New replacement needed!

[ferdinandalbert]

Hey guys,

Specs:

i7-920 @ 2.67ghz (stock)
8gb ram
Asus p6t Deluxe V2
evga GTX 275 896mb (2x)
corsair tx850w

I want to get a new Graphics card sinds there are some pretty awsome games coming out! What would be a nice card for around 300 Dollar/Euro (almost the same currency) I got 2 GTX 275's. I read some good and not so good things about the 660TI or 660 They seem to be good for the price, but is it worth it? If not what would be a nice card to start with? Will be buying 1 card first and later a second for SLI. Thanks in advance!

 

[Keromyaou]

I think that you should overclock your cpu a bit (3.6-3.8GHz). if you can afford, gtx670 is a better option than gtx 660ti/gtx660 if you game at 1080p.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

7950 oc

 

[Eureka]

275 SLI should sit with the GTX 660 and 7870... just a tad slower and very VRAM limited.

I would look, at minimum, a GTX 670 or 7950. Depending on which one is cheaper, they are pretty close in performance. If you really want to multi-card off the bat, the 670 will give you an easier time in doing it, but the 7950 should scale better with higher VRAM.

660 TI or 660, you'd be looking at a sidegrade in terms of performance, really. A slight upgrade in all regards but not enough for the entry price.

I would say look at 7970, 680, or better if the price is reasonable enough. You are already rocking a pretty strong system, if you want a great upgrade I would recommend going to top-end cards.

EDIT: Also, as Keromyaou said, you should probably overclock that CPU. Your mins are probably hurting a bit from that.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

IMO 275 sli would be slower than a single 6970 in today's games. At least far worse as an experience. A 7870 isn't a bad jump once oced high, but a 7950 fits your budget.

 

[ferdinandalbert]

What do you mean with gaming on 1080p? I have and still having a verry good time with gtx275 I can play all games, oke maybe not on high settings but still, I play battlefield 3 on medium.

However I dont like the directx 10 on it, like crysis you NEED dx11 so I cant even play it, and there will be more games like that in the future.

Problem is.. the 680 are right away more expensive.. I can get SLI 660TI in like 2/3 months, they are 270,- now, and the cheapest 680 is 444,- (670 cheapest 350).

Ow yes and how do I overclock my CPU? Do I need other cooling after I do that?

 

[Eureka]

What do you mean with gaming on 1080p? I have and still having a verry good time with gtx275 I can play all games, oke maybe not on high settings but still, I play battlefield 3 on medium.

However I dont like the directx 10 on it, like crysis you NEED dx11 so I cant even play it, and there will be more games like that in the future.

Problem is.. the 680 are right away more expensive.. I can get SLI 660TI in like 2/3 months, they are 270,- now, and the cheapest 680 is 444,- (670 cheapest 350).

Ow yes and how do I overclock my CPU? Do I need other cooling after I do that?

1080p... what is your screen resolution? At 1920x1080 = 1080p.

With those prices, and if only nvidia over AMD, 670 all the way. Are you in the US? 670s will drop to around or below 300 occasionally, keep an eye in the Hot Deals forums or on slickdeals.

As for overclocking the CPU... look up overclocking the 920 (or any CPU from that era). There are probably 20 different guides on how to do it. Too much explanation for me to type up right now, but the idea is to just up the multiplier in the motherboard BIOS, and adjust voltage and other settings to stabilize it.

If you're running stock cooling, you will probably be heat limited, but if you have any kind of 120mm cooler, you'll probably hit the stability wall before you hit the heat limit.

 

[Keromyaou]

If you play at higher resolution display, it requires more gpu power. 1080p means 1920x1080 resolution. If you play at 1680x1050, you need 15% less gpu power compared with 1080p. I you play at 2560x1440, you need 77% more gpu power compared with 1080p. At the moment if you want to play games at 1080p comfortably, you need gtx670/HD7950 level's gpu power at least. You probably manage to play most of games fine at 1080p with gtx660Ti. But I would not recommend it because the future game titles surely require more gpu power. gtx660Ti-SLI is fine. But as somebody said, gtx660Ti is a cut-down version of gtx670/680. Personally I prefer one gtx670 to gtx660Ti-SLI. You could SLI gtx670 later when the price goes down.

For overclocking cpu, you had better replace your default cpu cooler with a better one. My second rig runs with i7-920 at 4.0GHz with Coolermaster's V8 cooler. Since my 920 is a cherry-picked one, it can go up to 4.3-4.4GHz with this air cooler. But most of i7-920 should be able to be overclocked to 3.8GHz with an appropriate cpu cooler.

 

[ferdinandalbert]

My resolution is 1600x900.
Im from the Netherlands so it's euro's here,
I dont like to buy second hand, but ofcourse maybe there are some good deals, I think I might wait for a good price on the 670 then.

Im looking for a watercooler for my CPU they aint that expensive, yea already looked up some info on the overclocking.

 

[Eureka]

At 900p, save up for a 670 and don't look back. I can't imagine any game that will fully stress out the 670 at 900p in the next year. You might have issues running 60fps in all situations but usually it's just AA settings you'll have to turn down.

Crysis 3 will give you trouble in the first level but after that you should be able to max out all settings and stay above 30 FPS, if your CPU is up to it.