GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Timothy Kim60 said:It’s a solid value. You get plenty of music for the buck.

Fine for an old motherboard with slower SATA speeds, I guess, but personally? I’d rather just grab a decent 120GB SSD instead.

Capacity > Warranty > Speed

In my book—and I think most people agree—you're better off prioritizing a larger SSD. Honestly, you won't even notice the speed difference unless you're running benchmarks; for any regular everyday use, it just doesn't matter.

Timothy Kim60 said:Capacity > warranty > speed

In my book—and I think most people agree—bigger SSD capacity beats everything else. You won't even notice the speed difference unless you're staring at benchmarks all day. For actual daily use? It's negligible.

Slightly off topic here, but:

That’s why I said it personally. Most people don't actually need a tiny 240GB high-speed drive; that's still way too small for any real data load. A 120GB SSD paired with a massive HDD sounds much better to me. Of course, if you specifically need that 240GB burst, go for it.

Is there any actual chance we see a card drop in the next six months that beats out a 750Ti without needing an external PCI-E power connector?

My question is whether the next generation will even be released by then; besides, they usually roll out the high-end models first anyway.

How's the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti GS with 2GB DDR5 for gaming on a 17" monitor?
Is that one better than the AMD Radeon R7 260X?

When you start talking about performance, things get a little complicated because modern games and updated drivers change the math entirely. Back in the day, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti was clearly superior, but nowadays, the AMD Radeon R7 260X is right up there—it might even pull ahead since the AMD Radeon R7 360 sits just above it click. That said, if I had to pick a winner, I’d lean toward the 750 Ti. Just a word of warning: stay away from that specific EVGA model with the single red fan. I've heard the cooling on that one is absolute garbage; two guys on another forum actually had to swap in aftermarket coolers because it was so bad. I'm not sure how the dual-fan version holds up, but it should be decent. If you happen to go with the 260X, definitely steer clear of the XFX Core Edition with the single fan ovaj

Those cards should perform flawlessly on a 17" monitor (maybe 1280x1024?)

EDIT

Grab this before it's all gone

I can only find the XFX version with a single fan for the AMD Radeon R7 260X, which feels like a bad sign. How are the AMD Radeon R7 360 cards? There's way more variety there.

Like EVGA and MSI
There's also XFX, but it’s just that same single-fan setup.
I checked out this EVGA card, but I read somewhere that the fans tend to squeal. I also saw some stuff about ASUS fans giving people trouble too.

My resolution is 1440x900.

Forgot to mention I'm running an
AMD Athlon II x4 640 processor and my power supply is a 460W LC POWER Silent Giant GREEN POWER LC6460GP3 V2.3.

Thomas Flores74 said:I forgot to mention I'm running an
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor and my power supply is a 460W LC POWER Silent Giant GREEN POWER LC6460GP3 V2.3.

Go for THAT deal TNG linked you to—it's an absolute steal. At 1440x900, everything's gonna fly. 🙂

Then you're looking at a 19" monitor. The power supply should handle any of those GPUs just fine. It wouldn't be a bad idea to overclock the CPU, too; since all the graphics cards are priced pretty similarly, you won't have to lose much sleep over a potential bottleneck. Grab it while it's still available (otherwise, they’ll be $67 more expensive, and if you go with an Asus model, even more than that)

Adam Moore3 said:Check out THIS link TNG sent you. It's an insane deal. Everything will fly at 1920 x1080 🙂

Price isn't bad, but I don't really trust this Newegg seller🤔
What's the deal with this AMD? It's just an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti.

Thomas Flores74 said:The price isn't bad, but I don't really trust Newegg with this one.🤔
What's the deal with this AMD? It's just an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti.

The price is great. That single-fan AMD version of the 750 Ti is a joke. A ton of people complained about how loud and hot it runs. The coil whine is real; you'd be better off avoiding it entirely. This Newegg version is actually a solid model, plus it’s even $33 cheaper than the cheapest AMD option. Sure, Newegg might not have the best reputation, but whatever. When you're just grabbing a single component, they can't screw you over too badly—it's when you build a whole system that you have to watch out.

Thomas Flores74 said:Price is decent, but I don't really trust Newegg with this one.🤔
What's the deal with this AMD? It's just an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti.

Honestly, the Asus card is the way to go.
At this price point, it isn't much more than a 260x or whatever, but it's significantly better and handles overclocking easily.
Total best buy.

Is there actually a massive performance gap between an NVIDIA GTX 970 and an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti when it comes to gaming? I'm looking at two options right now that cost about the same: I could grab a used NVIDIA GTX 970 that still has a 2-year warranty, or just play it safe and pick up a brand new NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti with a full 3-year warranty...

Maybe around 15-20%... I guess I'd go with the GTX 960 if that were the case.

Thanks for the lightning-fast reply 🙂

Man, that's just way too much money. Over $333 for a used GTX 960?

Adam Moore3 said:Oof, that’s a bit much if you ask me. Over $333 for a used GTX 960?

Exactly $333... It feels steep to me too (honestly), but looking at eBay (or what I call the "inflated price carnival"), the asking prices are actually kind of reasonable compared to the madness out there...

swiftfalcon89 said:Exactly $333... It feels steep to me too, but honestly, looking at PriceGrabber (or whatever you want to call this "inflated price circus"), the cost is actually pretty reasonable...

Just tell him to find a better price. The guy dropped it from ~1300 down to $333. That doesn't look like much of a steal to me; it's just not a realistic price. A little while ago, I saw a 270X for $267 that I think still had a year of warranty left, yet he's asking 1000 for a standard 270. He needs to drop it to at least 900.