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Graphics Card Recomendations?

SoNiC1

SoNiC1

SoNiC1

Associate
Joined
31 Jul 2011
Posts
4
Hi guys,
building a PC for a mate, Core-15 2600k, 6GB DDR3, Gigabyte Z68A-D3-B3 mobo with OCZ 700W ModXstream PSU.

The Mobo has crossfire capability as well.

Iv been given a budget for 200-250 for the graphics card(s).

Can you guys recomend me some options?

I had an XFX 4890 1GB for him of another mate whos upgraded his but the VRAM chips keep overheating so pretty much anything better than that is what we are looking.

He wants to play Crysis 1 & 2 in highest quality possibly, at the moment 1280x1024 or 1024x768 as he's got a crappy 8 year old 15" CRT but plans to upgrade to something like a 22" LCD within a year.

I am not sure if crossfire or a single GPU would be best option. We don't mind if its ATi or nVidia but 1GB GDDR would be the minimum.


Also this is my first post so HI!

Any help and recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks in advance & Regards,
Francis
 
By 6GB do you mean 3x2GB?

That's the wrong setup as Sandy Bridge has a dual channel memory controller.

You want 2x2GB or 2x4GB.

I'm sure that I've also read that the Z68A-D3-B3 isn't particularly good. It will run a Crossfire setup but the second card is only x4 speed.

If the main purpose of the PC is gaming then a 2500K is as good as a 2600K and cheaper.

The 2600K is better for multi-threaded applications such as video encoding.
 
Last edited:
Hmm sounds like a single card setup is the way to go and I went 6GB bundle as that's just what I could get, wasn't any 8GB sets around for the original budget he gave me, and yes 3 x 2GB's.

4GB wasn't enough and 8GB just was too expensive.
He can always add another 2GB stick down the line a bit when it drops a bit more in price or when he's saved up the cash, he's started a new job so I wasn't able to exceed the budget at the time.

He does a bit of photo and video editing, not much though, but my apologies it was a i5-2500K we went for, just checked the box there.

Any other suggestions for cards guys?
The 570 was what I had in mind as well but iv not kept up with GFX cards as recent so all advice is appreciated.
 
 
Ended up going with a GTX 570.
Dude well happy with it, had crysis 2 on my 37" samsung TV running like 1900*1080 or maybe was 1200 with everything turned up full. She ran beautifully at a steady 60fps easy.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
SoNiC1 said:
Ended up going with a GTX 570.
Dude well happy with it, had crysis 2 on my 37" samsung TV running like 1900*1080 or maybe was 1200 with everything turned up full. She ran beautifully at a steady 60fps easy.

Thanks for the help guys.
Click to expand...

The 570 is an awesome card mate.
 
SoNiC1 said:
4GB wasn't enough and 8GB just was too expensive. He can always add another 2GB stick down the line a bit when it drops a bit more in price or when he's saved up the cash, he's started a new job so I wasn't able to exceed the budget at the time.
Click to expand...

I'm intrigued to hear why you think 4GB isn't enough?

Unless he's planning on running a few VM's 4GB is plenty for gaming. You do realise that his machine will now not be running in dual channel mode?

6GB kits are for the X58 triple channel memory configuration not the dual channel Sandybridge platform.

BTW good luck on any more memory price drops, I can't see it getting much cheaper than it already is. An 8GB kit for less than 50 quid is phenomenally cheap! ;)
 
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