GTX 500 series and brands

[mrDMxtreme]

i'm finally gonna get to building my rig in just a couple of weeks, and i'm wasting a lot of time online looking and thinking of different parts, but thats not what i would like to ask of you guys right now.

Well the plan is to build a rig, that in by the end of the year i can add 3screens too. so at first i was thinking i'd just get a 6970 and be done with it... but we all know that the 500 series just that little bit better

so i will be buying 1 card now, and sli-ing it later on (after saving enough money to buy the third screen+better psu+the other card

)

i am wondering between the 570 and the 580... so you might wanna know, i'm not a heavy gamer, i just want the 3 screens for school (i'm going into software eng, and i just love working with more monitors, seems to make things easier IMO) BUT on the weekends i do like to play some BF and i'm definitely getting BF3 when it come out, so i need a card that will play it on 3 1080p screens with relatively high settings (not necessarily the max settings)

sorry if i'm a little confusing

lastly i would like to ask about some brands i have seen but don't have any personal experience with, for example

PNY <-- good or bad?

Zotac <-- good or bad?

and if those are not recommended

which would you go for; EVGA or Asus or MSI or ?

assume the same cooler, so stock GTX 570/580 cooler

would appreciate all the personal experiences with anything i've mentioned,

thanks guys

 

[hmmblah]

If they are all reference, they will be very similar. You can't go wrong with any of those brands. They will have varying warranties and accessories. I'd personally get a non-reference cooler like on the MSI or ASUS cards. It will be much quieter and run cooler.

Are you running an HX650 psu? I wouldn't feel comfortable running 570 or 580 SLI on that. As for which card to get...I'd get the fastest you can afford. Keep in mind if you plan on SLI for later, you should plan on a beefier PSU as well. I'd go with an 800w+ quality PSU.

 

[Lollipop]

If you are gonna buy a new PSU for running sli i would suggest wait a month so you don't waste money on a psu you are going to use 5 months

I would go MSI twin frozr III unless you want to watercool and get the 570

 

[mrDMxtreme]

Thanks for the fast replies,

You guys are thinking along the lines that I was thinking.

As for the PSU, I have the hx 650 and I'll be using that for as long as I have the single card, and when I sli for triple display I would also go for a hx850 or maybe ax850

As for the coolers, the non reference one are pretty pricey :S or triple slot (which I don't really like, I mean they look good, but 6 slots on ur mobo gone

there's no room for anything else.

Also if the cards get 'loud' I can't live with it, I don't care as long as there is performance and low temp... I'm not that picky when it comes to the noise when the rig is under load, which it won't be unless I game, and then I'll have the sound from the game. As I look at it, it really should get loud when I'm studying/doing home work

As for the brands, if they are all good I'll pick and choose based on colors and graphics

Thanks for the help,

Anyone else's opinion is also welcomed, so feel free to add in ur own 2cents

 

[S_I_N]

570 ur 650 will be ok 580 I'd go 750watt or higher. plus also depends on what else is in the rig.

As far as brands I say evga all the way. Simple to register card and amazing customer service as well. you even have an option to pay a small fee at time of registration to give you a they ship first option for a replacement should ya ever need it. Another bonus is thier step-up program. Say you buy the 570 and decide within 90days of buying it damn I wish I had gotten the 580 instead. Well they got ya covered. Simply pay the difference between what you actually paid for ur card and the price of the new one and whalla you have the 580. I did it with my 560Ti only paid 79$ shipped to get my 570

they gave me full price I paid for my 560Ti 279$.

 

[sheroo]

If its just 3 monitors that you want and a bit of gaming at 5760 * 1080 then I would just get a non reference 6950 like the Sapphire flex edition. You'll be able to run it off your existing psu, it will be a lot quieter than the reference card as it doesn't use that crappy radial fan. The flex edition also allows you to run 3 dvi monitors without an active display port adapter. The green team may have the better gpu's at the moment, but for the occasional game an sli setup is a bit overkill imho.

 

[Icekube]

If it's only ref' cards your looking at I'd always go Evga for the 10 year warrenty and their customer support

 

[Lexxikonn]

If it was me, I would go for the EVGA GTX 570... you get the best balance of price and performance. Really pleased with mine!

