Help selecting a GPU to run alongside an i5 2500k

[MJK4Y]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: i5 2500k


II. Current Graphics Card: N/A. This is for a new build.


III. Display Resolution: Currently 1440 x 900. Planning to upgrade in a few months.


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications: Have not selected a PSU yet, waiting to see what the rest of my build looks like


V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&Tpk=haf 912

Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.
For the card, I would be willing to spend $250-$290.


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?
No preferences.


III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?
Not planning on it.

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?
Yes.

V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?
This will be for gaming. No specific games at the moment, but if I could play everything out at the moment at max settings, that would be wonderful. Something that should hold up to industry standards for awhile, though I understand that industry standards change rapidly.

VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?
Not planning to overclock the GPU.

Additional Notes

I've looked at the two cards below, as starting points, anyhow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127608

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121480


The space requirements for the ASUS card worry me. It's a big one. I'm not sure how marked the difference between stream processor cores is whilst gaming, or how it will actually manifest itself.

Those two cards are just potential ones that seemed like a good fit, not dead-set on either. I know nVidia will be releasing new cards in April, I would prefer not to wait, but if it really makes a ton of sense to wait, I suppose I can.

Please, any suggestions would be very helpful. I hope the fact that I haven't selected a motherboard yet doesn't make this whole request a dumb one.

 

[Gloomy]

Difference is pretty big, you should expect the GTX 560Ti 448 to be about 10-25% faster overall.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=499

 

[MJK4Y]

Thank you!
I guess 448 is the only way to go then. Any particular suggestions for ones which meet my price range?

 

[Gloomy]

https://www.google.com/#q=gtx+560+t...f.,cf.osb&fp=a087c71c6b4eadd&biw=1600&bih=799

Always use google shopping man. Saves a lot of legwork you know? Use it for your other parts as well :thumbsup:

Can't really go wrong with EVGA.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

There are no 6950's available on newegg?

I was going to say for the top end of that price range either a Evga 448 FTW or 6950 Toxic...

I'd suggest overclocking though, save some money and get the same or better performance. It's pretty simple, and worth it :thumbsup:

 

[MJK4Y]

Any particular thoughts on this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130758

Just a bit above what I would've planned on spending, but if anyone feels particularly strongly about this card, I'd be willing to overlook that.
Seems to be decent about temperature, and I hadn't planned on overclocking anyway.
I see that it is PCIe 2.0. Would THAT make a big difference, versus a PCI 3.0 card?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Neg, go for a 570 instead and overclock it.

PCI 3.0 vs 2.0 is meaningless, video cards just aren't fast enough to take advantage of the extra bandwidth 3.0 provides.

Edit: I should say too with Nvidia possibly releasing new cards based on Kepler soonish possibly you should look into the EVGA setup program. It would allow you to upgrade to a new card at cost difference (say you pay $250 and a card you like comes out at $300, you'd pay $50 for it in an exchange).

Something to keep in mind, since outside the 7950/70 everything else is being replaced within the next several months (hopefully baring delays).

 

[superjim]

For $300 you're in 6970 territory and also the 7870 due out next week. It will be some time before GPUs saturate a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, so in short PCIe 2.0 x16 is plenty for modern GPUs. If you're willing to spend $300, wait until March 6th and see what the 7870 brings. Chances are it will be better than anything within $50 of $300.