Best card that a8 3870k would not bottleneck

[sketchytom]

What is the best card i can run that my cpu the amd a8 3870k would not bottleneck?

i did not realize i had a crappy gddr3 version of my card so this warrants an upgrade i think and sice it is like 70 quid for a gddr5 version and thats only 1gb i dont see the point.

other question is how much would i have to spend to get better performance than a gddr5 version of a 6670 in dual graphics and would the performance increase be significant?

 

[JonSmith]

This does of course depend on the game. Overclocked the CPU should compare to an i3 2100. The best cards would be 6850, 6870 or GTX560 in my personal opinion, for gaming at 1080p.

However, games like BF3 scale well with 4 cores so the CPU does not actually cause a bottleneck.

So the general rule of thumb is, spend roughly what the CPU cost on the GPU as well, that'll ensure you have balanced components.

 

[andybird123]

So the general rule of thumb is, spend roughly what the CPU cost on the GPU as well, that'll ensure you have balanced components.

this makes absolutely no sense

2500K = £150
GTX 680 = £400

these are well matched and no where near being the same price

a GTX560 is double the price of the A8, even a 560ti would be fine with the A8 and that is nearly 3 times the price

the A8 is roughly comparable to a Q6600 on a decent OC and my Q just barely bottlenecked a GTX580, so the OP, basically get any card you like from the previous gen and the CPU won't be much of a bottleneck in most games at 1080p, 6950's are decent value and most will unlock to 6970 speeds

 

[Orcvader]

Well judging from this the A8 is about the same performance as the low end Phenom IIs: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32466-5.html

Assuming you're not overclocking, if you're playing something like BF3 then maybe the 6850 would be perfect?

 

[sketchytom]

currently i am running 3.5ghz a whopping bump up from the 3.4ghz i had yesterday

the main reason i would prefer to ditch the dual graphics system is for the better overclocking capabilities of the cpu with the igp disabled. i was hoping to get as close to 4 ghz as possible ... obviously with a decent cooler.

the most gpu heavy game i play is battlefield 3. i would like to play at 1080p for when i lug the computer downstairs to the 37inch screen

thanks for all your input money will be getting burned payday it seems

 

[bemaniac]

I think a second hand 480gtx could be just the ticket

 

[sketchytom]

second hand was the route i was thinking as my pc cost seems to be on the up and up. and i still bought a bloody laptop to fix up silly me

 

[Locky]

Best card that a8 3870k would not bottleneck

hmmm the onbaord gfx