Looking for a new video card.

[Aragehaor]

As the title says, i am looking for a new video card - ideally I'd want to spend no more then 400 dollars on it, though if a more expensive video card is significantly better then the video cards in my price range I'd probably be willing to exceed 400.


You all have my thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer on this matter.

[Grinner]

We need computer specifications first. How many slots do you have available, and what kind are they? Also, do you have any free power connectors?

[Aragehaor]

We need computer specifications first. How many slots do you have available, and what kind are they? Also, do you have any free power connectors?

Of course, my mistake.

I'm afraid that i am not the most proficient in regards to computer components.*(Woefully lacking, actually.) so i cant say that I'm certain how to(accurately) answer some of your questions.

I can however tell you that its PCI Express, and that the motherboard is, specifically an MSI 870-G45 (http://us.msi.com/product/mb/870-G45.html#?div=Detail)

Your going to have to explain your last question however, as I'm not sure exactly what you mean. But, if you mean 'Do you have any extra power connectors with your current video card being connected' I'm rather certain that the answer is no, though admittedly i cant exactly check right this very second as I'm not at my own house. (Though i will be in a few hours.)


*Unless its actually putting them together and making a computer, but that's fairly simple.

[factotum]

Some graphics cards (most of the more powerful ones, in fact) can't draw enough power from the PCI-E slot to function, so you have to attach them directly to the power supply in your machine. This used to be done using the standard 4-pin power connectors you use to attach older hard drives and CD-ROMs, but nowadays they usually use special connectors that are specific to the graphics card. Therefore, if the PSU in your machine doesn't have those connectors, you'd need to replace that as well in order to use one of these cards.

[kurokotetsu]

Seeing your motehrboard it should have at least a PCI-E 2.0 free. If I remember correctly, a friend of mine with that kind of slot installed without problems a GTX 670, which is a very nice card, in your range. It should also easily last years if well ventilated and play [erfectly everything that there is now in the market. I would have to ask if he had to connect extra power.

[Don Julio Anejo]

It would help if you post your computer specs: while a good video card makes a huge difference in games (or science/video editing/rendering, if that's your thing), it may be bottlenecked by your CPU. I.e. your video card can give you 100 frames per second at your chosen settings, but the CPU can't keep up and can only do 50. In which case you'd be severely overpaying for the card. Unless, of course, you plan to upgrade your CPU at some point in the future and aren't telling us.

From your motherboard I'm guessing you're using AMD AM3+ socket CPU? Like the FX series? (I.e. FX-8350).

Actual card? AMD 7970 is just over $400 and can be found for slightly less on sale. GTX 670 is a little under $400 and can be found for around $370. Between the two, the 7970 will smoke the 670 in performance, but 670 will have slightly smoother gameplay and also CUDA (but AMD now has OpenGL so not a big issue anymore) and PhysX. If you want a card to last you longer before it's obsolete, the 7970 will probably be better, if you want more bells and whistles now, the 670 is better.

[Aragehaor]

It would help if you post your computer specs: while a good video card makes a huge difference in games (or science/video editing/rendering, if that's your thing), it may be bottlenecked by your CPU. I.e. your video card can give you 100 frames per second at your chosen settings, but the CPU can't keep up and can only do 50. In which case you'd be severely overpaying for the card. Unless, of course, you plan to upgrade your CPU at some point in the future and aren't telling us.
I was, actually planning on upgrading my CPU as well - since its fairly old being produced in 2009. I'll post it down below if you'd like to tell me how horrible it is/any recommendations for a new one* though.

From your motherboard I'm guessing you're using AMD AM3+ socket CPU? Like the FX series? (I.e. FX-8350).
My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 965 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+965), That site has all the relevant information about it, i believe.

Actual card? AMD 7970 is just over $400 and can be found for slightly less on sale. GTX 670 is a little under $400 and can be found for around $370. Between the two, the 7970 will smoke the 670 in performance, but 670 will have slightly smoother gameplay and also CUDA (but AMD now has OpenGL so not a big issue anymore) and PhysX. If you want a card to last you longer before it's obsolete, the 7970 will probably be better, if you want more bells and whistles now, the 670 is better.Hmm, my thanks (And to everyone else who has posted.) I'll probably go for the 7970.

Also, do you need the complete computer specs - or is what i posted so far sufficient?


