Best Bang for Buck?

[theallpowerfuljon]

Hi All,

I've got an opportunity to spend some cash and i'm looking for an opinion:

Currently, I have a 21" Samsung LED monitor and an Nvidia GTX460 1GB card. Those are my weak points, all of my other hardware is up to snuff.

My budget is ~250, and that gives me room for one or the other. I'm a weekend gamer, but play all genres of games. What would you do? I really like the monitor, but it's on the small side now and I'm limited to 1920x1080. The GTX I've pushed as far as it will go. SLI is not an option.

Thanks in advance,

Jon

 

[iceclock]

whats the rest of ur pc specs. so i kno what to recommand.

 

[ibjeepr]

If your question is between buying a monitor and buying a video card I would say the video card is going to give you more bang for the dollar. All the monitor will give you is a few more inches of screen space, which is nice, but won't really change anything.
However, if you intend to buy both, I would say get a monitor now and a video card in the fall or whenever both the new AMD's and NVidia's have come out.
As far as monitors go. A nice IPS if you are not a big FPS gamer or a 120mhz monitor if you want 3D and low responce time for fast action games.

 

[willard]

Can you currently play games on max settings? If yes, buy a bigger monitor. If not, buy a better video card so you can play on max settings.

 

[iceclock]

i really doubt a 460 can max out any game at this point its quite outdated.

 

[theallpowerfuljon]

OCZ Vertex 3 SSD/WD Black 1TB, 16GB G-Skill Ripjaws, i5-2500k, MSI Z68A-G43, Corsair cheapo liquid cooling kit.

Also, thanks, yes I do plan to buy both. I stalled on the Nvidia 5XX series for the 6XX series, and now I'm trying to make the decision.

FPS is probably on the low side of gaming. Dishonored is about all I've played from that genre lately. And it's not intense.

 

[iceclock]

whats ur ps?

 

[theallpowerfuljon]

Willard, I can max out *MOST* of my games at 1920x1080 and still manage 30fps. However, the card's OC'ed to its bleeding limit. However, Skyrim and Witcher 2 basically tell me to get screwed @ max. Metro 2033 as well.

 

[theallpowerfuljon]

@iceclock Corsair 750W

 

[iceclock]

need to know what type of powersupply u have to recommand the right card for u?

 

[willard]

i really doubt a 460 can max out any game at this point its quite outdated.

You'd be surprised. Not everyone is interested in playing BF3 or Crysis 2. A lot of the games I play could be easily maxed out by a 460. It's also possible he's on a lower resolution than 1080p, lowering the bar for performance.

 

[iceclock]

ok

well id recommand strongly the 7950 its 290$ 40$ more but def more future proof than the gtx 660ti.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-795WF3G&c=CJ

onced overclocked reaches 7970 levels and that can rival witha gtx 680 thats 500$.

so its up to u, but if u just got 250$ i recommand the cheaper 660ti

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/886208-REG/PNY_Technologies_VCGGTX660TXPB_GTX_660_TI_2048MB.html

witch is 15$ less. no card thats worth it under 265ish.

 

[theallpowerfuljon]

ok

well id recommand strongly the 7950 its 290$ 40$ more but def more future proof than the gtx 660ti.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-795WF3G&c=CJ

onced overclocked reaches 7970 levels and that can rival witha gtx 680 thats 500$.

so its up to u, but if u just got 250$ i recommand the cheaper 660ti

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/886208-REG/PNY_Technologies_VCGGTX660TXPB_GTX_660_TI_2048MB.html

witch is 15$ less. no card thats worth it under 265ish.

Thanks. I can spend upwards, especially if it will last a few years. My 460's a year and a half old. A year and a half of abuse.

 

[ibjeepr]

OCZ Vertex 3 SSD/WD Black 1TB, 16GB G-Skill Ripjaws, i5-2500k, MSI Z68A-G43, Corsair cheapo liquid cooling kit.

Also, thanks, yes I do plan to buy both. I stalled on the Nvidia 5XX series for the 6XX series, and now I'm trying to make the decision.

FPS is probably on the low side of gaming. Dishonored is about all I've played from that genre lately. And it's not intense.

Ok, then go with a nice IPS and stall a little longer for the 7xx to come out. The 7xx should be able to run the resolution you'll want to run your IPS at.

 

[theallpowerfuljon]

Ok, then go with a nice IPS and stall a little longer for the 7xx to come out. The 7xx should be able to run the resolution you'll want to run your IPS at.

Thank you.

