How much should I spend on my graphics card?

[russwasherejr]

Here are my specs

CPU - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284
Ram (2 of these) - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231718
Mobo - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131873
PSU - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152036
Case - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139041
Monitor - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

I've already put a good bit into the computer, but I've never built a gaming PC, what card should I get? My budget is probably going to be 2 to $300.
Thank you.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I would have chosen a PSU with much better parts and preferably with the two PCIe connectors on different cables.

A Radeon 280X or 290 would seem to be best for your budget, although I'd look at scraping up a little more coin for a GTX 970.

 

[russwasherejr]

I can always upgrade my psu in the future, just didn't have the cash at the moment. I been buying piece by piece. It should be a decent ilttle beast when i'm done.

Thank you for the reply btw. I didn't mean to double post.

 

[russwasherejr]

which gtx 970 do you prefer? when I type it in in newegg like 10 different cards show up. I may pick up a $350-360 price range card.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I like the EVGA series, but it's hard to go wrong. Just check the reviews.

 

[russwasherejr]

That's the one thing I hate about newegg, stuff always gets mixed reviews.

 

[russwasherejr]

With the psu/mobo I have, would this fit? I think i'm going to get this if it will.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684&cm_re=GTX_970-_-14-125-684-_-Product

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Not Newegg, read the critical reviews. http/www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/1

 

[russwasherejr]

Sorry to be such a pain but I didn't get much out of that, it pretty much just talked about clock speeds and stuff like that. I don't know exactly what i'm looking for in a gfx card when buying one. I just know spending more money is usually the best route to go so i'm trying to buy a card that will keep me relevant for 3-4 years atleast. I went onto newegg and seen like 3-4 different cards but 2 have the same speeds and the others have completely different. Just not sure what to purchase. I don't wanna pick something up that doesn't fit in my case and/or work with my power supply.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Sorry.

Your case will handle a GPU up to 420mm long, which is essentially EVERYTHING! (So there's no problem there)
Your PSU uses very low quality components and I would never use it. Given that, it has the power and connectors to run a single good GPU.

The review liked all three cards but gave the edge to the MSI GTX970 Gaming 4G. The Gigabyte you mentioned above is also a good choice.

 

[russwasherejr]

Okay thank you man. i'll probably upgrade my PSU here shortly. Might do a give away on youtube or something in the future.

 

[russwasherejr]

I got a gfx card from a friend it's an ICEQ X HD 6850 and I have it installed, I put the red pcie connector to the other red one and when I go to power it on the fan will do a real quick spin and ntohing will load up. If I unplug it and let it sit for a few the computer will turn on. Is this gfx card able to run on my computer? I don't know what i'm doing wrong. Red has to go with red right?

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Yes. It should work. That's the HIS product? It has a single six pin PCIe connector on the end.

 

[russwasherejr]

yes it's the iceq version or whatever. The back of the gfx card 6 pin power connector is black. My friend didn't give me any power connector for the card itself. I used the ones with the PSU. The black connecter on the back of the GFX card I plugged a red pci connecter in that says PCI-E and ran that into the back of my PSU (that was also red) and tried turning it on and that was my results it shuts off spins for less than a second. If I unplug everything and try to turn it on the computer turns on...

 

[DonkeyOatie]

It should work. You have it connected correctly. Is the PSU you are talking about the one you mentioned above, or is it another older one?

 

[russwasherejr]

It's this card. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161372

I just don't understand why it's trying to power up and it won't. My friend spilled coffee on his mobo, and CPU but he said the gfx card should work. If it didn't work I don't see why it would turn on for a second.

 

[russwasherejr]

Like i said I tried all the pci-e connectors, and it does it for all. The last thing I tried was powering teh computer on without the PCI connected hooked up the computer turned on and ran, as soon as I inserted the PSU PCI connector to the gfx card the computer shut down.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Then the fault is in the GPU. It may be drawing too much power for the PSU. It may have some internal fault. I would not persist unless it can be shown to work properly in some other system. If you can borrow another GPU from somewhere else and it works in your system, that firmly places the problem with the GPU.

 

[russwasherejr]

Yea I was starting to think the GPU is broke. Just weird how it's trying to run tho. I got $150 right now. I could either purchase a card tomorrow with that or wait till when I get paid friday and purchase a $300+ card. I still need to get a new cooler for my cpu. I bought a hyper 212 plus but it wouldn't fit in my board, it broke so I had to RMA it back to newegg. Was thinking bout purchasing the h100i from corsair (water cooler) it's only $100 and I seen good reviews on it.

 

[russwasherejr]

Hopefully it's not something with my PSU

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I think that air cooling is better for the sort of system you have. Good fans will help cool your VRMs and heatsinks on the motherboard as well as the CPU, something that a water cooler will not do.

 

[russwasherejr]

which one do you recommend? I bought a hyper 212 plus, but it wouldn't fit at all. it wouldn't fit with the mobo I tried to install it for like 5 hours then it finally broke

 

[russwasherejr]

I bought this for my case also

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835352006

 

[DonkeyOatie]

What was the problem with the CM 212? What did not fit properly?

How much are you overclocking your CPU?

 

[russwasherejr]

the X bracket part that goes in the bottom of the heatsink would lift up really bad and the ends wouldn't even come close to screwing into the mobo bracket. I put it in the middle position as said and every other position, it just wouldn't fit.