Question What GPU is best for my MOBO?

[umad12]

i have a Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H-CF, what GPU is best for it? and my PSU is a 450W Antec. so is it ok with the Mobo and PSU? will it be ok?

 

[Darkbreeze]

What GPU is best for my mother?

Well, since I don't know her, it's hard to say. LOL. Ok, just kidding. The title was humorous though.

Any modern graphics card will work with that board. Really it depends on what CPU you have and also what model that 450w Antec power supply is?

Hard to even guess without knowing what CPU you have.

 

[umad12]

Well, since I don't know her, it's hard to say. LOL. Ok, just kidding. The title was humorous though.

Any modern graphics card will work with that board. Really it depends on what CPU you have and also what model that 450w Antec power supply is?

Hard to even guess without knowing what CPU you have.

LOLOLOL omg i just saw that. i was in a rush to leave somewhere. xD i fix the title xD

 

[umad12]

Well, since I don't know her, it's hard to say. LOL. Ok, just kidding. The title was humorous though.

Any modern graphics card will work with that board. Really it depends on what CPU you have and also what model that 450w Antec power supply is?

Hard to even guess without knowing what CPU you have.

I have a intel i7 4770K

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the model of your Antec 450w unit? Antec makes MANY 450w units, and there are major differences in quality and performance among them.

And what country are you in? So that recommendations that will actually be available to you can be suggested.

 

[umad12]

What is the model of your Antec 450w unit? Antec makes MANY 450w units, and there are major differences in quality and performance among them.

And what country are you in? So that recommendations that will actually be available to you can be suggested.

my country USA and its VP450 Antec

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so the VP450 is not great, but it's also not terrible. It's "ok", and for any graphics card that only requires 450w or less, "ok" is probably good enough. Obviously, a better unit would be "better", but you could do a lot worse than that unit. If it's the one with the little red switch on the back to manually change from 110v to 220v then it's actually a fairly decent, but much older, design.

How much can you afford to spend on a graphics card?

 

[umad12]

Ok, so the VP450 is not great, but it's also not terrible. It's "ok", and for any graphics card that only requires 450w or less, "ok" is probably good enough. Obviously, a better unit would be "better", but you could do a lot worse than that unit. If it's the one with the little red switch on the back to manually change from 110v to 220v then it's actually a fairly decent, but much older, design.

How much can you afford to spend on a graphics card?

i can do 95. some guy is selling me one for 95 bucks. DUAL-GTX1060-O6G

 

[Darkbreeze]

Boy, that sounds risky. I don't have much faith in buying used graphics cards. Most of the time, unless it is a VERY reputable seller, there tends to be some kind of problem with the card whether it's just been ridden hard or has been used for bitcoin mining and has had the BIOS altered. I'd be very leery of that. However IF that card has nothing wrong with it, then that's a pretty good deal. IF.

 

[SHMILY]

That's a good price. 95BUCKS
If the card can be returned after the problem occurs, I think it is worth.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There are RARELY returns on used hardware, especially if you're buying it from a private party and not through a place like Amazon or Ebay that have guarantees in place, to some degree.

 

[SHMILY]

Yes, you're right. There are risks, too. AMD's graphics cards were hard to buy during the previous mining time, and then some 1060s were be used for mining, too.

 

[umad12]

Yes, you're right. There are risks, too. AMD's graphics cards were hard to buy during the previous mining time, and then some 1060s were be used for mining, too.

There are RARELY returns on used hardware, especially if you're buying it from a private party and not through a place like Amazon or Ebay that have guarantees in place, to some degree.

the guy is from Facebook market. and i profiled him he seems like a guy who "WORKS" with Tech Company. and he got crap tons of them in his closet all the time and never used.

