Need a budget GPU (Nvidia)

[Zlatin 11]

Hey, guys.

I'm looking at the possibility of building a gaming pc for around 700$ with an i5, 1TB HDD, and a GTX 660. I realize the 660 is rather outdated by now, but is still a good card. Upgrading to a 760 would cost me around 80$, but is it really worth it? Also, I can get a 660 with 4gb of gddr5 ram as opposed to the 2gb standard, is that worth it?

Here's my current build on PcPartPicker:

Intel Core i5-4440, PNY GeForce GTX 660, BitFenix Prodigy (Red) - System Build - PCPartPicker

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Zlatin

[Kureman44 10]

If you're going to play watchdogs as it comes free with your GPU, you should buy the 4Gb GPU since Ubisoft recommends 3Gb of Vram.

If your budget is 700$, GTX660 is the right choice, if you can go higher, pick the 760, 15-20% better performances.

[Zlatin 11]

I've already played through watchdogs on my laptop (worked fine with 2 gigs, I honestly think they overstated the specs), so the bonus is kinda useless to me, but it's a nice addition. I think I'll stick with the 660, and maybe go sli later if I get a new case and mobo, but it should run everything just fine for now, especially if I use an evga 3gb version. If I can muster up the cash, I'll go for the 760, I think. I was thinking of getting the 750ti, but it both looks lame and performs below the level of a 660. I would go look at amd's options, but I really don't fancy amd's drivers and software, and probably wouldn't get much more bang for my buck going that route, considering how cheap a 660 is these days.

[no2spam2 10]

AMD really does make it difficult with the inconsistency of their software releases. I have been an AMD fan for a long time with GPUs, due to their performance per dollar ration - but the latest nVIDIA packages (hardware/software) are just hard to argue with. ShadowPlay is awesome, the GPUs run cooler, nVIDIA Shield will probably be a lot more usable in the next couple of hardware revisions and their updates/fixes/SLI profiles are constantly getting released. AMD's updates are completely sporadic and their Crossfire profiles get updated very infrequently. I am going with an nVIDIA card for my upgrade for sure - my HD 6970 is getting dated.

[Nofew 49]

I'll just leave this here.. (Hint, check the gigaflops column.)

List of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Okay, fine, and List of AMD graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for completeness. Go with nVidia anyway. In my experience, ATI is riddled with bugs in games and has major issues running some demoart. (Not that you'd be able to run much of that stuff on a budget GPU, but still.)

[Khenglish 1154]

3GB+ is required to run ultra textures in watchdogs well. There is no other game that can use more than 2GB of vram when running 1080P, so unless you play nothing but watchdogs, 4GB is a waste of money.

[thewumpy 10]

750 TI should be a good buy. Retail is only $150.00 plus its maxwell and has very low tdp. You can never really go wrong with having the latest technology.

[Xaser04 10]

Nothing wrong with the GTX660 but personally I would stump up the extra for the 760. It will be noticeably quicker in a number of games (compare using something like Anand's benhc - use a 670 if the 760 comparison isn't available as they perform about the same).

[TheRealLionKing 10]

Nvidia GTX 760 for sure

It has a good performance to price ratio and comes with Cuda cores and Nvidia's suite of software. It'll be more future proof too as well. I do video editing and simulations and the cuda cores really speed things along, the nvidia cards I feel are more versatile. When it comes to overall performance per dollar I think you would be better off with the red team if all your gonna be doing is gaming.

[andrzejz78 12]

If you can afford 760, buy it. Better performance, less heat (as i recall) and newer chipset. In the future you will make OC and it will be monster .

[jcagara08 53]

get an R9 280 if your considering the Red Camp.

Best Bang of buck, more powerful if Crossfired with same GPU....

[yiming 10]

If you wanna give AMD card a try, the 270x is a great budget card as well.

[Androidz 11]

The best GPU's on a budget are the AMD range (R9 270X with 2GB VRAM maybe) but if your Mind is set on nVidia go for the 760.

[awlmfgskar 10]

Absoluteley 760, it is the better card! Better OC, better temps, newer chip.

[jcagara08 53]

Man be with the reds..red team

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[ghawke 10]

The 700 series should be good enough

[xxgummyxx 10]

if it has to be nvidia go with the 760...but if you really want budget, check out the r9 270x card. plus cut some more corner with your tower case

[Gitittle 11]

Hey man, I'd say 660 ti, but I just looked, found a GTX 760 for $60 cheaper EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2765-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card - Newegg.com I dont know what GTX 660 you were looking at, but i hope this helps

[Brian 1975]

OP is no longer responding so I'm going to assume he found something. Closing thread.