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Is a GTX780 overkill?

MattHep

MattHep

MattHep

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Is a GTX780 overkill for the below system. The i5 2500k is clocked at 4.2. I have the upgrade bug and fancy a new GPU.
 
A GTX 780 with a 2500k at 4.2 is fine.....:)

And you could always upgrade your i5 to an i7-2600k/i7-3770K or something at a later date..
 
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Your setup is perfect for a 780 and not overkill. An i7 will only benefit an SLI or Crossfire setup, for single GPU it's perfect is the i5 2500k. It's also a good upgrade from a 580. I'm looking to do the same soon to a 780Ti.
 
I tried running my 2500k at stock clocks just to see and it will hold my 780 at 99% usage continually.
I have it clocked to 4.5GHz though and the card and 1250/1600 for a conservative 24/7 clock :)
 
almighty15 said:
I had a 2500k before this 2600k and I can tell you from personal experience that a 2500k at that clock is not enough to get the full potential from a 780
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If a i7-2600k at 4.4 to 4.6ghz was fast enough for my 780ti SLI setup am pretty sure an i5-2500k at 4200mhz is going be plenty fast enough for just a single GTX 780
 
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chaparral said:
If a i7-2600k at 4.4 to 4.6ghz is fast enough for my 780ti SLI setup am pretty sure an i5-2500k at 4200mhz is going be plenty fast enough for just a single GTX 780
Click to expand...

I can tell you for a fact that you're CPU limited in a goof chunk of games unless your gaming at 4k.

I still get games that aren't at 100% load with a single card
 
I use an i5 2500k and and overclocker 780 classy and even at stock clocks in games like far cry, bf4 and bioshock infinite there is barely any difference between using 4.0 and 4.5 on my GPU usage.
 
I upgraded from a Sapphire AMD 6950 to a MSI 780 Lightning just before Xmas (turned up on 24th) when the card was at £420 to take advantage of good vfm 780 prices and a higher than normal resale on the 6950.

Even though I've got an old i7 920 (at stock speeds) plus 8GB RAM and only game at 1080p it has been a massive upgrade. Although I don't benchmark, Borderlands 2 has jumped from 60-70 to 100-120FPS in Afterburner but with the added benefit of PhysX now. Certainly I hazard a guess that the upgrade has resulted in more than double increase in framerate performance.

So I think it depends on what you play and want but I haven't personally regretted this jump so far.
 
If you like playing games on max settings with more than 60fps it's definitely not overkill :). Batman origins is one game that I can't max out with some frame drops.
 
Hi
For what it's worth, I run a 2500k at 4.0 Ghz with a 780 Classy at 1250/1750 and on "demanding games", it is always at 99% GPU usage.
I game at 1440 res with Vsync at 60Hz and it amazes me that plenty of games, i.e Borderlands, Skyrim, etc do not even remotely tax the GPU with usage at 50% or less and temps in the mid 40 deg c.

Modern GPU's will generally only use the performance that is required for the game/task in hand.

On plenty occasions, my 780 isn't even clocking the core up to maximum, because it simply isn't required.

I tried my 2500K at 4.5 Ghz but it made absolutely zip difference in games, with the exception of getting slightly higher benchmark scores.
Whilst gaming, the 2500K does not break sweat and barely exceeds the mid 40's in temp!!

So Op, just get the 780 and have fun.:)
 
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