Need a recommendation for a GPU

R

reimann3

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
310
my budget is no more than $250. I won't be doing SLI. I'm leaning towards the 560ti. The question is which incarnation. I might be will to pay the extra for the 2gb model from MSI or EGVA if its worth it. I won't be doing sli. I only play starcraft II and I hope to do it at 1920x1080.

It'll be going in a system configured as follows:

-Asus P8Z68-V deluxe mobo
-i7-2600K
-8gb Gskill ripjaw ram
-850w Corsair Enthusiast PSU
-Factal design Midi Black case
-2x60 sata III SSDs in a striped raid configuration
-Asus 24' 1920x1080 monitor

I decided against i7-990X because I can get a whole more for my money and do nearly as much with a Sandy Bridge.I planned on running stock speeds until I can get a Corsair H100. I will be overclocking just not immediately. Which ssd I get will be determined by how much I decide to spend on the GPU. I'm only going to run one GPU. I've been fixing and upgrading older machines for several years but his will be my first foray into dealing with cutting edge hardware.
 
i5 2500K is the best choice for games, the i7 2600K is a more powerful CPU, but only in the computing world, in games you'll never notice the difference. At 1920x1080, a 1GB GTX560Ti will suffice unless you play current high-end titles like Dragon Age 2 and Battlefield 3, in which case get a 2GB version.
 
I transcode video hence the i7. Is one brand of card better than the others?
 
Fair enough, then yes the i7 2600K will pay off handsomely :)
Some brands are better than others but it does vary, people generally tend to have good experiences with EVGA lately, so you're probably best off going with them.
 
The GTX560Ti can be had for $200-$210 after MIR. The XFX HD6870 is noisy as hell but very cheap for 75% of the price of the 560Ti yet 90%+ of the performance. Even the better dual-fan model's only $177, so 85% of the price, for 90%+ performance.
The HD6950 1GB is also a decent card, but with 1GB of video memory it's not really much better than the GTX560Ti, and is slightly more expensive.
The GTX460 1GB may only be 60% of the price, but it's also only 75% of the performance, so you are losing a lot of performance in saving that money.
The GTX560 standard at $170 is a pretty bum deal compared to the HD6870s. No cheaper, yet slower.
 
samuelmorris said:
The GTX560Ti can be had for $200-$210 after MIR. The XFX HD6870 is noisy as hell but very cheap for 75% of the price of the 560Ti yet 90%+ of the performance. Even the better dual-fan model's only $177, so 85% of the price, for 90%+ performance.
The HD6950 1GB is also a decent card, but with 1GB of video memory it's not really much better than the GTX560Ti, and is slightly more expensive.
The GTX460 1GB may only be 60% of the price, but it's also only 75% of the performance, so you are losing a lot of performance in saving that money.
The GTX560 standard at $170 is a pretty bum deal compared to the HD6870s. No cheaper, yet slower.
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The 6870 is loud? I have one and I cant hear it at all??? MIR's are nice if you dont mind waiting 2 months.
 
mine is the original reference version, and usually they are louder than the 2nd generation gpu's. It think it has more to do with gpu fan settings.
 
Nah the reference is much quieter than the single fan non-reference, trust me. It's just not a very good design for that much heat. The dual fan XFX coolers are excellent and the reference coolers are pretty good too, it's just those single fan non-reference XFX cards that are to be avoided, as they're built to the lowest hardware standard. The worst offenders are the 1GB HD6950 models, but the 6870 ones aren't great either.
 
I was looking at the user reviews on the egg and some people are saying that ues it is loud but they are using msi afterburner to control the fan and its fine. I agree with you but if your budget is tight the bang for the buck on the 6870 is very tough to beat. I am using it on my 24" benq @ 1920x1080 and it crushes everything I throw at it.
 
This is true, XFX non reference cards have really aggressive fan control on their cards - the fan on my HD4830 from them idles at almost 50% (65% duty cycle). I can actually cut it to 15% (41% duty cycle) in recent drivers - previously the fan control was buggy and it let you take the card all the way down to 170rpm (5%!) at 30% or so duty cycle, which did actually work fine, but they've since fixed that. 550rpm is slow enough, it's not really audible at that speed. The main problem with the single-fan cooler on the 6870 and 6950 though is it's just not very good, even when blaring away the XFX single fan 1GB 6950s get very hot.
 
Gigabyte's dual fan coolers are usually pretty good. They're probably one of the top brands for nvidia at the moment.
 
The 2GB GTX560Ti cards are expensive, for that money you could buy a 2GB Radeon HD6950, which is a better card.
 
I have a copy of COD Black Ops I haven't been able to play because my current laptop can't hack it.
 
Your power supply is to powerful. You only need a 500W unit at most for a 2600K and a decent graphics card. Get a cheaper unit and invest the money into a GTX 570 instead of a 560 Ti. For Starcraft 2 with antialiasing enabled, a Geforce is a better choice than a Radeon:

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...hd-6750-und-hd-6770/17/#abschnitt_starcraft_2
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/starcraft-ii-radeon-geforce,2728-7.html

Also, why do you need 2 SSDs in Raid-0? Then you lose TRIM and therefore loose performance over time. Go with one larger SSD instead. Sequential read/write speeds are waaaay overrated ;)
I suggest the Crucial M4 128GB as it is great value for your money. If you're constrained by your budget, you could also get cheaper RAM (faster RAM give very little benefit but usually costs quite a bit more). And finally, why the expensive mainboard? You could get better value there. Check the features and choose only what you really need. The money is better spent on a more powerful graphics card, a decent sound system or whatever else you need.
 
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This is for transcoding movies and occasional gaming as an afterthought. It's more of a workstation.
 
No such thing as too powerful, but it is unnecessarily so, I admit. Also agreed that SSDs in RAID is completely fast enough, they're plenty fast enough (faster, in fact) without it.
 
samuelmorris said:
The 2GB GTX560Ti cards are expensive, for that money you could buy a 2GB Radeon HD6950, which is a better card.
Click to expand...

Dont mean to thread jack, but I'm in the same boat. 560ti vs hd6950 toxic. I game at 19x12. Is it worth the extra money? I'm coming from a HD4870...
 
Depends. I'd recommend 2GB on the 6950 but don't bother with the toxic, you may as well just buy a proper 6970 for that sort of money...
 
samuelmorris said:
Depends. I'd recommend 2GB on the 6950 but don't bother with the toxic, you may as well just buy a proper 6970 for that sort of money...
Click to expand...

Really? Given that it unlocks, it's so close to 6970 and is at very least $50.00 less than the cheapest 6970 on newegg. Is there something I'm missing as far as the difference between an unlocked toxic and the 6970? Or are you saying that the vanilla 6950 2GB is a better buy?
 
He's at a geforce LAN...
If I was going for information like that, I would not be using an nvidia press event to do it.
 
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