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Final GPU Decision

J

Jonesyy

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
97
I am stuck in DirectX 10. I would love an upgrade from my 4870 1gb to time my next upgrade at the second generation 20nm GPUs.

I have done a fair bit of research, coming to the following conclusions. A GTX 570 would probably be overkill when my CPU is an i5 750. So a 6970/580 or above is out of the question. I cannot afford nor can I be bothered with the hassle of multi-GPU setups as I am still on only 1 monitor. Therefore:

I think with a £160 rough budget the 560ti and 6950 are my 2 best choices. As I plan to stay a single-GPU user I reckon the nVidia is a good choice, and I would likely to advantage of it's overclocking potential. The 6950 can be flashed but I am not sure I would risk this and overclock it instead.

There is not much in this, so the best deal money wise might be the decider. I am currently siding to the 560ti but I am open to somebody pushing me one way or another off this fence.

Thanks for any advise you can offer me [H],
Dan
 
Incidentally, I will be heavily gaming but only at 1080p. By heavy gaming I am siding more towards strategy like Total War heavy rather than CoD heavy, although I will be playing BF3. I can't imagine SWTOR putting much of a dent in either cards armour.
 
What's wrong with your CPU? I run mine at 3.7 and I dont see 100% utilization in anything, including FSX and GTA IV which are notoriously CPU heavy. You could push a 6970 IMO.
 
Your i5-750 should not bottleneck any of those cards, even a GTX580. I was running unlocked 6950's crossfired and had no cpu bottlenecks with mine, although mine was OC'd a bit. Either the 6950 or 560Ti is a solid choice, both would serve you well. Performance wise they are very similar. I would personally just get whatever offered me the best deal.
 
jhatfie said:
Your i5-750 should not bottleneck any of those cards, even a GTX580. I was running unlocked 6950's crossfired and had no cpu bottlenecks with mine, although mine was OC'd a bit. Either the 6950 or 560Ti is a solid choice, both would serve you well. Performance wise they are very similar. I would personally just get whatever offered me the best deal.
Click to expand...

Seems like since SB came out, the older generation i5/i7 CPUs dont get the credit they deserve. They're still some of the fastest chips around, especially overclocked. I was all gung-ho to go for a 2500k, and Ive got the funds sitting in a paypal account, but ultimately decided not to, since I just dont need it. My 750 is plenty fast, for just gaming there's no reason anyone needs any more.


OP - if you havent done so already, OC that thing and see its full potential.
 
Chihlidog said:
Seems like since SB came out, the older generation i5/i7 CPUs dont get the credit they deserve. They're still some of the fastest chips around, especially overclocked.
Click to expand...
Truth. For games my 2500k really is hardly any faster than my 750. Only reason I upgraded was because I just got the upgrade itch, found a good deal on the cpu and mobo and was able to sell my old stuff for a decent price, so my total out of pocket upgrade costs was about $100.
 
jhatfie said:
Truth. For games my 2500k really is hardly any faster than my 750. Only reason I upgraded was because I just got the upgrade itch, found a good deal on the cpu and mobo and was able to sell my old stuff for a decent price, so my total out of pocket upgrade costs was about $100.
Click to expand...

I could sell my CPU/mobo and cover at least half the cost of the upgrade, I think, which is what I was planning to do. But I'm still quite happy with my 750 and reading posts like this one reassure me I did the right thing. This little intel is a champ.
 
I went for the 6950 for 2 reasons. 1, free copy of DIRT 3 with the Sapphire edition. 2, potential to unlock and basically reach a GTX 570, before overclocking.

I have an MSI OC Genie mobo but turned off the auto-OC feature as I didn't feel I understood what was happening to my PC. I overclocked my GPU easily enough but could I please get some advise on O/Cing my 750, as it won't be until Ivy Bridge I look for the barebone upgrade.
 
Jonesyy said:
I went for the 6950 for 2 reasons. 1, free copy of DIRT 3 with the Sapphire edition. 2, potential to unlock and basically reach a GTX 570, before overclocking.

I have an MSI OC Genie mobo but turned off the auto-OC feature as I didn't feel I understood what was happening to my PC. I overclocked my GPU easily enough but could I please get some advise on O/Cing my 750, as it won't be until Ivy Bridge I look for the barebone upgrade.
Click to expand...

What advice do you need? If you're new to it, there's nothing wrong with using the MB's utility for OCing. Im not farmiliar with MSI boards, so I cant give you specifics, but there should just be an option for it to optimize everything (CPU voltage, speed, RAM volatage, all of it). I'd try that and see what it comes up with.

Test your settings again and again and again, and watch your temps. Run Prime 95.


I'm completely capable of OC'ing a chip myself, but my current setting are ones my motherboard did automatically when I told it to, and they're quite respectable and this rig smokes. As long as your temps are acceptable, and your system passes stress tests, there's nothing at all wrong with letting the MB help you out.
 
Do you have any idea where I can find guides on overclocking the i5 750? I'm sure I'll google it too but any directions would be great. The MB did a good job of overclocking but I just didn't like not understanding what my PC was doing.
 
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