I need some advice.

[AnthonyA85]

Hi folks.

I need some advice on a replacement graphics card i'm looking to get, specifically, which card should i choose for my system and what (if anything) else i should upgrade?

I'm primarily a gamer, though i do 3D modeling work as a hobby (I am hoping to turn it into a career eventually, i'm still exploring possibilities as to how i'll go about that, but that's not important here), and i've recently decided to give video capture/editing/encoding a try, i'm planning to get Sony Movie Studio 12 for xmas, (along with Assassin's Creed 3)

My current system specs are in my signature.

I unfortunately made the mistake of buying this card yesterday, thinking the high ram would compensate for the low specs, then i did some more research online, and after reading a few reviews, and looking at 3Dmark benchmark graphs, I saw the card i'd just ordered was bottom of the pile, and wasn't even on the list of Sony Movie Studio's minimum spec cards (they recommend roughly GTX 4xx/HD 57xx and up).

So, my parents suggested i ask on here for advice on which would be the best card to pick. I was originally going to go for a HD 6670 at £55, but i read a blog post online, the author of which stated that he hadn't been able to get his AMD card with PCIe 2.1/3.0 to work with his old motherboard (AMD Tech staff even told him his 9750 wasn't compatible), but a 2.1/3.0 Nvidia card did work for him, so this has got me thinking that if i want to get a new, good DX11 capable card that will give me excellent frame-rates while recording games, and encoding/editing video, and for best guarantee of backwards compatibility (though i'm aware my motherboard will probably slow things down since the PCIe x16 slot isn't 2.0), my best bet would be Nvidia.

Now my question is, which card would be best for me? and what else should i upgrade? (if you think i need to)

I'm also using a Fujitsu Siemens 17 inch monitor, max res 1650x1080.

Thanks in advance for your advice

 

[AnthonyA85]

Thanks

Yeah, i know about the low spec of the GT 630, we'll be sending it back when it arrives in the post tomorrow (I still can't believe i couldn't cancel the order), i forgot to mention that in my original post.

Now, what about my motherboard? Will it handle a GTX 660? (I do like the look of the 690, but at it's current price, it's out of the question.)

Here are the specs if you need them.

Will the PCIe x16 (1.1 speed i think) be too much of a bottelneck on performance?

If i need to replace that, then I've seen a mobo/cpu/ram bundle that i like the look of.

I might also get a 1TB internal drive for extra storage, i dunno yet.

 

[AnthonyA85]

Thank you

At least now i know i won't have to worry about needing a new mainboard.

EDIT

Actually, i just double-checked, and my main board isn't the SE version, it's just the regular P5k, i think, is there any real difference?

 

[AnthonyA85]

Thank you for your help gentlemen

You've all given me some choices to go over, now, i just have to figure out what to do to send back the card i mistakenly ordered two days ago (it got here today, we're gonna send it back)

 

[AnthonyA85]

It'll probably be a week or two before we get the £60 back for that other card we're returning, so that gives me a bit more time to think, but i'm starting to lean towards the 660ti, I just hope my Akasa ZEN V2 case will have the width, i'll need to do some measuring just to be sure.