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GPU recommendation?

Jimbo89

Jimbo89

Jimbo89

Associate
Joined
14 Jun 2013
Posts
10
Hi all,

After a very long absence from PC gaming, i am looking to get back into it for a select few games such as DayZ and some strategy games.

The system i have is not upto much by todays standards but i am hoping it will do a decent job, if the bug bites again then i will invest in a more upto date machine.

Spec wise its running...

Intel C2D E7300 O/C To 3.0GHz
Asus P5QEM Mobo
EZCool PSU
4GB OCZ Reaper memory (Have another 4GB to go in)
No GPU

I was thinking an Nvidia GTX650 or GTX660 but i am not sure they will have enough grunt to run at 1920x1080p.

I am reluctant to spend more at the moment so i am open to suggestions.

Thanks! :)
 
Jimbo89 said:
Under £200 if possible.
Click to expand...

Sell the included free games (Crysis 3, Bioshock and farcry 3 blood dragon) and you will pick up this card up for under £200. Nothing else, no matter which brand, will get any where near it on price vs performance.
 
I wouldn't go any higher than a 7850 or a 660 and they will be quite heavily bottlenecked in modern games to be honest. Maybe a second hand 6950 or 560Ti would suffice and could save you a few quid.
 
Gregster said:
I wouldn't go any higher than a 7850 or a 660 and they will be quite heavily bottlenecked in modern games to be honest. Maybe a second hand 6950 or 560Ti would suffice and could save you a few quid.
Click to expand...

Yeah blimey i didn't even look at his cpu spec. My bad.
 
LtMatt said:
Sell the included free games (Crysis 3, Bioshock and farcry 3 blood dragon) and you will pick up this card up for under £200. Nothing else, no matter which brand, will get any where near it on price vs performance.
Click to expand...

Thank you, i've been reading up on Dayz/Arma 2 and i've heard that it practically runs off of the CPU, is this true? If so my system is probably going to bottleneck any potentially good gains i get from this card.

Not sure if the standalone will address these issues.

Gregster said:
I wouldn't go any higher than a 7850 or a 660 and they will be quite heavily bottlenecked in modern games to be honest. Maybe a second hand 6950 or 560Ti would suffice and could save you a few quid.
Click to expand...

Yeah this was my thinking, its not the money as such, its just i am reluctant to spend more. I've been a console whore for 5 years :o
 
The only problem upgrading the CPU, is that there isn't anything i can really go to, its a socket 775 mobo, i mean would an O/C Q6600 be any better as i have one lying around somewhere?

I am guessing not as the architecture has completely changed as you would expect...Looks like a new build is the only way forward.
 
Jimbo89 said:
The only problem upgrading the CPU, is that there isn't anything i can really go to, its a socket 775 mobo, i mean would an O/C Q6600 be any better as i have one lying around somewhere?

I am guessing not as the architecture has completely changed as you would expect...Looks like a new build is the only way forward.
Click to expand...

Two extra cores would help, but even the Q series of quad core cpu's will hold back a mid range current gen gpu.
 
The thing is, i only really want to play a few games on the PC. The main one is DayZ and i would like to play a few strategy games such as Company of Heroes, which plays at max on my Laptop (HP DV6) but its a Laptop and its not built ergonomically for gaming.

I am not really interested in playing the graphical powerhouses such as Crysis, Battlefield, Far Cry etc

I would also like to play the Stalker games again which are quite dated now. Decisions decisions :eek:
 
Jimbo89 said:
The thing is, i only really want to play a few games on the PC. The main one is DayZ and i would like to play a few strategy games such as Company of Heroes, which plays at max on my Laptop (HP DV6) but its a Laptop and its not built ergonomically for gaming.

I am not really interested in playing the graphical powerhouses such as Crysis, Battlefield, Far Cry etc

I would also like to play the Stalker games again which are quite dated now. Decisions decisions :eek:
Click to expand...

If it helps, until fairly recently I had a gtx480 (overclocked version) with a Q6600 @ 3.4, and overall it handled games very well indeed. However, I do agree with the other comments about a more up to date cpu. I can see greater gpu utilization in games, and better minimum frame rates.

+1 for the Stalker titles. ;)
 
I think what i'll do now is bring the E7300 upto 3.4 and go for a 560ti second hand and see what happens.

If it can't run what i want well enough then at least i will know for sure without having put too much of a dent in the wallet, and i can at least carry the 560ti over to a new build with a better CPU.
 
Hmm, didn't notice the OP is only on a dual core CPU. If you bag a second hand Q6600 / Q9550, overclock it a bit and stick a 7850 in then it should be a decent enough gaming rig.

That shouldn't cost you more than £200 to do.
 
I have a Q6600 sitting somewhere which i'll dig out, and there is currently a decent Zalman sitting on the E7300 so i should be able to get the Q6600 to at least 3.0GHz.

Wish i still had my Reserator.
 
Thanks for the advice buddy (And everyone else) I'll be ordering the bits i need over the next week or so and i'll update the thread with the results.

Would you still recommend the 7850? I used to be a mega Nvidia fanboy so i am still dubious about moving to ATi. Even though they were the best bang for buck cards yonks ago.

Cheers :)
 
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