GFX Card

[Mescelin]

Hi,

I am currently looking into getting a new gaming system. I want to get the best I can for my money but I am unsure which gfx card will give me the best for my money.

I am looking at getting the following:

MSI P67A-G45 (B3), Intel P67, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2133
Intel Core i5 2500K, 3.3Ghz, Quad Core, 6Mb Cache
8Gb (2x4Gb) Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600Mhz
etc

I am most likely going to get a:
1280Mb EVGA GTX 570, 797MHz GPU, 480 Cores, 3900MHz GDDR5 at £209.57 excl VAT but someone has told me I'd be better getting a Asus 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II which looks exactly the same as the EVGA card but costs £221.57 excl VAT. He says the ASUS card is better but I don't really understand why. I'd be grateful if anyone could explain why/if the ASUS is worth that bit extra money. Or maybe suggest another card for a similar amount that would be even better.

Any help would be gratefully accepted. I am not 100% sure what all the numbers mean anyway!

Thanks!

[Blackmage]

The only thing that comes to mind is that Asus could have some fancy overclocking software, and a custom cooler other than that I can't see nothing which makes it better.

Scan have a nice EVGA 570 HD card which is better than then both that you want for a cheaper price too.

Has much higher clocks, it's on today only.

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx#7

[Ferral]

A lot of the 5 series cards are actually Nvidia reference design (all the cards that have the fan to the rear of the heatsink are the reference designs), ASUS, Gigabyte & MSI usually do their own PCB design and some sort of custom cooler with overclocks out of the factory.

That ASUS Direct CU II card is 3 slots on your board with a huge custom cooler. This is the ASUS card your friend has recommended :

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...-dvi-i-dp-hdmi

Personally I would recommend the MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr III card, very cool and quiet, excellent performance also, Scan have finally got them back in. It is also only dual slot instead of the 3 slots Asus Direct CU II card. I have one of these myself and yet to see it go over 65 degrees in my HTPC case and around 50% fan speed (that was a few hours playing Witcher 2 in 1080P to get those figures) Build quality is exceptional, its a looker if you have a window in your case.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...shader-1540mhz

[Mescelin]

Thanks.

On that page you linked is it the: 1280MB EVGA GTX 570 HD Superclocked, 40nm, 3900MHz GDDR5, GPU 797MHz, Shader 1594MHz, 480 Cores that you meant? I think that is the same as the one I was thinking of getting? Unless you meant a different one on the page?

Thanks again for your help, it is appreciated.

[Blackmage]

Thanks.

On that page you linked is it the: 1280MB EVGA GTX 570 HD Superclocked, 40nm, 3900MHz GDDR5, GPU 797MHz, Shader 1594MHz, 480 Cores that you meant? I think that is the same as the one I was thinking of getting? Unless you meant a different one on the page?

Thanks again for your help, it is appreciated.

Yep, though Ferral has also linked you to a very good card as well.

[kingpotnoodle]

I picked up the MSI GTX 570 that's currently £239 pre-order on Scan, so I assume more stock will come.

Nothing wrong with it, reference design etc but I was able to raise the memory clocks to 2000 and the core/shader to 750/1500 (I like even numbers) with Afterburner, it'd probably go further but for the sake of increasing the power draw I doubt it's worth it. Sure it's by far and away the noisiest part of my system when gaming, not intrusively loud though. At idle I can't hear a thing, I'm sat right next to it.

So yeah reference design is fine, read some reviews of custom coolers, they might cool better but they also might be louder.

[Mescelin]

After some calculations it seems I have a slightly bigger budget than I first anticipated so am considering going for the

2.5GB EVGA GTX 570 HD, 40nm, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 732MHz, Shader 1464MHz, 480 Cores, 2x DVI/ DP/ HDMI

Is the increased price worthy of the performance upgrade and also will the card last longer before I require an upgrade? This will be the last proper gaming rig I buy (buying a house with my gf next year so last chance not to feel guilty about such extravagant spending ) so I am hoping it will last me sometime with just the odd piece upgraded every once in a while.

Thanks

[Blackmage]

After some calculations it seems I have a slightly bigger budget than I first anticipated so am considering going for the

2.5GB EVGA GTX 570 HD, 40nm, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 732MHz, Shader 1464MHz, 480 Cores, 2x DVI/ DP/ HDMI

Is the increased price worthy of the performance upgrade and also will the card last longer before I require an upgrade? This will be the last proper gaming rig I buy (buying a house with my gf next year so last chance not to feel guilty about such extravagant spending ) so I am hoping it will last me sometime with just the odd piece upgraded every once in a while.

Thanks

Tried to find reviews on the card but i did find some on a 3gb 580Gtx and the difference the extra ram made was minimal.

[Ferral]

You are putting 8Gb ram in your machine so dont really need the extra on the graphics card. My machine uses 4Gb of my system ram for texture memory alongside the 1280 on the VGA card itself. Price difference for the extra ram on the VGA card is not really going to give you any extra out of the performance.

If you were going to spend a bit extra on your VGA card why not invest it in a faster processor.

With any GTX 570 you are going to get a decent timeframe out of it, DirectX 11 has only recently launched but software houses are only just starting to really utilise Direct X 10. Personally I wouldnt go that far with your graphics card.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Get an HD6970?

[Mescelin]

So you think I'd be better pumping an extra £60 into a Intel Core i7 2600K, 3.4Ghz, Quad Core, 8Mb Cache, Hyperthreading and going for the MSI 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 Twin Frozr III Power Edition OC NVIDIA Graphics Card?

Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks again.

[Mescelin]

Get an HD6970?

I have used ATI (AMD) cards in the past and always been happy with them however someone I worked with said the Nvidia ones are better at the moment so have mainly been looking down that route..

My budget for the machine is about £1,000, I want it pre-built as I like the warranty and service benefits it brings should something go wrong (my own knowledge of computers isn't very substantial). I want the best I can get in that price range, with the view that will last me a long while... I do want it to have a small (64gbg) SSD drive for booting etc.

Edit: No OS is needed as I have it sorted.

Cheers

[watercooled]

Windows claims to use some system memory for your GPU but don't let it fool you, it has a MUCH higher latency to the GPU and lower throughput. But that's not to say I recommend getting the card with more memory, it will make next to no difference unless you're running at massive resolutions/multi-monitor.

Anyone who says Nvidia>AMD or AMD>Nvidia is either a fanboy or knows nothing about graphics cards, neither statement is true but either MFR will have cards which are the best in a given price range.

For a gaming system a 2500 should be plenty fast enough, a 2600 is just a 2500 plus Hyperthreading. If budget is of any concern I'd go for a 2500 (2500k if you plan on overclocking). Also bear in mind AMD Bulldozer should be out over the next month or so.

[Ferral]

Yeah, I would say the i7 and MSI card.

More than enough power in that and you should get a bit longer out of it. Processor is a decent jump up, for gaming you cant go wrong on a single monitor setup.

[kalniel]

Yep I'd agree with watercooled - an i5 2500k is going to last you for a very long time, with the easy overclocking if you need it in the future. And the AMD 6970 seems to outperform the 570 in the main - there isn't an edge to nVidia cards at the moment.