Best GTX 760 and motherboard to use with this CPU

[macolyte]

Hi all

I'm just about to box a faulty MSI Nvidia GTX 760 2GB DDR5 PCI-E Graphics Card to send back to Amazon, who have refunded me to get a new card, and I'd like some last-minute thoughts please.

I was looking at getting another MSI, but this time the Nvidia GTX 760 2GB DDR5 TF Fan PCI-E with two fans, however, I'm now leaning towards this Asus one:

Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5

My budget is £170 and the Asus card is on offer on Amazon UK for £167.99

Would that be a good choice and is it equal (or even better) in performance than my original card before it broke?

I'm also getting an i5 4690 (I don't over clock) and wondered what would be the best H97 motherboard to use with the above CPU and GPU?

All views would be extremely welcome!

Cheers

 

[macolyte]

I forgot to also ask, what is the difernece between Asus H97 plus and pro and also the cheaper H97M micro ATX? i will only be having 1 GPU and no overclocking - thanks!

 

[ferwindjacks]

I always recommend EVGA GPUs. Everyone has a bias here, but I would like to say I have never had an issue with EVGA and they are one of the most popular manufacturers for GPUs. Grab an GTX 760 SC from EVGA if you choose to go with then. However, Asus would be my second choice. The directcu card is also good.

Any ASUS motherboard is good, I personally have a ROG Maximus VI Hero but that isn't x99. I'm serious when I say any of their mobos are good.

 

[Suztera]

I would choose R9 280 over a GTX 760 personally :http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IYD0K9Q/?tag=pcp0f-21
But the ASUS GTX 760 is a good card.

Low end Z97 are quite close to the price of a h97:
either of these are fine:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97pro4
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97performance

 

[ferwindjacks]

The H97 Pro has Sata express slots, the plus doesn't. Might be some other minor things but besides that they aren't much different. I don't know much about the newer motherboards but mobos are mobos and the difference between all of them is quality and features.

A micro ATX board is real tiny and is supposed to fit in a small case. Those have even less features than the others.

 

[dovah-chan]

The difference of the H97 plus and pro are just a few features and the looks and the H97M is just a micro ATX version of the plus version board (meaning it's smaller). You can actually still overclock with H97 boards anyway.

If I were you I would get an MSI Z87-G45; it's the same price as the H97 pro but with more features as well as a better chipset. Not to mention you could get a slightly cheaper i5 4670. The 4670 and 4690 perform nearly exactly the same anyway. Whether you get an MSI or Asus 760 is merely your brand preference but I have to admit I do adore MSI.

 

[macolyte]

The H97 Pro has Sata express slots, the plus doesn't. Might be some other minor things but besides that they aren't much different. I don't know much about the newer motherboards but mobos are mobos and the difference between all of them is quality and features.

A micro ATX board is real tiny and is supposed to fit in a small case. Those have even less features than the others.

I was looking at the MSI H97 Gaming 3 but would the Asus H97 Pro be a better bet? They're the same price but I'm not sure of the difference in a 'Gaming' mobo - although it will just be used for gaming.

Cheers

 

[dovah-chan]

The H97 Pro has Sata express slots, the plus doesn't. Might be some other minor things but besides that they aren't much different. I don't know much about the newer motherboards but mobos are mobos and the difference between all of them is quality and features.

A micro ATX board is real tiny and is supposed to fit in a small case. Those have even less features than the others.

I was looking at the MSI H97 Gaming 3 but would the Asus H97 Pro be a better bet? They're the same price but I'm not sure of the difference in a 'Gaming' mobo - although it will just be used for gaming.

Cheers

Again, mostly brand preference or looks. Both have similar quality and feature sets. The Gaming nomenclature is MSI's branding for those particular styled boards; so its just marketing. Ignore words such as military, gaming, ultra-durable, etc. They're all just marketing babble.

 

[macolyte]

The H97 Pro has Sata express slots, the plus doesn't. Might be some other minor things but besides that they aren't much different. I don't know much about the newer motherboards but mobos are mobos and the difference between all of them is quality and features.

A micro ATX board is real tiny and is supposed to fit in a small case. Those have even less features than the others.

I was looking at the MSI H97 Gaming 3 but would the Asus H97 Pro be a better bet? They're the same price but I'm not sure of the difference in a 'Gaming' mobo - although it will just be used for gaming.

Cheers

Again, mostly brand preference or looks. Both have similar quality and feature sets. The Gaming nomenclature is MSI's branding for those particular styled boards; so its just marketing. Ignore words such as military, gaming, ultra-durable, etc. They're all just marketing babble.

Thanks!

I'm still a bit confused by the Asus H97 Pro and their H97 Pro Gamer - there's £14 difference but is there a difference in performance? Would buying the Asus Pro Gamer instead of the Pro make any difference at all or is it cosmetic?

 

[ferwindjacks]

A lot is it is either cosmetic or software gimmicks. I have always had issues with MSI and I think their quality and customer support is very lacking, but that's just me and what my group thinks. Then you have Dovah who likes MSI. Bias is all over but everyone always recommends what works for them. I also like to go by statistics and that's why I recommend Asus and Evga though

That 14 difference isn't going to make or break anything. if it's down to those two, but what you think is the best. All the specs are there to look at.

 

[dovah-chan]

My rule in life: as long as it's not Gigabyte it's OK. Seriously I hate Gigabyte's customer service. It shouldn't take two weeks to respond and over a month to get a motherboard back.

I've never dealt with MSIs customer service actually so I can't speak for them. What I can say though is that I want a lightning card. >__<

EVGA and Asus are a bit more better though. In fact EVGA is actually my favorite Nvidia vendor because they always provide a reference card version of almost every GPU they sell. In fact they were the only company that sold a GTX 770 with the titan cooler. (which I fancy is a collector's item by now really)