I've read the IPS monitors are bad with ghosting -- is this going to affect games that aren't super high action?

Also, a lot of them are way out of price range. Are the cheaper end IPS monitors decent?

 

[techbaddie]

i really doubt a 460 can max out any game at this point its quite outdated.

My 470 still dominates.

 

[iceclock]

i recommand the 7950 over the 660ti.

and for an ips panel here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260047&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Monitors%20-%20LCD%20Flat%20Panel-_-DELL-_-24260047&AID=10440897&PID=2874834&SID=

if uve got money. and if ur on a budget here:

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VS239H-P-23-Inch-Full-HD-Monitor/dp/B008DWITHI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358787310&sr=1-1&keywords=ips

169$

 

[iceclock]

470 and 460 isnt same branch of speed.especially when overclocked.

 

[willard]

Thanks. I can spend upwards, especially if it will last a few years. My 460's a year and a half old. A year and a half of abuse.

I'd say the 7950 or the 660 Ti are your best bets. I'm a fan of AMD's GPUs, so I'll throw my hat in with the 7950. It will max out any game today, and probably most of the ones that come out for the next couple years.

Anyway, it looks like you're on the same upgrade cycle I used to be on. I'm convinced it's the most cost effective way to keep gaming. Here are some tips from my experience.

1. Product launches are your friend. Unlike CPUs, video cards tend to take a bit of a dive in price around the launch of the next generation. You can usually save a little bit of money or get a slightly better card if you wait to upgrade until just after a launch. Plus, there's always the outside chance that something from the new generation will be better bang for your buck (launch prices tend to prevent this these days).

2. Crossfire/SLI can offer very large increases in performance, effectively for free with this strategy. You just buy a second copy of your current card, which almost always saves money and gives better performance. You just need to be sure you have enough juice to pull it off. This means overpurchasing on your PSU to get 750W instead of the typical 550W you'd put in a system like this. An alternative would be to just stick a second PSU in your computer. PM me if you want instructions. I'll post them publicly, but they're kind of long winded so I'm not going to type it out unless there's interest.

3. Overclocking is the best tool at your disposal, so try to make your hardware purchases play to this strength. This means Intel CPUs (k editions only) and AMD GPUs (mid range or better). Nvidia can overclock too, its current offerings just don't handle it as well as the AMD cards do. This is something that's fairly likely to change with every new launch, so you've kind of got to stay on top of it if you want to get the best return.

 

[iceclock]

he has a 750watt corsair. should suffice.

3. i agree.

 

[ibjeepr]

Thank you.

I've read the IPS monitors are bad with ghosting -- is this going to affect games that aren't super high action?

Also, a lot of them are way out of price range. Are the cheaper end IPS monitors decent?

I've heard from others on here that the ghosting isn't really noticeable unless you look for it so I'd say it sounds like you would be fine, but as I said, it depends on how important the action games are to you.

The IPS does give an amazing image. I decided to go with a 120mhz 1080p monitor because I didn't want to risk it and also because a good IPS with a 6ms response time can be upwards of $500-$600. My monitor was only $200 and I still find the image good.

So if $500 is out of your price range and/or you value response time over image quality then the best 1080p 24"-27" monitor you can afford will be fine. Some others here may have a recommendation for a less expensive IPS for gaming. Unfortunately, unless you want to try to overclock an e-bay IPS from Korea (still about $500), the best of both worlds doesn't exist yet.

I'd still go monitor first and video card after both companies come out with their new series though.

 

[iceclock]

u want a 6ms or under ips panel, u can get 2 decents one i recommanded, the dell ultra at 300$ or the cheaper lg one, both are very good, no need to pay 500$ for a good ips panel.

 

[ibjeepr]

u want a 6ms or under ips panel, u can get 2 decents one i recommanded, the dell ultra at 300$ or the cheaper lg one, both are very good, no need to pay 500$ for a good ips panel.

both look good but the Dell says it is 8ms and I couldn't find it for the cheaper one. 8ms might be a bit high.

 

[iceclock]

the dellultra is one of the best ips for 300$ u can buy,

there are exceptions.

 

[ibjeepr]

the dellultra is one of the best ips for 300$ u can buy,

there are exceptions.

I'm sure the Dell is one of the best looking you can buy but if he has any concerns about ghosting then he may want to sacrafice some of the image quality for a lower response time.

I see the cheaper one you linked shows it has only a 5ms response time. That's a pretty nice looking monitor for under $200. I'd definitely give that one a shot.