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

i'm finally gonna get to building my rig in just a couple of weeks, and i'm wasting a lot of time online looking and thinking of different parts, but thats not what i would like to ask of you guys right now.

Well the plan is to build a rig, that in by the end of the year i can add 3screens too. so at first i was thinking i'd just get a 6970 and be done with it... but we all know that the 500 series just that little bit better

so i will be buying 1 card now, and sli-ing it later on (after saving enough money to buy the third screen+better psu+the other card

)

i am wondering between the 570 and the 580... so you might wanna know, i'm not a heavy gamer, i just want the 3 screens for school (i'm going into software eng, and i just love working with more monitors, seems to make things easier IMO) BUT on the weekends i do like to play some BF and i'm definitely getting BF3 when it come out, so i need a card that will play it on 3 1080p screens with relatively high settings (not necessarily the max settings)

sorry if i'm a little confusing

lastly i would like to ask about some brands i have seen but don't have any personal experience with, for example

PNY <-- good or bad?

Zotac <-- good or bad?

and if those are not recommended

which would you go for; EVGA or Asus or MSI or ?

assume the same cooler, so stock GTX 570/580 cooler

would appreciate all the personal experiences with anything i've mentioned,

thanks guys

Asus or MSI.

No experience with Zotac and i've only ever used a 2GB PNY thumb drive

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

If its just 3 monitors that you want and a bit of gaming at 5760 * 1080 then I would just get a non reference 6950 like the Sapphire flex edition. You'll be able to run it off your existing psu, it will be a lot quieter than the reference card as it doesn't use that crappy radial fan. The flex edition also allows you to run 3 dvi monitors without an active display port adapter. The green team may have the better gpu's at the moment, but for the occasional game an sli setup is a bit overkill imho.

BF3 will slaughter that, need something a bit beefier

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Thanks for the fast replies,

You guys are thinking along the lines that I was thinking.

As for the PSU, I have the hx 650 and I'll be using that for as long as I have the single card, and when I sli for triple display I would also go for a hx850 or maybe ax850

As for the coolers, the non reference one are pretty pricey :S or triple slot (which I don't really like, I mean they look good, but 6 slots on ur mobo gone

there's no room for anything else.

Also if the cards get 'loud' I can't live with it, I don't care as long as there is performance and low temp... I'm not that picky when it comes to the noise when the rig is under load, which it won't be unless I game, and then I'll have the sound from the game. As I look at it, it really should get loud when I'm studying/doing home work

As for the brands, if they are all good I'll pick and choose based on colors and graphics

Thanks for the help,

Anyone else's opinion is also welcomed, so feel free to add in ur own 2cents

Get the highest wattage PSU with the most connections you can afford - less upgrading in future

 

[mrDMxtreme]

I'm thinking, get a z68 board (and use on board graphics) and just save up the money and then buy a GTX 590 in a month or two ....

What do u guys think? I mean it'll run 3 screens, it'll play games, it'll looks the dog danglies

and it'll last a long time, and did I mention how nice it'll look

I got a question, what is the min/recommend PSU wattage for a 590?

 

[S_I_N]

Minimum 700W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 50A) so 850 lol to keep psu under the 80% load

 

[Rastalovich]

Refreshed meaning, we changed the cooler and revision of the gpu, and took some memory away in some cases.

Essentially the same performance as the 400 series we were "led to hate" by certain sections of the media(apart from 580+).

 

[Scarey]

Looking at a 580 GTX myself. Would the Corsair AX850W PSU be OK if I wanted to buy a 2nd card in the future and SLI them? Also, which 580 card would be best for watercooling? Would a model that can increase the voltage higher than software be advantages, seeing the card will be cooled well under water?

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Looking at a 580 GTX myself. Would the Corsair AX850W PSU be OK if I wanted to buy a 2nd card in the future and SLI them? Also, which 580 card would be best for watercooling? Would a model that can increase the voltage higher than software be advantages, seeing the card will be cooled well under water?

You might be able to take voltage out of default perameters by using the unofficial OCing in Afterburner