Recommend me a video card please

LJase83 on 08/08/2014 - 16:46

Hi guys,

I have a PC with the following specs, looking at buying a video card to play some FPS games. Budget $150-220? Was looking at a r9 270x but don't know if it's overkill. Basically I don't want to waste money on a video card that is held up by the rest of my components or needs a different power supply.

  • ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 4x DDR3 2133 (OC)
  • Intel Core i7 2600K Processor LGA1155 3.4GHz CPU
  • Cooler Master Hyper TX3
  • G Skill 8G(2x4G)DDR3 1600Mhz PC3-12800 CL8 (F3-12800CL8D-8GB) x 2
  • Thermaltake TR2 Bronze 500W TR-500PCAU
  • Can't remember the case but it is a brand name one - has space for 3x dvd drives, probably 5x hard drives. Is it important to measure if the size will fit?

Thanks!

Computing

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 08/08/2014 - 16:56
    +1

    You have a Core i7 K edition. Still a beast by today's standards actually… when you look at the benchmark charts the 2600k can still hold it's own against the 3770k. You bought a K processor and a aftermarket heatsink for the purpose of overclocking, would be a waste not to crank the speeds up. Increase the clock to 4ghz, and you have a reasonably powerful CPU.

    Get whatever card you want, even a $300 dollar card is fine. 99% of games out there are GPU-bound and it's the graphics card that does most of the hard work.

    • scrimshaw on 08/08/2014 - 19:25

      Just in case you're wondering, the 2600k is very close to the i7 4770k in terms of gaming performance. This is because Intel hasn't made any giant performance leaps going from SB to IVB and Haswell. Explained here.

      Metro Last Light benchmark
      http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=…

      There is at most a 7% difference in performance, if you look at the Skyrim and Metro LL benches. In fact, many people on Sandy Bridge desktop CPU's will probably not see a benefit upgrading their rigs to the latest and greatest Haswell platform, since the performance gains are so insignificant.

    • darknnation on 08/08/2014 - 19:38

      i agree i play all my games i currently have with a $120 graphics card without problem

  • leonheart1 on 08/08/2014 - 19:31

    Get a second hand 7950/7970 from Gumtree. The 280/280X are just rebadged 7950/7970s anyway.

    Your PSU may be a problem since the 280X recommends 750W but then again they're always overly conservative.

    And yeah, you should definitely check whether it'll fit in your case. Otherwise you're going to need a new case.

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