New monitor and GFX card recommendations

Beerbaron · 13 Oct 2013 at 12:58

I have got back into gaming recently so fancy a new GFX card and monitor. Budget is £200-300 for each. It would be nice to game at a higher res and refresh rate.

My current spec:

Radeon HD6950 flashed to HD6970
i5 @ 4.2Ghz
16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Intel 530 Series 240GB SSD
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 mobo

Dell 2209WA monitor 23" 1680x1050 @ 60htz

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

Adam123 · 13 Oct 2013 at 13:28

What games are you playing?

My input:

Monitor is awesome -1080p @ 144hz altho I'd try and keep your Dell one as well as the colours aren't brilliant on the BenQ.

Graphics card will support Mantle and is pretty equal to a GTX 770 but has 3gb of vram(benchmarks)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Toxic OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £269.99
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £239.99
Total : £523.48 (includes shipping : £11.25).

stulid · 13 Oct 2013 at 13:31

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VG278HE 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £359.99
1 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £221.99
Total : £581.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

That Matrix Platinum is a steal as it includes a golden ticket to get three free games.

fowler002 · 13 Oct 2013 at 13:38

No clue on the monitor(prob best to look at what stulid has suggested), but in regards to the GPU where have you been for the past 24+ hours? Have you happened to miss the weekend only deals on the two Asus 7970 cards(the top @£210 has sold out now but still plenty of matrix @£222 left) being mentioned non stop on here?

Beerbaron · 13 Oct 2013 at 16:22

I play games like BF3 and Dead Space 3. Currently playing Dishonored and want to play Metro: Last Night next.

I haven't really had the time this weekend to browse the web plus I'm not in a rush to upgrade.

I like the look of the Asus VG278HE 27" monitor.

fowler002 · 13 Oct 2013 at 16:41

Top end card, 3 free games, what else do you want?

Beerbaron · 13 Oct 2013 at 17:51

There doesnt appear to be much difference between the Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Toxic OC 3072MB and Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB. Is it just the rebranding?

fowler002 said:
Top end card, 3 free games, what else do you want?

A cherry on top

fowler002 · 13 Oct 2013 at 17:57

280x are just rebranded 7970s(e.g. the 280x matrix is just a BIOS flashed 7970 matrix), tho I seem to recall gibbo saying(or may have read in one of the reviews) that sapphire made the toxic from 'the ground up' to be the fastest 280x(this 7970) out of the box. There's currently £40-50 difference in price plus free games with the matrix.

Avenged7Fold · 13 Oct 2013 at 18:16

stulid said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VG278HE 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £359.99
1 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £221.99
Total : £581.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

That Matrix Platinum is a steal as it includes a golden ticket to get three free games.

^

I would go for this. Awesome card and awesome monitor. Make sure you got the space for the card though!

Beerbaron · 17 Oct 2013 at 08:55

Would my i5 2500k bottleneck a 7970?

Marine-RX179 · 17 Oct 2013 at 09:35

Beerbaron said:
Would my i5 2500k bottleneck a 7970?

Depended on what game you play. There will ALWAYS be CPU bottleneck for CPU demanding games like the mmo and rts when your graphic card is fast enough; for single-player 1st person shooters, they are usually more demanding on graphic side than CPU side.

Generally speaking, an overclocked i5 2500K wouldn't bottleneck a single 7970.

Beerbaron · 17 Oct 2013 at 10:11

Thanks, i didnt really want to purchase a new CPU and mobo as well quite yet. I mostly play single player games.