Finding a good (and affordable) graphics card

Ok I'm SO confused here.

By the time when I get the GTX 750 or 970 series, will it impact my i3 processor? 'Cause I only have a i3 processor quad-core w/64-bit, I should be FLYING with this. Depending on the requirements, It might require me to upgrade my power supply and/or ram (4GB at this time).
 
mikey186 said:
Ok I'm SO confused here.

By the time when I get the GTX 750 or 970 series, will it impact my i3 processor? 'Cause I only have a i3 processor quad-core w/64-bit, I should be FLYING with this. Depending on the requirements, It might require me to upgrade my power supply and/or ram (4GB at this time).
Click to expand...

What we're trying to say is that a Geforce GTX 750 is probably the best option now because it's affordable, has low power requirements and won't be bottlenecked by your DUAL CORE i3 (Must this be pointed out again?). A GTX 970 is the best option overall on the basis of cost to performance ratio, however the cost is significantly greater, as well as requiring a stronger power supply, not only that, but your i3 may bottleneck a card of that calibre simply due to the lack of performance to keep up.

Jack.
 
mikey186 said:
Well I have a ASUS machine. I have a Essentio CM6730. Does it count? I mean still others (mostly Trainz users) say that Raedeon has issues. I have a intel i3 3.30Ghz w/4GB of ram. Most it can take is 8
Click to expand...




The only references I can see to an ASUS Essentio CM6730 speak of an i5 CPU and a 300 watt power supply. The GeForce GTX 750 Ti would work. The GTX970 recommends a 500 watt power supply. It's TDP is 145W which might be less than your existing card.

It might be worthwhile running belarc from belarc.com to see what it finds for your CPU etc.

Cheerio John
 
Don't think so

55HkI18.jpg


I have a i3 and supposedly I could have a GTX 750ti on a i3. I don't have a i5
 
You can also use the older 6th or 5th generation GTX cards as another option. Some examples of 6th generation GTX cards would be the 660Ti, 650Ti Boost, 650Ti and 650. Some examples of 5th generation GTX cards would be the GTX 560Ti and GTX 550Ti. Those GPU's are all somewhere between $100 and $200. I think they are good performing cards but one of the drawbacks to the 5th and 6th generation GTX cards is that they don't have the Maxwell Architecture.
 
malikrthr said:
You can also use the older 6th or 5th generation GTX cards as another option. Some examples of 6th generation GTX cards would be the 660Ti, 650Ti Boost, 650Ti and 650. Some examples of 5th generation GTX cards would be the GTX 560Ti and GTX 550Ti. Those GPU's are all somewhere between $100 and $200. I think they are good performing cards but one of the drawbacks to the 5th and 6th generation GTX cards is that they don't have the Maxwell Architecture.
Click to expand...

Which in simple terms means you probably don't have enough juice from the power supply for anything other than a GTX 750ti.

The big question is is it enough, it probably is but I wouldn't like to definitely say.

Cheerio John
 
ok.....seems a GTX 750Ti it is then. I found a perfect one from amazon at a cheaper price http://amzn.to/1xexPvN

And I would say a power upgrade and........if you can, can you read how much Volts is in that supply? there's too many numbers I can't find the one I have to look for.
Zgerm6f.jpg
 
Your supply is listed at 313.9 Watts (look just below the bright reflection spot) which may be a little low even with the 750ti, which is a good choice and performs well with T:ANE. I am running a 500 Watt PSU which is possibly somewhat lower than I should have.

Peter
 
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I thought so, I looked at the official nVidia website of the card and the minimum power for the system is 300W, looks good enough I guess?
 
Mikey

Don't forget your PSU has to run your CPU, your hard drives and memory as well as the GPU. The NVidea figure would be the lowest value they could get with a bare-bones computer.

Peter
 
According to the NewEgg calculator, my supply should be 895 Watts whereas I am running a 500 Watt unit. perhaps my Antec full tower case is better ventilated.

Peter
 
I looked at the calculator, and apparently, it showed that the recommended is 236W. I might be wrong, because I don't know if I have a High-end motherboard or a regular motherboard. And I don't know what type my hard drive is.
 
Mikey

That seems low. I entered the following:-

CPU AMD FX 6 core Black
Regular motherboard
GeForce GTX 750 Ti
16 gb DDR3 memory
DVD RW
5400 rpm drives 2

I didn't include 2 SSD drives and my CPU is 8 core not 6

That lot came to just over 900 Watts.

What did you enter?

Peter
 
Mikey

I have also tried 'Power Supply Calculator.net'. The same entries give me a recommended PSU of 563 Watts which seems to be a more accurate calculation.

Peter
 
The GTX 750 Ti itself only draws 68 watts, peak load, according to this Tom's Hardware article. I have a GTX 650 Ti, which draws ~110 watt (peak,) in a system with slightly overclocked CPU, two HDs and an SD, that's powered by a Antec 450w power supply with no problems after several years of use, although the power supply is probably "conservatively rated" and I do use a bus-powered USB hub for all my USB devices.
 
Ok, I looked at the caculation and it's still giving me 2xxW. It still doesent help me if I should upgrade or so. If you look on the last page of this thread at the bottom, there's a picture of my PSU. I tried putting in my specs as shown on http://www.sysprofile.de/id101510 as there are some fields in which I cannot understand (such as CPU Overclocking/VCore) and I can't tell of my Hard drive model (which is a WDC WD15EARX-22PASB0 ATA Device)
 
mikey186 said:
Ok, I looked at the caculation and it's still giving me 2xxW. It still doesent help me if I should upgrade or so. If you look on the last page of this thread at the bottom, there's a picture of my PSU. I tried putting in my specs as shown on http://www.sysprofile.de/id101510 as there are some fields in which I cannot understand (such as CPU Overclocking/VCore) and I can't tell of my Hard drive model (which is a WDC WD15EARX-22PASB0 ATA Device)
Click to expand...

Your power supply should be fine with the GTX 750 ti, ASUS generally don't skimp but if you like nightmares having a read through Tomshardware when they tested power supplies and what they found might be interesting. What's printed on the label wasn't always what it was.

Cheerio John
 
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