Which graphics card? Enough power?

[allan86]

Newbie here, would really appreciate some advice regarding which graphics card to go for and whether i have enough power for everything. Looking to spend up to £150 max, mainly for gaming and x264 playback. At the moment i have a 7900 GX2 dual gpu however getting rid of that as it requires too much power.

Will the power supply below be enough for what i currently have and a half decent graphics card?

Corsair TX 650W
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Intel E6600 Core2 Duo 2.4GHz
2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2
2 x WD Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB
2 x Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 120mm
Pioneer DVR-216D

Will this setup with a half decent graphics card give reasonably good performance?

Any help appreciated thanks a lot

 

[smogsy]

it should be, though no point going over the top on the graphics as your CPU will bottleneck it.

what graphics card are you thinking of?

 

[allan86]

Hi smogsy, i noticed the Palit GeForce GTX 460 768MB this week only offer for 112.79? Would that cause a bottleneck with my current CPU? Also will there be much of a difference in going for an ati or nvidia card with my motherboard?

 

[Peter450]

I would OC your CPU to at least 3 + ghz, more if you can, there is zero point in spending £150 to upgrade the graphics on your current CPU speed

I used to have a dual core running at 3.8, and i think that was a limiting factor in a fair few of my games, than my 280GTX, a 460 IMO will not give much performance on a 2.4 ghz dual core

Running stuff like BC2, etc it's going to be very slow, because most games now need a quad or at least a very fast dual 3.4 ghz or faster to perform well,

 

[teejay73]

The general rule with gfx cards is buy what you can afford. there is little doubt that a higher clocked cpu from 3ghz upwards will improve your gaming experience and you will benefit from clocking your cpu upto 3ghz, that said a gtx460 should still be an improvement over your existing card and your 650tx is good enough to power that gfx card.

There are games that are cpu heavy like flight simulator that will run a lot better on a tri or quad core cpu than a dual and more frequently we are seeing a lot more games that are optimized for multiple cores. Imo i always try to have a nice balanced rig to minimize any bottlenecking.

I think that a hd 5770, hd 5830 or gtx460 (rather the 1024mb version) would be fine for your system, though this is dependant on the types of games you play and the resolution you play at.

Just a thought though, you might want to have a look at increasing ram to 3gb depending on os, as it seems that 4gb is pretty much the norm for gamers now.

 

[allan86]

Thanks for the replys guys This system was built around 3-4 years ago so it is pretty dated, looking to get it back on its feet without spending a ton of money.

Bought a benq g2420hdbl (which rocks!) and logitech x-540 speakers so just the system i need to worry about now.

What would you guys suggest i buy if i had £300 to spend? If going for a new CPU aswell as a graphics card what would you guys go for with £300? I see that the i5 760 is £150 this week only, would that and a gtx460 go together well and again will the 650tx be good enough? (hope so as i just bought it lol) Also will my asus p5w dh deluxe board be good enough?

Thanks for the help

 

[teejay73]

Thanks for the replys guys This system was built around 3-4 years ago so it is pretty dated, looking to get it back on its feet without spending a ton of money.

Bought a benq g2420hdbl (which rocks!) and logitech x-540 speakers so just the system i need to worry about now.

What would you guys suggest i buy if i had £300 to spend? If going for a new CPU aswell as a graphics card what would you guys go for with £300? I see that the i5 760 is £150 this week only, would that and a gtx460 go together well and again will the 650tx be good enough? (hope so as i just bought it lol) Also will my asus p5w dh deluxe board be good enough?

Thanks for the help

Your motherboard wont support the i5 760, you will need a compatible mobo which is a p55/h55 chipset, i do think though that your current mobo will support a intel quad core cpu, though dont quote me on that, if it does support them then a q9550 would be a great addition to your system.

You will have to also factor in ddr3 ram as the i5 only has support for ddr3, so you would be looking at more than your £300 more like £450 upwards. i think your best option if you are on a tight budget is to stick with the lg775 for now if you want a new gfx card.

 

[teejay73]

Your psu will be fine, i run the exact psu you have and they are great and very stable, i have a hd 4890 and they are quite power hungry, the psu has plenty of amps and most of the wattage is on the 12v rail, where you need it most.

 

[allan86]

Hi teejay Yeah i was looking at that on google, although looks like 45nm is supported in a bios update, don't think it'd run all that well though? Also the fact you say it only supports ddr3 ram is the nail in the coffin. Was also looking at q6600 but not sure its worth the hassle or the money at the moment. Think i'm happy to just go for the gtx460 1gb at the moment then upgrade other stuff when i have more money

Now just need to decide on which card manufacturer to go for, do you think theres much difference between them on this card? Had a look in the store here and all look exactly the same to me. Cheers.

