Good Graphics Card for Gaming...

[nightcrawer105]

Hello..

I'm trying to decide on a good Gaming Graphics Card to play Skyrim, Mass Effect 2/3, Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 on Ultra settings.
When it comes to PC Gaming Cards, I have no idea what to look for, and it's all very confusing. So, any help would be appreciated.

I will start by saying - I don't use a Multi Monitor Setup, nor do I plan on doing so. A single 1080P 46 Inch HDTV will be used purely for my Gaming needs, and my 1080P Asus Monitor for web browsing. I need the Graphics Card to handle around 60fps minimum on Ultra Settings - if possible.
I have seen a Nvidia Graphics Card by EVGA - GeForce GTX 660 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card, is it any good?

If anyone can recommend a better Graphics Card Than this, please leave a reply.

Here's my Specs to make this easier.

NZXT Phantom 410 Full Tower Case.
ASUS CrossHair V Formula-Z Motherboard.
AMD Phenom ii x4 965 3.4 GHz (will be upgraded to AMD FX 8350)
SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD.
Corsair H100i CPU Water Cooler.
Seagate 1TB Hard Drive.
Corsair Vengeance (4X4GB) 16GB DDR3 1600MHz.
LG Blu-ray drive.
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W PSU.
Asus AMD Radeon HD 6670 (will be removed when new graphics card is installed)
Akasa USB 3.0 Dive with card reader.

 

[abCasPeRR]

Hello..

I'm trying to decide on a good Gaming Graphics Card to play Skyrim, Mass Effect 2/3, Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 on Ultra settings.
When it comes to PC Gaming Cards, I have no idea what to look for, and it's all very confusing. So, any help would be appreciated.

I will start by saying - I don't use a Multi Monitor Setup, nor do I plan on doing so. A single 1080P 46 Inch HDTV will be used purely for my Gaming needs, and my 1080P Asus Monitor for web browsing. I need the Graphics Card to handle around 60fps minimum on Ultra Settings - if possible.
I have seen a Nvidia Graphics Card by EVGA - GeForce GTX 660 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card, is it any good?

If anyone can recommend a better Graphics Card Than this, please leave a reply.

Here's my Specs to make this easier.

NZXT Phantom 410 Full Tower Case.
ASUS CrossHair V Formula-Z Motherboard.
AMD Phenom ii x4 965 3.4 GHz (will be upgraded to AMD FX 8350)
SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD.
Corsair H100i CPU Water Cooler.
Seagate 1TB Hard Drive.
Corsair Vengeance (4X4GB) 16GB DDR3 1600MHz.
LG Blu-ray drive.
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W PSU.
Asus AMD Radeon HD 6670 (will be removed when new graphics card is installed)
Akasa USB 3.0 Dive with card reader.

If your using the 660 for 1080p gaming I would at least go with a 660 Ti or 7950, how much are you willing to spend ?

 

[bigshootr8]

Hmm, I would go with the best card that you could afford. So if you can afford something like a 660Ti or 7950 maybe that would be a good route to go. I would though that a mid line gpu would be good to stop you from getting bottlenecked.

price breakdown for every card within the
660, 660ti, 7870, 7950
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=114,113,82,71&sort=a5

 

[nightcrawer105]

What settings and fps would a 7970 get me? Also, why would a FX 8350 be bottlenecked? It's an 8 core cpu.

 

[nightcrawer105]

If your using the 660 for 1080p gaming I would at least go with a 660 Ti or 7950, how much are you willing to spend ?

I'm willing to spend Around £250

 

[bigshootr8]

Something like this may fit the bill well these 2. I would prefer the ASUS one but its good to give options. Also here is a breakdown of the cards I listed before in EURO http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=114,113,82,71&sort=a5

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n660tipe2gd5oc
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx660tidc2og2gd5

 

[nightcrawer105]

The Asus card looks pretty good, but will my PSU handle it?

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea your power supply will handle it just fine. With newegg's power supply tier breakdown they have it in tier 2. http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

And it will have enough power to power up the card. Probably even 2 if you got to that point.

 

[nightcrawer105]

Yea your power supply will handle it just fine. With newegg's power supply tier breakdown they have it in tier 2. http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

And it will have enough power to power up the card. Probably even 2 if you got to that point.

Then I will possibly buy it some time this week. But just to clear something up. I take it the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card isn't any good then?

 

[Swordkd]

I actually have that power supply. I love it, semi-modular design, good price and enough wattage for most pc users needs.

 

[bigshootr8]

No its fine. Its not a 660Ti though. Its a differently tiered item in my eyes I'll show you how I look at it.

GTX650Ti goes against the 7770
GTX660 goes against the 7850
GTX660Ti is supposed to go against the 7870 but contends with the 7950
GTX670 is supposed to contend with the 7950 but contents with the 7970
GTX680 goes against the 7970
7970 Ghz fastest single GPU

 

[CMac019]

What settings and fps would a 7970 get me? Also, why would a FX 8350 be bottlenecked? It's an 8 core cpu.

A 7970 is the best amd gpu you can get it'll run any of those games you sre playing well over 60 fps Skyrim will run closer to 90 fps at 1080 on a 7970.
And the 8350 won't bottleneck you, but 8 cores doesn't have much of an effect on gaming.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well most games. Some games will do very well with multi threaded applications I can't remember which mmo it was but one of them can utilize all 8 cores.

 

[nightcrawer105]

A 7970 is the best amd gpu you can get it'll run any of those games you sre playing well over 60 fps Skyrim will run closer to 90 fps at 1080 on a 7970.
And the 8350 won't bottleneck you, but 8 cores doesn't have much of an effect on gaming.

So are you saying my Phenom is better for Gaming, and the Fx 8350 is a pointless upgrade?

 

[bigshootr8]

No see with the piledriver revision to the bulldozer series of cpu's they improved on the performance now to have the piledriver the best that they have. With the bulldozer they were having phenom's beat out the 8150 which is embarrassing. The 8350 is just grand for gaming. And since you have a expensive board as it is its pointless to recommend a Intel solution.

 

[CMac019]

So are you saying my Phenom is better for Gaming, and the Fx 8350 is a pointless upgrade?

No not at all, it's a pretty big ugrade. The core count isn't the only thing that effects how well a cpu performs in games. 1 8350 core is more powerful than one of your Phenom cores. So even in games not optimized for all 8 cores it is still better. Plus the 8350 is less power hungry. Sorry for the confusion though

 

[CMac019]

Here's a comparison between the two: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-965-vs-AMD-FX-8350

 

[nightcrawer105]

No see with the piledriver revision to the bulldozer series of cpu's they improved on the performance now to have the piledriver the best that they have. With the bulldozer they were having phenom's beat out the 8150 which is embarrassing. The 8350 is just grand for gaming. And since you have a expensive board as it is its pointless to recommend a Intel solution.

Thanks for clearing that up about the FX 8350. But it's starting to sound like the 7970 is a all-round better card though. Should I just buy that instead of the Asus?

 

[bigshootr8]

If you had the funds for it sure. Its about getting the best card that you can afford. Also, ASUS makes 7970 cards as well. However, sapphire is a good option as well.

 

[nightcrawer105]

Here's a comparison between the two: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-965-vs-AMD-FX-8350

Thanks

 

[bigshootr8]

Or this direct comparison with numbers
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=102

 

[CMac019]

If you can afford it you really can't go wrong with a 7970.

 

[nightcrawer105]

If you can afford it you really can't go wrong with a 7970.

So far, I've spent a lot! it would be pointless to cut corners now and regret it later. May as well spend a few pound more for a great card, it'd be the icing on the cake.