Need help selecting a Graphics card for my new computer build

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Dustboonies

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Apr 30, 2013
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I am going to build a computer in a few months and I am wondering what videocard I should get. I am planning on playing games such as Crysis 3, Borderlands 2, and Bioshock Infinite. My budget for my computer is around $1500 (the price isn't firm, I can go above or below), and so far I am getting:

-Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Unbeatable Gaming Case (I'm adding on more fans so I will have a total of 8)
-i7 3770k (I probably won't overclock although I might do some minor overclocking)
-Corsair vengeance 16GB 1600 RAM
-MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
-Thermaltake 750 watt PSU
-Seagate SV35 Series ST1000VX000 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

My resolution that I use at home is 1920x1200, a little bigger than most 24 inch monitors and sometimes I will run 3 24 inch monitors in an eyefinity setup (but not often).
I am looking into graphics card options such as:

GTX 680
GTX 670
Radeon 7970
Radeon 7950 Xfire
GTX 660 ti SLI
Radeon 7850 Trifire
Etc.

I'm not much of an overclocker, I would prefer not to mess with voltages but I am willing to do so to save a few bucks.

Thanks for your feedback!

(Also, I'm relatively new to building (I've built 3 computers) so feel free to give feedback and recommendations about things that I might not know about)
 


Couple of issues, in a few months time you should get the haswell 4670k + proper mobo.

8 gb of ram, 1600 (or higher ), ddr3 1.5v ( or lower voltage ), cas 9 or better ( lower number ), for gaming this is the sweet spot.

If you want to triple monitor game, then the 7950 cf is what you are gonna want to focus in on.

I would also be looking at 750w or better, 850w would be ideal for overclocking, from seasonic, xfx, corsair, antec, basically from a good brand.





 

Ahh, I see, do you know when the Haswell is coming out, I'm looking to build this computer in early June. I was looking at the CORSAIR HX Series HX850 for a power supply. I will probably be gaming most of the time on one monitor, which one would you recommend considering that?
Thanks for your feedback :)
 



Single monitor, then I would drop down to a 750w power supply and grab a 7970.

Haswell, is scheduled for early june i believe.
 


It depends. with those games, the GTX series out performs that 7970, like the 680 by itself can usually gain 10 to 30 frames more with both AMD and Intel with them. If you want to spend a little bit more for a little better frames, id get the single 680. But if your max is $1600 total then you should be able to do SLI or crossfire easily. In that case with buying a new mobo which you'll probably need like max said, you can do this:

GPUs:

2x GTX 680 4GB GC $1020 ($510 each before 5/19. If you don't get them before then, you can get the regular 2GB Here ($530))

2x GTX 670 2GB $760 ($380 each, rebate ends 5/31, after that, $400 each)

2x GTX 670 GC 2GB SAME PRICE as above, but the rebate ends 5/19, then each one will be $430 each. I would hurry and get those (unless you want the 680s), they are previously OCed giving you about 50 to 100 more core clock and about 100 more memory clock.

Also, I would very strongly suggest not doing Crossfire anytime soon. A lot of the recent drivers that they are coming out with is messing up Crossfire, and it will take a while to fix considering mostly everyone's Mobo and sometimes software is different.

But then you need a PSU, I personally recommend the Corsair TX850 $140 right now off of new egg. But if you really want to you can get a XFX 1050 watt $190 if you want to do something like the 670s in Tri SLI, but usually you want to have as little cards as possible These Days. Today SLI and CFX arent supported as much. I can see that in the future say in about 5 or so years they will be much more supported, which is why I have a mobo that can support Quad SLI and CFX. Plus, a 1050 watt PSU which I'm thinking about changing to a 1200 because 1050 would be just about red lining 3 GTX 680 4GB GC editions.. 😛 also I'm overclocking the hell out of them as soon as I get a Water Cooling system.

As for the mobo, if your eventually going to be doing 3 or 4 way SLI or CFX (SLI is more recommended), here's probably the best one for your money:

ASRock Z77 Extreme 9 $300 While it can support these:
Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
Intel K-Series unlocked CPU
Hyper-Threading Technology

So total at the max with the 1050watt for Tri 670s, it'll be: $1510
Then the 850watt for Dual 680s: $1460
And at the least with dual 670s: $1200

*These are estimates that will last only until 5/19, when the rebates end*
 
Alright, I think I am going to go with a single 7970 just to avoid microstuttering and other issues that come with crossfire, now the question is, should I get an overclocked one or overclock it myself. And are there any companies any of you would recommend. (e.g. Sapphire, Asus, etc.)
 
After poking around a little bit, I started to look at the 7950s, I was thinking about the Sapphire Vapor-X 7950 instead. Could I OC one up to a 7970's performance or should I spend the extra money?
 
If you are really sure that you can do it safely, then go ahead an OC it. But if you really want to / can spend the money, you should get the 7970. The only thing though is still that Crossfire problem. Until they fix it, which definitely wont be for less than about a year or so in my opinion, you won't be able to do Crossfire without problems. It is definitely worth it, especially with the performance and quality advantage with those games to get the GTXs, even if you only want to buy one for now, it's a much better option as long as you have the money.

There's a simple equation that I made. If you going for performance and quality on a tighter budget or don't really need that awesome performance or quality, go for AMD. However if you have the money and want that true performance and quality, you should always strive for the Nvidias and Intels if your doing extreme gaming on a decent to wide scale. But the exception is this. If you only play a few games and they obviously do better on AMD, then go with them. ^_^
 


I have a MSI 7950 with the 7970 pcb, the sucker does 1200 mhz on the core and is competitive with overclocked 7970's.

It's all a matter of getting a 7950 with a 7970 pcb, and then also getting lucky.


Most 7950's will do 1000mhz on the core though, so even if you cant get 1200 mhz like me, it should still be extremely good price/performance wise.

 
Alright, I think I'm going to get the 7950 and use the money I saved to get an SSD for windows, do any of you know which ones are overclockable (as in the brand)?
 


Well most brands are overclockeable. But if you can try to stay away from ATI, you can't change voltages on them so you can't overclock as high. But I would say MSI is probably your best bet for that. And if you want to spend a little more (like $20-$30 about), you should get the Asus, Asus is probably the #1 next to Galaxy and MSI.
 
Waiting will be the best answer because we ve got AMD's Polaris Series GPU on the way.....if you are in for NVidia then I will suggest you go for the higher end ones such as....GTX 980 etc....
 
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