• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

GPU to pair with AMD Phenom II X4 965?

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
Posts
15,640
Location
Nottingham
Any recommendations for a GPU to pair with a AMD Phenom II X4 965 at 3.4Ghz.

It is a secondary rig, gaming at 1080p, most used game is Sims 3 but it is more demanding than some think with some of the expansion packs GPU wise.

The rig will probably not be updated for a year.

Looking for something which will not be bottlenecked by the CPU as to not spend silly money on something held back performance wise.

When I upgrade the rig, will be getting another GPU anyway.

Thanks.
 
£100?

But whatever is needed. I have no idea.

maybe the 965 is still more powerful than I thought? It is a great CPU.
 
Last edited:
For the most part, a 965 will still hit minimum framerates in the low 20s to high 30s with average much higher, even in newer more demading games. I find my CPU (basically an Athlon X2 unlocked to Phenom II x4 and clocked to something near 965 stock) still satisfactory for most single player games. In most cross platform games, you can still pull similar minimum framerates to the PS4 or Xbox one.

I'd suggest going with an nVIDIA GPU because the driver CPU overhead is generally lower than AMD cards.

If you want to enable more eye candy, don't mind going 2nd hand and have a suitable PSU, GTX 780s (not Ti) have been going for about £130 recently. For newer cards, a GTX 950 or 960 can hit similar settings to current gen consoles in most games.
 
Last edited:
id get a secondhand 7950/680gtx or upto a 780 gtx £120 ish secondhand.

that or a 960gtx for about a £100 2nd hand.

my 7950 was held back by quite a bit on a 4ghz phenom but still played well.
 
A stock phII would be matched well with a 2nd hand 7870/r7 270.
I'd say clock the 965 to 3.8-4ghz and get yourself a R9 380 4gb, then when you get a new rig the 380 will still be good enough to re-use.
 
As a previous PII 965 owner I can say these things are easy to overclock. 3.8GHz should be easily achievable with little effort and 4GHz with a bit more. Should open up a lot more higher end GPUs avaliable to you.

I miss my PII :(.
 
If you go AMD stay on GCN, Don't go older, In the long run you'll be better off and I presume you don't want to change the gpu again any time soon. A 7850 often matched a 6950 in performance so anything above that should do well, If you go secondhand I'd say only do it here via the MM.
If you only want new your looking at something like these

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...s-graphics-card-02g-p4-3753-kr-gx-252-ea.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/his-...press-graphics-card-h370qm2g2m-gx-104-hs.html

Personally I'd stretch the budget and go for one of these:


https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-216-ok.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...ess-graphics-card-r9-380p-4df5-gx-228-xf.html

For Nvidia I'd stretch to this:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...s-graphics-card-02g-p4-2956-kr-gx-291-ea.html

or this:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-379-as.html
 
Last edited:
I picked up a used EVGA GTX 760 ACX 2.0 SC for £55 the other day, boxed and everything. My son is using it and it handles that game no sweat.
I tested it in my rig and it was running GTA 5 nicely too, had the odd dip into the 30's sometimes, but perfectly playable.

Performance wise the 760 is about the same as the 950 from the benchmarks I was looking at, obviously if you buy used you will be paying half the price though.
 
I would prob try a gtx 960,,mine runs great with my setup but my 860k is overclocked to 4ghz,,,much better performance than the next gen consoles,,i can play dirt rally with most things maxed and get over 80fps on some tracks!

I find people underestimate the 960 for some reason,,yes its not the best/fastest card in the world but its no slouch either :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom