66 replies to this topic

[Kiko Jones]

I decided to upgraded my rig primarily because I was getting 45-60 fps everything on low except Details which is High.

Old: AMD Phenom II x6 1045T 2.7 ghz with 8 gb ram & GTX 550Ti 1 gb

New: i7-5820K 3.3 ghz with 8 gb ram & Radeon R7 250 2gb

I'm considering the GTX 960 4g (~$240). $240 is the very top of my budget.

Any other cards I should consider before pulling the trigger?


Thanks

Edited by Kiko Jones, 01 April 2015 - 07:11 AM.

[Flapdrol]

R9 290 can be had for similar money, worth a look if the psu is up to the job.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

The 4GB 960 is entirely pointless unless your going to SLI them. It doesn't have the physical grunt to use that VRAM at acceptable frames

If your PSU is good quality this is about as top end as you can afford.

. http://pcpartpicker....r92904gbd5ppdhe

[Kiko Jones]

I have a 600 watt PSU.

[S204STi]

Kiko Jones, on 01 April 2015 - 06:57 AM, said:

I decided to upgraded my rig primarily because I was getting 45-60 fps everything on low except Details which is High.

Old: AMD Phenom II x6 1045T 2.7 ghz with 8 gb ram & GTX 550Ti 1 gb

New: i7-5820K 3.3 ghz with 8 gb ram & Radeon R7 250 2gb

I'm considering the GTX 960 4g (~$240). $240 is the very top of my budget.

Any other cards I should consider before pulling the trigger?


Thanks

Not sure why you are going with an i7 but such a minimalist card. I'd drop it to a i5 4690k, and put at least a gtx970 or r9280x in there.

[Lord Letto]

I'd say R9 280X with a $240 Firm Maximum Budget
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Tri-X Video Card ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $229.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-01 16:58 EDT-0400

you said you have a 600W PSU, What is it, Corsair, Seasonic? 80+ Bronze, Gold?
Also, What Case do you have?

[Kiko Jones]

Lord Letto, on 01 April 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:

I'd say R9 280X with a $240 Firm Maximum Budget
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Tri-X Video Card ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $229.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-01 16:58 EDT-0400

you said you have a 600W PSU, What is it, Corsair, Seasonic? 80+ Bronze, Gold?
Also, What Case do you have?

POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

CAS: CyberPowerPC X-Nova Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ USB 3.0, Side-Panel Window

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS X99-A ATX W/ Intel GbE LAN, 4x Gen3 PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x1, 1x M.2, 8x SATA 6Gb/s

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-5820K Six-Core 3.30GHz 15MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011-V3

MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR4/2666MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

HDD: 120GB Kingston SSD + 1TB SATA III Hard Drive Combo

Edited by Kiko Jones, 01 April 2015 - 02:32 PM.

[Gremlich Johns]

I wouldn't waste your money on a GTX960 if you are serious about your gaming. 1 R9 285 is better and it's not much more to get the R9 290

[Summon3r]

umm 5820k? is there a reason outside gaming you are getting this cpu? and then dropping way down to a 960? at 3.3ghz mwo is going to want more out of that, on intel 4ghz is a real nice place to be as MWO wants nothing more then raw cpu cycles to chew on.

for gaming and MWO specifically a i5-4690k is perfect OC it to 4-4.3 and get yourself a 970 and enjoy years of ultra gaming.

if you really need the i7 the 4790k comes stock at 4ghz and put your extra moneys into gpu

Edited by Summon3r, 01 April 2015 - 03:58 PM.

[Lord Letto]

Do you already have the computer? also, you still never mentioned the Manufacturer/Brand name of the PSU.
but if your looking to build one, with say a $1000 Budget, then Look Through Here: http://mwomercs.com/...s-500-1000-100/

[Kiko Jones]

Lord Letto, on 01 April 2015 - 07:11 PM, said:

Do you already have the computer? also, you still never mentioned the Manufacturer/Brand name of the PSU. but if your looking to build one, with say a $1000 Budget, then Look Through Here: http://mwomercs.com/...s-500-1000-100/

Yes, I already have the computer. The PSU is 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready.

Edited by Kiko Jones, 02 April 2015 - 04:50 AM.

[dwwolf]

CPU overkill/misfit for gaming IMHO. definately not a balanced build.

Edited by dwwolf, 02 April 2015 - 05:43 AM.

[xWiredx]

Everybody is being real critical of the CPU and I'm not sure why. It wasn't part of OPs question and it isn't going to hold him back (he has now stated that he already has the machine, too, so... guys, c'mon).

Back to the topic at hand...

A Radeon R9 280X is probably the best choice here. If you're loyalist toward Nvidia then get the GTX 960.

[Kshat]

If you're "a loyalist to nVidia", get a used GTX770, GTX780(Ti) or Titan from those enthusiasts which upgraded to a GTX980 or Titan X.
The GTX960 isn't of any use, it's just complete, overpriced garbage. You're willing to pay ~240$ for a card which is ALREADY underperforming and will let you wish for an upgrade at the end of the year?

