Need video card recommendation for Skyrim on Ultra settings

[JCE3000GT]

My gaming rig is below in my signature. What I'd like to be able to do is get an nVidia video card (no AMD/ATI!)to run Skyrim with Ultra settings @ 60fps and that can also be overclocked safely. It has to be a brand new and not a used card and I would prefer to get it from Newegg or Amazon so my purchase can be easily returned/protected if there is an issue. I will have $180.00~$240.00 USD to spend in a couple of weeks. I understand x60, x70, and x80 series (x90?) GeForce GTX cards are desirable for gaming so let's start with those. I would like to consider doing an SLI setup as well but will consider one very good card. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Requirements:

• nVidia
• more than 2GB GDDR5 VRAM (256-bit or higher)
• under $250.00 USD
• Newegg or Amazon purchase preferred
• x60/x70/x80 series cards only
• has to be brand new and never used/opened
• can easily be OC'd without overheating the card
• can withstand up to 90ºC (sometimes my office can get hot in the summer...)
• 100% has to run Skyrim on Ultra @ 60fps+, and would prefer to run Skyrim with the HD texture pack as well
• something else I'm missing? LOL

For those whom will have suggestions please also post a link to the video card's specifications and or benchmarks vs other cards (like the 670) so I can use that for my decision making process.

*edit*
Also, please tell me if less than $250 USD is not enough!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

A 750Ti will do around 60FPS average in Skyrim, thought about that?
If you want one step higher, go with a 960. That should get you around 100FPS average.

I'd stick with a Maxwell based GPU, they run such low power that it'll help with office heat

 

[JCE3000GT]

A 750Ti will do around 60FPS average in Skyrim, thought about that?
If you want one step higher, go with a 960. That should get you around 100FPS average.

I'd stick with a Maxwell based GPU, they run such low power that it'll help with office heat

Thanks for the post. What are the costs vs performance on these two? In other words which provides the most bang for the buck?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Thanks for the post. What are the costs vs performance on these two? In other words which provides the most bang for the buck?

Just divide FPS by price and you've got what you're looking for

That said, performance per watt and performance per dollar should be about the same between the 750Ti and 960.

 

[JCE3000GT]

So would you say those two cards offer about equal performance? How do they compare to the 670? I've seen some impressive performance figures for the 670.

 

[Mandrake4565]

A GTX 670 will outperform a GTX 750 ti and about equal to a GTX 960, depending on the title but will use more wattage. The GTX 670 is also 2/3 generations old now so you probably will have to buy used.

 

[JCE3000GT]

A GTX 670 will outperform a GTX 750 ti and about equal to a GTX 960, depending on the title but will use more wattage. The GTX 670 is also 2/3 generations old now so you probably will have to buy used.

You are probably correct with the 670 not being available new. Amazon has them new but people are asking a ridiculous $500+ USD for them! Newegg has two 670's "new" more like refurbs, with one being the below. Seems as though the price is acceptable I'm just skeptical on refurbished computer equipment.

Refurbished: $229 USD GIGABYTE GV-N670WF2-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[wagex]

960 > 670

 

[Mandrake4565]

You are probably correct with the 670 not being available new. Amazon has them new but people are asking a ridiculous $500+ USD for them! Newegg has two 670's "new" more like refurbs, with one being the below. Seems as though the price is acceptable I'm just skeptical on refurbished computer equipment.

Refurbished: $229 USD GIGABYTE GV-N670WF2-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

You can get a 960 for less then the refurbed 670 the 960 is the better buy

 

[ATMINSIDE]

So would you say those two cards offer about equal performance? How do they compare to the 670? I've seen some impressive performance figures for the 670.

I never said they were equal performance, I said their performance per dollar is roughly the same.
Actually, I gave their performance. There's about a 40% performance difference.

I'd take a 960 over that refurb all day every day.
I'm not sure why you're looking at GPU's that are 2 generations old now... The 670 shouldn't even be in the picture.

 

[JCE3000GT]

You can get a 960 for less then the refurbished 670 the 960 is the better buy

Well the reason why I have the 670 listed are several different factors. One is from what I've been reading on various gaming forums the 670 beats the 760 and in some instances is very close to the 960 in performance on a few games like Skyrim. Having run a comparison with the base model of each card the differences are minimal so going with a 960 would likely save me money.

