First post and would appreciate advice on GPU upgrade.

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Hi all,

First post here and I would appreciate any sound advice in upgrading my video card. Currently have a Gainward Nvidia GTX 650 ti 2Gb and would like another Nvidia with a spend of £150 to £200.

My Rig is a self build from 2013 for general use and some gaming, with spec as follows:

Coolermaster HAF Case with Noctua case fans

OCZ pro 850W power supply

Asus P8Z77-V motherboard with Intel Z77 chipset LGA1155 WiFi ATX

Intel i5 – 3570K processor, Quad core 3.4Ghz Noctua heatsink and fan

2 x 4GB Corsair XMS3 (1600mhz)

Gainward Nvidia GTX 650 ti 2Gb

Corsair Neutron GTX SSD 120gb

Western digital 1TB Caviar Black 64Mb Cache

It all runs pretty quietly and coolly, and handles older games pretty well, but it is struggling a bit on games like GTA V, where it is swapping out VRAM to HDD when it all gets too busy on screen and i would like to be able to crank the graphics options up some more.

Could this rig make good use of something like a GTX 1050 ???

Thanks in advance

Mike
 
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Monitor is an (ancient !) Syncmaster 2253BW, so running 1680 x 1050, though i think it will go higher.

This might be stoopid / naive, but would prefer Nvidia, as i have always used them.
 
Caporegime
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OK, well a 3GB 1060 or the 1050Ti 4Gb is going to a MASSIVE improvement over a 650Ti.

You will want to check the motherboard is on the latest BIOS as some older boards have been known to not work with GFX cards that were released after the motherboard was released.
 
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Soldato
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It all runs pretty quietly and coolly, and handles older games pretty well, but it is struggling a bit on games like GTA V, where it is swapping out VRAM to HDD when it all gets too busy on screen and i would like to be able to crank the graphics options up some more.

That's a (VRAM) 3GB+ game at 1080p if you crank majority of settings up (not all).


My basket at Overclockers UK:




Alternatively, if you chose to make the switch to AMD, even the 480 4GB would be good and sometimes available for £160-ish.
 
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Thanks all. It looks like the smart move would be to spend a little extra on a GTX 1060 6gb and that should be good for a while.

I think the Asus P8Z77 / i5 3570K combo is still good enough for a while longer.
 
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The 980 was on my shortlist, as it seems to do everything a 1060 can, even though its an older design.

Brand-wise, my last two GPU's have been Gainward cards and i have been impressed with the performance / price and innovative cooling. Are they still a decent brand ?
 
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