Graphics card advice required please

[Smithster 10]

I'm thinking of treating myself to an upgrade cos the one I have, although not that old, isn't very high spec and I really want to be able to enjoy Far Cry 3, which I have just bought, in as much detail as possible.

 

I have a ASrock n68 c-s mobo, that uses an NVIDIA chipset, with AMD Phenom II quad core processor, and I was wondering if anyone can tell me whether I would be better off getting an AMD or a NVIDIA graphics card to compliment it.

 

I'm currently using an ATI Radeon HD5670 which was about the best I could afford at the time, but my system struggles with the more resource-hungry games like Crysis 2.

[fake 10]

Do you know what spec the PSU is as you may also need to upgrade that so it will run a decent card. Most cards these days need a min 500W PSU and will probably need 2 x 6pin power connectors for the card so you will need to factor that in with the costs.

 

Also, how much were you planning on spending?

 

EDIT

 

Forgot to mention, what monitor resolution will you be using?

Edited December 4, 2012 by fake

[Smithster 10]

Yeah I've already accounted for needing a new PSU but they are minimal cost anyway.

 

Looking to spend no more than about £150 on the card. The monitor is a 19" IIama Prolite with a DVI connection (No HDMI).

[altus 538]

Yeah I've already accounted for needing a new PSU but they are minimal cost anyway.

Minimal cost PSUs can be a bad investment.

[CompSpud 10]

I went from a HD5450 to a GTX 550 ti. I wish i got one sooner. They are around £100 for the EVGA one.. Without a doubt its the best thing iv got for my PC after the SSD!

[Resident 1,185]

Yeah I've already accounted for needing a new PSU but they are minimal cost anyway.

 

Looking to spend no more than about £150 on the card. The monitor is a 19" IIama Prolite with a DVI connection (No HDMI).

 

I sincerely hope you think that £50+ is minimal. Anything below that won't cut the mustard.

 

I used to be one of those that thought £20 was a fair price until I started with power supply issues. Luckily for me I spotted the problem before it caused any permanant damage and then dropped £80 on a Corsair TX650M PSU.

 

One tip that I was given alludes to the weight of the PSU. A decent PSU will have some weight to it. My old crappy PSU was just under 1kg. My TX650M - 3.4kg.

[fake 10]

If you are not planning on using it at 1080p then you may get away with a sub £150 card and you can then spend the saving on a decent PSU. As already stated by others DO NOT get a cheap PSU.

 

This is a good place to check the benchmark of cards and compare any prospective purchase.

 

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

 

It also has a searchable list in the drop-down box.

[Smithster 10]

Went for this one in the end. Just ordered it today with my xmas bonus money. Spent hours looking at various options over the last few weeks and this seems to be by far the best I can get for for my budget. Power consumption is low and it comes out top in the value for money stakes on that benchmark site.