Graphics Card Upgrade [Techie Help Please]

Hey guys,

So atm I play the game with a GT630 and get a MASSIVE 22FPS out of the game (11FPS during action lol) and am now in the position where I can upgrade.

RAM-wise I think i am set with 8GB of Corsair Vengeance

and my processor is AMD Phenom II 3.4ghz quad, which i am led to believe is still okay (for a budget build anyway)

But what needs some loving is the graphics card. So here are my options:

GTX 660 at £145

GTX 760 at £171

GTX 680 Twin Frozr This one my friend is going to sell me his (used for 4 months) card for £200

So yes, the obvious choice would be save £150 and get the GTX 680 but not being a knower of graphics cards and computer hardware itself I am wondering if people can tell me if i is worth the extra £30 to get the 760 over the 660 or the extra £55 to get the 680 off my friend.. Like, if all I do is play FFXIV on my PC and don't really buy brand new games will i notice a huge difference between the 660 680 and 760?

my budget is £150 but i can stretch to £200 if it future proofs me.

Thankyou for your help

ps. also does the brand matter? there seems to be alot of different brands with different prices

Asus and EVGA are good brands. Asus runs 20% cooler. Friend of mine just upgraded to an Asus 760 and it runs FFXIV beautifully.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Those are benchmark numbers, so of course take them with a grain of salt. But they will give you a rough estimate where each of those stands.

They'll all perform well with this game. You technically have 2 options for "bang for buck" sort of outlook. The 760 will give you the cheaper option for your current PC. The 680 will be the most beneficial/cheaper option if you're looking to upgrade though. Your Phenom II might bottleneck the potential in the 680, which is why I said the 760 is probably better option for your current setup.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

They'll all perform well with this game. You technically have 2 options for "bang for buck" sort of outlook. The 760 will give you the cheaper option for your current PC. The 680 will be the most beneficial/cheaper option if you're looking to upgrade though. Your Phenom II might bottleneck the potential in the 680, which is why I said the 760 is probably better option for your current setup.

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The GTX 680 and 760 will both reasonably bottleneck with that processor the 660 would be your best bang for buck until you can afford to upgrade your PC.

if you can wait for a bit, nvidia should be releasing their low end maxwell gpu's soon.

I am running an AMD Phenom II X4 955 with an ASUS 7870 (equivalent of the 660) and I think everything greater than this would cause a bottleneck. Sometimes I think I am having one already but it is probably not too big.

Regarding the brand I can recommend ASUS too. With user-defined settings and a 30fps-limit it runs with only 44-45ºC on 30% fan speed. When I set the limit to 60fps then it only hits ~50ºC and the speed goes up to 33-36%. My old 6850 used to have a standard heat of 55ºC while I wasn't even playing a game (this one was from PowerColor).

ASUS 660

Bought mine in March 2013 for 206€ (two free Games included, aww yeah!) and now it's available for 162€ ;_;

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Originally Posted by HeavensHell

The GTX 680 and 760 will both reasonably bottleneck with that processor the 660 would be your best bang for buck until you can afford to upgrade your PC.

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so my processor will effect the gpu? how so and in what ways?

thankyou for all the help.. i can put things together and i can kiiiinda understand whats good and whats bad but i am no where near informed in all the technical tid bits

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Originally Posted by DenzelTaru

so my processor will effect the gpu? how so and in what ways?

thankyou for all the help.. i can put things together and i can kiiiinda understand whats good and whats bad but i am no where near informed in all the technical tid bits

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MMO performance is affected by both the CPU and GPU, so maximum performance will be limited (i.e. bottleneck) by the weaker of the two.

You should also make sure your PSU is strong enough and has the right/enough connectors (my card uses 2 6-pin connectors while my old one only needed one). Afaik the ASUS cards need around 140-175W.
Oh and maybe if your case is big enough, those cards tend to be long now x.x

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Originally Posted by Mitski

MMO performance is affected by both the CPU and GPU, so maximum performance will be limited (i.e. bottleneck) by the weaker of the two.

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This is generally correct, but not entirely accurate.

Easiest way to kind of look at it is that the CPU is the brains of the outfit (the computer). Everything else is the support. If the CPU is not powerful enough to support such advanced technology that something like a high-end GPU can provide, the CPU will only take what it can handle (meaning wasted power from the GPU). Likewise, if you have a powerful CPU, but a low-end GPU, your CPU can only do so much with the tools available to use, especially when it's regarding things that it isn't exclusively designed for (like graphics processing). That really isn't 100% accurate neither, in hindsight, but it's definitely a factor of one relying more on the other, than it being so much of an equal outlook.

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Originally Posted by Coris

You should also make sure your PSU is strong enough and has the right/enough connectors (my card uses 2 6-pin connectors while my old one only needed one). Afaik the ASUS cards need around 140-175W.
Oh and maybe if your case is big enough, those cards tend to be long now x.x

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This too lol.

so in summarty.. the GTX 680 will be a complete waste of money because of my CPU (which i don't plan to upgrade)

Someone said go for the 660.. what about the 760? and is that make that i linked reliable? MSI?

You might want to consider waiting for the maxwell cards before dropping money. They are supposedly going to have a processor onboard to off load work done on the CPU. Of course we will have to wait and see, but if you can wait, it may help with your scenario.

when are they expected?