*Though i do have a CPU In mind, im well aware my choices are not necessarily the best choices.

[Grinner]

Some graphics cards (most of the more powerful ones, in fact) can't draw enough power from the PCI-E slot to function, so you have to attach them directly to the power supply in your machine. This used to be done using the standard 4-pin power connectors you use to attach older hard drives and CD-ROMs, but nowadays they usually use special connectors that are specific to the graphics card. Therefore, if the PSU in your machine doesn't have those connectors, you'd need to replace that as well in order to use one of these cards.

Isn't there an adapter for those which takes two 4-pin connectors?

[Don Julio Anejo]

I was, actually planning on upgrading my CPU as well - since its fairly old being produced in 2009. I'll post it down below if you'd like to tell me how horrible it is/any recommendations for a new one* though. My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 965 (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+965)
My friend runs one of these (used to use it for virtualized servers in a network testing environment and before that for AutoCAD rendering). A very nice CPU for 2 years ago and still one of the best "bang for your buck," especially for gaming builds. But yes, it probably will bottleneck both 670 and 7970.

*Though i do have a CPU In mind, im well aware my choices are not necessarily the best choices.
Out of curiousity, what CPU are you planning to get? Because at the moment, AMD chips kinda suck for games and in the long run you might be better off actually getting a cheaper card (and replacing it in, say, two years) and going for an Intel chip/motherboard. Haswell is due to come out very soon (this/next month) and has about 5-15% clock-for-clock increase over Ivy Bridge (which is already more efficient than AMDs).

Depends what you plan to do, though. If gaming, Intel >> AMD. If productivity, AMD >> Intel as long as you're in the same price range. However, AMD stuff is backwards compatible meaning you can keep your mobo which will save you ~$140.

[Aragehaor]

Out of curiousity, what CPU are you planning to get? Because at the moment, AMD chips kinda suck for games and in the long run you might be better off actually getting a cheaper card (and replacing it in, say, two years) and going for an Intel chip/motherboard. Haswell is due to come out very soon (this/next month) and has about 5-15% clock-for-clock increase over Ivy Bridge (which is already more efficient than AMDs).

Depends what you plan to do, though. If gaming, Intel >> AMD. If productivity, AMD >> Intel as long as you're in the same price range. However, AMD stuff is backwards compatible meaning you can keep your mobo which will save you ~$140.
I was planning on an AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285)
It seemed like an adequate improvement over what i have, that didn't cost terribly much. Though gaming is most important, do you have a specific recommendation in mind?

(Also, ideally I'd like to keep my motherboard for now, though i do intend to eventually replace it.)

[Don Julio Anejo]

If you're staying AMD, go for the 8350. They're only like $20 more than the 8320s but are higher binned chips so they can be overclocked much, much higher (8320s are basically crappier versions of 50's coming off the production lines and are therefore set to run at a lower speed). If you're lucky, you can get the 8320 up to 4.0 GHz, but not much past that. 8350s can almost all be pushed to a stable 5+ GHz (with a decent heatsink, mind you). Even if you don't OC, you get an extra 14% performance (3.5 vs 4 GHz) for about 11% more money.

My recommendation would have been to wait for Haswell to come out and then get the i5-4570k with a (whatever is going to be the Z77 chipset equivalent) motherboard. As it stands, the best current price/performance CPU for gaming is the i5-3570k, it overclocks like there's no tomorrow (5+ GHz), quad core (even now few games use more than 4 cores.. I think only Crysis 3 and BF 3 can use 8 cores/hyperthreading). Intel is better clock for clock than AMD and their chips also give you a more stable performance (Bulldozer chips have memory I/O throughput issues which can often bottleneck games and cause random FPS drops... look up some reviews).

The only catch is, you'd pay $140 or so for a board that you wouldn't have to with AMD. Which means dropping your 7970 to a GTX 660 Ti or 7870 Tahiti LE (there are some 7870 cards which are basically re-binned and slightly limited 7950's for about $50 less).

Alternatively, don't upgrade at all until AMD releases its new generation, but that won't happen till early 2014 I think. 8 cores for FX-8xxx series aren't going to matter for most games (again, Crysis 3 and BF 3) and your CPU will still get more than 30 fps for anything that's out right now. Won't matter if you're running multiple monitors either - that's almost entirely GPU dependent.