Graphics Card Help Needed

[timebomb26]

Hi guys,

I finally decided to sign up to the forums after reading them for a few months. I'm basically stuck with my decision for a new GPU. I've read a lot of information on the internet (reviews, benchmarks, forums) and it seems everything contradicts each other.

My current specs are:
AMD Phenom X4 9950 AM2+
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (nForce 570 Chipset, SLI, Firewire)
4GB DDR2 800mhz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB

I've been away from the UK for about two years now but will be returning within a week, and will hopefully have Battlefield 3 waiting for me. I was thinking I would need to upgrade my GPU to hopefully achieve high settings at 1680x1050. I was looking at the 1 and 2GB versions of the MSI GTX560Ti as they had good reviews, but other advice suggests I should go for the 448 Core version. Most of these versions have been discontinued though and the only one currently stocked by OcUK is the Zotac one which has mixed reviews. I can find the MSI GTX560Ti 448 version on Amazon, but it is £266, whereas I could get the Asus GTX560Ti 384 core version with BF3 for under £200.

Needless to say I've changed my mind about a thousand times, and just need someone to point me in the right direction. I heard BF3 is fairly memory intensive hence why I was looking at a GPU with 2048MB, but then I've seen benchmarks which show little increase in performance. Same deal with the standard and 448 core versions.

Someone set the record straight! Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Orcvader]

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MAFIA 2 PC Game £239.99
Total : £250.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).




What PSU do you have?

Also, your CPU might bottleneck you... and the original Phenoms aren't brilliant overclockers either... what's your budget for the upgrade?

 

[timebomb26]

I have a 1000W PSU (for some reason!). I was hoping I could get away without a CPU upgrade as it would mean a new motherboard as well. I would ideally like to upgrade to a i2500k but not at the moment.

My budget is around 200GBP but I would go up more if the performance boost was worth it. Sounds like with my CPU though it probably wouldn't be.

 

[Orcvader]

If that's the case, this one will be closer to your budget:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £209.99
Total : £220.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



Another option is to try the game and see how well it performs on your current system, and then maybe see what's avaliable when Nvidia's Kepler series is out in a couple of months. Should help drop the price hopefully.

 

[timebomb26]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'd prefer Nvidia over AMD though. I may just see how it goes and go from there. Upgrading the GPU isn't a problem but I don't really want to splash out on a CPU/Mobo/RAM as well at the moment, especially as the current build handles 98% of things with no problem.

The Asus 560Ti with BF3 could be a good option. I still need to buy the game anyway.

 

[timebomb26]

I think I'm going to go for the MSI GTX 570 as it's cheaper than the 560ti 448 I want (being as I can only find it on amazon). My CPU may bottleneck it, but when I eventually upgrade the CPU I'm going to wish I got the 570.

Thanks for all your help Orcvader. Much appreciated.