Hardware & Technical Graphics card advice

Trigg

T
I'm Looking at upgrading my boy's system and could use some advice

He currently has a q8200 processor, 4gb DDR2 ram, an Nvidia GT 630 graphics card and a 500w PSU, all in a bog standard ATX case.

Money is a bit limited, so I'm looking at upgrading him to 8gb ram and a 750w PSU which will leave around £150 for a new graphics card - in a few months we'll look at a new MB and an i7 processor (which I think will mean also getting some new DDR3 ram)

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good graphics card in the price range which will be an immediate upgrade on the current one, and still be worthwhile after the MB/Processor upgrade.

Also, if my plan is a bad one, I'd rather someone told me now before I spend the money ;)
 

sbdags

sbdags
I've just upgraded from a GTX 980 to a GTX 1070. If you are interested I could sell you the GTX 980 (EVGA Superclocked) for £200 + shipping. PM me please.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Trigg said:
I'm Looking at upgrading my boy's system and could use some advice

He currently has a q8200 processor, 4gb DDR2 ram, an Nvidia GT 630 graphics card and a 500w PSU, all in a bog standard ATX case.

Money is a bit limited, so I'm looking at upgrading him to 8gb ram and a 750w PSU which will leave around £150 for a new graphics card - in a few months we'll look at a new MB and an i7 processor (which I think will mean also getting some new DDR3 ram)

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good graphics card in the price range which will be an immediate upgrade on the current one, and still be worthwhile after the MB/Processor upgrade.

Also, if my plan is a bad one, I'd rather someone told me now before I spend the money ;)
Click to expand...

Opinions will no doubt vary but personally I'd say the 8Gb RAM and 750w PSU are both good upgrades for a gaming PC. As for your future plans, if your boy is primarily into gaming (as opposed to high resolution video editing work for example) then the i7 processor may be an unnecesssary expense where an i5 would be perfectly good. The £70 you'd save doing that would be much better spent on the graphics card and, added to the £150 you're currently talking about, would probably then be enough to get a GTX 970 which is an absolutely fantastic graphics card.

Edit: or see above - GTX 980 even better! :)
 
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Trigg

T
The GTX 980 is a little out of my price range, even with your generosity. Looking on ebay the GTX 970 is only a little more than we have available so that may be a possibility with a little hunting around on google.

Thanks for all the advice. I should probably have said that the processor/MB upgrade won't be for about 6 months so a saving on that won't affect the GFX card purchase. The theory behind getting an i7 is that it would act as the basis for the next 2 - 3 years worth of upgrades
 

MickyG1982

M
If it were me, I would spend as little as possible on the system that he has and start to gradually build up his new one. By the time you are finished in 6 months or so the price of Nvidia's and indeed AMD's new GPU's should have dropped by some margin and will make perfect sense.

Changing cards just now depending on your point of view will be pointless. Mainly because anything modern will be severely bottlenecked (including the 970) and he will not see as much of a gain from it as he should. That said, waiting for the 1060 to hit the market will mean that the bottom will drop out of the market for 980's making them a much more viable option.

If you really are stuck and happen to be any where near Oxford I have some DDR2 (2 1GB sticks and a 2 GB stick) plus a GTX 750 and a win power (yes I know) 800W PSU or a CiT 850W PSU from a couple of my old systems going spare. Not exactly top notch equipment, but it would leave you free to start on the newer system.
 

sbdags

sbdags
Trigg said:
The GTX 980 is a little out of my price range, even with your generosity. Looking on ebay the GTX 970 is only a little more than we have available so that may be a possibility with a little hunting around on google.

Thanks for all the advice. I should probably have said that the processor/MB upgrade won't be for about 6 months so a saving on that won't affect the GFX card purchase. The theory behind getting an i7 is that it would act as the basis for the next 2 - 3 years worth of upgrades
Click to expand...

No probs. It is a fantastic price though ;)

If anyone else wants a cheap 980 let me know please.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
What resolution is he playing at?

The AMD RX 480 (c.£220) is capable of 2560x1440 @ 60FPS (dropping to 50 in particularly complex scenes) at Ultra settings.

The RX 470 should be in your price range when it is launched - not sure of exact capabilities though.
 
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Porina

Porina
I wouldn't upgrade the PSU right now, as 500W is still plenty for a £200 class video card which you could then afford (assuming a decent 750W PSU isn't going to be less than £50 or so). Even the ram is debatable, and in my opinion only worth doing so if it is really dirt cheap, which it could be as it is old enough now.

The offer of the 980 before would be a great performance/price ratio, with the usual caution on trading online. If you were to go new, GTX970 can be found about that price. The 480 would be more as if you're going to go that route, it would make sense to pick the 8GB model.

Personally I wouldn't worry about the CPU possibly bottlenecking the GPU, at least I stop caring providing it reaches "good enough" frame rates. If you need to chew more GPU power without the CPU to feed it you could use DSR for example.
 

Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
Trigg said:
I'm Looking at upgrading my boy's system and could use some advice

He currently has a q8200 processor, 4gb DDR2 ram, an Nvidia GT 630 graphics card and a 500w PSU, all in a bog standard ATX case.

Money is a bit limited, so I'm looking at upgrading him to 8gb ram and a 750w PSU which will leave around £150 for a new graphics card - in a few months we'll look at a new MB and an i7 processor (which I think will mean also getting some new DDR3 ram)

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good graphics card in the price range which will be an immediate upgrade on the current one, and still be worthwhile after the MB/Processor upgrade.

Also, if my plan is a bad one, I'd rather someone told me now before I spend the money ;)
Click to expand...

I can suggest you to look out for a cheap (maybe used) GeForce GTX 770 in the 4gb ram version. I have bought a used one at 120€ because of the graphic-upgrade in 2.1
It will work well with your rig you wanna have and she is cheap.
I play with:
AMD Phenom 2 X4 quad 3,4ghz
8gb ddr3 ram
Gtx 770 (4gb ram)
At nearly highest settings (little reduced on surface)
With the best Antialiasing sample i get smooth 60 fps (drops 50 at surface) 1920x1080
Without AA it can be more but i don't k ow what you prefer

Edit:
For horizons i recommand really at least 4gb ram graphic card
 
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Trigg

T
I've been given a GTX 970 by an incredibly generous forumite, who I assume wishes to remain anonymous. I can't say thank you enough! I've also now fitted the 750w PSU and I'm just waiting for an adaptor to get a 2nd 6 pin connector to power the GFX card.

Unfortunately, it looks like the ram I bought isn't compatible with the motherboard, although the manual suggested it would be OK. Looking on crucial.com, the 2x4gb strips I'd need would cost over £200.

The motherboard is an ASRock G31M-S. I've found these chips on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-466440...435004?hash=item3d1f8e75bc:g:n3AAAOSwRgJXhiLI All the numbers seem to match the chips on Crucial.com - is there any way of checking if they'd be compatible before buying them?
 

Trigg

T
His old PSU was a bit underpowered, so since we needed a new one it made sense to get a little more power than necessary to future proof it
 
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