Would like some suggestions for a New Graphics card

[Tutonic]

I'll also personally vouch for the 970. I play on a 1440p monitor, and the performance is absolutely fine despite the VRAM configuration.

It also runs cool, and almost entirely silent - an excellent piece of hardware.

[sulky_uk]

I'll also personally vouch for the 970. I play on a 1440p monitor, and the performance is absolutely fine despite the VRAM configuration.

It also runs cool, and almost entirely silent - an excellent piece of hardware.

im with that as well, got one, never had the vram slowdown and it runs great

if like me you have a small case then how about  a 1/2 sized 970 but with grunt of the full size one, ive got it and its cool and the gang

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-1076MHz-Dl-Dvi-I-Dl-Dvi-D-Graphics/dp/B00P7337YG

[Jamoe]

I'm struggling with the HD550 as I can't find a graphics card that fits that. Figured it would help us workout what other parts you have.

Unless you meant the system is a Fusion HD550 which has a HD 5770.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs/49974/pc-specialist-fusion-hd-550-review

There was also HD5550 or possible a HD 550v (but the later is more a laptop card)

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/5000/5550
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-550v.31270.0.html

Perhaps I'm just not googling right


(edit: I went with a GTX 970 in September last year with the plan of buying a 4k monitor in 2016 along with something from Nvidia's Pascal range)

[addx9]

Wow thanks a lot for the info guys! great help!

As for an update, I have bought and installed a 600W CX600 power supply.

As for my Processor I have an Intel Core I3-2130 3.40GHz
With my total ram being 4GB (however I could potentially use one of the two 2TB hard drives to help with that)
I also have a  1920x1080 60hz Main Monitor alongside a 1280x720 50hz Side monitor

I have been looking at the Radeon R9 390 and it seems like it does have mixed reviews but i have never used Nvidia so I'm still unsure of what's best to go for.

[Obsydian]

Probably the biggest boost you could give to your system right now would be to increase the RAM to 8GB at a minimum.  4GB will be choking your system a lot.  You're probably not aware of it as you may simply have gotten used to it, but increasing your memory will breathe new life into your machine.

[Tutonic]

Get an SSD if you don't already have one, probably the biggest performance you can make to a system right now.

Sent from my OnePlus One using Tapatalk

[addx9]

Get an SSD if you don't already have one, probably the biggest performance you can make to a system right now.

Sent from my OnePlus One using Tapatalk

I already have 4tb of physical memory but would this affect my ram?

[Obsydian]

I already have 4tb of physical memory but would this affect my ram?

No.

Your hard drives are storage, your ram is memory.

While having an SSD as your main (I.e. Operating system) drive will speed up loading of programs, etc. that 4GB of memory really is holding your system back.

In order of priority, I would suggest:

• Increase memory to 8GB as a minimum (to allow your system to 'breathe' and run efficiently)
• New graphics card (so you can play games at higher resolutions)
• Upgrade the OS drive to SSD (to speed up loading and increase responsiveness of the machine).

[Jamoe]

I already have 4tb of physical memory but would this affect my ram?

An SSD (Solid State Drive) would be equivalent to your other HDD but just so much faster. This isn't the same as RAM, that sits on the motherboard and is used by the CPU to store stuff it wants in the near future. When you turn your machine off anything in RAM is gone, it doesn't persist. That's what your "physical memory" would be for (those 4T HDD and/or SSD).

This will help explain the difference and also go some way to explain why you need more RAM

https://www.quora.com/Computer-Hardware/Whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-disk-a-RAM-and-a-CPU-cache-and-why-do-you-need-each-of-them

Edit: obs beat me to it and I agree with his upgrade priority. If you don't have enough RAM the CPU starts to hit the virtual memory on the HDD which is a huge hit on performance

 My only concern is whether the i3 will be a bottleneck for a £200 Graphics card.

For me the SSD is a fair bit down the priority ladder, someone can correct me but I doubt that will improve game performance bar loading times.

[addx9]

No.

Your hard drives are storage, your ram is memory.

While having an SSD as your main (I.e. Operating system) drive will speed up loading of programs, etc. that 4GB of memory really is holding your system back.

In order of priority, I would suggest:

• Increase memory to 8GB as a minimum (to allow your system to 'breathe' and run efficiently)
• New graphics card (so you can play games at higher resolutions)
• Upgrade the OS drive to SSD (to speed up loading and increase responsiveness of the machine).

Thanks dude ill get on that, I have just upgraded my ram to 12gb so I'm running a little faster

[addx9]

An SSD (Solid State Drive) would be equivalent to your other HDD but just so much faster. This isn't the same as RAM, that sits on the motherboard and is used by the CPU to store stuff it wants in the near future. When you turn your machine off anything in RAM is gone, it doesn't persist. That's what your "physical memory" would be for (those 4T HDD and/or SSD).

