Which GPU?

[Ingleberry]

Hi OCUK

Im looking to buy new GPU so doing some homework first i am struggling to determine what graphics card to get with £400-/+

I want single card so no SLI or CF with atleast 1Gb ram that will easily play current games in high detail at 1920x1080 without overclocking. I dont plan on having multiple screens so thats not a consideration either.

With factory overclocked cards is it worthwhile clocking these or buying a reference one then attempt overclock that saving some money?

Where do you guys go to look at reliable benchmarks? the results differ site to site hence not sure if im reading bs?

Can i hook up playstation or xbox through these cards to get sound and picture through the pc?

Thanks

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

There is a new generation of top-end graphics cards coming out from AMD in two weeks time - considering your budget I would certainly wait for these to arrive before spending your money. These cards will be the 6950 and 6970, and with your budget you will most likely be able to afford the 6970.

The current top-end card from Nvidia is the GTX 580 and it has only just been released. This is a very nice card - but it currently retails for ~£400 and stock is scarce at the moment. If you absolutely need to get a card now - the the GTX 580 is my recommendation, however, waiting the two weeks makes a lot of sense as it (presumably) gives you another good option and is likely to drive down prices of the GTX 580.

If you want good graphics reviews - I tend to look at Anandtech first. This is a great review of the GTX 580 for example.

As for hooking up your console to a graphics card - these are strictly video output devices, they can't take a video input and display it on your PC. For this you would want a video capture card - however I wouldn't recommend it as it introduces lag and the image quality will be degraded. Instead the best option is to simply hook up your console directly to your PC monitor and speakers if you want to use it like that. Or just play all your games on the PC

May I ask what the specs of the rest of your PC are?

 

[Ingleberry]

I can wait couple weeks thats nice to know new cards coming out soon so thanks for that heads up!

The 580GTX only thing i considered so far seems worthwhile performance hike over 460GTX initially was going to buy until i read benchmarks tha showed them to be no more than 5fps better than the rest which appears to me a negliable performance difference regardless of cost.

Thing is only got 1 hdmi input on monitor that has no speakers, how would i connect consoles to speakers and monitor without faffing about with leads each time?

My current spec if i3 530 @3.9Ghz 4Gb RAM and Asus P7H55 USB3, may upgrade to i5 or i7 if need be at later date when prices drop and i have better grasp of overclocking.

thank you

 

[spirits247]

Thing is only got 1 hdmi input on monitor that has no speakers, how would i connect consoles to speakers and monitor without faffing about with leads each time?

I had this problem with my computer and PS3.

I went on the bay and did a search for "audio switch box". Thre are a few solutions, but they are not without potential issues, literally.

The problem I had was I created a "Ground Loop" which caused annoying audio inteference due to small potential differences on the ground line. This was because I had the PC and PS3 connected to the same speakers AND the same monitor - with everything plugged into the same power extension. This allowed a full ground loop, so I got nasty interference even with the PS3 fully switched off.

What I have to do now is break the loop and disconnect the audio leads for the PS3 until I want to use it. Perhaps plugging one of the devices into a different power socket may work too, but that isn't an option in my case.