What GPU if you had to pick ONE and why?

[djack77]

Hey all,

Im just speccing up a new GPU for my system. I have narrowed it down to about 4 units im interested in. And I would value some of your input in my selections.

They are all within a similar price range, the Gigabyte being the cheapest by about £30 and the new Radeon the most expensive by about £40.

KFA2 Geforce GTX 780Ti HOF 3072MB GDDR5 - £559

Inno3D GeForce GTX 780Ti iChill OC 3072MB GDDR5 - £559

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780Ti WindForce 3x OC 3072MB GDDR5 - £529

Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X OC 8192MB GDDR5 - £599

Many thanks

[Sparky83]

Ok, this will be a long post and it is a tiny bit offtopic, but... 😛
As promised, a suggestion that is based on your wishes. I always tend to make tradeoffs between quality and good price when necessary.

So here is a system with a typical Intel i7 4770K, the GTX 780 Ti (DirectCU II because I like it), 16 GB RAM and a soundcard.

The hard drive is a standard Seagate Desktop HDD I used to buy these a lot. The SSD is the one I would choose myself, have read good things about it. I trust in be quiet PSUs for their quality, 650 Watt should be enough to be able to extend the RAM and overclock the CPU.
The ASUS Z87-Pro is a high quality Mainboard. For the CPU I have chosen a tower cooler for a reasonable price. The CoolerMaster CM 690 III has a neat design and should be just right for a system of such quality.

Still there are ways to reduce the price. First of all, for gaming the Intel i5 is the better choice. Let me quote what jaguarskx at tomshardware had to say:

The Core i5 is generally considered better for games because the Core i7's Hyper Threading (HT) technology doesn't really help much that much with game performance or it lowers game performance by a marginal amount 1% - 2% decrease. Nothing the is visually noticeable.

In essence, you are paying more for the i7 with HT and not gaining any performance increase when it comes to games

So you will be better off with a Core i5 in games. If you need hyperthreading (maybe in video editing or rendering 3D Models in 3ds Max or Maya or whatever) then hyperthreading might be good.
Todays onboard sound is quite okay and an extra soundcard can be expensive, so this is something I'd like to spare.
Because I don't overclock my CPUs, I am totally satisfied with the cpu fan that comes with the boxed Intel Core i5. And because I don't overclock, I can take the non-K model of the i5, which is cheaper.
I don't need too much of harddisk-space: 2TB are alright.
And the Mainboard from ASUS is superb, but I think that an ASRock will suffice for my needs.
All this brings me to a new suggestion:


So I hope that I didn't forget anything, I am rushing through this a bit. If someone else has corrections on this, please say so...
You should of course ask other people about good choices for components that fit your needs. You will always have some part that can be swapped for another which might be better in a way... good luck.

[hellary]

"Itsinthemind" wrote:

"hellary" wrote:

"Itsinthemind" wrote:
Thank you for your advice Sparky, this is a lot lot cheaper than I have anticipated. I will print it out and take it to the PC shop. I will also enquire about installing Hackintosh, because that could mean I could run all my other existing software on a much more powerful unit. I now also have cash to spare for a decent quality monitor or two.

Unless you're confident messing around with kext files and the inner workings of OSX, don't build a hackintosh. I run one but it's not for the faint of heart. Updates (while usually ok) can break things.

BTW which iMac do you have? If it's a 27" one then you can use it as a display for a gaming pc giving you the best of both worlds.

Yes, I have a 27" iMac (2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 12 GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb - built 2010). Yes, using it as a display would be a big bonus. That was the plan with getting the new MacPro, to save desk space and still have a backup. With regard to the iMac I have the feeling it may be a bit too old for the Oculus Rift. Running the Unigine Valley Benchmark it only does between 20 and 24 fps at the high setting.

The Mac Pros are great and all but cost so much money. Your iMac is a plenty powerful machine with many years of use left in it. Unless you game on it in which case the graphics card will obviously get too slow. Build a gaming PC to use it as a screen and you'll be laughing.

