What would be the ideal graphics card

JamboMac

So built a desktop probably 4/5 years ago when peats still existed, but bought from komplett and elara.

I7-2700k
motherboard intel extreme DZ68BC
16GB DDR3

I always wanted to improve on the built in graphics capability, but have obviously been quite lazy. Not a predominant gamer and would use it for things like maya and unity in general if this helps.

Kicking myself slightly coz komplett had a gtx 980 cheap before christmas but then dissapeared for good.

K.O.Kiki

IIRC for productivity/rendering, you'd want to upgrade the CPU a few generations - Gamers Nexus put up a video/post that showed huge improvements in render times going from 2700k to 4790/6700/7700

Of course this would also mean new motherboard and/or RAM.

If it's only gaming performance, the 2700k isn't a bottleneck.

Samuel T. Cogley

A cheap 980ti secondhand.

2600K would bottleneck it, but only slightly.

TerrorFirmer

In games the 2600K and 980Ti are a fine match (especially if you overclock the 2600K but at stock speed it's still quite good) but as K.O rightly pointed out in other uses it will show it's age much more. It really depends on what you're hoping to achieve from the upgrade. I don't think 2nd hand GTX980Ti's are a great investment though as they still sell for close enough to a new GTX1070 which is a better, newer, less power hungry card.

I would say maybe a GTX1060 6GB at around €250+ would be a good choice if you want a good balance between running the latest games at very high quality settings and cost. Also, an overclock to around 4.2Ghz will go a decent way on that 2600K as well. It should be easy on that board assuming you got a decent cooler at the time as well.

At the lower end of the spectrum a GTX1050Ti can be had for around €160 and it's quite good too for all the latest games at 1080p high-ish settings, which might be enough for you.

There are AMD RX cards too, and of these the RX470 4GB is just about the best value card in the range and much better than the GTX1050Ti, but there are issues on some older chipsets and the RX cards, which is why I don't recommend them for those on older sockets. It's not to say that it won't work in your case, but there are definitely issues of a) not working and b) working but not correctly/as they should.

JamboMac

Was looking at possibly this in the newer cards.
https://www.amazon.de/MSI-GTX-1070-8G-V330-001R/dp/B01GRCYPE6/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485369510&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+1070

Looks like it should be fairly good, thanks for the advice.

Venom

JamboMac wrote: »

Was looking at possibly this in the newer cards.
https://www.amazon.de/MSI-GTX-1070-8G-V330-001R/dp/B01GRCYPE6/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485369510&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+1070

Looks like it should be fairly good, thanks for the advice.

I have that card and its a very powerful yet totally silent beast.

TerrorFirmer

JamboMac wrote: »

Was looking at possibly this in the newer cards.
https://www.amazon.de/MSI-GTX-1070-8G-V330-001R/dp/B01GRCYPE6/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1485369510&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+1070

Looks like it should be fairly good, thanks for the advice.

What monitor do you have? With a GTX1070 a 1440p monitor would be ideal.

At 1080p you do have a bottleneck going on (in some games, not all) and I think a GTX1060 6GB could be a better bet in that case, games dependent.

eg. at 1080p a GTX1060 will drive BF1 at ultra at say 70fps.

At 1080P a GTX1070 will also only drive BF1 at ultra at 70fps due to the CPU ceiling of the 2600K.

By running at 1440P you would still maintain that 70fps as the card moves past the CPU choke, while the GTX1060 would fall behind significantly.

Now you can overclock the 2600K to remove the bottleneck but it's largely redundant on a standard 1080/60hz monitor in any case as anything north of a stable 60fps doesn't offer anything perceivable.

So for a GTX1070 really a 1080p 120hz+ monitor, or 1440P 60/120hz are ideal to get the most out of the GPU paired with your 2600K.

Otherwise you'll frequently really ever get GTX1060 performance but have paid the price for a GTX1070, that's the bottom line really.

The other option is just to pile on supersampling through the Nvidia Control Panel to force better image quality even at 1080p/60hz. Some games like Battlefield 1 also have a 'resolution scale' option which does the same thing natively in-game.

It also depends on the game. Some games are incredibly GPU punishing even at 1080p ultra and will show benefits with a GTX1070 over a GTX1060 eg. Witcher 3.

My recommendation would be to overclock the 2600K to 4.2Ghz+, get a 1070 and a 1440p monitor, if the budget allows. 1440P is also great for productivity, editing, etc.

Again, while it does depend very much on the game, on the whole I think if you're set on just getting a new card, a GTX1060 6GB is a good investment with the current setup and €200 cheaper than the 1070.

JamboMac

Monitor probably doesn't meet some of the requirement.

https://www.cnet.com/products/aoc-e2352phz-3d-led-monitor-23/specs/