What graphic card to buy??

[Diablo]

I'm gonna sell all my old computer and gonna buy a new computer in a month or two. So this is my configuration. I'll be doin a little bit of gaming on it, so please suggest me a good graphic card. Plz do not ask me to change my config bcoz I'm on a tight budget.

Intel Core i3 540 3.06 GHz

Intel Asus H55 P7H55-M

GSkill 4GB 2X2 DDR3 1600 MHz RipJaws

So, what graphic card should I go with it? I was thinking about Point OF View GeForce GTX560. And I have one more question that is I wanna buy 4 GB of memory, so should I buy a 4GB single stick or a 2x2GB?

Btw, I'm gonna salvage some parts of my old computer so won't be buying anything else.

[ZeroPenguins]

Well not to be a downer, but I recommend a quad core even if you have to grab one from AMD. Dual cores are just not future proof enough also bad for gaming if it is not overclocked enough, also bad with multitasking compared to quad core. I also would go with AMD GPU but that in my opinion, since they are cheaper and more bang for buck. But if you like nVidia how about getting Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core better than the default 560, just a trim down version of the 580. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-560-ti-448-core-benchmark,3082.html

[RikuoAmero]

Like Angel above, I'd go for a quad core over a dual core. As for RAM, better to go for two sticks of 2GB, this will give you dual channel memory...I won't explain how but its better, trust me. Although, I would recommend trying to go for a full set of four sticks. Games these days require at least 4GB, so its a good idea to have 6 or 8GB. If you want to go the cheap route, go for at least 3 sticks of 2GB, or 4 x 2GB. To give you an example of costs of RAM, I just recently got 4 sticks of 4GB 1600MHz, for only €100/$134.

If your power supply has two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors (for graphics card), then I suggest going for the MSI Geforce GTX 560 Ti Hawk. While the card angel mentioned does have 448 CUDA cores, its not that far off from the Hawk, which has 384. The reason I suggest Hawk? It's a factory overclocked GTX 560 Ti, clocked at 950 MHz: that's faster than either the 570 or 580 or the 448 card above. Plus, if you want, you can overclock it further yourself. In fact, I'm gonna be getting myself two of these for my computer.

[Diablo]

@Ang3lofDarkness Hey thanks for the tip, AMD processors didn't really come in my mind(Most of people at my place buy only Intel). I just checked out the AMd processors do you think this is a good one?

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 GHz CPU + Asus M5A78L-M LE Motherboard

@RikuoAmero Nor Nvidia nor Hawk are available on EBay, I'll try at local stores though, they usually have this kind of Hardware. Thanks

Is it okay to have a AMD processor and board along with a nVidia card? Won't it cause any problem?

[ZeroPenguins]

@Ang3lofDarkness Hey thanks for the tip, AMD processors didn't really come in my mind(Most of people at my place buy only Intel). I just checked out the AMd processors do you think this is a good one?

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 GHz CPU + Asus M5A78L-M LE Motherboard

@RikuoAmero Nor Nvidia nor Hawk are available on EBay, I'll try at local stores though, they usually have this kind of Hardware. Thanks

Is it okay to have a AMD processor and board along with a nVidia card? Won't it cause any problem?

Sure it's fine to have AMD with nVidia, nothing wrong with that. The motherboard is totally crap, only supports 8GB max of RAM which is a real let down and only has 1 x PCIe x16 which means you can't crossfire or SLI. Look for the FX series of the AMD quad cores, they are way more powerful and better, also quite cheap as well, but that CPU you look at is quite decent as well. Also what RikuoAmero said is true, dual channel is better but I would go with triple channel for better performance with RAM. Basically what dual channel and triple means is the bandwidth of how much RAM get transferred, if you got more channels it means it can be accessed more faster than less channels. Well I don't know if that makes sense or not, but you can always google it.

[RikuoAmero]

Well, here's a link to the Hawk video card on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-N560GTX-Ti-Hawk-Video-Card/dp/B004XJDBL4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322938075&sr=8-1

[Diablo]

I've changed my whole config and this is new one:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 GHz CPU

Asus F1A55-M LE Motherboard

GSkill 6GB 2X4 DDR3 1600 MHz RipJaws

HDDs with RAID 0 Setup

But finally still stuck at choice of graphic card, I've shortlisted these 3 cards:

PNY VCGGTX560TXPB-OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB HAWK Edition

Amongst these MSI one is most expensive and I'm only gonna buy it if it gives me a serious boost to gaming in comparison with other two. I think other two cards have almost same performance, not sure though. I was trying to find the benchmarks of these cards but couldn't find them anywhere.

