Do I need to upgrade?

[Guerrila]

Hello there

First off I'm going to admit that I'm a bit of a computer novice, I like to think I know enough to understand most stuff but really technical issues I don't have a clue.

So I need some advice please.

I have recently bought a new monitor for my pc, I'm running this graphics card:

Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

New monitor is the:

Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor

Is this graphics card going to be good enough to run this monitor on high to max resolution?

(I haven't tried it yet as I'm moving house this weekend and the monitor is still in the box)

If its not can you recommend a good graphics card around the £300-£400 mark?

I have been looking at:

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Mostly based on the customer reviews and the award it has on the overclockers site.

One person mentioned this card is pretty big so I'm concerned if it will fit in my case.
I have an Antec 900 case.

The card I use right now fits ok although I doubt there is much room left. Possibly an inch and a half to 2 inches from the drive bays, but there are a lot of cables.

I'm not very good with cable management, I built the pc myself and it is a bit 'straggly' lol.

If its likely I will need a new case could you recommend one?

Power supply I am sure is adequate, its a 750w, although if required I guess I could get a new one :/ lol

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

 

[arc@css]

Hello and welcome.

Is this graphics card going to be good enough to run this monitor on high to max resolution?

It depends on the games you play, but if you play a wide range of titles / genres & expect very high / max settings, then no is the answer. However, if you simply wish to run titles at this resolution while maintaining medium settings, then for the most part it'll be fine.

If its not can you recommend a good graphics card around the £300-£400 mark?

7950 + overclock, if needed. Preferably not voltage locked. I 'think' HIS are one of the ones that aren't locked.

If its likely I will need a new case could you recommend one?

I don't know about the case, but I would have thought you'd be fine.

Power supply I am sure is adequate, its a 750w, although if required I guess I could get a new one :/ lol

What brand is it? Wattage will be fine.

 

[Guerrila]

Hey, thanks for the response.

Its one fo those Corsair 750w TX power supplies.

I play an outrageous amount of League of legends so I know thats not really going to cause any hassle.

Other than that, SWTOR and the new sim city for the moment. Changes dpending on whats out really.

What do you mean by voltage locked?

Thanks

 

[arc@css]

Your psu will be fine.

If a card is voltage locked, then you are restricted on how far you can overclock it. Due to it being locked, you cannot increase the voltage to push it further.

 

[Guerrila]

Nice one thanks

i think the restriction here is my knowledge not the tech haha!

I think I will upgrade the card then.

Another string of silly questions...

How come all the ATI/AMD cards are so much cheaper?

Why is the memory higher on them? Am I being incredibly niave in thinking that the memory is the most important statistic in cards nowadays? Last time I really knew anything about all this was back in the days of the Voodoo 3 when I was 16... 15 years ago!
Recently I have bought based on mates recommendations.

How come so many people are using crossfire with them? Are Nvidia better stand alone cards?

 

[ArchAndroid]

Nice one thanks

i think the restriction here is my knowledge not the tech haha!

I think I will upgrade the card then.

Another string of silly questions...

How come all the ATI/AMD cards are so much cheaper?

Because nVidia are the Apple of the graphics world. They have this je ne sais quoi which allows them to charge 40% more (670 vs. 7950) for less performance and have their credulous fans swallow the cost.

Why is the memory higher on them?

The memory is higher on the AMD cards to have more memory for rendering large images (2560x1600 or multi-monitors) efficiently. You can find 3GB or 4GB variants of nVidia cards and even 6GB variants of AMD cards although the extra memory is moot unless you are working with ridiculously large resolutions.

Am I being incredibly naïve in thinking that the memory is the most important statistic in cards nowadays?

The most important part of a graphics card is the power of the actual chip. The only way to compare AMD against nVidia or even different tiers of AMD cards (7970 vs 7870) is to empirically test them in games.

The ultimate example of this is the 630 4GB (which has more memory than the flagship 680 2GB). The reason they have done this is to attract people who think bigger is better from opting for a 6670 1GB or 7750 1GB from AMD. In practice, it's like putting spoilers and racing slicks on a Reliant Robin; it's still not built for performance.

How come so many people are using crossfire with them? Are Nvidia better stand alone cards?

Extra performance for reasonable prices. AMD and nVidia are both exceptionally good stand alone cards. The people who are using CrossFire probably have large/multi monitors which demand a lot of a GPU, therefore CrossFire is the cheapest and easiest way to have enough grunt to play the games turned up to the max.

 

[Guerrila]

Awesome response man, cheers.

Pretty much as black and white an answer as I could have expected.

Certainly makes choosing a card that bit easier now when I'm not looking at cards that are £240 and 4gb in memory to a card at £450 and 2gb and wondering what is going on.

So I imagine if I use the model number as an initial reference, for example:

7800 series, the 7950 is going to be more poweful, and then the 7970 that tiny bit more powerful again.

Then with things like Boost or Overclocked, or Ti tagged on the end, thats basically telling me the cards been tweaked in some way to give it more than it normally would?

And would I then be right in saying that the higher the Mhz the more power it has and the more power it will ultimately require from my supply?

I'm very unlikely to dual screen, I've heard that you need screens which are very similar to do it correctly.

My screen I have just replaced is several years old, I don't even know its spec, but it is in no way on the level of my new one.

So using the new one as a primary and the old one as a secondary would mean i couldn't have the new one at full resolution etc right?

Thanks again for your responses

 

[se_vietboi]

I'd try playing with the new monitor and see how it goes before making a decision. But it seems you want to upgrade anyways even if you do get smooth framerates =P

 

[Guerrila]

Yes it would seem so

I've decided to get a new case and a new card. Hopefully this card will last me a while and the case should give me several years worth of upgrade space.

CM Storm Trooper Full Tower Gaming Case

and the

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Thanks for all your help guys