Built my PC er... a few years ago. Anyway, with the advent of GTAV, my 1GB AMD HD 6870 isn't cutting the mustard. The "Normal" shadows look crap, and it runs out of memory far below 1080p (if I want a solid 60fps)! My CPU is an i5 2500k, I suspect I could get more out of it than the 3.6Ghz it's currently sitting at but I don't really mind if it is a bottleneck for now (I'd use this gpu in a newer build when I get around to the "big upgrade" time). I have a budget of ~£170, maybe a bit more if there is a small cash leap to a big performance leap. I mainly just want to be able to run GTAV a lot more prettily, at 1080p and a solid 60fps. I was looking at the AMD R9 280 3GB, or the R9 270 4GB, or the nVidia 270 4GB (well, 3.5 fast, 0.5 slower GB)... all of them knock the socks off my current GPU. I'm just struggling to get relevant facts on this stuff as I've been consciously avoiding looking at hardware previously to avoid "I probably need that!"-itis in previous years (when I definitely haven't!). So... am I better off sticking with AMD or going to nVidia, and is 3GB and more pipelines a better option for me than 4GB with fewer pipelines (but all better than my current card!)?
780GTX on the MP at the moment for £180. 970GTXs have being going for just a little above that (circa £200).
if you're looking for brand new a 280X is probably the best bang for your buck. Should cost around £170.
I'm ok with second hand, but I am woefully crap at knowing how people transfer money to each other on private purchases online! Bit of a luddite in that regard (could manage it though I expect!). Having a look at the 780GTX you mention, LJS, thanks for the heads up!
I've used the MP a fair bit for small stuff recently and it's great. Most sellers will want payment by Bank Transfer (BT) which is so easy if you have internet banking on your current account. The money will usually get to an a/c with another 'big' high street bank in 2 hours. Otherwise, you can use Paypal, so long as you cover the costs yourself it seems.
I might be wrong but I don't think the i5 2500k could possibly be a bottleneck with any sub £300 graphics card. I don't think you'd even need to overclock it.
Phew, the old dog might have some life in it yet then terrorbyt! I've got a Thermaltake Frio so if I run into small bottleneck issues I should be able to OC around it I suspect, heh.
Yes, the only possible issue you may have would be playing terribly ported/optimised games which don't utilise the graphics card properly and offloads too much to the CPU (GTA IV is a prime example of this).
I was tempted myself but my pay seems to have gone down this month and I've been stiffed on a payrise. QQ.
Had my i5-2500K sitting at 4.5GHz since I built my rig! Overclock it now... http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/01/07/how-to-overclock-the-intel-core-i5-2500k/1
