI]

Here is a link to Tom's GPU Hierarchy chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

They have a listing for the HD 5770 but not 2 in Xfire. I doubt that the second card really gives you a lot of benefit because it is prolly only operating at PCIe X4 speed, but that is just my opinion.

One card of a higher tier rating is always preferable to 2 cards in Xfire.

So, to get a recommendation, set your budget and then enter the above chart and go shopping.

For 1440 resolution I believe that you'll need a minimum of 3 GB of VRAM.

Yogi

Thanks for the reply. I've got that hierarchy chart in my favourites and am keeping an eye out for bargains. I'm sure I read somewhere (probably on that same page) that it's not worth upgrading unless you go for a card that if 4 tiers above what you already have. I just thought that 2 in crossfire would have moved me up a tier or two...

I guess now is the time I'm going to have splash a bit of cash on this thing.

You're quite welcome!

One minor correction though. Here is what he says about upgrading:

I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not even notice any worthwhile difference in performance.

I'm no video expert but, from what I've read, I would guess that Xfire will give you a one tier upgrade, or MAYBE two at most. JMHO though.

Yogi