Is this setup a good investment?

[oPeanutButter]

I wouldn't like to say future-proof because I know a lot of people hate that term, but if I had this setup would it be good for gaming (and maybe a little editing) and would it last me for a long time? The parts I am hoping to get are:

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LX
bitly.com/T1U70p

Graphics Card: nVidia GTX 670 DC2
bitly.com/YIZBkR

Processor: Intel i5 2500k
bitly.com/WA1Pov

Sorry about the links, they all lead to the Google Store in case you're wondering . They were just too long to paste in by themselves!

I'll reply back with any more information if you need it!

 

[popatim]

yes that should be good for a few years. Its not top of the line but its perfectly fine.

 

[oPeanutButter]

yes that should be good for a few years. Its not top of the line but its perfectly fine.

By perfectly fine should I be expecting to run BF3 and other graphically intensive on max at 60fps?

 

[ngoy]

Should last 2 to 5 years, you just have to deal with lower settings in games eventually. If you could find another 670 in a couple years then you could just throw it in to make up for the slowness in the future, and not upgrade the rest of the system except maybe the psu. I upgrade about every 2-3 years, I currently have a 2500K and a 680, coming from a E4300 and 9600GT that I upgraded to a 460GTX. BF3 will run fine, esp since you have speccd a 4GB card.

 

[sam_p_lay]

It's actually not far off top-of-the-line as far as single GPU setups go - it's not far at all behind the GTX680. Only thing I'd say is that you're not really going to need 4GB graphics memory, a 2GB model would perform the same and could be had for £270.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Computer hardware is never a good investment 😛

That's a nice setup though. If you're getting a Z77 board anyway why not go for Ivy?

I'd also check out prices for AMD components, 7950 is a little below 670 but significantly cheaper. The 7970 on the other hard is a little more expensive but significantly more powerful.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Computer hardware is never a good investment 😛

That's a nice setup though. If you're getting a Z77 board anyway why not go for Ivy?

I'd also check out prices for AMD components, 7950 is a little below 670 but significantly cheaper. The 7970 on the other hard is a little more expensive but significantly more powerful.

'Significantly' is debatable. In some games it has a decent enough lead, but in other games the GeForce does. Across the board there's very little difference. Same for Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge, but since there's not really any price difference there, might as well have the newest product and lower your power consumption slightly. Either way is good though.

 

[FinneousPJ]

I hear the newest drivers have improved BF3, Borderlands performance so what you're saying may or may not hold. Hard to find reviews.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Here's one:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-gtx-670-review,review-32443.html

AMD driver updates will indeed improve performance on the AMD cards, but nVidia driver updates will do the same on nVidia cards. Provided you're happy with 1080p, Borderlands 2 runs fine on my old 4870 anyway 🙂

 

[FinneousPJ]

I meant reviews with newest drivers on both sides.

 

[oPeanutButter]

Hi guys, thanks for all of the responses! I'm just not sure which one to get first, as I won't be able to get them all at once, I'm a bit low on money. My current specs are:

Processor: AMD FX-6100 6-core at 3.3Ghz
Graphics card: GTX 550-Ti with 1gb Vram

Will try and find out what PSU I have, it should be enough for the GTX 670 though.
Is it worth getting the GTX 670 first? How well would it perform with my current processor?

 

[oPeanutButter]

Just another thing, don't know whether this would help. I use a 24" 1920x1080 tv as my monitor.

 

[sam_p_lay]

I'd upgrade CPU first, primarily because in the time it takes you to save up some money, the graphics card price is likely to drop more than the CPU price.

 

[oPeanutButter]

I'd upgrade CPU first, primarily because in the time it takes you to save up some money, the graphics card price is likely to drop more than the CPU price.

Awesome, I never really thought of that! Although, I was looking around before and only realised how good the HD 7970 was, and It's a bit cheaper as well from what I can see. Would there be any noticable performance difference? Or is it worth spending the extra on getting a GTX 670?

 

[oPeanutButter]

Actually, sorry about the double post, BUT, I would be able to afford either of them, as their prices are not that far apart. And most games I play I'm pretty sure are more GPU intensive than CPU. One thing I'm thinking of is bottle-necking. How bad would it be if I get the GTX 670 or the 7970, or would there be none?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Really? That's pretty amazing if the top Radeon is actually cheaper than the second top GeForce, but make sure you're looking on dabs.com, ebuyer.com, scan.co.uk, aria.co.uk and novatech.co.uk for the best price. Novatech and eBuyer do free delivery, Dabs is around £1. You could also use Google product search, but there are some really dodgy companies on there so be careful if you decide to roll the dice on a no-name retailer.

