Hi, I’m looking to build a new rig based on the following: MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30Ghz Corsair XMS 3 PC3-12800 Corsair HX650W PSU However I’ve been wondering about the best GPU to throw in the mix. Budget isn’t too much of a problem (within reason) as I have an old Radeon HD4850 1Gb lying around which I can use for a month or two whilst I save up for a better card. It’s by no means perfect but it’ll do the job for a little while I’m sure. What I don’t want to do though is spend too much on a seriously powerful card if the rest of the system is going to be a bottleneck to it, if you see what I mean. Neither do I want the reverse to be true. I’m also not interested in Crossfire or SLI for the time being - a single card solution is all I’m after for now. Based on the above specs what would people’s suggestions be for a decent card? Also, whilst we’re at it, can anyone envisage any serious issues with the above specs? Bearing in mind that they’re about on budget for me so I couldn’t really stretch any further (after taking a new GPU into account). I’m not planning on overclocking for the time being. I’ll leave that as an option for the future to potentially eek a little more life out of the build so everything will be at stock speeds for the time being. If it matters I’ll also be dual booting between Windows 7 Ultimate and Linux Mint 12. I’m thinking along the lines of a 320Gb, 7200rpm drive for Windows and a slower 1.5Tb drive for Linux. Thanks in advance.
What are you going to be doing on you PC? Gaming? Web browsing? CAD? Audio editing? Video editing? I just got myself a 2gb Msi 560ti Twin Frozr II and Im over the moon with it, less that £200 squids too.
What size and resolution monitor do you have and what do you play games at? Is pretty much what determines your graphics card.
Gaming, web surfing and a lot of media consumption (but probably not much editing). I use Linux for absolutely everything usually. Win 7 will be solely for gaming. I was looking at the Twin Frozr II actually. I take it you recommend it then? Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Sorry I forgot to mention in my original post - I currently have an old 19" TFT panel. Can't remember the resolution off the top of my head but it's not high. I was also planning on replacing my monitor in the next couple of months for something much better. Do you advise choosing a monitor before a GPU then? Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
If you can wait a month of two I would keep saving and see what the rest of the AMD range looks like, you will also see people selling 580's etc second hand on here for decent money
560Ti. With a 650W power supply you come quite close to Nvidia's minimum requirement of 600W for the 580GTX.
I thought 650 is higher than 600? edit: oic what you're trying to say... I would be amazed, even if he clocked the hell out of both cpu and gpu if it pulls more than 600w from the wall.
Does the price increase for the i7 justify the performance increase over the i5? At what point does the law of diminishing returns kick in? I suppose I could stretch to an i7 if you think the extra outlay is worth it. Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
So I should be looking at a 700w or greater PSU then? I'm not planning on overclocking any time soon but I suppose the extra outlay now may save the hassle (and expense) of upgrading the PSU at a later date. Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
A decent quality 650Watt power supply will power any single gpu card available now with a 2500k comfortably at ideal load levels. That includes a GTX 580 or HD7970 and with enough headroom for overclocking if you wish too. Minimum power requirement warnings generally are over estimates (there may be exceptions), they are covering all bases when they state these requirements but a lot of the time they are over the top and in some cases, absurd beyond belief. The Asus Mars 2 for instance (2 x GTX580s on 1 card), according to Asus, requires 1000 Watts to run. So... a single GTX 580, according to Nvidia, requires a 600Watt power supply, which is doubtful but yes you would want at least that for efficiency (Ideal load levels) and other bits and pieces like overclocking, disc drives fans etc... The Mars 2 which is 2 580's requires a whole 400 extra watts to run?! If you had a dire crap 1000w PSU from mickeymouse.com with an efficiency rating at the worst it can be (65% IIRC?) then sure, your gonna need it to suck up over a 1000w cos its converting to DC at a piss poor level. But a decent 800w power supply would power a Mars 2 with no trouble, and at probably just about peak efficiency depending on variables (such as what type of CPU, amount of other hardware, overclocks etc) Anyway... your 650 is a very good PSU with an 80+ efficiency rating and will handle any single GPU card available
The i7 2600k is only of use if you're going to use hyper-threading. In terms of gaming performance, there will be no difference.
Just to point out, the actual power draw at the socket for a Nehalem system with dual GTX 480s running Furmark is just under 600W. Hence, a 600W PSU is more than enough for powering a single 580, especially with a Sandy Bridge system.
Hey guys, Sorry to raise this from the dead but I think I've decided on a monitor now. I'm looking at a Iiyama 23" IPS panel @ 1920x1080 resolution. So, with that in mind and taking the specs in the first post into consideration, do you still recommend the 560Ti? If so what version? Thanks. Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
A 560Ti would be fine at that resolution. Choose any that fit your budget. If your budget doesn't matter then you could go for a 570, but it would be a little OTT - but then would do you for a while yet too. on Scan 560 Ti's go from about £170 - a good froze 2GB is here. About £200.
