Question best gpu for i3-550

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Mar 2, 2019
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i got a i3 550 processor and 8 gb ram,650watt psu ,i just wanted to know best vga for this processor

I got a 14 gb ram and a i3-550 processor what is the best gpu for this system
 

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Titan
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wouldn't it be a bottleneck
Anything can be a bottleneck for nearly anything else depending on the game, specific scene within a given game, resolution, details, etc. Some are more CPU-intensive than others, some are more GPU-intensive than others. Even a much more powerful CPU like the i5-7600 is starting to show its age in some of the more CPU-intensive modern games.

With graphics, you can always sacrifice resolution and detail to get frame rates back up to something playable until you reach the absolute minimum resolution and details you can bear. With CPU bottlenecks, very few options have a meaningful impact on performance. If the CPU is too slow to reach the performance you want, it is game over either for that CPU or that game until you upgrade.
 

richk1853

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Dec 17, 2018
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Honestly I wouldn't bother over a gtx 1050, even that will be severely hampered.
I think a 750ti is a much better paring. The newest games will be a slideshow anyway (doubt you could maintain even 30fps at 720p on new triple As) on that ancient i3 and even a 2080ti wouldn't save you.
I seriously would advise you to look for a dirt cheap i7 860 or i7 880 to slot into that motherboard, you will notice a night and day difference in newer games. Than you could pair it with a 1050/1050ti for a system at least as good as the consoles.
 
1050ti, anything less than a 4gb buffer is a waste. Your CPU is a massive limitation.

I'd suggest as mentioned above you save your money and buy a newer system, if that isn't possible look for a used xeon on eBay for 40 dollars delivered. Two cores and 4 threads on a processor that old just won't cut it these days even for basic gaming
 

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Titan
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I have a 1050 2gb and it performs pretty well. A 2gb card isnt a waste. Any games he will be able to play with that cpu likely wont use more than 2gb vram.
I wouldn't be so sure, VRAM usage can go up quite quickly, especially if you left hardware acceleration turned on in Chrome or FireFox and leave them open in the background. I had to disable hardware acceleration in browser because they were causing game crashes by hogging well over 1GB of VRAM each over time. Windows itself ends up reserving over 600MB at times just to render my multi-monitor desktop.
 
I have a Ryzen 3 1200, a lot more powerfull than the i3, and gtx1050. While my vram does get fully utilized in games, it rarely hinders my framerate at 1080p.

The gtx 1050 is a entry level card to begin with, so the settings your realistically going to be running at arent going to overwhelm the 2gb frame buffer. With new, texture-heavy games at higher resolutions and settings, yes 2gb isn't near enough, but the i3 isn't going to run those anyhow. With his CPU, he isn't going to have any issues with the video card being the limit unless he tries to run 4k or something crazy.

On another note, windows doesnt use that much vram at idle with my setup, which is probably closer to what he has. I have 1 1080p monitor, and wallpaper engine is the only thing using vram at idle. If you run win 10 with 1 or 2gb of system ram, the idle ram usage will be much lower than if you have 32gb ram. Id guess if you gave windows 10 a gpu witb 16gb of vram, i bet the idle usage would be alot higher than if you only had 2gb vram.
 
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InvalidError

Titan
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The gtx 1050 is a entry level card to begin with, so the settings your realistically going to be running at arent going to overwhelm the 2gb frame buffer.
Get a GPU with 4+GB on it and load a few games. You'll be surprised by how many will fly past the 2GB mark long before maxing details when more then 2GB is available. BTW, increasing texture resolution does not increase GPU load by much, it only increases the memory footprint to load the original texture and cache its however many mipmap levels. As long as you have VRAM to spare, higher resolution textures are a practically free visual upgrade.
 
I have no problem with my 2gb card, although a 4gb card may be better, he should spend the extra money on a better i7 rather than a 1050ti. He wouldnt see any more performance from a 1050tiover a 1050 with his cpu, so a 1050 and newer cpu would yield a better increase in performance flr tbe same money over a 1050ti and i3.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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Most graphics details have little to no impact on CPU usage. A better GPU may not increase frame rates but it does allow higher resolution, higher details and stronger anti-aliasing if you have that much GPU-power to spare after maxing out everything else. Take a simple game like WoW. Far from being the most GPU-intensive game on the market. By the time I increase graphics details enough for WoW to eat whatever VRAM my GTX1050 can spare, the GPU cores are only under 20-25% load standing in Boralus at 1200p. Definitely could use more than 2GB of VRAM to enable more graphics detail there - still plenty of GPU-power left untapped.

At only ~$30 between the 2GB and 4GB version, I'd rather have 4GB and not need some of it than 2GB and not have it.
 
Spending the money on the 1050ti and keeping the i3 would deliver unplayable fps and good looks for the more money than
Upgrading to an i7/ $35 xenon and 1050 which would yield good fps and slightly worse looks.
Id rather have a decent looking playable game and good fps! I have a 1050 and it will play any game at full hd with reduced settings, the i3 wont.
The cpu upgrade cost $35 yields a 32% performance increase according to user benchmark.https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-X3460-vs-Intel-Core-i3-550/m3739vsm632
Upgrading to a 1050ti over a 1050 cost about $45 more and yields a 12% increase according touserbenchmark.https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050/3649vs3650
Spending $10 more for a 20% decrease in performance doesnr make sense for better looking gfx. The graphics my 1050 pumps out look pretty good to me.
When your dealing with old hardware you should care more about playable rather than pretty.
 

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Titan
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There is one major flaw with benchmarks and reviews: most use one-size-fits-all presets for all cards. If a benchmark's presets hammers shaders, then you see absolutely no benefits from extra VRAM since the entire benchmark is shader-bound. Those are the benchmarks that only show 12-14% difference between TI and non-Ti. If you dial down the shader-based effects and bump more VRAM-intensive details (like high(er) resolution textures) and effects, then the Ti jumps 30-100% ahead.
 
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