Significantly higher clock speed 1,127 MHz vs 915 MHz Around 25% higher clock speed
Higher effective memory clock speed 7,012 MHz vs 6,008 MHz More than 15% higher effective memory clock speed
Significantly higher turbo clock speed 1,178 MHz vs 980 MHz More than 20% higher turbo clock speed
Higher pixel rate 36.1 GPixel/s vs 25.6 GPixel/s More than 40% higher pixel rate
Higher memory clock speed 1,753 MHz vs 1,502 MHz More than 15% higher memory clock speed
Lower TDP 120W vs 170W Around 30% lower TDP

Higher memory bandwidth 192.3 GB/s vs 96 GB/s More than 2x higher memory bandwidth
Higher texture rate 102.5 GTexel/s vs 72.1 GTexel/s More than 40% higher texture rate
More texture mapping units 112 vs 64 48 more texture mapping units
Wider memory bus 256 bit vs 128 bit 2x wider memory bus
More shading units 1,344 vs 1,024 320 more shading units

But having said all of that, my research today has led me to a possible candidate. What are you guys' thoughts on this card:

EVGA 04G-P4-3966-KR GeForce GTX 960 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support SuperSC ACX 2.0+

It meets my criteria, but, I'm still a bit concerned about the 128-bit memory bus. Can anyone explain to me why this is or is not important to only have 128-bit? Is this card going to run "modern" games from say 2013-2015 and so on? I only ask because I may start playing Elder Scrolls Online and whatever new StarCraft that (or if) comes out. I rarely upgrade because I prefer older games it just so happens that there are three game series that I will buy new so I would hope I can get the next iterations of them if they come out in the next year or two. In case you are wondering those three series are; Unreal/Unreal Tournament, StarCraft, and any Elder Scrolls game. Thank you all for the

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The 128-bit bus won't effect you because of NVidia's new compression methods.

That SSC 4GB is a good option for you, grab it.

The 760 is a faster clocked version of the 670.
The 960 is a bit faster than a 760.
The 960 isn't two generations old, therefore its performance will continue to improve through driver updates.
It uses significantly less power than a 670.

 

[JCE3000GT]

The 128-bit bus won't effect you because of NVidia's new compression methods.

Awesome, that is great to hear! I don't feel so bad now reading that and another article I just found. Hard to do some research while I'm at work in meetings. LOL

That SSC 4GB is a good option for you, grab it.

The 760 is a faster clocked version of the 670.
The 960 is a bit faster than a 760.
The 960 isn't two generations old, therefore its performance will continue to improve through driver updates.
It uses significantly less power than a 670.

That makes sense. I'm pretty far behind on my video card knowledge and whatnot. The last time I divulged in this area was in late-2010 when I bought my GTX 460 768MB. Oddly, I gave that 460 to a friend of mine along with a dual-core Athlon CPU for him to play Skyrim. He is able to run mostly high settings which is not bad for a card 4~5 years old. I inherited my 2 560's when I got my gaming rig from my brother. My family does a lot of hand-me-downs on computer technology.

I am really liking that 4GB 960 I posted the link to above. It absolutely ticks all of my boxes. Now I just need someone who maybe has this card to give me their OCing experience as well as their Skyrim experience with this card.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Skyrim isn't inherently difficult to run on decent equipment.
It's high res texture packs and the visual mods that make it slow down

Skyrim on the 960 is going to be basically the same on any version.
As I said before, expect about a 100 FPS average on 1080p at Ultra settings.

Here's our in-house review of the SuperSC, includes OCing:
http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-960-supersc-acx-2-0-graphics-card-review/

 

[JCE3000GT]

Skyrim isn't inherently difficult to run on decent equipment.
It's high res texture packs and the visual mods that make it slow down

Skyrim on the 960 is going to be basically the same on any version.
As I said before, expect about a 100 FPS average on 1080p at Ultra settings.

Here's our in-house review of the SuperSC, includes OCing:
http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-960-supersc-acx-2-0-graphics-card-review/

Oh sweet thank you, I'm going to read that now!

You are correct on those high res textures! I know my 2 560's run Skyrim brilliantly ... until I run out of VRAM. If only I had more than 1GB on those two cards.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yeah, 1GB is a low limit these days.
4GB will be more than you need for quite a while on 1080p.

 

[JCE3000GT]

Yeah, 1GB is a low limit these days.
4GB will be more than you need for quite a while on 1080p.

I do think 4GB will be a good amount for a while on 1080 for sure. Do you think 4GB (and this card) is enough to run the highest res texture mods for Skyrim at a reasonable FPS (40-60fps)?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Without a doubt

 

[Dlaw]

It's been said a couple of times now, that 960 will run that game at ~100FPS.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

It's been said a couple of times now, that 960 will run that game at ~100FPS.

That's an unmodded game with stock textures. The HD texture pack and mods will drop it some, but it won't cut the FPS in half or anything.