New i5 ivy bridge build...What Graphics Card Should I get?

[flamstead]

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice.

Just recently finished building an i5-3570k gig with 8GB Ram, 128GB SSD, P8Z77-V Motherboard but have yet to buy a graphics card.

I have £300 budget however i have an xbox as well and use that quite a bit.

What GPU would you recommend for me within my budget? I would probably be a casual gamer but would like to occasionally play new DX11 games on high/ultra settings such as BF3, Fifa 13 (lol), Civ 5, CS: GO.

At first i was thinking a ASUS GTX560TI (watched some BF3 vids on YouTube) but thats old tech now right?

Not too sure about AMD cards as i've read ppl having a lot of problems with drivers.

So...do you reckon I go 660 Ti and Non Ti, 670, 7950 or something totally different? Cheers

[dacads]

Well the 7950 can be OCd to match the 670 and 670 can OC to match 7970. I believe the 7950 offers better bang for buck though. In the end it might come down to features such as physhx for nvidia. Personally I'd go with the 7950 as it will handle games at max without an issue so the extra money for a 670 wouldn't be worth it

[Willzzz]

Well BF3 and Civ 5 are both games that run well on Nvidia hardware, BF3 especially.

It depends upon whether you are happy to spend the whole budget, or just enough to get good performance?

Prices on the GTX 660 Ti are starting to drop and will provide excellent performance in BF3 and Civ 5.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...-1344-2x-dl-dv
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-g...hz-cores-1344-

Are both pretty good deals.

A 7950 isn't as good value on BF3/Civ5 although it *may* be better on other games that you buy in the future.

[dacads]

Also 7950 will have 3gb memory which will be better for the future and the 660ti only has 192bit memory which will struggle with supersampling AA

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-m...ni-displayport

It's simpy a better card than the 660ti for the same price

[Harrybizzle]

Depends how on the price and what resolution you're playing at.

At 1080p I don't see much point in getting a 670.

Apparently the card to get at the mo is the 7950 as it's a better card than the 660 Ti and overclocks well, but I've had poor experiences with AMD cards (or more accurately, their drivers) so personally am inclined to stay clear of them.

I got a 660Ti. It was an EVGA which was £250 but I got a 10% off voucher (now expired) and am selling the Borderlands 2 so all in all comes to about £200 which is much more reasonable for what the 660Ti is. Look around for deals, would be my advice. Scan's daily deals are quite good.

[Willzzz]

Rumours suggest incoming price cuts for the 660 Ti which would make the decision easier:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2269376

At the moment the 7950 and 660 Ti are very close, both have different strengths and weaknesses.

The 7950 does have better memory, but many current games simply don't need that amount of memory or bandwidth. It seems likely that games of the future will be able to take advantage of this, but other architectural features of the 7950 may not be so future proof. It's all very speculative at this point.

[dacads]

Yep the difference isn't day and night but it is enough to make the 7950 a better contender for now, and as games are always improving, for the future as well.

[Willzzz]

For right now, for BF3, for the two MSI cards the 660 Ti will perform better, especially at factory clocks.
It will also do so using less power and with less noise.

That isn't to say you shouldn't consider the 7950 for it's better performance in other titles, but it's not a clear cut win.

[Reyey]

get dat sweet sweet 660ti, especially if you're going to be playing a lot of PhysX enabled games

[Willzzz]

OK, I take everything back I said, because this 7950 is better and cheaper than the MSI version mentioned above:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-304-SP

Only 6 left though!

[dacads]

Haha glad we could come to an agreement

Regarding that card there are only 5 left now! Seems the OP is nowhere to be seen though

[Willzzz]

I'll change my mind again in a couple of days

[dcwt2010]

Either the 660ti or the 7950 will do fine at ~£250 price point. I'll be selling my Borderlands 2 code from my 660ti so that should bring my expenditure down.

You really can't go wrong. Also, all those who keep harping on about the 192bit memory bandwidth please read this. It makes a difference but doesn't cripple the card.

[flamstead]

Sorry guys i'm here...i've been really busy at work this week! I am overwhelmed with all the responses - thank you all very much.

Although the 7950 seems the better card than the 660Ti, I do like the NVidia features such as PhysX and atm stable drivers. Also I think i've been brand brain-washed and convinced that AMD cards are lesser in quality in some way...

OK, so next question would be do I go for a 660Ti or just the newly released GTX660 non ti version?

Also which branded GPU would you rank best between EVGA, MSI, ASUS etc?

I'm about to download the FIFA 13 PC Demo and play it using my integrated HD 4000 graphics!

[flamstead]

Either the 660ti or the 7950 will do fine at ~£250 price point. I'll be selling my Borderlands 2 code from my 660ti so that should bring my expenditure down.

You really can't go wrong. Also, all those who keep harping on about the 192bit memory bandwidth. It makes a difference but doesn't cripple the card.

How much you reckon you will get for the Borderlands 2 code?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

atm stable drivers. Also I think i've been brand brain-washed and convinced that AMD cards are lesser in quality in some way...

Stable drivers?? Considering the stuttering issues Nvidia has had this year,I think that is more an old wives tale!!

Not sure what you mean quality,as I have had both AMD and Nvidia cards which have lasted years.

Also,the 192 bit memory controller and lower number of ROPS will be an issue over time with the GTX660TI against the GTX670. The HD7950 ATM does better when you start using intensive forms of AA or are interested in modding games like Skyrim.

I remember having similar conversations about the pre-overclocked 8800GT 256MB cards vs the 512MB version,the overclcoked GTX460 768MB cards vs the 1GB version and the massively factory overclocked GTX560TI cards vs the GTX570,with people recommending the first cards over the second ones.

The GTX660TI will show its age much quicker than a GTX670 or HD7950 IMHO.

Also,remember the games which the HD7950 comes with including Sleeping Dogs,which sells for as much as the BL2 online if you look at the price of Steam codes(around £15 to £20) .