A few questions about a graphics card

[Shadow_07]

Hey everyone, I have decided to finally upgrade my system to something at least partially modern,

Anyway I've bought my self the following:

An Intel DH67CL motherboard

A Core I5 3550 3.3 up to 3.7 GHZ CPU

8 GB of 1600mhz ram

A 1TB HDD

And a 550 watt PSU

Now I've decided I don't want to use the built in Intel Graphics and I want to buy a dedicated graphics card, I'm sort of a heavy gamer but I will also use the machine for Internet and Media and basically everything, So I went searching for a dedicated Graphics card and I stumbled across the EVGA Geforce GTX 680 FTW edition with 4GB of RAM.

Now I'm not much of an enthusiast so you won't catch me trying to OC it or SLI it or anything like that, I just want something good that will last, Now I've read some reviews and stuff about the card and I have a few questions:

1. I read on Nvidia's site that The card requires a minimum of a 550w PSU to run, So the first question is, will the card function properly if being operated exactly on a 550 watt PSU? Or do I need a slightly higher PSU for the best performance?

2. I've heard certain people trash this EVGA card in the aspects of OC'ing and SLI, but like I said I don't want to do that So am I safe? Or does it have any other problems?

3. Despite the lack of a genuine PCIE 3.0 slot on my machine which instead has PCI-E 2.0 X16 slot, Do you think it would run properly? Or will it be slightly slower?

4. What do you guys think of the card and would you recommend it for my needs?

Thank you for taking your time to answer.

Also Note to all, Before you mention the GTX 690 or the Titan I don't really have the Money to buy one of those not to mention my PSU won't run it so....

 

[JustLurking]

1) I think it depends on the brand/quality of your PSU. If they suggest a 550w, they might be recommending a high quality one, not a generic. If you have either a generic, or a bunch of other components in the system, you might be better off with a quality named 650w just to play it safe.

2) I have little knowledge about EVGA or NV cards in general, sorry.

3) Last I checked, no modern single-GPU card even maxes out PCI-E 2.0. Assuming that hasn't changed, it'll fit and run just the same in a PCI-E 2.0 slot as a PCI-E 3.0 slot.

4) As for my opinion of the card, it seems to be a fine one based on benchies. I'd personally save money and get a slightly weaker 670 or 660ti (or AMD equiv). I don't know your needs though, so I can't really comment on that specifically.

 

[rayy1212]

A1. It depends on the quality of your PSU if its a good brand and well known manufacturer you could probably do it no problem.

A2. The card shouldn't have any problems some people like evga some dont

A3. PCIe 2.0 will perform exactly the same.

A4. The 680 Is a great card for heavy gaming and everything else is say go for it and enjoy.

 

[Shadow_07]

Well thanks guys, I guess I'll go for it then!

 

[Shadow_07]

Best answer selected by Shadow_07.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar