which graphics card for games

[wjwren]

Just ordered an i7 PC and it only has basic in built graphics. What card would be best to play games like call of duty or wolfenstien or the latest stuff etc. Haven't had a PC for games since a 486. Would prefer to spend no more than £200.

[130R]

280X is a good choice, make sure it will fit in your case and that you have an adequate PSU (500W minimum I believe)

[Shadow R1]

Psu is your first concern, no good spending £200 on a card if your psu wont run it.

[wjwren]

Would an 800w psu be sufficient?
Also does RAM have a large effect? Seen a geforce gtx770 with 2gb ram and a geforce gtx760 with 4gb ram both the same price.

[flat-planedCrank]

In true PistonHeads fashion...

Personally, I'd try and stretch your budget slightly (!) to around the £250-mark and go for the recently released nVidia 970 series cards.

They are very low power draw, and as fast as the 780 & almost 780Ti level if you over-clock.
If I was buying now I'd not go for the discontinued 770 (unless you can get a bargain, but it never seems to work out that way in my experience). Also, in reference to your previous post, all the 970s are 4GB+. I think there are some 8GBs on the way....

I recently got the MSI 970 (about £280), to give you an idea about how low power these things are - at idle (34C on mine) the fans don't spin at all. They only come on when gaming (about the 50C mark).

Google for some reviews, but they've been really well received by the pc gaming / tech sites.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2...
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/...

Edited by flat-planedCrank on Saturday 18th October 20:43

[flat-planedCrank]

wjwren said:

Would an 800w psu be sufficient?
Also does RAM have a large effect? Seen a geforce gtx770 with 2gb ram and a geforce gtx760 with 4gb ram both the same price.

800w should be fine for a single card unless you're installing a stack of other stuff?

RAM-wise, it's good for high-res textures in games. IIRC there's a game out now that actually suggests 4GB video ram for it's high-res texture pack

(also helps if you're going to be using the card to help with graphics work)

[Martin4x4]

If you must stay under 200 then the MSI Geforce GTX 770

http://www.ebuyer.com/509733-msi-gtx-770-gaming-2g...



This will give a good over view of comparative performance, just note these are for the video chip set not the cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphic...

[3sixty]

To go against the grain slightly, 800W isn't great if it's an "Ezcool" / Cit etc brand. You need a decent make and 80+ efficient rated. 600w should be enough

Tests online showed the budget PSUs were at 40-50% efficient meaning your 800w was only 400w

[Mr_Yogi]

3sixty said:

To go against the grain slightly, 800W isn't great if it's an "Ezcool" / Cit etc brand. You need a decent make and 80+ efficient rated. 600w should be enough

Tests online showed the budget PSUs were at 40-50% efficient meaning your 800w was only 400w

This, get a decent branded (Seasonic, Corsair, XFX, BeQuiet, Antec) 500+ Watt PSU.

Then for under £200 I'd look at a 3GB AMD R280X.

For just over £200 I'd look at the 4GB AMD R290.

Any more and it's the 4GB nVidia 970

If you are gonna keep this card a while the more video ram the better. With the new consoles having 5/6GB available for games and PC's having more power to push higher res textures, higher resolutions and higher quality settings such as Anti Aliasing, I would imagine 2GB cards are gonna start being limited in performance in a year or two for games based on the XBOne/ PS4.

[The Beaver King]

As above really; just bought a R9 280X DD Edition for £200.

Runs everything at full specs so far and doesn't seem to be under any strain. In 6-12 months the price should be down to around £100-125, so I'll be picking up a second to run in crossfire.

Later AMD cards are running mantle as well, not critical at the minute, but going forward most games will support this.

For a real world example; I'm running the new Aliens Isolation on ultra specs at 70FPS.

PSU wise, I'm running a 750w Coolermaster bronze 80+ unit. Costs about £60 on ebuyer currently.

For RAM, 8GB of DDR3 is the most any game requires at the minute. 4GB should be a minimum to run new games.

[Mr Whippy]

I'd stretch to a 970 of some variety.

Or maybe wait a few more months and maybe a 960 will be out, which will no doubt be amazing VFM.

I use a GTX760 here in 1920x1200 and it's amply fast for most games at 60fps with most settings turned on.

A 960 will no doubt be faster still, have support for the latest and future API goodies, and perfectly fine for ~ 1440p gaming on a budget!

Dave

[Sam1990]

To echo the RAM comments. For future proofing I'd really be looking for a 4GB card. Whilst 2GB is sufficient for most of today's games I can imagine in the coming years textures will grow ever larger and the difference between a 2 or 4 GB card will really begin to show.

As mentioned above the Geforce GTX 970 does represent a good bargain with great overclocking capability. Spend the extra £50-60 and you really will have a capable card for years to come.

[Shadow R1]

The question nobody has asked yet, what screen or screens do you need this to run ?

For a single 1920 x 1080 say 24" screen, 2gb will be more than enough.

I would buy the fastest card you can, so from the 2 you said about, id get the 770 over the 760.

[gpo746]

The better ones have the other input than vga on them.

[wjwren]

It will be running on a 32" 32w706 tv.

[Mr_Yogi]

Shadow R1 said:

The question nobody has asked yet, what screen or screens do you need this to run ?

For a single 1920 x 1080 say 24" screen, 2gb will be more than enough.

I would buy the fastest card you can, so from the 2 you said about, id get the 770 over the 760.

What resolutons do the PS4 and XBOne run?

[Mr Whippy]

If it's for a TV at 1080p resolution I'd just get a GTX760 or maybe a GTX770.

Maybe a 770 because it is faster and might be nicer for future games in a 1080p resolution, but mainly maybe because future games are gonna want a newer card to get the best from even in a lower resolution imo, so a 960, when it arrives, is probably the best bet!

Ooor, a 970 now if you can still stretch for it.


Hmmmm


Waiting on tech is a tough one though. Never a good time to buy. Just get the best you can afford and need now and you'll do ok

Dave

[Shadow R1]

Mr Whippy said:

Just get the best you can afford and need now and you'll do ok

Dave

Agree with that.