[RikuoAmero]

I've changed my whole config and this is new one:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 GHz CPU

Asus F1A55-M LE Motherboard

GSkill 6GB 2X4 DDR3 1600 MHz RipJaws

HDDs with RAID 0 Setup

But finally still stuck at choice of graphic card, I've shortlisted these 3 cards:

PNY VCGGTX560TXPB-OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB HAWK Edition

Amongst these MSI one is most expensive and I'm only gonna buy it if it gives me a serious boost to gaming in comparison with other two. I think other two cards have almost same performance, not sure though. I was trying to find the benchmarks of these cards but couldn't find them anywhere.

First off, I noticed with your RAM, you said 6GB, 2x4. Uhh....2x4 = 8. So you might wanna double check that:ops:. Second...that's the EXACT same RAM I got! Except I got 4 x 4GB...

Okay, so you're going for a Geforce GTX 560 Ti. While researching this, I noticed that Gigabyte have an overclocked one, at 1000 MHz, although its more expensive than the Hawk. Just thought I'd mention that ^^. Looks like I may be getting two Gigabyte cards rather than two Hawks

Right, I found a link on Youtube running Crysis 2 in DirectX 11, High-Res Texture Pack, Highest Settings, 1080p (no AA though...why is it that people just don't bother using AA in benchmarks? You're supposed to test how fast the game runs at highest settings...). Anyway, the following link used the PNY card you listed

Says he got average 38 frames, min 24 max 40. Sounds all right to me.

The next link is for the reference Nvidia GTX 560 Ti

skip to about 2:40. It mentions in DIRT 2, DirectX 11, you get 1080p with 16x AF and 8x AA, you get about 78FPS. Other than that video, I can't find any other good benchmarks for the reference card.

A couple links for the Hawk card

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGFFkkh6SQ4 (audio has been disabled, but in the video description says he gets 60+ average FPS)

Lastly...just a personal preference on my part, but I would never go for more than 1 internal Hard Drive. There's no real point to it in a home computer. At most, I would go for a Boot-Drive SSD + HDD for internal storage. But, if you're doing traditional hard drive only...you might as well just use external USB drives. Saves you the risk of losing your entire system in a RAID crash.

[bigstu999]

Surely before anyone could recommend a card to buy, you'd need to know what resolution he games at, a GTX 560ti is overkill for anything lower than 1080p where as a AMD HD6850/70 are perfect at half the price.

[RikuoAmero]

Surely before anyone could recommend a card to buy, you'd need to know what resolution he games at, a GTX 560ti is overkill for anything lower than 1080p where as a AMD HD6850/70 are perfect at half the price.

You're actually right . Every other time someone's asked me for advice on gaming computer components, the first thing I ask them is what games are they gonna play. I completely forgot to do it this time around.

[Diablo]

First off, I noticed with your RAM, you said 6GB, 2x4. Uhh....2x4 = 8. So you might wanna double check that:ops:. Second...that's the EXACT same RAM I got! Except I got 4 x 4GB...

Oh my bad. it was a typo I meant to say 2+4 GBs of Ram.

Lastly...just a personal preference on my part, but I would never go for more than 1 internal Hard Drive. There's no real point to it in a home computer. At most, I would go for a Boot-Drive SSD + HDD for internal storage. But, if you're doing traditional hard drive only...you might as well just use external USB drives. Saves you the risk of losing your entire system in a RAID crash.

I did some research and it doesn't seem a really good idea to do a RAID 0 setup. I always thought it'd increase the FPS, but seems that it'll only reduce the loading times nothing more and I run a more risk of crash.

You're actually right . Every other time someone's asked me for advice on gaming computer components, the first thing I ask them is what games are they gonna play. I completely forgot to do it this time around.

Sorry I didn't mention that, I don't have anything special in mind but I'd be playing games like Crysis, Skyrim, Witcher, Battlefied, Batman: Arkham City. I want it to be somewhat future proof for at least 2 years. Some days ago someone put up a video of Arkham City with PhysX On, that video impressed me very much.

I'll still have to do some more research about these three before buying any one of them it seems though.

[ZeroPenguins]

I've changed my whole config and this is new one:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 GHz CPU

Asus F1A55-M LE Motherboard

GSkill 6GB 2X4 DDR3 1600 MHz RipJaws

HDDs with RAID 0 Setup

But finally still stuck at choice of graphic card, I've shortlisted these 3 cards:

PNY VCGGTX560TXPB-OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB HAWK Edition

Amongst these MSI one is most expensive and I'm only gonna buy it if it gives me a serious boost to gaming in comparison with other two. I think other two cards have almost same performance, not sure though. I was trying to find the benchmarks of these cards but couldn't find them anywhere.

