Graphics card upgrade

Dawelio

Active member
Hey guys,

So I'm rebuilding my PC in the Corsair 380T. I currently have an old Sapphire HD6950 in there and was wondering what GPU would be a good upgrade?... Also, the color theme is black and blue.

Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X (black and blue)
NVIDIA GTX 780Ti
NVIDIA GTX 970

Also, do you have any links to any nice sales that is on one of these cards at the moment?, blower style coolers preferbly... I live in Sweden, but don't mind an english site though.
Also, my PSU is an 650W FYI... would I need to upgrade to an 750W?...

Thanks and Merry Christmas! :)
Chrazey
 
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First, Your 650w PSU will be fine, People tend to over exaggerate PSU requirements, Now as for the GPU, Personally I'd go for the 970 as it's the best option when it comes to performance vs cost and can be easily overclocked to get even more free performance, Not forgetting to mention it's Maxwell so draws less power and creates less heat than the 780 Ti and 290 :)
 
First, Your 650w PSU will be fine, People tend to over exaggerate PSU requirements, Now as for the GPU, Personally I'd go for the 970 as it's the best option when it comes to performance vs cost and can be easily overclocked to get even more free performance, Not forgetting to mention it's Maxwell so draws less power and creates less heat than the 780 Ti and 290 :)

Thanks for the reply Dice, as always! :)
And thanks for clarifying that regarding my PSU... I was just unsure as on that website (Komplett.se) it says on the technical specifications that a 750W PSU is recommended, that's why I was unsure and wanted to ask.

Now, I've found this GPU which is on a sale at the moment... although have no experience etc with Gainward or any GeForce card/manufacturer for that matter.
For the past 3 years I've used my current 6950 which my then school gave me and before that I had an old GeForce G100.

What do you think about these ones then or do you have any other recommendation?... is the "normal" grey/titanium looking blower style cooler with a see through window over the heatsink better than this?:

https://www.komplett.se/gainward-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-physx-cuda/825431

https://www.komplett.se/msi-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-physx-cuda/824864

Thanks again!
 
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Thanks for the reply Dice, as always! :)
And thanks for clarifying that regarding my PSU... I was just unsure as on that website (Komplett.se) it says on the technical specifications that a 750W PSU is recommended, that's why I was unsure and wanted to ask.

Now, I've found this GPU which is on a sale at the moment... although have no experience etc with Gainward or any GeForce card/manufacturer for that matter.
For the past 3 years I've used my current 6950 which my then school gave me and before that I had an old GeForce G100.

What do you think about these ones then or do you have any other recommendation?... is the "normal" grey/titanium looking blower style cooler with a see through window over the heatsink better than this?:

https://www.komplett.se/gainward-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-physx-cuda/825431

https://www.komplett.se/msi-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-physx-cuda/824864

Thanks again!

The Titanium looking 970 is slightly better when it comes to temperatures as it made completely out of metal compared to the plastic shroud on the ones you linked but the temp difference is only going to be a few degrees at best, General performance will be exactly the same :)
 
The Titanium looking 970 is slightly better when it comes to temperatures as it made completely out of metal compared to the plastic shroud on the ones you linked but the temp difference is only going to be a few degrees at best, General performance will be exactly the same :)

Okay... yeah, personally I think that the titanium one looks way better, although the ones I've managed to find on Swedish sites cost about £100-£200 more than those cards I linked.
And I'm pretty certain that it will be a bit more quiet or am I wrong here?.
Also, when you say "few degrees at best", what are we talking about here exactly?, 2-5 degress or more?...

Lastly, since I have the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard and an i7 2600K, will the PCI-E Gen 3.0 be utilized with an 970? or will it run on Gen 2.0?...
 
Okay... yeah, personally I think that the titanium one looks way better, although the ones I've managed to find on Swedish sites cost about £100-£200 more than those cards I linked.
And I'm pretty certain that it will be a bit more quiet or am I wrong here?.
Also, when you say "few degrees at best", what are we talking about here exactly?, 2-5 degress or more?...

Lastly, since I have the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard and an i7 2600K, will the PCI-E Gen 3.0 be utilized with an 970? or will it run on Gen 2.0?...

It should run ever so slightly quieter than the plastic ones and the temp will be in the area of 5'c based off of my own experience with the KFA2 and reference 780's.

And no gen 3.0 will be not be utilized on your board due to the 2600k, You need a 3770K or greater AFAIK, But your board does support 3.0.
 
It should run ever so slightly quieter than the plastic ones and the temp will be in the area of 5'c based off of my own experience with the KFA2 and reference 780's.

And no gen 3.0 will be not be utilized on your board due to the 2600k, You need a 3770K or greater AFAIK, But your board does support 3.0.

So by that "it should run ever so slightly quieter than the plastic ones", it basically isn't that much noticeable in other words? or have I gotten that part incorrect?...

Ahhh shite... that's what I was thinking. But though, due to Gen 3.0 won't be utilized to due CPU limitations, will there be any "huge/big" performance differences in terms of Gen 2 and Gen 3 if I would get an 970?...
 
So by that "it should run ever so slightly quieter than the plastic ones", it basically isn't that much noticeable in other words? or have I gotten that part incorrect?...

Ahhh shite... that's what I was thinking. But though, due to Gen 3.0 won't be utilized to due CPU limitations, will there be any "huge/big" performance differences in terms of Gen 2 and Gen 3 if I would get an 970?...

Yep you got it right and I shouldn't think so but IF and I do mean IF you can get a 3770K for very cheap then I'd recommend it just to be on the safe side.
 
Yep you got it right and I shouldn't think so but IF and I do mean IF you can get a 3770K for very cheap then I'd recommend it just to be on the safe side.

Cool cool... and yeah, that's what I have been thinking as well. If I spot it on a sale or so, I will try and grab it, just for the "safe side" etc. But as of now, ~£300 is not worth the Gen 3.0 in my opinion.
 
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