My main computer is a mackintosh with very similar specs to your iMac - i7, 12GB etc. I used to reboot to Windows to game all the time but ended up getting frustrated being so limited with graphics - especially high end multi-gpu cards. In the end, I built a separate gaming computer with similar specs and I use a KVM and I've never looked back. I'll probably replace my hackintosh with a mac mini at some point once they can support three displays and have any non-integrated graphics chip.

[Itsinthemind]

Thanks folks, what you've given me makes a lot of sense. I imagine I will probably discuss the cheaper option with the PC chaps, but wait until July before going shopping for parts. Doubling the iMac as a monitor is a bit of a bonus. So I won't turn the PC into a Mac if it isn't stable and and causes issues and keep the iMac until its time is up. Thanks 🙂

[ThreeEyes]

It's anecdotal, but my experience has been to stay away from the no-name power supplies. I have had a few of them either start out or go flaky after a while and my systems would start to behave erratically, lock up, or just not boot.

I know power supplies aren't sexy, but good quality ones can sometimes save a lot of grief. I only buy premium power supplies now and haven't had a problem with power supplies since.

[Sparky83]

I may be wrong with the assumption, but maybe you are pointing at the choice of the PSU in the upper images?
If this is the case then you shouldn't worry. This is a top brand with high quality parts and very good price/performance values. This specific model is slighty less efficient than other top PSUs but for the price this is alright. I would never hesitate to choose a be quiet PSU.

[cybereality]

I would definitely get a better PSU. Brand is important, but so is the power. At 650W you are just barely getting enough power for the system, and leaving little room for upgrades. For example, if you decided to get another GPU and do SLI you may be left out to dry. I'd say 750W is the minimum. Personally I would get 850W or more just to be safe.

[needsloomis]

Unless you're confident messing around with kext files and the inner workings of OSX, don't build a hackintosh. I run one but it's not for the faint of heart. Updates (while usually ok) can break things.

They can be a real pain, epsecially if you blindly build a gaming system and throw OSX on it. That being said, the community has been making things easier by the day. Also, if you stick to parts that are already available or compatible with macs, apple already did most of the work. When I made mine, the only thing that didn't work out of the box was audio, which I fixed with a cheap soundcard.

[ThreeEyes]

"Sparky83" wrote:
I may be wrong with the assumption, but maybe you are pointing at the choice of the PSU in the upper images?
If this is the case then you shouldn't worry. This is a top brand with high quality parts and very good price/performance values. This specific model is slighty less efficient than other top PSUs but for the price this is alright. I would never hesitate to choose a be quiet PSU.

Hey Sparky,

I wasn't referring to the PSUs in the upper images. Not familiar with them at all. I was only stating that a PSU is no place to compromise - at least in my experience. A lot of people think all a power supply does is supply power, but there is definitely more to it than that. It needs to be clean power with the ability to ride through sags, spikes, and even short drops. It should have some headroom. It should also have a good power factor so it doesn't corrupt the line power for other devices. I would also like to echo Cyber's comment about being rated high enough to stand a bit of system upgrading. If you are going to spend a bit extra on a power supply, why cut it so close that you need to spend it all over again the next time you upgrade?

But I wasn't slighting the choices above at all and thanks for asking as I should have been more clear. I was just saying in general that power supplies are much more important than a lot of people give them credit to be and can even cause problems that can be difficult to troubleshoot and could easily be attributed to other things.

[Sparky83]

No problem, ThreeEyes! Of course you are right, the PSU is often treated like a mere cost factor that has to be kept small.

There would have been no problem if you were referring to the PSU in the examples. I am sure that I have some flaws in the choices that I have not seen. This is why I think that it is important to discuss such things.

And cyberreality is right about the power of the PSU. It should have more room for upgrades. I often neglect this because I don't upgrade much, just adding some RAM.

[DeadlyJoe]

"cybereality" wrote:
I would definitely get a better PSU. Brand is important, but so is the power. At 650W you are just barely getting enough power for the system, and leaving little room for upgrades. For example, if you decided to get another GPU and do SLI you may be left out to dry. I'd say 750W is the minimum. Personally I would get 850W or more just to be safe.

^^
This. And don't skimp on the quality. Get an 80 Plus certified PSU. I recommend 80 Plus Silver, or better. It's amazing how many BSOD's in Windows can be attributed to cheap power supplies.