Upgrading graphics card

[Barzda]

Hey guys, I'm thinking of upgrading my graphics card and I need some advice.
My current specs are:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.30 GHz
RAM: 4GB
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series

My budget is around 200-250$ and I'm thinking of a GeForce GTX 760

What are your thoughts and recommendations?

 

[ruecklm14]

the 760 is a great choice and if you ever want sli, 760 sli can give you 30%+ performance than a single 780 for the same price. I'd try to find a 4gb version just for future proofing. im not sure that there is a 4gb version though🙁

 

[ruecklm14]

also dont be worried about your cpu bottlenecking the 760.

 

[Lmah]

the 760 is a great choice and if you ever want sli, 760 sli can give you 30%+ performance than a single 780 for the same price. I'd try to find a 4gb version just for future proofing. im not sure that there is a 4gb version though🙁

There are 4gb versions but they are usually listed $300 or more.

 

[Barzda]

One thing I forgot to mention is that my Power supply is not good enough. Can you suggest any?

 

[punahou1]

the 760 is a great choice and if you ever want sli, 760 sli can give you 30%+ performance than a single 780 for the same price. I'd try to find a 4gb version just for future proofing. im not sure that there is a 4gb version though🙁

I picked up the 760 4 gb version and its awesome! I was running the GTX 450 so this made a huge difference. You can get the 2 gb version at a fairly low rate now. I too wanted to future proof which is why I went with 4 gb. Note that at this juncture there are very few games that take advantage of the 4gb...

 

[ruecklm14]

the 760 is a great choice and if you ever want sli, 760 sli can give you 30%+ performance than a single 780 for the same price. I'd try to find a 4gb version just for future proofing. im not sure that there is a 4gb version though🙁

There are 4gb versions but they are usually listed $300 or more.

oh, ok then I'd stick to 2gb

 

[ruecklm14]

I like corsair psu. there are different series for different types of people. here they are. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/power-supply-units I have a tx650 that I am very happy with. I also have a 780 ti so you could go with a fair amount less watts than 650.

 

[photonboy]

Asus GTX760 2GB: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2oc2gd5

Sapphire R9-280X 3GB: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363l

Power Supply: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx600m

POINTS:
1) There are Pros and Cons between the AMD and NVidia choice:
AMD:
- 3GB vs 2GB (more memory not currently an issue, and at this level probably won't be)
- Mantle support (only a few games coming, though if if Mantle support works okay will alleviate some CPU bottleneck)

Nvidia:
- PhysX
- Shadowplay (desktop/game streaming/recording. Efficient due to the NVENC hardware encoder on the new NVidia cards)
- G-Sync monitor support (you probably don't care)

POWER SUPPLY:
The above Corsair is a modular PSU with fairly good customer feedback; seriously 267 people gave it a 4.7/5 on average. You may find a similar PSU you like better.

*CPU bottlenecking:
Yes, you absolutely will get CPU bottlenecking in some games. While I wouldn't "worry about it" since you can't do anything about it, you will still get a lower FPS in some games than you would with a good 4-core i5-4xxx CPU.

For example, in Battlefield 4 your CPU will be a bottleneck in Multiplayer. I also wanted to mention Mantle support for BF4 sucks. They just did a review and found out you get issues unless you have a 4GB video card. That's just growing pains of the technology but unless they fix it, I don't recommend using it to help alleviate CPU bottleneck.

This is with a GTX780Ti so it's not completely representative, but here's an example of a game that you'd be bottlenecking a bit on your CPU with the GTX760:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-pc-performance,3833-8.html

If it was SKYRIM then your CPU would do quite well. A slight bottleneck yes, but probably no more than 20% so a solid 60FPS experience is feasible.

Cheers.

 

[ruecklm14]

If you ever want to upgrade your cpu, I have a i5 3570 which is lga 1155 and a 780 ti. The 3570 only has a slight bottleneck in games like BF4 and would be pretty good paired with a 760.

 

[photonboy]

If you ever want to upgrade your cpu, I have a i5 3570 which is lga 1155 and a 780 ti. The 3570 only has a slight bottleneck in games like BF4 and would be pretty good paired with a 760.

Then he'd have to buy a new motherboard and probably a new copy of Windows plus the CPU so he's looking at about $400+. Not to mention he'd want 8GB not 4GB of memory so with tax etc he's probably over $500 not counting the graphics card and power supply.

So basically 90% of a new computer.

Plus, if he was doing that his best option would be a Haswell setup such as the i5-4460.