Need help buying new GPU.

A

alwaysdamian

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Howzit guys, on the verge of buying my new gpu, GTX 960 2bg Or the 4gb version. A bit concerned on how much power they need and if the 4gb will draw more. Im running a i3 2nd gen, 4gb ram and an HD7770 [Witch im selling at the moment] And help would be greatly appreciated.
 
What power supply do you have?

In general the AMD cards draw more power and produce more heat than the nvidia cards. The 9xx series has a more efficient power design, so as a thumbsuck I would say the 960 will need less juice than the AMD but don't quote me on it.

Check the AMD site (or manual if you still have it) and see what the psu requirements are vs the 960's requirements.

Between the 2gb and 4gb I highly doubt they will have significantly different power requirements.
 
Awesome thanks will do, i did do some research and found some info saying that the GTX960 using roughly 240W full load. The HD7770 uses 190W Full load, from what i have gathered.
 
I just found the same fourm :). Thank you. I also did a consumption calculator. Im cutting it close so will have to upgrade near future :).
 
alwaysdamian said:
I just found the same fourm :). Thank you. I also did a consumption calculator. Im cutting it close so will have to upgrade near future :).
Click to expand...

Can never go wrong with a quality PSU, I'm quite partial to some of the Corsair. I've had my current one through 3 generations of pc's now.
 
Yeah, but most games now rely alot more on the GPU, i will be upgrading MB, Ram, and CPU end of the year, then a bigger psu if in need too. At the moment Ram is a slight problem so will be buying another stick alongside the GPU, only have 4gb at the moment.
 
alwaysdamian said:
Yeah, but most games now rely alot more on the GPU, i will be upgrading MB, Ram, and CPU end of the year, then a bigger psu if in need too. At the moment Ram is a slight problem so will be buying another stick alongside the GPU, only have 4gb at the moment.
Click to expand...

i've read about that gpu bottlenecking on fourth gen i3's so its definitely something to think about, and yeah 8gb ram is highly recommended.
 
Yeah, but most games now rely alot more on the GPU, i will be upgrading MB, Ram, and CPU end of the year, then a bigger psu if in need too. At the moment Ram is a slight problem so will be buying another stick alongside the GPU, only have 4gb at the moment.
 
The GTX 960 has a 120W TDP, with overclocking a slight bit more. 2nd gen i3 has a max TDP of 65W so your 450W PSU is more than enough. The 2/4GB thing is a non issue power wise.

I've got one of these running fine on a 450W PSU with i5-4690 CPU, plenty to spare. With the GPU & CPU at max load I doubt my system even comes close to 250W. PS that galax has 8+6 pin power connectors, a very good cooler & overclocks to the moon.

If it was me I would rather get one of these, specs claim you need a 500W PSU but they always err on the side of caution. The card uses just under 200W at full load so I reckon a good 450W PSU will do the job.

Which 2nd gen i3 do you have? I have not seen an i3 bottleneck a gtx 960 yet.
 
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i3 2120.... I'm still considering on what GPU to buy. Its between the Asus GTX 960 Strix 2Gb , Gigabyte GTX 960 4Gb Or a Galax GTX 960 2GB.
 
Yeah, im trying, the reason i want to go with Nvidea now it that i have just been screwed over in the past with AMD. So trying to stay away from them. Also Nvidea has the bonus of Physx.
 
I would really go RED, because of AMDs new GPUs. They have good price tags and delivers excellent performance. I have a R9 280X and I am very impressed! I agree with @ponder, go for a R9 380, it beats the GTX 960 lol. :p

You should really check out Carbonite, you can get some sweet deals!
#AMDfanboy
 
Andrew_Smith said:
I would really go RED, because of AMDs new GPUs. They have good price tags and delivers excellent performance. I have a R9 280X and I am very impressed! I agree with @ponder, go for a R9 380, it beats the GTX 960 lol. :p

You should really check out Carbonite, you can get some sweet deals!
#AMDfanboy
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Other thing is the 4GB 960 is frigging expensive, you would be better off saving a bit more and getting a gtx970 or r9390.
 
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