Graphics card for a Phenom 2 X4 975 build

[Riftkiller126]

Hi all, I have a question for you! I am in the process of building (at this point picking parts but WILL be building, lol) a gaming rig that I have to somehow make good enough to last about 1.5-2 years. I have the CPU already picked out and sitting in my closet, it is the Phenom 2 X4 975 BE, and I was wondering what graphics card (AMD or Nvidia, don't care which at this point) would be a good pair for it? I was considering a HD 7870, but I have seen some benchmarks that say that the Phenom 2's can bottleneck the 7970's so figured that is a bad idea. Also, 6970's are a pain to get a hold of now that the 7870/7850's are out!! Any thoughts?

System specs: (subject to change but pretty sure they won't)

Case: NZXT Phantom 410-red
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3
Ram: Corsair XMS3 8 GB (2x4GB sticks 1333MHz
PSU: Thermaltake TX-R2 850w modular
CPU cooler: CM Hyper 212+
Optical Drive: ASUS 24x DVDR/W
OS: Win 7 HP 64-bit
HDD: WD Caviar black 1 TB
SSD: 128 GB crucial m4 SATA 6GB/s

 

[Riftkiller126]

By the way, the SSD is a boot drive mostly, though I may use it for Game applications!

 

[Riftkiller126]

I also would like to play at 1080p resolutions, if that helps at all!

 

[gary1]

What's your budget?

570's and 580's are going down in price. There's also the 7850. I'm sure the 7870 will be fine withthe 975.

 

[Riftkiller126]

For graphics, about $350 or so, I just don't know which one to get. the 580 is WAY outta my budget, I play mostly MMO's tho I'd like to do the Mass effect games (all games on high to ultra at around 40+ FPS) I have seen the 7870 for 350 by sapphire on Amazon! though I have never used a desktop AMD card, my i7 equipped laptop has one (6770M) and it runs darn good! I like good eye candy in my games!

 

[gary1]

The GTX 580 is actually 389$ right now, with a MIR of 30$ (galaxy), which may or may not come. Still a great price for a 580.

I actually just purchased a 7870 after seeing the benchmarks and it's performance vs the 570 and the 580.

 

[Riftkiller126]

My present Desktop uses a (cruddy of course) GTX 550 Ti, a big mistake on my part, I know!

 

[Riftkiller126]

I have also seen the benchmarks, though in my humble opinion, they are not a good indicator for me because I probably won't play the games they use (except Metro 2033, and skyrim) and my system specs aren't represented (are they ever?) Also, do you even NEED AA at 1080p, I don't notice a difference and have seen that it KILLS GPU performance?

 

[Riftkiller126]

I would appreciate any feedback on this topic, which card(s) will have more "staying power" over the next year and a half to two years? I don't want to make ANOTHER bad decision regarding this. HAHA, what about a 560 Ti SOC? And as for the 7870, Will my CPU of choice be an issue with it?

 

[Riftkiller126]

I don't really know what else I can give you guys. If it helps the graphics cards I am considering are the EVGA GTX 570 012-P3-1570-AR and the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 1119-00-20G GHZ 2GB! Or maybe the 580, but if the 580, should I get the 1.5 GB or the 3?

 

[disputer]

With a single monitor configuration with 1920x1080 set as resolution 1.5GB should be enough. I'm currently also thinking about getting the 580.

 

[Riftkiller126]

What about the 570, does it have enough performance for my needs for the next 1.5 to 2 years? The 7870 seems like a good choice to me too, just kinda unsure if it is gonna run good with my cpu!

 

[marquis]

As far as i know nothing coming out over the next 2 years is anything other than online games ... aka , you won't need anything to amazing , i'd think a 6870 would get you by fine ... unless of course your playing xplane 10

 

[jeffredo]

For graphics, about $350 or so, I just don't know which one to get. the 580 is WAY outta my budget, I play mostly MMO's tho I'd like to do the Mass effect games (all games on high to ultra at around 40+ FPS) I have seen the 7870 for 350 by sapphire on Amazon! though I have never used a desktop AMD card, my i7 equipped laptop has one (6770M) and it runs darn good! I like good eye candy in my games!

No its not. Its only a little out of your budget (and hardly at all after rebate).


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162073

 

[FtsArTek]

Straight up: Get a 7870 (ASUS or Sapphire are the better brands, MSI isn't far off) or wait a bit and get a GTX650Ti, which will be somewhere around the 570 mark powerwise I would say... Both of those cards will be fairly even, but much more will be bottlenecked on your CPU.

 

[Riftkiller126]

Okay, But I'd like to play the single player games (waiting on the new tomb raider game, lol. BIG FAN). I just look at the bottleneck issue with the 7970 and assume it may/will translate to the same on a 975 (the cpu that was benchmarked was a x4 980 o.c.ed to 4.0), if I were to get the 7870! And as for the 650, I look at that and think "GTX 550 Ti, so that makes me cringe (barely runs RIFT full graphics settings at 1080p, I realize its not meant for that resolution, but I like to see my games as good as I can. Also, in regards to the 580, what is the 7870? I mean is it as good or close to or better?

 

[Riftkiller126]

BTW, nice card!! the cooler is a bit large but I know that stock 580's run hot! though that cooler may make my sli idea for later a pain (GA990FXA-UD3 only has 2 x16 bandwidth slots, I assume the top two pci-express slots). lol, a superclocked 570 may be a good idea. Anyone know when Nvidia is gonna release the rest of the 600 series?

 

[Riftkiller126]

Will a 680 get bottlenecked by my CPU? just asking, because I might wait a little longer and get the most bang for my buck I can

 

[Riftkiller126]

Best answer selected by Riftkiller126.