 

[teejay73]

Hi teejay Yeah i was looking at that on google, although looks like 45nm is supported in a bios update, don't think it'd run all that well though? Also the fact you say it only supports ddr3 ram is the nail in the coffin. Was also looking at q6600 but not sure its worth the hassle or the money at the moment. Think i'm happy to just go for the gtx460 1gb at the moment then upgrade other stuff when i have more money

Now just need to decide on which card manufacturer to go for, do you think theres much difference between them on this card? Had a look in the store here and all look exactly the same to me. Cheers.

If i was going for a gtx 460 then i would prob look at this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-092-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830

Though a bit pricey it has had some nice reviews other than that you could look at this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830 both these cards have a higher core clock than the stock 460.

A q6600 second hand is well worth the money if you can find a decent one with the right stepping, being a 65nm it naturally runs hotter but is a beast of an overclocker, in the 45nm range a q9400,q9450(if you can find one) would be worth it or a second hand q9550 would also be well viable, in terms of performance it competes more than evenly with the phenom 2 x4 955, perhaps look around for a guide to overclock your current cpu?

 

[allan86]

Thanks teejay. Can't stretch to the MSI, would be £220 with postage I've been looking around all day and quite liked the look of the Zotac card with its 5 year warranty, it looked good for overclocking here (although think i am someway off overclocking lol will need to look into it) http://www.gpureview.com/gpureviews-gtx-460-overclocking-roundup-article-858.html and got a pretty good write up here http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/5

What do you think? Will the higher core clock on the Gainward be noticeable? What do you think about the Gigabyte and Palit cards? Read good things about the Palit which has a core clock of 700mhz like the gainward, the Gigabyte has 715?

In a bit of a dilemma here, will have to do some more reading although would like to make a decision asap if i am going for the Gainward with it being this week only price, when do this week only deals finish is it sunday?

Cheers for the help mate

 

[teejay73]

Thanks teejay. Can't stretch to the MSI, would be £220 with postage I've been looking around all day and quite liked the look of the Zotac card with its 5 year warranty, it looked good for overclocking here (although think i am someway off overclocking lol will need to look into it) http://www.gpureview.com/gpureviews-gtx-460-overclocking-roundup-article-858.html and got a pretty good write up here http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/5

What do you think? Will the higher core clock on the Gainward be noticeable? What do you think about the Gigabyte and Palit cards? Read good things about the Palit which has a core clock of 700mhz like the gainward, the Gigabyte has 715?

In a bit of a dilemma here, will have to do some more reading although would like to make a decision asap if i am going for the Gainward with it being this week only price, when do this week only deals finish is it sunday?

Cheers for the help mate

The higher clock on the Gainward wont be that much more different than the standard core clock of 675mhz, but it is cheaper than the others with the exception of the Palit and OCUK`s cheaper standard version. Any of those three cards at that price point offer very good value for money and with the gtx 460 1gb you are in HD 5850 territory....more or less!

Out of those three cards i would say, for the sake of a slight overclock go with the Gainward if not then the Palit followed by the OCUK one. hope this helps.

Not too sure how the warranty would stand on the Zotac if you wanted to overclock, would be wise to check that first!

 

[allan86]

Hi mate. Having read the *Official OMG I got my 460 thread* and some reviews i think i am set on the Gigabyte card, 715 stock clock, easily overclocked and very quiet with decent cooling. I have found it for slightly less than the this week only Gainward so that is even better, have e-mailed overclockers to see if they can match the price i hope so

Whats your opinion on the Gigabyte? Do you rate them? People seem to say the quality of the product is great aswell.

 

[teejay73]

Hi mate. Having read the *Official OMG I got my 460 thread* and some reviews i think i am set on the Gigabyte card, 715 stock clock, easily overclocked and very quiet with decent cooling. I have found it for slightly less than the this week only Gainward so that is even better, have e-mailed overclockers to see if they can match the price i hope so

Whats your opinion on the Gigabyte? Do you rate them? People seem to say the quality of the product is great aswell.

For the same or less than the Gainward then the Gigabyte makes good sense and there products are very good, so that sounds like a win-win situation...good luck on your decision.

 

[Barzini]

GTX460 is probably the best bet for your system... There are some really good prices at the moment for that card.

 

[allan86]

Ordered the Gigabyte, thanks a lot for the help