Help picking a GPU?

whos_dan

Hi guys! I am going to be building a PC soon enough (July hopefully) and I need some advice on the GPU. I am thinking of getting the MSI Gtx 660 TwinFrozr III OC Edition. I am looking to run basically all games at Ultra @ 720p. The thing is I am only looking to play at 720p so is the 660 overkill or just perfect? I have already decided on the rest of my build if it's any help:

Intel Core i5-3470 Box, LGA1155
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, Sockel 1155, mATX
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower
Seasonic S12II-520, 520 Watt

They are the only things that are relevant I think. Help would be much appreciated

SickBoy

If your not getting a k cpu you can save a few € by getting a cheaper motherboard.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

If your not getting a k cpu you can save a few € by getting a cheaper motherboard.

I wanted a cheaper mobo thanks for the advice!

Gbear

Out of curiosity why 720p?

whos_dan

Gbear wrote: »

Out of curiosity why 720p?

Well I'm on a budget so I don't have enough money for a new monitor so I will be using my 32" inch TV

SickBoy

This might not be appealing to you but with the launch of Haswell and Nvidia 700 series your going to see great value on the likes of adverts.ie and eBay for 3rd gen i5 and i7 and Nvidia GeForce 600 / ATI Radeon 7000 series. Just something worth thinking about.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

This might not be appealing to you but with the launch of Haswell and Nvidia 700 series your going to see great value on the likes of adverts.ie and eBay for 3rd gen i5 and i7 and Nvidia 600 / ATI Radeon 7000 series. Just something with thinking about.

I do know that but who knows how long I will be waiting if I do decide to hold off until they release Haswell and the rest of the 700 series because as far as I know there hasn't been any release dates but I may be wrong.

SickBoy

whos_dan wrote: »

I do know that but who knows how long I will be waiting if I do decide to hold off until they release Haswell and the rest of the 700 series because as far as I know there hasn't been any release dates but I may be wrong.

Well you mentioned July in the opening post, I'm sure there will be plenty of choice in the 2nd hand market by then.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

Well you mentioned July in the opening post, I'm sure there will be plenty of choice in the 2nd hand market by then.

Do you reckon they will be much cheaper?

SickBoy

Yeah there will be some looney prices but shop around and I'm sure you'll find a GTX660 and i5-3570k and z77 board for a good price.
always someone who wants the latest and greatest and will sell their current hardware cheap for a quick sale to fund their upgrade.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

Yeah there will be some looney prices but shop around and I'm sure you'll find a GTX660 and i5-3570k and z77 board for a good price.
always someone who wants the latest and greatest and will sell their current hardware cheap for a quick sale to fund their upgrade.

Well in that case I might just buy second hand! And what is your opinion on the GPU?

SickBoy

It's not overkill but it will be weak if you ever decide to update to 1080p or higher resolutions.
If you could pickup Radeon HD 7870 or 7950 you would be better set for future proofing but if you know you'll be sticking to 720p for the next few years then you should be fine.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

It's not overkill but it will be weak if you ever decide to update to 1080p or higher resolutions.
If you could pickup Radeon HD 7870 or 7950 you would be better set for future proofing but if you know you'll be sticking to 720p for the next few years then you should be fine.

Thanks for all the advice! I may be playing for the red team as it seems that they have much better performance for cheaper! Cheers

Gumbi

A 660 isn't bad for 1080p honestly. An AMD card would probably be better bang for buck though (7870).

whos_dan

Gumbi wrote: »

A 660 isn't bad for 1080p honestly. An AMD card would probably be better bang for buck though (7870).

