Last piece of the puzzle

[chug]

Last bit I have to get is the GPU. Rest of the machine is a 3570k, Asus z77 pro, 840 pro ssd, 450watt gold rated silverstone psu and running a fair few ancillaries.

Now I'm far from a hardcore gamer, but do want the ability to pick up a modern game and run it well.

Previous build ran a 6870 which was good enough to be fair, maybe a bit more punch while I'm down there would be good. I still have the 6870 so could just use that I guess, only gripe was it had a side blow fan which was very loud.

So anyway, option 1) is nab that card before I sell the other machine and stick a aftermarket cooler on it. 2) buy a new card, and if so what one would fit the bill? Needs to be silent when not in major use.

Cheers

 

[mokrunka]

You could grab a 650ti from nvidia: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130841

If you are able to spend more, check out the 660ti as well (around $290)

 

[Mod-R]

Brand new GPU won't run loud anyway. Don't know your budget, but HD7870-7970 fit the bill quite well. As a general rule, smaller fans will run louder than bigger ones, so I guess you could try and aim for a Gigabyte, usually use big fans, and prices are fair. I've never particularly heard mine spin, but I do have 14 fans running (counting the GPU and PSU) in my case, so... Most people will tell you not to care about that, and go with your budget to buy the best you can.

 

[chug]

Don't mind spending a bit more than the 650ti, but not quite as much as the 660ti. Is there something in the middle by any chance?

See my computer has many large fans too but they all run below 20db. A sideblow fan at 25% is still way too loud.

Cheers

 

[Mod-R]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102998 Sapphire HD7850 200$

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025 Sapphire HD7870 250$

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130826 Evga GTX660 (non-Ti) 230$

Prices should be around the same on newegg.com

 

[chug]

Cheers, is there any one that has a particularly good price/performance ratio?

 

[Mod-R]

HD7870 would be my choice. Fps-minded gamers will mostly prefer Radeon cards. But Nvidia supports PhysX, which for some can be of importance.

 

[wingman99]

The HD 7870 will be quiet and a good FPS boost from what you have, the GIGABYTE GV-R787OC-2GD Radeon HD 7870 has 3 fans so it's quiet because they run slower.

 

[chug]

Think I'd rather go AMD as I might use 3 monitors at some point. Sounds like a good bet the 7870 although. On my list.

 

[scibuff]

To be honest, for that build I wouldn't go any lower than HD 7870. If you gonna use the computer mostly for gaming, the GPU should be priority #1.

If you play at 1080p and you may wanna play on all three monitors, I'd really suggest to save up for 7950 or even better then 7970 (the extra GB of vRAM will make difference on 3 monitors).

 

[chug]

Cheers for the advice, but its a side gamer really. I can't shoot very well and there are no decent racing games.

Anyway will only be gaming on one monitor/TV at 1080.

 

[Dlaw]

Cheers for the advice, but its a side gamer really. I can't shoot very well and there are no decent racing games.

Anyway will only be gaming on one monitor/TV at 1080.

Try Trackmania. There's a free version, but you have to sit a race out every few races, so it's kind of a pain. Controls are literally the arrow keys, and all of the cars have the same stats. It comes down to true skill as to who wins, and the cars don't clip each other, so other players can't mess up your time. Plus, it's a heavily modded game, and the developers encourage it, so almost no 2 servers are the same.

Finally, it doesn't take much to run. I ran it on my Athalon x2 220/HD5550 system, and although I had to run it in fast mode, I did get ~90FPS. And it scales well with hardware, and probably could push a 3570K/HD7870 or GTX660 pretty hard. I can't attest to that though.

I'm done with my pitch, lol. Have a good day.

 

[chug]

Sound, I'll give it a toot. Dirt 3 was ok, got bored of that quite quickly though, I heard they are doing another Grid. Far cry 3 is about the only shooter that tickled my pickle recently, great game. Probably because you don't have to be any good at it. I hadn't played a shooter since unreal tournament.

Anyway, here was a wonder, when I was looking at the 6850/6870, I remember reading the 50 overclocked very well, and the 70 didn't at all, ie pretty much a factory clocked 50. That sound about right?

I fancy an aftermarket cooler anyway as it has to be quiet, so my question is does the same theory roughly apply to the 7850/70 series?