What is the best GPU I can use with my i5 2500 without running in to bottleneck?

[Sandwich Thief]

Pretty much the post title. I'm really new to real PC gaming, just bought a second-hand rig from a friend. Running an i5 2500 @ 3.3 ghz, 16gb RAM, 500gb HDD, GTX 560. The gtx 560 is holding up fine for cs:go at pretty high settings, but I was thinking of upgrading to two 780 ti sc's. (One first, one later..the price is attractive). Can I do this? Am I an idiot? Can I get something much more powerful?

Thanks for any and all replies/help!

 

[spentshells]

You can add any single card you like. I'd suggest getting 970's in place of the 780ti.
For two cards however you will want to overclock the cpu,

It's a beast.

 

[DarkSable]

Two very fast cards like that is... going to be a little much for your system.

Also, why the 780 ti's, unless you're getting a wonderful price on them? I would just buy a single GTX 970 and call it good.

There are two issues in play here.

1) Your screen is probably just 1080p, 60Hz. Even the 970 is ridiculously powerful for that, and will max out nearly every game.

2) Your power supply. It takes something big and powerful to push an SLI setup, so if you don't have it, that's another $100 at least.

 

[Sandwich Thief]

You can add any single card you like. I'd suggest getting 970's in place of the 780ti.
For two cards however you will want to overclock the cpu,

It's a beast.

word! Thanks. I do not know how to overclock, and it isn't the 2500k... would you reccomend getting one 970 instead of the two 780 ti's? I don't want to blow all of my disposable income on GPUs, but I do want to perform a pretty serious upgrade. Thanks again for replying!

 

[Sandwich Thief]

Two very fast cards like that is... going to be a little much for your system.

Also, why the 780 ti's, unless you're getting a wonderful price on them? I would just buy a single GTX 970 and call it good.

There are two issues in play here.

1) Your screen is probably just 1080p, 60Hz. Even the 970 is ridiculously powerful for that, and will max out nearly every game.

2) Your power supply. It takes something big and powerful to push an SLI setup, so if you don't have it, that's another $100 at least.

Thanks! I'm planning on upgrading to a 24 or 27 inch 144hz monitor, I probably should have mentioned that. What would you say is the best move to make with that in mind?

 

[Eximo]

i5 2500 can't be overclocked unless it is an i5-2500k on a p68 or Z77 motherboard.

Motherboard would need to be able to support SLI to have two Nvidia graphics cards.

Agreed a single GTX970 is more then enough for 1080p gaming and is low power enough to be a direct replacement for a GTX560. (Both require two PCIe 6-pin connectors)

144Hz is a little tougher, but if you are still at 1080p then it should be fine. You will be able push 100FPS in quite a few games.

If you are talking 2560x1440 at 144hz then you need to start looking at adding a power supply, confirming the motherboard specs, and possibly replacing it along with the CPU. That way you can have multiple GPUs.

 

[Sandwich Thief]

Also, I have an 850 watt power supply. Sorry guys, I'm pretty new to this whole world, a lot of relevant information doesn't pop in my to my head when asking questions

 

[Sandwich Thief]

i5 2500 can't be overclocked unless it is an i5-2500k on a p68 or Z77 motherboard.

Motherboard would need to be able to support SLI to have two Nvidia graphics cards.

Agreed a single GTX970 is more then enough for 1080p gaming and is low power enough to be a direct replacement for a GTX560. (Both require two PCIe 6-pin connectors)

144Hz is a little tougher, but if you are still at 1080p then it should be fine. You will be able push 100FPS in quite a few games.

If you are talking 2560x1440 at 144hz then you need to start looking at adding a power supply, confirming the motherboard specs, and possibly replacing it along with the CPU. That way you can have multiple GPUs.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure that I'll be gaming at 1080p. I just want the 144hz refresh rate for cs:go, pretty much. Your answer helped me out a lot.

Also, thanks again to every single person that took the time to help me out. I appreciate you all!


EDIT: My motherboard is a p67 :|

 

[spentshells]

i5 2500 can't be overclocked unless it is an i5-2500k on a p68 or Z77 motherboard.

Motherboard would need to be able to support SLI to have two Nvidia graphics cards.

Agreed a single GTX970 is more then enough for 1080p gaming and is low power enough to be a direct replacement for a GTX560. (Both require two PCIe 6-pin connectors)

144Hz is a little tougher, but if you are still at 1080p then it should be fine. You will be able push 100FPS in quite a few games.

If you are talking 2560x1440 at 144hz then you need to start looking at adding a power supply, confirming the motherboard specs, and possibly replacing it along with the CPU. That way you can have multiple GPUs.