All the reviews I have seen have made the 660 out to be a great 1080p card which is why I thought it was overkill for 720p

SickBoy

whos_dan wrote: »

All the reviews I have seen have seen have made the 660 out to be a great 1080p card which is why I thought it was overkill for 720p

There's more to consider than just resolution though as you said you would like to run your games at ultra settings, this will be doable for 720p but not 1080p especially with the graphically intense releases like Metro Last Light.
So long story short, not overkill but in 12 to 18 months you might need to lower your detail settings to get acceptable frame rates.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

There's more to consider than just resolution though as you said you would like to run your games at ultra settings, this will be doable for 720p but not 1080p especially with the graphically intense releases like Metro Last Light.
So long story short, not overkill but in 12 to 18 months you might need to lower your detail settings to get acceptable frame rates.

I should have phrased what I was saying differently as I know it's not all about the resolution, apologies for that. I think I have my build configured its just a matter of finding the components. I was thinking of maybe just ordering from hardwareversand because its a fixed shipping cost rather than pay loads for shipping all the parts seperately

SickBoy

You're not wrong. It's a perfectly acceptable reason to order the parts new and you'll get warranty and maybe some free games depending on the offers available at the time of ordering.

BloodBath

A 7870xt would be a good card. You can get them for as little as €200. It would be a lot better than a 660 for the same money.

At 720p you really want to be using high levels of AA for a clean picture so having a powerful card isn't overkill.

-Edit- I didn't realise 660 prices had dropped so much. They aren't bad for the price and would be fine for that res.

Changed a couple of parts in your build if you wanted to save a little money. There's only 200mhz difference in the processor speeds. It's not worth €18 extra and this board has all the same features of the z77 except for overclocking. The psu was overkill as well. You would be using 300w max.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3330 Box, LGA1155|€158.61
ASRock B75 Pro3-M, Sockel 1155, mATX|€60.89
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 450W|€49.61
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€288.10

whos_dan

BloodBath wrote: »

A 7870xt would be a good card. You can get them for as little as €200. It would be a lot better than a 660 for the same money.

At 720p you really want to be using high levels of AA for a clean picture so having a powerful card isn't overkill.

-Edit- I didn't realise 660 prices had dropped so much. They aren't bad for the price and would be fine for that res.

Changed a couple of parts in your build if you wanted to save a little money. There's only 200mhz difference in the processor speeds. It's not worth €18 extra and this board has all the same features of the z77 except for overclocking. The psu was overkill as well. You would be using 300w max.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3330 Box, LGA1155|€158.61
ASRock B75 Pro3-M, Sockel 1155, mATX|€60.89
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 450W|€49.61
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€288.10

I was only going for a dearer motherboard because I was under the impression that it was better quality... I'm a bit of a noob at this. Do you think that processor would bottleneck an upgraded GPU in the future?

SickBoy

whos_dan wrote: »

I was only going for a dearer motherboard because I was under the impression that it was better quality... I'm a bit of a noob at this. Do you think that processor would bottleneck an upgraded GPU in the future?

If you get the board from your original post there is an option in the BIOS (really should start calling this the UEFI) called No-K overclock which will allow you to get ~10 - 15% overclock on that CPU if you feel the CPU is becoming a bottleneck. It's not an ideal solution and if you want to go down the route of overclocking maybe you should consider starting out on different components which will allow for more aggressive overclocks.

whos_dan

SickBoy wrote: »

If you get the board from your original post there is an option in the BIOS (really should start calling this the UEFI) called No-K overclock which will allow you to get ~10 - 15% overclock on that CPU if you feel the CPU is becoming a bottleneck. It's not an ideal solution and if you want to go down the route of overclocking maybe you should consider starting out on different components which will allow for more aggressive overclocks.

I really don't think I am ever going to overclock to be perfectly honest so do you think I should get a better CPU?

SickBoy

whos_dan wrote: »

I really don't think I am ever going to overclock to be perfectly honest so do you think I should get a better CPU?

It really comes down to how future proof you want your system to be.
Best thing to do at this stage is take a look at this post and follow the instructions. Once people have an idea of the budget, the requirements of the system and what you currently have and what you need we will be in a better position to answer your questions.
Not that I'm not willing to continue advising in this thread but generally if that template is filled in it will make things much easier.

whos_dan

Filling it in now. Thanks for all your help anyway