Oh and as for performance, best to wait and see I think - new Catalyst drivers have added a lot of speed, but THG suspect it comes at the cost of image quality. I'm not so sure (AMD has done that before and they wouldn't want to make a name for themselves in that regard) but THG have an article coming up to examine it. Anyway, both cards will be cheaper in a few months of course 🙂

 

[sam_p_lay]

No bottlenecking - these cards are absolute beasts 🙂

 

[FinneousPJ]

Oh and as for performance, best to wait and see I think - new Catalyst drivers have added a lot of speed, but THG suspect it comes at the cost of image quality. I'm not so sure (AMD has done that before and they wouldn't want to make a name for themselves in that regard) but THG have an article coming up to examine it. Anyway, both cards will be cheaper in a few months of course 🙂

Citation?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[sam_p_lay]

Citation?

The 7970 X2 review on the homepage. I'm surprised you haven't brought it up already.

 

[oPeanutButter]

Hi again. I think now it's definetly either the GTX 680, 7970 OR the 6950. But I still don't know whether to upgrade GPU or CPU first. Is what I have currently in terms of processor adequate for gaming? (FX-6100)

 

[sam_p_lay]

It's not one of the best, but I think it's good enough. Why not a GTX670? 95% as fast as a GTX680 for £100 less!

 

[oPeanutButter]

It's not one of the best, but I think it's good enough. Why not a GTX670? 95% as fast as a GTX680 for £100 less!

I may just do that actually! I'm not really familiar with Radeon and have never owned a graphics card from them, so I guess it's best sticking with what you know, plus the fact this'll be my first ever time I open up my PC!

Also, how long do you think my processor will last then? It's not really important seeing as I'm getting one after my GPU, but I'm just curious.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Sounds wise 🙂 The GTX680 was awesome when it launched, but the GTX670 made it kind of redundant. Often happens with top end cards (nVidia especially I think). When I bought my GeForce 8800 GTX for a little over £300, the 8800 Ultra was over £400, yet barely even 10% faster. Still more difference than the GTX670 vs GTX680 though!

Installing your card should be dead easy - just make sure you open the catch on the PCI-E slot when you remove the other, and of course remember to disconnect monitor and any power cables from the old card first. If you have an antistatic bag, stick your old card in there, then you've got an emergency backup for future. Only potential problem is the screw hole on the mounting bracket lining up with the case screw hole. In my experience though it's fine most times. And when it's not, probably best to brute force it than have the PCI-E slot supporting the full weight of the card. You've probably already researched how to do it anyway!

And as for CPU lasting, hard to say really - obviously these things don't suddenly become obsolete overnight, it's a case of when it's no longer good enough to play what you want at the settings you want. Your processor is still a modern processor so you can get by on it for the time being, but with an i5 you'll get stronger performance all round and the knowledge that your graphics card isn't being held back.

 

[oPeanutButter]

Sounds wise 🙂 The GTX680 was awesome when it launched, but the GTX670 made it kind of redundant. Often happens with top end cards (nVidia especially I think). When I bought my GeForce 8800 GTX for a little over £300, the 8800 Ultra was over £400, yet barely even 10% faster. Still more difference than the GTX670 vs GTX680 though!

Installing your card should be dead easy - just make sure you open the catch on the PCI-E slot when you remove the other, and of course remember to disconnect monitor and any power cables from the old card first. If you have an antistatic bag, stick your old card in there, then you've got an emergency backup for future. Only potential problem is the screw hole on the mounting bracket lining up with the case screw hole. In my experience though it's fine most times. And when it's not, probably best to brute force it than have the PCI-E slot supporting the full weight of the card. You've probably already researched how to do it anyway!

And as for CPU lasting, hard to say really - obviously these things don't suddenly become obsolete overnight, it's a case of when it's no longer good enough to play what you want at the settings you want. Your processor is still a modern processor so you can get by on it for the time being, but with an i5 you'll get stronger performance all round and the knowledge that your graphics card isn't being held back.

Another thing, seeing as I only want to open up my pc if I really have to (wires, wires everywhere!), I'm not sure about PCI slots. So I don't know if my motherboard will support it or not. Hopefully I'm getting a friend around soon and he knows a lot about this stuff, so to be honest, every other thing I see or do I'll probably just ask him if it's right 😀