 

[SHMILY]

I'm also a businessman, but I only sell new accessories. I've seen countless second-hand dealers pack themselves up as individual sellers. Frequently used words are "students for their own use", "long-term non-use", "study abroad", "replacement of accessories" and "moving", but they can not be generalized. It's better to buy in a place with a platform and rules. For example, eBay can choose to return goods that do not match the description.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I've heard that about ten thousand times. Doesn't mean he's not telling the truth, but it doesn't mean he is either. Anybody can put anything they want on any online profile.

It also doesn't mean that any of the hardware he is selling works, or that one out of ten cards don't fail because he DID purchase them in big lots from somebody who was using them for mining, which is the MOST likely. The "Tech company" he worked for, was probably somebody doing bitcoin mining. Not much of any other reason why he's got so many cards.

And, you won't get ANY warranty. No graphics card manufacturers offer support to third parties. So if the card dies, you're out 90 bucks, and nothing you can do or say about it.

 

[umad12]

I've heard that about ten thousand times. Doesn't mean he's not telling the truth, but it doesn't mean he is either. Anybody can put anything they want on any online profile.

It also doesn't mean that any of the hardware he is selling works, or that one out of ten cards don't fail because he DID purchase them in big lots from somebody who was using them for mining, which is the MOST likely. The "Tech company" he worked for, was probably somebody doing bitcoin mining. Not much of any other reason why he's got so many cards.

And, you won't get ANY warranty. No graphics card manufacturers offer support to third parties. So if the card dies, you're out 90 bucks, and nothing you can do or say about it.

true to that. you know what?, i might as well go to Microcenter.

 

[umad12]

I've heard that about ten thousand times. Doesn't mean he's not telling the truth, but it doesn't mean he is either. Anybody can put anything they want on any online profile.

It also doesn't mean that any of the hardware he is selling works, or that one out of ten cards don't fail because he DID purchase them in big lots from somebody who was using them for mining, which is the MOST likely. The "Tech company" he worked for, was probably somebody doing bitcoin mining. Not much of any other reason why he's got so many cards.

And, you won't get ANY warranty. No graphics card manufacturers offer support to third parties. So if the card dies, you're out 90 bucks, and nothing you can do or say about it.

whats cuda cores all about? it is what we need to look at for a best performance? or? like 1,152 cuda cores vs 640 cuda cores?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, the only thing REALLY holding you back from getting a much higher performance graphics card is the budget, and the power supply.

Because based on your CPU, you could use anything up to probably an RTX 2070 or Vega 64 without becoming too unbalanced in terms of hardware performance (uh, that word, bottleneck), but your power supply lacks sufficient capacity for that, and it grossly exceeds what I expect is your realistic budget. But who knows.

I'd recommend any of the following cards, based on what you can afford.

RX 570, GTX 1660, GTX 1660 TI, RX 2060 or if looking at older models, then a GTX 1060 6GB, or RX 470. My thought is, based on the budget you stated before which was not very realistic for a gaming card, at least not new, that you need to scrap together a few more tens of dollars and then buy the best card you can put the money together for. The best card you can afford will not be too much for your system to handle, and will likely be far below what it probably could easily handle if you had more to invest in a card and had a better power supply.

 

[umad12]

Honestly, the only thing REALLY holding you back from getting a much higher performance graphics card is the budget, and the power supply.

Because based on your CPU, you could use anything up to probably an RTX 2070 or Vega 64 without becoming too unbalanced in terms of hardware performance (uh, that word, bottleneck), but your power supply lacks sufficient capacity for that, and it grossly exceeds what I expect is your realistic budget. But who knows.

I'd recommend any of the following cards, based on what you can afford.

RX 570, GTX 1660, GTX 1660 TI, RX 2060 or if looking at older models, then a GTX 1060 6GB, or RX 470. My thought is, based on the budget you stated before which was not very realistic for a gaming card, at least not new, that you need to scrap together a few more tens of dollars and then buy the best card you can put the money together for. The best card you can afford will not be too much for your system to handle, and will likely be far below what it probably could easily handle if you had more to invest in a card and had a better power supply.

i found a guy who is selling a MSI GTX 1060 6GB for 150.00 and its sealed. in a box. doesn't look like he opened it. he said he had the an upgrade. im gonna try him then im gonna swing by Microcenter for a new PSU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, about the PSU. Do yourself a favor, and read this before you buy anything.

