Buying A New Video Card Need Advice

[Travis4261]

So my cousin gave me $200.00 to buy him the best video card I can. We built him his PC in 2011 so my concern is buying a card that will not be bottlenecked by his MB or Processor.

His processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 6-Core 3.3GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103913
His motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131631

He is looking to play the latest games, like GTAV and the newest Skyrim mods.
Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[kapitalistas]

first of all modes are all demanding so hes rig not gonna pull thous for sure.

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

first of all modes are all demanding so hes rig not gonna pull thous for sure.

Not all mods are demanding. ENBs will likely not run very well. It depends.

For $200, I see this being a good option: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-Graphics-02G-P4-2966-KR/dp/B00SC6HAS4/ref=br_lf_m_10779868011_1_1_ttl?ie=UTF8&s=pc&pf_rd_p=2022013182&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=10779868011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=15944JJDKRKNSCQXYMVJ

You can't really be "bottlenecked" by a motherboard. I've never heard that happening before. CPU wise, the term is overused. The processor is pretty weak, but it will be okay in handling a 960 or even greater.

For GTAV, I would suspect that a 960 would be able to run it at moderately high settings. Hopefully it won't be such a screw up of a port that GTA4 was. Max Payne 3 was very well optimised and ran great, so hopefully Rockstar has got this right.

 

[kapitalistas]

like GTAV and the newest Skyrim mods.
Any advice would be appreciated!

first of all modes are all demanding so hes rig not gonna pull thous for sure.

Not all mods are demanding.

which latest mode is not demanding!!!.

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

like GTAV and the newest Skyrim mods.
Any advice would be appreciated!

first of all modes are all demanding so hes rig not gonna pull thous for sure.

Not all mods are demanding.

which latest mode is not demanding!!!.

Lol. Many are not.

Basic mods are not. Scripts generally do not decrease performance. The only mods that really would are ENBs, Shaders, Sweetfx, Textures, Injectors, Increased Mesh/poly count, and dense grass, forests, cities, villages, etc.

Everything else does not have a noticeable performance hit.

Falskaar does not have a performance impact: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37994/?

 

[Travis4261]

OK so I'm gathering the GTX 960 is going to be his best bet for $200.00
He says he is in no rush... its it possible something significantly better will be available for 200.00ish in the next month?

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

I guess it's possible. AMD will likely release something within the next month, although I heard the 380x could be a rebadge yet again. It's just a rumour. There might as well be a 960ti, too. Honestly, the 960 is good. You can look for some deals as well. The SSC model I linked has additional performance for the money. It's a good SKU to go with now.