Max GPU for my system

[Rossington]

Hello peeps,

I have an oldish PC that wasn't too shabby when I first bought it, but now it's starting to struggle running even older games on Ultra. Witcher 2 being the game I'm playing through at the moment.

Basically, I'd just like to buy a new GFX card, but am wary that the rest of my setup might not have the oompf and end up bottlenecking a swanky new GPU.

So as per the title, could anyone tell me what the most powerful card I could get without it being bottlenecked?

What info would you need from me to be able to tell?

Cheers in advance for your help.

PS. I really am just looking for a quick and easy solution. Not really looking for advice on other components.

 

[smallzz]

Post your specs and we will see what will fit in there!

 

[Ash0787]

Power supply and motherboards PCI 16x slot is the ultimate limiting factors,
though modern high end cards require at least a phenom x4 or pentium aniversary edition equivalent cpu to perform well

 

[Zethor]

Do you have a max budget for the card?

 

[Rossington]

Okey dokey, I have -

PSU - Corsair CMPSU-850AX
MOBO - Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
CPU - Intel Core i7 930 @ 2.80GHZ
RAM - 12GBytes of DDR3

Current GPU is an AMD Radeon HD 7900 with 3072 MB.

I'm not too fussed about budget, as I just need to know the best I can get and then can work my way down from there if need be.

If you need any more info, let me know.

 

[razorpakk]

Assuming you have a 1080p monitor, a 390 with a cpu overclock would be the best move.
That cpu is still ok if you push it to 3,4ghz+

 

[rtho782]

Go with any gpu you could possibly want. If your CPU is slow (although the 930 is still ok, and can be overclocked if you need) you can pick up a Xeon 6 core for that motherboard for ~£60 later.

Honestly, just buy the best GPU you can afford. Your CPU is still ok, and you still have an easy upgrade path.

 

[Rossington]

Well I wasn't expecting that! So good news!

One thing though, my CPU is actually overclocked to 2.8 already. Would that make a difference?

 

[Quartz]

The other thing would be to add a SSD.

 

[razorpakk]

Well I wasn't expecting that! So good news!

One thing though, my CPU is actually overclocked to 2.8 already. Would that make a difference?

If you have a good cooler you should push it past 3 at least.
My 920 was @ 3.6 with a pretty bad one.

 

[Mariusz]

What cooler do you have? Overclock your cpu to 4ghz, if you haven't got one get a ssd then the best gpu you can afford and enjoy

 

[russell664]

Your system is fine and will take any new GPU

 

[phenx]

Any gpu will do, if you need help picking one then post your budget. A bit more of an overclock on your cpu will help out a bit aswell.

 

[Scougar]

If you are prepared to put a little time in, overclocking the cpu would be very beneficial.

Sell the 79x0 to a friend, then use that to help find your new card. I would only really recommend an Amd 390 upwards, or an Nvidia 970 upwards.

You might be lucky to find a cheap AMD 290 however.

 

[Rossington]

Thanks all very much for your help guys. Much appreciated!

 

[TheRealDeal]

My i7 920 has sat at 4.0ghz for the 6 years i have had it and it's still going strong. At this clock it still does a decent job and is a good match for the 290 i have it paired with.

 

[subbytna]

Assuming you have a 1080p monitor, a 390 with a cpu overclock would be the best move.
That cpu is still ok if you push it to 3,4ghz+

Should get 3.8 easily enough with that CPU

 

[subbytna]

My i7 920 has sat at 4.0ghz for the 6 years i have had it and it's still going strong. At this clock it still does a decent job and is a good match for the 290 i have it paired with.

I had a q9550 chugging away at 3.6 for 5 or 6 years before I upgraded absolute workhorse of a chip. The i7 9** series chips have still got plenty to offer