What percentage of budget on the GFX card?

Linkex · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:40

I'm hoping the community can settle a debate for me - One of us believes that if you are building a gaming PC for £600, you should budget ~£250 of that for the GFX card, and the other disagrees with that figure.

So, quick poll, how do you feel about this amount based on a £600 budget?

1 - Not enough
2 - About right
3 - Too much

stulid · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:42

infernox · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:43

Your meant to be on my side stulid

Rik1254 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:43

Id say abit too much, but it depends what the computer will be used for. If its a number cruncher, its too much, if its an extreme gamer, then not enough.

95thrifles · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:43

3) I'd say £200 would be top of limit, ideally bit less but as £200 is a sweetspot for gfx cards atm, a 560Ti can be had for circa 180 which would be about right, IMO

infernox · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:46

If i can emphasise the GAMING part of the question

Reaper 392 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:49

i would say ~£150 should go on the graphics for a gaming PC of £600, perhaps a little less because of the hard drive situation

Rik1254 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:49

infernox said:
If i can emphasise the GAMING part of the question

Ok Im tired, 15 hour shifts arent fun.

But still, what type of gamer...extreme or casual? Id still say £250 is slightly too much.

infernox · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:50

Like, a player who wanted a new pc to play the newest games.

ng93 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:51

Bit to much IMO, although exact budget will of course depend on what else you need to fit into the budget. Just the tower or a full build? Software needed?

stulid · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:52

Leaving £350 for the rest is stingy

Randomface74 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:53

About a third of the budget - VERY roughly speaking.

But there's a minimum requirement - you can't build a rig for 600 and expect it to breeze through everything.

infernox · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:53

No software, Already have the case, optical drive?

stulid · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:54

Seen hard drive prices lately?

Reaper 392 · 29 Oct 2011 at 22:56

infernox said:
Like, a player who wanted a new pc to play the newest games.

still too much on the graphics card. i thought i'd try a £600 build with a £250 graphics card. its not pretty:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £251.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322GJ) £57.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM (Version B - with new Firmware) £16.99
Total : £608.90 (includes shipping : £12.50)

i would say the £130 mark is about right for the graphics if you want an upgradeable £600 PC for gaming (would be higher of it wasnt for the hard drive situation

infernox · 30 Oct 2011 at 01:38

stulid said:
Seen hard drive prices lately?

Yes I have, its all hypothetical

My Pc is more than fine, Gonna Treat myself to Sandybridge soon though.

TNGL · 30 Oct 2011 at 01:00

I'd have to go with 3; £250 is roughly 41% of a £600 build, which is far too much IMO. I'd say the graphics card should cost around 30% of the build (that's a £180 graphics card with a build cost of £600).

Tommyzz · 30 Oct 2011 at 01:01

Just less than half depend on the amount being spent.

ByMRK1 · 30 Oct 2011 at 02:06

My heart bleeds everytime I see the prices of hard drives now.. :'(
£57 for 320GB? I think you could have got 2TB for that price before..

Marine-RX179 · 30 Oct 2011 at 07:12

Reaper 392 said:
still too much on the graphics card. i thought i'd try a £600 build with a £250 graphics card. its not pretty:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £251.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322GJ) £57.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM (Version B - with new Firmware) £16.99
Total : £608.90 (includes shipping : £12.50)

i would say the £130 mark is about right for the graphics if you want an upgradeable £600 PC for gaming (would be higher of it wasnt for the hard drive situation

I actually thought about this before. A i3 2100 with a better graphic card (GTX570) would actually outperform a i5 2500K with a slower graphic card (6870) for games in general, but for that, it would be at the cost of sacrificing motherboard quality, upgradability such as K series CPU for overclocking/Ivy Bridge and SLI/Crossfire.