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GPU upgrade-need suggestions

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M

ManosS

New Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Hello :).Last month,I started upgrading my old,crappy pc.I've already bought new ram,cpu and motherboard and now im planning to buy a new gpu.I'm going to spend 250$+ so which would be the best choice?My current rig is:
motherboard:msi h97 gaming 3
cpu:intel core i7 4790k
ram:corsair vengeance 8gb
gpu:amd radeon r7 250x 2gb
Thanks in advance :)
 
Welcome! A couple of things first...

1. H97 platform with a "K" processor? You are likely not going to be able to overclock that CPU (which is what its made for).
2. what power supply?
3. Assuming your monitor's resolution is 1080, right?

For 1080 and $250+ budget (there is a lot of money after $250!!!!) and your resolution, I would GTX 970 or R9 290. The 290 can be found closer to your $250 list while the GTX 970 can be found for $330 or so. I prefer the 970 as its slightly faster than the 290 and uses nearly half the power.
 
Thanks for the quick answer.I got the motherboard from my brother,he got a new one last month so maybe in the future ill get a z or x one too.My supply is 850 w and my monitor's resolution is 1920x1080.
 
Z97 is what you are looking for. X anything won't work on your chip.

850W... cool. Brand and model please (just want to make sure it isn't crap).
 
I'll go for the z97 in the future then.Supply is:Qfun 850w toughpower thermaltake.I haven't had any issues with it as of yet.

About the cpu,with some tweaks,i've managed to keep it stably at 4.6,which is ok for me I guess.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Anyway thanks for your help :) I'll think i'll go for the r9 290 just for the cost.
 
Get one with an aftermarket cooler. They are power hungry and LOUD with the blower style cooler. (970, not at all as it uses half the power)
 
EarthDog said:
Welcome! A couple of things first...

1. H97 platform with a "K" processor? You are likely not going to be able to overclock that CPU (which is what its made for).
Click to expand...

Although in most cases, I would agree that a K processor combined with a mobo not designed for overclocking is a bad idea, I can actually see the use case in this generation and I've done a build with an H97 board and a 4790K recently.

My reasoning is that the 4790K already "boosts" from the factory up to 4.4 Ghz (from 4.0, stock). For the vast majority of people, this is going to be more than sufficient. Additionally, even for those seeking more performance, you're going to have a difficult time getting a 4790K much higher than 4.6 anyway.

One caveat to the H97 boards, however, that I completely overlooked was that they only support up to 1600Mhz on the RAM. If your modules are rated higher than that, they'll downclock. A little disappointing if you spent a bit more on 1866 or higher RAM.
 
If I recall correctly, you can select an XMP profile. However, if the profile for your RAM is above 1600Mhz, then BIOS will report it as whatever the XMP profile is, but it will still only run at 1600 (as reported by CPU-z) and your timings will get changed as well.

For example, I put in an 8GB 2133 C9 kit. Set XMP. CPU-z shows it as 1600 and C11 (?) timings. I tried manually setting the speed/timings with no luck.

I am waiting on a 1600 C7 set at the moment. Hoping it'll keep the lower timings, since the XMP profile is only 1600.
 
I'll get some more solid info on it tomorrow when the new ram shows up.

EDIT : Gonna be a delay on that info. RAM had to be RMA'd.
 
Last edited:
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