Now that looks a lot better, as people say RAID is risky since if you would lose all your data if one drive screws up. AMD can do Physx perfectly fine, but nVidia are being assholes and won't let AMD use it. But it is entirely possibly http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3344/ati_radeon_hd_5870_5970_with_nvidia_physx/index1.html

[RikuoAmero]

Now that looks a lot better, as people say RAID is risky since if you would lose all your data if one drive screws up. AMD can do Physx perfectly fine, but nVidia are being assholes and won't let AMD use it. But it is entirely possibly http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3344/ati_radeon_hd_5870_5970_with_nvidia_physx/index1.html

That article is a year and a half old, and since then, Nvidia has patched out the ability to do ATI + PhysX combos. I can understand why. The main reason I'm going Nvidia with my new computer is because of PhysX, so it'd be understandable if they want to keep one of their few advantages.

[ZeroPenguins]

Yes that is true, but it was possible and a nice method of getting physx to work with ATi/AMD cards.

[bigstu999]

Sorry I didn't mention that, I don't have anything special in mind but I'd be playing games like Crysis, Skyrim, Witcher, Battlefied, Batman: Arkham City. I want it to be somewhat future proof for at least 2 years. Some days ago someone put up a video of Arkham City with PhysX On, that video impressed me very much.

I'll still have to do some more research about these three before buying any one of them it seems though.

I'm not trying to push any brand on you or anything, but if a friend asked me to recommend a video card, the first thing I would ask would be what's the maximum screen resolution their monitor is capable of.

If its able to do 1920x1080 a Nvidia GTX560ti is ideal, however a lower resolution monitor running 1366x768 would not stress a GTX560 so would be a waste of money,but a AMD HD6850/70 is perfectly capable of running all the games you mentioned at max detail up to 1680x1050, and even 1920x1080 at a push for half the cost of the GTX560 that extra money could be spent elsewhere.

[→Speed←]

2+4gb is not a good idea! You should just get one stick of 4gb for now, so you can upgrade and buy the exact same 4gb stick in the future.. with 2+4gb you will not be able to use dual channel and would have to toss the 2gb if you ever wanted to use dual channel. You will save money by not buying the 2gb stick and will also allow for a memory upgrade in the future by buying the exact same brand/capacity/speed of 4gb memory that you are planning on getting right now.

[Diablo]

I'm not trying to push any brand on you or anything, but if a friend asked me to recommend a video card, the first thing I would ask would be what's the maximum screen resolution their monitor is capable of.

If its able to do 1920x1080 a Nvidia GTX560ti is ideal, however a lower resolution monitor running 1366x768 would not stress a GTX560 so would be a waste of money,but a AMD HD6850/70 is perfectly capable of running all the games you mentioned at max detail up to 1680x1050, and even 1920x1080 at a push for half the cost of the GTX560 that extra money could be spent elsewhere.

I have a LED LCD 22" monitor which is a Full HD display and I did mention that I won't be changing my machine for at least 2 yr so I need something that is little bit futureproof.

2+4gb is not a good idea! You should just get one stick of 4gb for now' date=' so you can upgrade and buy the exact same 4gb stick in the future.. with 2+4gb you will not be able to use dual channel and would have to toss the 2gb if you ever wanted to use dual channel. You will save money by not buying the 2gb stick and will also allow for a memory upgrade in the future by buying the exact same brand/capacity/speed of 4gb memory that you are planning on getting right now.[/quote']

I'm pretty sure that 2+4 will work in Dual Channel it's the latencies(speed) that matter and not the capacity of the RAM. And Dual channel can work with different brands but same brand is usually preferred.

[ZeroPenguins]

Regardless, RAM theses days are getting darn cheap, I brought new RAM a few months ago, 2x4GB sticks of them and only cost me ~$70 AUD. RAM upgrades are not so bad to buy.

[zeriu]

Regardless, RAM theses days are getting darn cheap, I brought new RAM a few months ago, 2x4GB sticks of them and only cost me ~$70 AUD. RAM upgrades are not so bad to buy.

Rams cheaper then that now actually. You can buy 8GB of 1600 RAM for $39.99 USD. Dirt cheap now.

If your looking at getting an Nvidia 560ti then I would recommend grabbing an ATI 6870. About the exact same performance, less power needed and less money. Use the extra money your gonna save on a quad CPU. You will not regret it. Just about every game these days requires a quad CPU of some sort. Going Core 2 Duo does not cut it anymore if you want any type of enjoyment out of your games.

[ZeroPenguins]

Rams cheaper then that now actually. You can buy 8GB of 1600 RAM for $39.99 USD. Dirt cheap now.

If your looking at getting an Nvidia 560ti then I would recommend grabbing an ATI 6870. About the exact same performance, less power needed and less money. Use the extra money your gonna save on a quad CPU. You will not regret it. Just about every game these days requires a quad CPU of some sort. Going Core 2 Duo does not cut it anymore if you want any type of enjoyment out of your games.

True, I got them awhile ago so the prices were still high. Quad core FTW!!! xD