Dual 1080p monitor and gpu upgrade

[Failsafe]

My mate wants to upgrade his sons PC with dual monitors and a new gpu / ram and power supply.
The system is based around an i5 with 8gb of ram.

He is looking at an GTX780 or 290X with a couple of Benq2250 monitors, a Corsair 850 Watt psu and another 8gb of RAM.

What would be a decent combination of the above to give a good value / preformance upgrade?

Is a 780 overkill or would something like a 280X be fine for dual monitor gaming?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[BinnsY]

Just out of curiosity what games are you planning to play on dual monitors? Very very few games let you use two monitors together, the only one I can think of is Supreme Commander. If you tried to play a shooter split across two screens you would effectively end up with the crosshair split by the two monitors bezels as they would be in the exact centre.

Normally in a dual monitor setup you would only game on one of the screens and use the second one just for showing team speak / a movie / some web pages etc. This is certianly how I use mine. With that in mind you effectively only need a card capable of playing games maxed out at 1080p. I'd have thought a GTX770 or 280X would be more than pwoerful enough for that.

 

[snips86x]

The price of a 780 is more than that of a 280x.

I would be looking here with the Toxic being my first choice.

RAM; is he just gaming? 16gb will not benefit a gaming system.

As for the PSU, SuperFlower are a good shout along with Antec, Corsair HX Series, Cooler Master, BeQuiet, XFX, Seasonic and Silverstone.

I guess the underpinning question is what is his budget?

This would allow us to spec some options.

 

[Failsafe]

Normally in a dual monitor setup you would only game on one of the screens and use the second one just for showing team speak / a movie / some web pages etc. This is certianly how I use mine.

Same for this.

Just want two monitors to replace a 42" TV.

Whats enough card for top 1080P gaming performance?

PC has i5, 8gb ram and 7750 atm.

 

[Fallen god]

Same for this.

Just want two monitors to replace a 42" TV.

Whats enough card for top 1080P gaming performance?

PC has i5, 8gb ram and 7750 atm.

280x/770GTX is enough for 1080p today even a 270x, if you want to be more future proof I would recommend waiting a bit for the 290x with better coolers to come out. The 290X is an amazing card let down by poor cooling right now but once that is sorted you should be solid for a good while. Or even a 290 and flash it to a 290x.

 

[Failsafe]

So a 270X is going to do the job for 1080p gaming? My mate is happy to pander to his son and spend far more than he probably needs to. The boy has been convinced he needs a 780. Dad probably has more money than sense right now so is prepared to chuck a grand on upgrading his lads PC. The PC was a pre-made Vibox Flame, purchased about 2 years ago. The boy is also convinced he wants Nvidia rather than AMD. What would be the bang for the buck 1080P gaming choice from Nvidia?

 

[BinnsY]

A 780 is probably a good choice for 1080p to be honest. A 770 would do it with no issues but a 780 will allow you to max everything with no issues probably for the next couple of years.