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Please help me choose a graphics card that won't bottleneck

guise

guise

guise

Associate
Joined
30 Jul 2010
Posts
50
Hi guys,

My PC is 5 years old now and severely due an upgrade. As such, I've invested in one of the OCUK oc'ed bundles to spruce the rig up to play Starcraft II. The spec is as follows:

- CPU: Intel Core i3 2.93GHz @ 4.00GHz
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
- Cooler: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2 CPU cooler
- PSU: Seagate S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 PSU

I'm looking for a sufficient graphics between £80-£120 that'll run nicely and not create a bottleneck or be too power hungry for my PSU. Could people suggest both Nvidia and ATI cards please?

Regards,
 
ATI 5770 1gb is the best buy in that budget. The 5830 is worth a look now that it's dropped to £140. For an Nvidia card, there's not much below a GTX 460 which is a fair bit faster than a 5770 but this is reflected in the price so it's above your budget but might worth looking at.
 
I've done a bit of reading and found that the 4890 is supposed to perform better than the 5770. Can somebody confirm this?
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Yes. It is the 5830 that's more closer around 4890's speed. But you could always try overclocking the 5770.
Click to expand...

Is that advisable with my 600W PSU? It might be worth adding that I intend to get a new LCR soonish that's full HD... so a HDMI port would be a plus.
 
Your psu you should be fine for a 5770 and overclocking. I run a 620w corsair psu with the spec in my sig. The 4870's use more power than the 5770's i think too.
 
How does the 260 GTX compare to these cards? I ask because after this card there's apparently no performance boost in Starcraft II.

Regards,
 
guise said:
How does the 260 GTX compare to these cards? I ask because after this card there's apparently no performance boost in Starcraft II.
Click to expand...
GTX260 192/216 (there are two version, the 216 version is faster) both are more or less around 5770 speed, however, consider Starcraft II is Nvidia optimised, I wouldn't be surprised if the GTX260 get extra frame rates. Also, there are some people complaining about having compatibility issues with ATI cards for Starcraft II at the moment. They might get fixed in the future, but no idea how soon.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
GTX260 192/216 (there are two version, the 216 version is faster) both are more or less around 5770 speed, however, consider Starcraft II is Nvidia optimised, I wouldn't be surprised if the GTX260 get extra frame rates. Also, there are some people complaining about having compatibility issues with ATI cards for Starcraft II at the moment. They might get fixed in the future, but no idea how soon.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've been reading all the whine posts on BNET to aid my choice in card. I'm really trying to avoid getting an ATI card if possible. Could you recommend a brand of GTX 260 please?

As an aside, how many posts do I need to be able to see the members market out of curiosity? Be ideal if I could snap one up second hand as I'm not looking to pay out a load. Can imagine I'll need another GPU upgrade when Diablo 3 rears it's beastial head.
 
guise said:
Yeah I've been reading all the whine posts on BNET to aid my choice in card. I'm really trying to avoid getting an ATI card if possible. Could you recommend a brand of GTX 260 please?

As an aside, how many posts do I need to be able to see the members market out of curiosity? Be ideal if I could snap one up second hand as I'm not looking to pay out a load. Can imagine I'll need another GPU upgrade when Diablo 3 rears it's beastial head.
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Member's market???? I didn't know there was one where's the link to it?
 
i'd personally get a 4890 for £120 i was matching my mate (who has a near identical setup to me) and his 275 in pretty much all games back when i had one


to access the members market you need to have been registered for 3 months and have 250+ posts
 
Yeah, I don't dispute that after all the reading that I've done 4890's are good cards. However similarly I've read horror stories about Starcraft 2 and ATI, particularly the older versions.

Ah well, if anyone is selling a GTX 260 or similar in the Members Market tell them to chuck me a PM please... It'd be much appreciated. ;)
 
Have a few more questions if anyone would be so kind as to answer.

If I buy a new display that's full HD, will a DVI connection get the best out of it? Or HDMI? (Unsure as the NVidia cards I'm looking at don't have HDMI outs).

Is £80 for a GTX 260 with 216 shaders a decent price second hand?

Could somebody recommend me a brand?

Regards,
 
The members market is provided as a free service to active and contributing forum members. OcUK are not liable for any deals that are done in the Members Market, you are free to buy and sell at your own risk. Please read the rules of the Members Market before you proceed to make your first sale.

Access to the Members Market forum requires two things. Firstly, you will need to have over 250 posts and have been signed up for at least 90 days. Please note that this does not mean you spam the forums simply to increase your posts, as this action will result in posts being deducted, and if you continue this behaviour, your account will eventually be banned/suspended. Once you reach 250 posts, you will need to activate your trust. This is either found in your UserCP, or you can press the trust button that appears at the bottom of all your posts.

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:)
 
Last question!

Would a GTX 460 bottleneck with this system?

- CPU: Intel Core i3 2.93GHz @ 4.00GHz
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
- Cooler: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2 CPU cooler
- PSU: Seagate S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 PSU

I've decided I'm gonna either go for the GTX 260, or spend a little extra and go for the GTX 460 if people think it'll run okay/is worth the extra £50.

Suggestions appreciated and welcomed!
 
460 would be fine with that I'd expect, you'll definitely get better performance from it than a 4890/5770, so I'd say go for it if you have the cash.
 
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