Graphics card to accompany this spec

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

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I'll be gaming at 1080p - 1920x1080

And I'm looking for the best card to buy, I'll only ever be gaming on a single monitor. Obviously I could spend £500 on a card and get a fantastic system. But I believe spending that much on a card is a little bit ludicrous. I would rather spend between £150-£200, and perhaps buy a second card in the future, when they drop in price and I see the need.

Any help would be great, and comments on the original spec are appreciated. :)
 
depending on how much you want to spend, here are some ideas: YOUR BASKET
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £224.99
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £224.99
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game £205.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £175.99
1 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98


the two more expensive 6950's *should* be unlockable to a 6970

Moothead2 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-192-XF

Unlock the shaders and turn it into a 6970 :).
Click to expand...
that is not a revision 1 card, so cannot be unlocked. the only revision 1's still on sale are the asus, and the standard MSI that i linked (twin frozr isnt unlockable)

*edit*
almost forgot, the Ti version of the 560 is quite a bit faster than the non Ti version
 
Last edited:
The retail CPU is cheaper.

That Corsair H70 is on special offer, why not also get the 2TB Green drive thats also on special offer and order today?
 
Your original board, aside from being a bit naff, wouldn't be able to do CF/SLI properly.

In order to accomodate a board that could, and is rather good, I had to swap out some other components you had selected - assuming your budget was around £1k I came up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £175.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Titanium Grey £84.98
1 x OCZ Vertex 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX60G) £79.99
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £74.99
1 x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £69.59
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £59.99
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £53.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £49.99
Total : £956.48 (includes shipping : FREE).

- Non-modular, but just as good PSU.
- The Antec Kuhler 620 performs almost as well as the H70 (It's about 1'c off H70 temps on average) for much less.
- Already explained the mobo :p

There are several ways of making it cheaper - for example, do you really need a slow 2TB HDD? £33 will get you a much faster 1TB HDD (such as the Samsung F1).
The case would be another way of cheapening the cost, as would going with air cooling (can save £30 there).
 
I quite like that spec cookeh, and £1000 Max works, less if possible though as I'm budgeting for a Monitor, PS3 and 52" HDTV aswell. New Job, So I want to buy new toys to enjoy in my off time.

I wont be buying until the end of the month. So this week only offers may change for the better or worse! but that's fine.

With regards to the spec, what I may do, considering the amount of HDD space in the Fractal Design case(Which has to stay :p) I may get the faster 1TB drive, and just put another drive in as I need the space. Similar to my idea for a second graphics card if the need arises. Reason I went with the initial CPU, was its guaranteed 4.8ghz, And I really want that 4.8ghz, I dont want to end up spending all these pennies and ending up with a lemon of a CPU.

If you had the choice with the PSUs, Which would you go for? the Corsair I spec'd initally or the XFX one you spec'd. As I'm happy to go with either if there's a benefit. If the only difference between the two is the fact the corsair is modular, I'll go with it. but if the XFX has more stable rails or something, I'll drop modular for stability.

As for the graphics cards, Thanks for the links. I think I'll look at some benchies, of the cards mentioned, and pick a winner for the spec above.
 
Although i'm a nvidia fan the ati 6950 2gb is a value for money card. If you get the first revision card which overclockers still sell, you can flash it to a 6970.
 
wannabedamned said:
If you had the choice with the PSUs, Which would you go for? the Corsair I spec'd initally or the XFX one you spec'd. As I'm happy to go with either if there's a benefit. If the only difference between the two is the fact the corsair is modular, I'll go with it. but if the XFX has more stable rails or something, I'll drop modular for stability.
Click to expand...

Honestly? I'd take neither, and push the budget for the XFX 750W Black Edition - aside from looking absolutely awesome, it's rated very very well, and has higher amps on the 12v rail iirc.

Out of the two options you and I chose? Again probably the XFX as I don't think the Corsair is worth the premium.

Modular isn't a massive deal in cases like those you've chosen because the cable management is nothing short of great.
 
logi-cat said:
Although i'm a nvidia fan the ati 6950 2gb is a value for money card. If you get the first revision card which overclockers still sell, you can flash it to a 6970.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not really.

Keep the fanboyism. The GTX560Ti - at £25 less than a Rev.2 HD6950, is about on a parallel with it and the few times it looses out to the HD it's only by 1-2%.

GTX560Ti is more value for money and is what I would get.
 
I'm sure I read somewhere that the Fractal case will struggle to accommodate some of the bigger GPUs. Might be worth checking this out before you spend too much time deciding on your card.
 
Final Spec, Thanks for you help guys! I used the PSU you specced cookeh after having a look at it, and you're right, it does look nice :p

2q0j1vq.jpg

Just over £1000, But cant complain, there are several departments i could save in. Cooler, etc. but I'm happy with it how it is now, gonna hurt when I pay for it though.

But it'll be worth it when I'm playing Elderscroll 5 in November :p

Thanks again! :)
 
Good spec there. Will be a cracking system.

+1 for the GTX560Ti.

As you said you can save a bit by getting a cheaper cooler for example, but if your happy to spend just a tiny bit more I'd recommend one of the new generation SSDs like the 64GB OCZ Agility or Crucial M4.

Other than that, looks great. Enjoy your system.
 
Looking good to me! :)

I would still be tempted to go for the Antec Kuhler 620 though - 1'c hotter on average, but much quieter and £20 cheaper.

That £20 discount would let you getter a new gen SSD - which is significantly faster :p
 
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