And, as said before, AMD got the better bang for your bucks in the pricerange. R9 280X is great. Even an R9 285 is a solid choice, especially under Dx12/Vulkan. To top it off, you're able to buy some R9 290s in that pricerange. Which is, to the GTX960, like a solid V8 compared to a Honda Jazz with turbocharger which tries to compete.

P.S.: I'm always astonished how many people devalue the worth of a solid PSU. And I'm not talking about those "lookilooki, it says 1000W on the sign!", I'm talking about a modern, well built piece of high technology. Anything other than 80+ silver indicates an outdated design which is in many cases not able to keep up with the fast switches in power states which are immanent to modern CPUs and - more important due to the higher power delivered to it - modern GPUs. Even one of the so-famed GTX970s peaks up to 400W and rapidly drops down to 100W again, which puts a high strain on your PSU. People are ready to spend large sums om hightech GPUs and entrust their wellbeing to a ~30$ PSU when good choices can already be bought for ~50$.
I've seen enough GPUs which are sold in an OC'd state (for some extra cash ofc) which failed to run solid because the PSU can't supply their demands with the needed distortion-free voltages. That's the reason you "need" a 700W PSU for a single videocard - because the company really dislikes to refund those cards solely due to a lousy PSU.

Edited by Kshat, 02 April 2015 - 06:37 AM.

[Flapdrol]

Calling a gtx 960 "overpriced garbage" and an R9 285 a "solid choice" is a bit silly Kshat, gets more silly under dx12 where the 960 will do conservative rasterisation and the 285 will not.

And a good quality psu is nice, but I don't buy the story about maxwell's supposed power characteristics and psu strain.

Edited by Flapdrol, 02 April 2015 - 07:10 AM.

[Summon3r]

Kiko Jones, on 02 April 2015 - 04:49 AM, said:

Yes, I already have the computer. The PSU is 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready.

do you have a decent cooler where you can bump that cpu up a bit, its worth it for MWO... i have a phanteks air cooler on my 3930k @ 4ghz and temps never break 55 while gaming

[Kshat]

Flapdrol, on 02 April 2015 - 07:07 AM, said:

Calling a gtx 960 "overpriced garbage" and an R9 285 a "solid choice" is a bit silly Kshat, gets more silly under dx12 where the 960 will do conservative rasterisation and the 285 will not.

And a good quality psu is nice, but I don't buy the story about maxwell's supposed power characteristics and psu strain.

You won't have to buy anything, these are modern times, it would be enough to read. For example: http://www.tomshardw...ll,3941-12.html

And yes, 128 bit interconnect on the GTX960 is utter garbage. Right now you gain more FPS per percent OC if you OC the memory. The 960 is not only limited in VRAM-size but in throughput, too. And selling them for over 200$ makes them garbage.
If the 960 would cost you about ~160 to 170$, it would be a decent card. Limited for future use, but that's to be expected in that pricerange.

And that's the deal, anything relates to the price it's sold. And what nVidia charges you for this card makes it garbage. Because you get worse FPS than with a GTX770 which had been sold for a similar price not long ago.
Not to mention the option to buy a R9 280X or R9 290, which is almost in the price range of a GTX960 with 4GB...
And the price is what makes the R9 285 a good choice: you get at least the same power as the GTX960 offers - but pay less. it's easy math...

To your information: GCN uses Asynchronous Shaders which doesn't need special coding, it will boost performance in any titles as long as Dx12/Vulkan is used. 3D Mark actually shows that this will lead to more than a measurable increase in drawcalls, whereas any of the "maybe Dx12 supported" features of Maxwell will have to be supported by the game, which might happen by the end of the year or maybe even further in the future. To a point where it won't help a GTX960 at all, because memory interface and raw GPU power will limit this card. Ofc a R9 285 will be limited there, too. But up to that moment, Tonga had delivered at least the same power, if not more, for a lower price. And that's all that is to this. A GTX960 is vastly overpriced.

[Flapdrol]

The 285 and 960 are priced the same, perform the same and each have 2GB memory. Why would you care about 128 vs 256 bit when they perform the same?

And noisy power draw is nothing new, why would it lead to higher psu wear?

Edited by Flapdrol, 02 April 2015 - 08:27 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Flapdrol, on 02 April 2015 - 08:26 AM, said:

The 285 and 960 are priced the same, perform the same and each have 2GB memory. Why would you care about 128 vs 256 bit when they perform the same?

And noisy power draw is nothing new, why would it lead to higher psu wear?

Because he's another I read an article expert who doesn't understand Nvidias maxwell compression technology allows that 128bit interface to perform at near as no different to a 256bit interface and is why both the 960 and 285 perform the almost identically

[Lord Letto]

Still Don't Know the Brand/Manufacturer of the PSU, I'll assume it's a Low End OEM Prebuilt Piece of ****, Therefore I'd Recommend Replacing the PSU with the GPU, For $240 I'd Recomend going with this: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($143.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $229.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-02 12:57 EDT-0400

Edited by Lord Letto, 02 April 2015 - 09:01 AM.