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Graphics card recommendation?

spr33ness

spr33ness

spr33ness

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2004
Posts
234
Hi all,

This is my first post since 2009! I guess I've been pretty happy with the performance of my PC since then only having upgraded RAM and HDD (to SSD).

Current spec is as follows:

Intel Q6600 95W
Abit IP-35
Corsair HX 520w PSU
8GB RAM
ATi Radeon 4890

My PC usage has changed quite a lot since 2009, instead of lots of gaming I'm more into photo editing, video editing (lots of encoding), hardcore browsing and a bit of gaming on the side. I'm pretty happy with the performance of the system overall but I feel the GPU is holding back the system a little bit in terms of hardware acceleration in certain apps. I'm sure the CPU will be a bit of a bottleneck but would there be any point upgrading the GPU to something newer? If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for replies.
 
do you have a budget? if so i would suggest maybe changing out the cpu mobo instead as you could upgrade the gpu but then the cpu is going to hold you back, what you could do is get a better cpu with a built in graphics card that will be better than the one you have such as the AMD trinitys
 
Bacon? said:
The Q6600 is still a decent chip :) I take it you have overclocked it it?

Try this for a new GPU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

Then upgrade the CPU, mobo etc later this year maybe? Funds permitting ofc.
Click to expand...


Q6600 is clocked at 3ghz, doesn't seem to go any further in this mobo :(

Are ATi cards good with hardware acceleration in apps? I always see people posting about nVidia cards and CUDA. What would the nVidia equivalent be?

I think a full upgrade will be done next year but I may possibly scrap the PC altogether and get a powerful laptop instead as my laptop use has increased a LOT. It's still nice to have a PC for gaming though :)
 
I'm not an expert but after a lot of research myself looking at benchmarks and stuff, the 7850 does seem like a really solid choice when it comes to good performance at a reasonable price.

It scores really high on a lot of stuff, and while to me at least it seemson the pricey side, it's actually kind of a bargain for the performance you get in return. I'm really quite ignorant when it comes to anything other than gaming, so I have no idea if a 7850 might be over kill for your needs? This site might help though, they have different charts to help give you an idea of what cards lay where these days.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html
 
Leprechaun312 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
Total : £165.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Click to expand...

Not a wise choice IMO, as the OP still does play games and that A10 chip will not perform very good compared to his current 4890.

7850 or 660 will be a bottleneck but will perform much better than a new chip/mobo but will still be bottlenecked.

Personaly, I would go for the 7850.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
Total : £180.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



Good name to boot but prices have crept up recently. You may be able to get a card in the deals from OcUK.
 
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