As of right now, this computer came with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti, Manufacturered by EVGA. This came out in 2011. This PC was put together in 2011 actually, but I didn't buy it brand new fresh out of the box until 2012. It is now 2016 and since its a custom rig, I can change the parts. I am looking for any suggestions and recommendations you have. I plan on doing this around the summer time, if not this fall. So from mid July to early September.

Nvidia graphics cards are what I've always trusted, but I am open to other brands, so long as you have vaild points on why they would be better than Nvidia. my budget is around $300-$500 though that might change, but I'm not going to spend over $1000 on this.

What that said, do you have any good suggestions guys? Any cards that you personally strongly recommend? I've been told by others that a 660ti from Nvidia is good and that it supports shadow play which allows me to record games without having to setup any external program, so if I were to get another Nvidia, at the very least, I would get that, however, I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on what I should get.

I also plan on possibly adding another fan and a blu ray drive.

$300-500 and you want to get a 660? you could get like a 780 for that

Oh they're that cheap now? What's the latest model?

What processor are you running?

What processor are you running?

I'm assuming an i3. It's going to bottleneck until he goes up to like an i5 4670k or higher.

What processor are you running?

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.90 GHz

The Nvidia 1000 series comes out in a month or so and they'll be around 400 dollars with the power of a 980ti.

The GTX 1080 is going to be an 8GB monster.

I might save it for that then.

https://linustechtips.com/main/

This forum is better for these types of questions.

I'll have to check it out later.

Nothing less then an EVGA 970

Hell I bought the 980 last year for $600

What about AMD on their cards?

Quote from: Batch on May 03, 2016, 05:18:38 PM

Nothing less then an EVGA 970

Hell I bought the 980 last year for $600

What about AMD on their cards?

Only ever had one, it was a 6870 Radeon, it was alright back in the day, but I couldnt give you any good criticism towards it, Ive just gotten really good performance out of the nVidia card.

Go with AMD if you want a housefire or you don't really care about future proofing your rig. But you have the CPU for a 970/980 and you should go with that. Nvidia is a bit more expensive but it's worth every dollar.

Quote from: Decimator Omega on May 03, 2016, 05:22:34 PM

What about AMD on their cards?

Yeah that's what I thought. I don't know why people think AMD is a good brand to begin with tbh. I've always trusted Nvidia.

AMD is good if you're going for an efficiency build/trying to build on a budget. But if you have the money to spend on quality of a GPU over quantity of dollars saved, Nvidia will always be top of the line. With that being said, I have nothing against AMD, but Nvidia just stomps them in GPU's and their CPU's are utter trash (not to mention you need a totally different Mobo for the CPUs).

Yeah that's what I thought. I don't know why people think AMD is a good brand to begin with tbh. I've always trusted Nvidia.

Wait for the new pascal and Polaris cards to be announced (I think that's what they're called) from AMD and Nvidia. Word is they're gonna be very powerful, power efficient, and give you great performance per dollar. It's probably best to wait for those as they'll be out in a few months time.

Side note: AMD makes great cards. Their latest series is cheaper than nvidias (900s) and outperforms them in most games.

I think I'll still stick with Nvidia since I'm pretty much established with them.

Quote from: Vien on May 03, 2016, 05:00:09 PM

The Nvidia 1000 series comes out in a month or so and they'll be around 400 dollars with the power of a 980ti.

The GTX 1080 is going to be an 8GB monster.

I would go with this

Yeah I'm considering that strongly now.