Video Card Recommendation for New Build

[rakshas]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core


II. Current Graphics Card: None, new build


III. Display Resolution: One 1920 x 1080 TN 120 HZ panel and one 1920 x 1080 IPS. If I can't get close to utilizing the 120 hz TN due to low FPS, I'll might just go with one 2560 x 1600 IPS & one 1920 x 1080 IPS OR two 1920 x 1080 IPS.


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications: Haven't decided yet, I'll buy one based on my needs.


V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent): Corsair 600T, I wouldn't mind it being quiet-oriented


Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option. No real price ceiling but I'd rather not buy a GTX 690. USD. No retailer preferences other than that it be an online retailer. No need for rebates, discount, or sales.


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)? EVGA, ASUS, MSI preferably, but open to other manufacturers


III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI? For now, just one card. Next year I'll Crossfire/SLI.


IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs? GTX 670 and 680, Radeon 7970


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? Games (off the top of my head): Guild Wars 2, Dead Space Series, Shogun 2 Total War, Dark Souls PC Port, Skyrim. Desired Detail: Max/Ultra, as close to 120 fps as possible to utilize a 120hz TN panel


VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase? Not really.


Additional Notes Basically I want high FPS while playing games on a 120hz TN panel, but if I can't get reasonably close to 120hz on the games I want to play, I'd rather just go IPS and easily cap out the 60hz. If I go that route, I'm considering 2560 x 1600 but I find that monitor size to be a little too big for my usual gaming setup.

Feel free to add any details that you feel were not covered within this template!

 

[RussianSensation]

rakshas, Welcome to AnandTech!!

120 FPS is not going to happen at 1080P with a single GTX670 in most of those games.

- If you plan on getting 2 cards down the line and $ isn't that big of a deal, I'd go with the GTX670 Direct CUII since SLI seems to have better driver support and smoother performance than Crossfire and those Direct CUII cards are very very quiet (Noise level video of various 670 cards)

- If you plan on getting a 2560x1600, I'd lean more towards the HD7950 OCed or HD7970. 3GB of VRAM and more memory bandwidth means they will be faster most of the time at higher resolutions.

- If you plan on using 120Hz, I believe NV is the way to go since I've been reading some users having problems getting that to work on their 7900 series cards (maybe user error?)

Having said that, in terms of value MSI TwinFrozr HD7950 at $310 now and its great overclocking headroom make it a solid option. Considering 2 of such cards are just $120-130 more than a single MSI TwinFrozr GTX680, the value here is staggering, especially once they are overclocked.

So in conclusion:
With overclocking, aftermarket HD7950 is the best value for the $.
If you don't plan on overclocking, will get a 1080P screen, grab the 670 (my #1 choice is the Asus Direct CUII, or if you want the heat exhausted from your case, EVGA FTW is good).
If you don't plan on overclocking, will get a 1600P screen, grab an HD7970 such as this one.

Note: Performance in Guild Wars 2 is heavily favouring GTX670/680 series right now. AMD may improve their GPU utilization and performance with drivers, but GTX670/680 are doing great in Beta right now. If you plan on playing this game a lot, I'd go for the Kepler card since the performance is already guaranteed to be good.

 

[rakshas]

Thanks for the reply. So if I understand correctly, with a single card setup, I will not be able to reach 100+ fps on a 670/680/7970? I would absolutely need to SLI/Crossfire?

If that is the case, I will probably just get a single card and dual screen two 1920 x 1080 60hz IPS for now and when I decide to SLI/Crossfire, I'll get the 120 hz TN panel and double up on the card.

 

[lehtv]

It will achieve 100+ fps in many games, just not the demanding ones at high/ultra settings. The games you listed would need 670 SLI for 100+ fps at Ultra.

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks for the reply. So if I understand correctly, with a single card setup, I will not be able to reach 100+ fps on a 670/680/7970? I would absolutely need to SLI/Crossfire?

Not in the games you listed, especially not in Shogun 2, Guild Wars 2 or SKYRIM with mods. If you plan on using a single GTX670 on 2x1080P screens, you won't even get 60 fps in some of those games on max/ultra.