Gpu upgrade suggestion

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Ezilkannan

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Sep 29, 2013
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Hi. I am thinking about upgrading my gpu. Here's my current spec (it's a bit old)
Core i5 2500k @3.8 ghz processor
Intel dz68zv motherboard
Asus gtx 550 ti gpu 1gb gpu
Corsair vs 550 psu

I'm thinking about getting the gtx 970. Is that a good upgrade. Will it be bottlenecked by my processor? If so, do suggest whether I'll have to build a completely new rig. If I can get the gtx 970, will I have to upgrade my psu as well or would this suffice? Oh btw my max screen resolution is 1360x768. I don't have any upgrade in mind with regards to my monitor. Do I have to go for the 4gb version or would 2gb suffice. And how futureproof would this gpu be? I'm also thinking about getting a ram upgrade. What are your thoughts on corsair vengeance cmz8gx 1600mhz. Would my motherboard support 1600 mhz or will it run just at 1200? And will I need 8gb or would 4gb of RAM suffice?

BTW, I'm still on win 7 if that matters in anyway.

Any other suggestions and recommendations is welcome.

Thanks.
 
Solution
SPgamer007
GTX 970 is indeed a great card, but on that resolution a r9 380X or GTX 960 can do the job nicely. I suggest getting a 1080p screen too, it will look alot nicer.
About the bottleneck,No,there won't be any bottlenecking in the system.

VS Units are not good ,while wattage is enough for a GTX 970, i'd go ahead and change it to a tier 1,2 550W Unit.

GTX 970 comes with 4GB Vram only, no 2GB.

RAM upgradation to 8GB is a must for games today. Your Motherboard supports RAM speeds upto 1600 mhz.

Additional : Might upgrade motherboard's bios to latest.

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the processor is fine
the psu is crap and should be replaced
there are no 2gb 970s
970s are 3.5gb of useful memory
the 970 isn't very future proof in general, but for 768p it should last quite awhile.
would recommend an r9 390 over a gtx 970
8gb of ram
any motherboard that supports sandy bridge will support 1600mhz ram.
 
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GTX 970 is indeed a great card, but on that resolution a r9 380X or GTX 960 can do the job nicely. I suggest getting a 1080p screen too, it will look alot nicer.
About the bottleneck,No,there won't be any bottlenecking in the system.

VS Units are not good ,while wattage is enough for a GTX 970, i'd go ahead and change it to a tier 1,2 550W Unit.

GTX 970 comes with 4GB Vram only, no 2GB.

RAM upgradation to 8GB is a must for games today. Your Motherboard supports RAM speeds upto 1600 mhz.

Additional : Might upgrade motherboard's bios to latest.

 
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Solution
Any suggestions on which gtx 970 card I should go for? Thinking about going with asus since I had a good experience with my current gpu, how is zotac. It seems to be cheaper than asus, but I'm hesitating since I have never had a zotac before. Asus strix and zotac amp are about the same price. Any considerable difference between the two?
 
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Get whichever, i've used the ASUS strix GTX 970 personally tho' , liked the ASUS software for tweaking up the card and monitoring the temps, card runs cooler, i never saw it going above 67c.
 
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hmm, r9 390 and gtx 970 are about the same price. Any considerable difference between the two. I understand 390 has 4gb more vRAM but will I be able to use all of that. Like I said I don't have a screen upgrade in mind, so I will stick the 768p for now. When I do upgrade I will build a completely new rig, but that's for another time. Also I read that 390 runs hotter than 970 and requires more power, is this true? I'm still rooting for the 970, since I've had a good experience with nvidia cards. (I'm not saying amd cards are bad, just that I have never used one before and hence a bit paranoid, no offense)
 
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Yes, 970 is a better choice. Even for 1080p 4gb from 970 is more than enough + it draws far less power, it's cooler and quieter.
 
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What are the issues faced in VS units? Anything specific when used with cards like GTX 970?
 
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Why yes, besides having 4.5GB more useful VRAM, the R9 390 was released with its true specifications announced. Unlike the gtx 970 with which several of its specifications Nvidia was caught lying about months after release. If you ever plan on upgrading for DirectX 12, AMD hardware runs the newer software better

The 390 requires a somewhat better power supply, but you need to replace yours anyway. With aftermarket coolers from both companies, neither card runs "hot". The fans don't let the heat build up like reference designs do.
 
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Nothing specefic, they are generally crap units from corsair along with CX category, they can't survive a good amount of load, still can be concidered for Home or Office machines but not for gaming machines.

It is always important having a good quality PSU for PCs that are made to run heavy games for hours hence recommendation always would be to go with a tier 1 or 2 unit PSU , PSU wattage depends on the total power draw of system obviously. For your PC i recommend going with 550w PSU.

PSU Tier Chart : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Tier 1 - Top Quality, nothing wrong in them.
Tier 2 - Slightly less quality than Tier 1, still good option for High - End Gaming PCs
Tier 3- Neighter Good nor Bad. Should not be powering High - End Gaming PCs , still an option for low- med gaming PC.
Tier 4- An option to concider for Home and Office PC and very low end Gaming PCs, simply not recommended for anything higher than a very- low end Gaming PC at the most.
Tier 5- Worst quality from Unknown rather very bad manufacturers. Simply not recommended for ANY pc.

Corsair VS series Unit lies on Tier 4, not for Gaming machines, still can be concidered for Home and Office PCs.
 
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Nothing huge between R9 390 and GTX 970, GTX 970 is a great card, definately recommended.

Power Draw of GTX 970 is less than R9 390 hence requires a bit of less power.

4GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p screen, yours is lesser than that even.

About temperature, R9 390 doesn't have heating issue.
 
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That's a good question. Actually I was thinking about upgrading just the gpu if my current rig can handle it, but looking at the suggestions, looks like I'm gonna have to go for a psu upgrade too. Tier 2 psu's cost roughly 12k (INR). I guess I'd rather save up more and build an entirely new rig than having to spend this much for my current setup. I could place an order from the US (prices cheaper over there) but then I heard that the international warranty is invalid in India.
 
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Thanks for that. I was looking at corsairs specifically, hence the misquote. I guess these must be good too.
 
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Only a true Goat can say something like this. 😀
 
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I personally would never spend more than a dollar for a monitor.

XD
 
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At first I read that as "$60 on a psu" then I was like :heink:

Anyway, looks like I'll go with the seasonic 620 and asus strix 970. 1080p monitor can wait 😛
 
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Don't forget to mark this thread as SOLVED
Sincerely,

image
 
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