This will help explain the difference and also go some way to explain why you need more RAM

https://www.quora.com/Computer-Hardware/Whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-disk-a-RAM-and-a-CPU-cache-and-why-do-you-need-each-of-them

Edit: obs beat me to it and I agree with his upgrade priority. If you don't have enough RAM the CPU starts to hit the virtual memory on the HDD which is a huge hit on performance

 My only concern is whether the i3 will be a bottleneck for a £200 Graphics card.

For me the SSD is a fair bit down the priority ladder, someone can correct me but I doubt that will improve game performance bar loading times.

Awesome thanks for explaining and I'll check over the next couple of days if family have any SSD's spare

[Gorion]

By way of adding balance to Gorion's above argument, I would have to disagree and state the complete opposite!

Pricewise, the 970 and 390 are about the same (£240+, or £260+ for  overclocked versions), whereas the cheapest 390x on the market is about  Â£315.

The GTX970 easily outpaces the 390 by about 20%, and betters the 390x by about 10%.  VRAM, while probably becoming more important over the next few years, isn't terribly important right now as there are very few games out on the market that would tax the 4GB of VRAM on the 970, so the 8GB on the 390 will really only be of use if you're planning on running a 4K screen or 3 x 1080p screens at high FPS rates (or you are wanting to run one of the very few games that want to use all available VRAM they can find!)

I have used both NVidia and AMD cards over the years, usually choosing one over the other based on relatvie performance at that time, and I can honestly say that while NVidia has never given me any problems, I have had huge problems with almost every AMD card I have bought, to the point that about 18 months ago, after having to send my last card (R9 290x) back to AMD for 'repair' for the third time, I finally decided that I will never go AMD ever again.

For transparency, my current card is a 970 and it runs Star Citizen at 1080p max quality at a steady 60fps in Vanduul Swarm.  It'll probably go higher but my monitor only supports 60Hz.  Memory usage never gets much higher than 2GB and temperature under load tops out at around 65-75 degrees.

But the choice is, of course, yours.

I'm sorry but I think you're your wrong in your assumption, as your statistics deviate from the benchmarks out there. Your opinion might biased since you had multiple card failures.  I had cards go bad from both sides, unfortunately, some production batches result in bad gpus; it's normal.

Performance wise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHhJHluSVpw (390 vs 970 - FPS, Heat, DB)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSDQzlKDYq4 (390 vs 970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMnpknaAq0g (290x vs 970)


For the same pricepoint, you get gpus with very similar frame output.  However, you can get twice the vram, and double bus width. Having 8GB of Vram is a major benefit for the coming years.

Keep in mind that 6-8GB vram is going to be the new standard going forward.  So if you plan on buying another GPU in a year's time, go ahead and buy the 970.  If you rather spend the same amount of money, and keep your GPU for more than a year, the only path right now is AMD.

Also, why even think about limiting yourself to 1080p?  You might want higher resolutions, or multiple monitors down the line.  Do you plan to change gpu's because you didn't think about that option now?

The whole idea is not thinking just about the now, it's about thinking about what's next.

[addx9]

So after buying all the parts needed to upgrade (2x£10 Fans, 2x8gb ram and a 600w power supply) I have finally bought the PNY Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Card( http://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-Nvidia-GeForce-Graphics-Express/dp/B00SLH1TFY/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1453830930&sr=8-18&keywords=gtx+970+2gb) as after getting advice from both you guys and Maplin's clerk's i decided that I didn't need to spend an extra £100 for a 0.8% increase in processing power. Thanks guys for helping me out and I look forward to gaming at a high end with everyone in the near future!

[RogueTaylor]

So after buying all the parts needed to upgrade (2x£10 Fans, 2x8gb ram and a 600w power supply) I have finally bought the PNY Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Card( http://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-Nvidia-GeForce-Graphics-Express/dp/B00SLH1TFY/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1453830930&sr=8-18&keywords=gtx+970+2gb) as after getting advice from both you guys and Maplin's clerk's i decided that I didn't need to spend an extra £100 for a 0.8% increase in processing power. Thanks guys for helping me out and I look forward to gaming at a high end with everyone in the near future!

Brilliant new add I look forward to seeing you in games like ark and doing this ensures the ability to play future games as well so great job man

[Gunda]

get yourself a i5 3570k

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2053587.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC2.A0.H0.Xi5+3570K.TRS0&_nkw=i5+3570K&_sacat=0

it is not just a 0.8% improvement... you would probably see at least a 10-15% improvement in framerates since i would hazzard a guess your system is going to be cpu bottlenecked now.