Click the spoiler for my model recommendations. Should apply to some of what they carry at Microcenter, well, anywhere really.

Spoiler

Let's start with the biggest misconception out there, which is that if a unit has high watts it will be ok or is good. Yeaaaah. That's not true. At all.

There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a string of LEDs and might in fact be more dangerous due to their supposedly high capacity due to poor or non-existent protections inside the unit.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.

Higher 80plus certification doesn't mean anything, UNLESS it's on an already known to be high quality PSU platform. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.

In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.

Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification or not is irrelevant.

Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far as I've seen there are really no excellent units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.

I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it's hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I'd stick to the following if you can.

Seasonic. Seasonic isn't just a brand, they are a PSU manufacturer, unlike many of the PSU brands you see they make their own power supply platforms AND a great many of the very good PSU models out there from other brands like Antec, Corsair and older XFX are made by Seasonic.

Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.

The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it's worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.

Most common currently, in order of preference, would be the Seasonic Focus series, then Focus plus, then Prime, then Prime ultra. It's worth mentioning that there are generally Gold, Platinum and Titanium versions within each, or most, of those series, but that does not necessarily mean that a Focus plus Platinum is necessarily better than a Prime Gold. It only means that it scored better in the 80plus efficiency testing, not that the platform is better.

Again, don't let yourself get tangled up in the idea that a higher 80plus rating specifically means that it is a better unit than another one with a lower rating, unless you know that it is a good platform from the start. All these Focus and Prime units are pretty good so you can somewhat focus on the 80plus rating when deciding which of them to choose.

Super Flower. Super Flower is another PSU manufacturer. They are like Seasonic and they make power supplies for a variety of other companies, like EVGA. Super Flower units are usually pretty good. I'd stick to the Leadex, Leadex II and Golden Green models.They also make most of the good units sold by EVGA like the G2, G3, P2 and T2 models.

Super Flower doesn't have a very broad availability for the units with their own brand name on them, and are not available in a lot of countries but for those where there is availability you want to look at the Leadex and Leadex II models. The Golden green platform is fairly decent too but is getting rather long in the tooth as a platform AND I've seen some reviews indicating a few shortcomings on units based on this platform.

Even so, it's a great deal better than a lot of other platforms out there so you could certainly do worse than a Golden green model. Units based on the Leadex and Leadex II platforms are much better though.

Corsair. The CX and CXm units are ok as a budget option, but I do not recommend pairing them with gaming cards. The newer 2017 models of CX and CXm are better than the older ones, but still not what we'd call terrific, so if it specifically says 2017 model, or it has a capacity other than an even 100, like 550w, 650w, 750w, etc., then it's likely at least better than those older ones. Aside from that, any of the TX, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from best to worst, with the best being the AX and AXi units.

Antec. The True power classic units are made by Seasonic, and are very good, but are not modular. The High current gamer 520w and 620w, or any other PSU you see on the market that is 520w or 620w, are also made by Seasonic, based on the S12II and M12II platform for modern versions, and are pretty good units but again they are an older platform that is group regulated so if you go with a Haswell or newer Intel configuration you will want to avoid those because they do not support the C6/C7 Intel low power states.

The Antec High current gamer 750w and 850w units are very good and are not the older design, which came in 520w and 620w capacities and were good for back then but again, are an aging Seasonic platform that is not the best choice most of the time these days. Occasionally, these older units MIGHT be the best unit available and you could do worse than one of them, but a newer DC-DC platform is desirable when possible if it doesn't mean sacrificing quality elsewhere in the platform. There are however older and newer HCG models, so exact model number will likely be a factor if choosing one of these however both the older models and the newer models are good.