4 core turbo enabled full time, up the bclk to approx 106. That my friend is indeed overclocking

 

[Eximo]

i5 2500 can't be overclocked unless it is an i5-2500k on a p68 or Z77 motherboard.

Motherboard would need to be able to support SLI to have two Nvidia graphics cards.

Agreed a single GTX970 is more then enough for 1080p gaming and is low power enough to be a direct replacement for a GTX560. (Both require two PCIe 6-pin connectors)

144Hz is a little tougher, but if you are still at 1080p then it should be fine. You will be able push 100FPS in quite a few games.

If you are talking 2560x1440 at 144hz then you need to start looking at adding a power supply, confirming the motherboard specs, and possibly replacing it along with the CPU. That way you can have multiple GPUs.

4 core turbo enabled full time, up the bclk to approx 106. That my friend is indeed overclocking

Not quite the same thing as an unlocked multiplier.

 

[spentshells]

i5 2500 can't be overclocked unless it is an i5-2500k on a p68 or Z77 motherboard.

Motherboard would need to be able to support SLI to have two Nvidia graphics cards.

Agreed a single GTX970 is more then enough for 1080p gaming and is low power enough to be a direct replacement for a GTX560. (Both require two PCIe 6-pin connectors)

144Hz is a little tougher, but if you are still at 1080p then it should be fine. You will be able push 100FPS in quite a few games.

If you are talking 2560x1440 at 144hz then you need to start looking at adding a power supply, confirming the motherboard specs, and possibly replacing it along with the CPU. That way you can have multiple GPUs.

4 core turbo enabled full time, up the bclk to approx 106. That my friend is indeed overclocking

Not quite the same thing as an unlocked multiplier.

Not as convenient or effective I'll agree with you there but if OP takes his time he could hit 3.8 - 3.9

 

[Dru-Zod]

Two very fast cards like that is... going to be a little much for your system.

Also, why the 780 ti's, unless you're getting a wonderful price on them? I would just buy a single GTX 970 and call it good.

There are two issues in play here.

1) Your screen is probably just 1080p, 60Hz. Even the 970 is ridiculously powerful for that, and will max out nearly every game.

2) Your power supply. It takes something big and powerful to push an SLI setup, so if you don't have it, that's another $100 at least.

I am deciding between Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB XTREME GAMING OC EDITION (https://www.hannaseo.com/best-gtx-970/) vs MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Gaming X 6G (

Slant - 14 Best GTX 1060 cards as of 2020

This page is a guide on which GTX 1060 card is the best for you and why. Our community compared the different 1060 models using Pros/Cons and specs that highlights the differences between the cards.The GeForce GTX 1060 chip is a mid-range GPU made by NVIDIA. There are a lot of different GTX 1060...

www.slant.co

) for my rig based on an i5-2500 (since my gpu radeon XFX GHOST is failing all the time).

I have seen in Quora people mentioning the GTX 1060 can be suitable for i5 2nd gen Sandy Bridge (https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-b...ation-and-8GB-of-RAM-without-buying-a-new-CPU).

So, what about a GTX 1060 vs the GTX970 for the i5-2500 for 1080 gaming? Will the GTX 1060 perform better than the GTX970 ? Or will the GTX 1060 bottleneck the CPU ? Will the GTX1060 perform the same as the GTX970 being the only difference the GTX1060 is more expensive?

Thanks for any answers !

 

[Rdslw]

I think the usual rule is around 1 up traded for 1 gen up
780
970
1060 (ti?)
1650 (ti?)
Rtx 580
I usually recommend the highest one for least heat & power, but pick one that is available. I think 780 have already DX12 problems so avoid it if possible.
I don't think rtx cards work with this cpu, so I omit them from the list.

 

[Dru-Zod]

I think the usual rule is around 1 up traded for 1 gen up
780
970
1060 (ti?)
1650 (ti?)
Rtx 580
I usually recommend the highest one for least heat & power, but pick one that is available. I think 780 have already DX12 problems so avoid it if possible.
I don't think rtx cards work with this cpu, so I omit them from the list.

Many thanks for your quick answer !

So, do you mean all the above are compatible with the i5 2500 except the RTX ? And that the 780 may have issues with DX12 ? And finally, I understand that the scale from best to worse performance is: 1650 (least heat and power) > 1060 > 970, is that correct ?


Many thanks!

 

[DSzymborski]

Let's try and avoid necroing five-year-old threads for random questions. If you want more answers, start your own thread with your full specs.