Building my first gaming PC need advice on video card

[nupe123]

Hello everyone I have build my first "gaming" pc and I'm having some trouble understanding on which card to purchase or upgrade to. Im mainly using this "gaming" pc to watch hd movies streaming it to different TV's in my home as well run virtual machines. So on the MMO's that I play WOW, FFXIV, FFXI I stay logged in. I play games like FFXIV, Civilization, Anno, Microsoft Flight. I would like to get a card that would allow me to play real games but at the moment when I use my current setup and play FFXIV on the max settings this thing moves ultra slow. Playing FFXIV at the max settings is what I'm interested in right now as well as setting myself up to play BF3 and Crysis 2 at max settings as well. I know that my CPU and RAM arent the best for what I'm trying to do but I have it and I'm stuck with it. I thought about going SLI with my current GeForce GTX 550 Ti but after reading online I notice that my card isnt as good as I thought it was. And I'm taking it back today. So do I get a GeForce GTX 560 Ti and go SLI with that? Or do I get a GeForce GTX 580? Or do I wait until the 600 Kepler comes out? Thanks in advance for any help or feedback that I get.

Here is my current setup

Also my current FFXIV benchmark is 2559 and my Heaven is FPS 39.9 with a min of 23.6 and max of 85.8 with a score of 1006

Video card: EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1557-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti I'm using dual samsung 20" monitors @ 1680x1050

Case: Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T

Board: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX

CPU: AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ I was told this wasnt the best gaming cpu but a buddy of mine got me a hook up on it.

Fan: COOLER MASTER GeminII S524

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 x 2 for a total of 32GB of memory again this may not be the best ram but I got this as a hook up as well.

PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W If I go to the GTX560 or higher and do SLI I know that I need to get a bigger psu

HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" This is the main drive I have my windows 7 64bit installed on

 

[robertnewton]

I'm surprised a 550 gives you trouble. Although it's not first hand experience I would assume a 560 would do the job. a 580 would definitely, I suppose it depends how much you want to spend or whether you plan on doing anything more graphic demanding with your system in the future.

 

[Plasmid]

I suggest you do the step up program with EVGA and get a better card, You'll just pay the difference. That's in case you cannot return the card to the vendor.

If you do return the card to the vendor. AMDs hd 7870 looks like a good option it performs just like the gtx 580, but it's only 350 dlls on amazon. AMD also has good support for multidisplays with it's eyefinity option.

 

[Gamer_Pollution]

I would say, if possible, pick up a 680 when the non reference cards come out. The problem with getting dual 560 TI SLI is no pretty much have no where to go after that, except for triple and quad SLI. But with a 680, in the future you can SLI two to four of them if you need more power.

 

[nupe123]

I would say, if possible, pick up a 680 when the non reference cards come out. The problem with getting dual 560 TI SLI is no pretty much have no where to go after that, except for triple and quad SLI. But with a 680, in the future you can SLI two to four of them if you need more power.

Any idea on when the lower level 600 series will be out? I got this from wiki - The Maxwell architecture, the successor to Kepler, was announced in September 2010 and is expected to be released in 2013. What I though about doing is either keeping the current 550Ti in the system or taking it back to Frys and getting my money back and use my 8800 that I had laying around collecting dust. But I do get your point if the release date is soon I could wait. FYI I went to Frys today and bought two GTX 560ti 448 cores I havent opened the box and put them in the system even though I really really want to lol.

 

[fil1p]

Hi,

Lets get this cleared up:

1. If the gtx 550 is not doing things for you I would go with something like a 570, or 580. As you are using dual monitors, and want a nice performance boost a gtx570 or 580 will do nicely, especially as they are cheaper now. Now this is if you need the card right now, you could get a GTX680 at$499 (it is the best out there), or you could wait, as nvidia should release the cards after the Gtx680(kepler) quite soon. Those cards will be faster than the previous generation, as it was proven clearly with the gtx680, when it beat the previous gtx580, along with all the other cards from the competition.

2. I would stay away form SLI, there drivers are pretty good now, but they still tend to have some issues. It is better to get one stronger card and avoid the possible headache later.


So how soon do you need the card?

Hope this helps

 

[wolfram23]

Really depends on budget... A 560 Ti or 6950 1gb would be really good, much better than a 550 Ti. A 7850 or 7870 would be even better, the 7870 performs around as well as a 580. Higher than that, I'd suggest a 680 if you can get one.

And 32gb of RAM? Geebus. That's... a lot.

 

[nupe123]

Hi,

Lets get this cleared up:

1. If the gtx 550 is not doing things for you I would go with something like a 570, or 580. As you are using dual monitors, and want a nice performance boost a gtx570 or 580 will do nicely, especially as they are cheaper now. Now this is if you need the card right now, you could get a GTX680 at$499 (it is the best out there), or you could wait, as nvidia should release the cards after the Gtx680(kepler) quite soon. Those cards will be faster than the previous generation, as it was proven clearly with the gtx680, when it beat the previous gtx580, along with all the other cards from the competition.

2. I would stay away form SLI, there drivers are pretty good now, but they still tend to have some issues. It is better to get one stronger card and avoid the possible headache later.


So how soon do you need the card?

Hope this helps

Thank you for your feedback. I need a card now but I do have a 8800GTS laying around and I will use that until I can find a GTX680 they seem to be sold out everywhere. Plus as Gamer_Pollution said I can always SLI that later if needed. Plus wolfram23 I think that would be over kill but hey you only live once...

 

[nupe123]

Best answer selected by nupe123.