Antec Edge units are ok too, but reviews indicate that they have noisy fan profiles. I'd only choose this model if it is on sale or the aesthetics match up with your color scheme or design. Still a good power supply but maybe a little aggressive on the fan profile. This may have been cured on newer Edge models so reading professional tear down reviews is still the best idea.

Antec Earthwatts Gold units are very good also.

BeQuiet. BeQuiet does have a few decent models, BUT, you must be VERY selective about which of their models you put your trust in. From model to model their are huge differences in both quality and performance, even with the same series. If you cannot find a review for a BeQuiet unit on HardOCP, JonnyGuru or Tom's hardware that SPECIFICALLY says it is a very good unit, and does not have any significant issues in the "cons" category, I would avoid it. In fact, I'd probably avoid it anyhow unless there is a very great sale on one that has good reviews, because their units are generally more expensive than MUCH better units from Antec, Seasonic, EVGA and Corsair.

EVGA. They have BOTH good and not very good models.

Not very good are the W1, N1, B1, B3 (All models except the 650w model), BQ, BR, BT and G1 NEX models.

Good models are the B2, B3 650w, G2, G2L, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models.

FSP. They used to be very mediocre, and are a PSU manufacturer like Seasonic and Super Flower, although not as well trusted based on historical performance. Currently the FSP Hydro G and Hydro X units are pretty good.

I would avoid Thermaltake and Cooler Master.

They do have a few good units, but most of the models they sell are either poor or mediocre, and the ones they have that ARE good are usually way overpriced.

This is just ONE example of why I say that. Very new and modern CM unit. One of the worst scores ever seen on JonnyGuru for a well known brand name product. Doesn't look to be much better than a Raidmax unit. Sad.

Cooler Master Masterwatt Lite 600W review

And most of the models I have linked to the reviews of at the following link are at least good, with most of them being fantastic.

Power supply discussion thread​

Certainly there ARE some good units out there that you won't see above among those I've listed, but they are few and far between, much as a hidden nugget of gold you find in a crevice among otherwise ordinary rocks and don't EVER assume a unit is good just because of the brand.

If you cannot find an IN DEPTH, REPUTABLE review on Tom's hardware, JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware secrets (Old reviews by Gabe Torres), Kitguru (Only Aris reviews), TechPowerUP, SilentPC crew or a similar site that does much more than simply a review of the unboxing and basic tests that don't include reliable results for ripple, noise, voltage regulation and a complete teardown of the unit including identification of the internal platform, then the unit is a big fat question mark.

I recommend not trusting such units as companies generally always send out review samples of any unit they feel is going to get a good review, and don't send them out if they know they are going to get hammered by the reviewer. No review usually equals poor quality. Usually.

Other models that should never be trusted OR USED AT ALL, under any circumstances, include​

A-Top, AK Power, Alpine, Apevia, Apex (Supercase/Allied), Artic, Ace, Aerocool (There might be one model worth using, but I'd still avoid them.), Aspire (Turbocase), Atadc, Atrix, Broadway com corp, Chieftech, Circle, CIT, Coolmax, Deer, Diablotek, Dynapower, Dynex, Eagletech, Enlight, Eurotech, Evo labs, EZ cool, Feedtek, Foxconn, G7, HEC/Compucase Orion, HEDY, High power, iBall, iStar computer co., Jeantec, JPac, Just PC, Kolink, LC Power, Linkworld electronics, Logisys, Macron, MSI, NmediaPC, Norwood Micro (CompUSA), Okia, Powercool, Powmax, Pulsepower, Q-tec, Raidmax, RaveRocketfish, Segotep, SFC, Sharkoon, Shuttle, Skyhawk, Spire, Startech, Storm, Sumvision, Tesla, Trust, Ultra, Wintech, Winpower, Xilence (Until I see a reputable review of a model showing different), xTreme (Cyberpower), Youngbear and Zebronics.