So I have to decide between 3 GPUs:

 

AMD Radeon 7750 2 GB

AMD Radeon 7770 2 GB

nvidia 560 ti 2 GB

 

The first two are quite cheaper compared to the nvidia card but the nvidia card is slightly stronger. So what do you guys suggest? Also, keep in mind that where I live(don't ask where), the 560 GPU costs almost as double as the 7750.

Edited October 13, 201213 yr by Astiaks

Have a play with Anandtech's GPU comparison tool: http://www.anandtech...bench/GPU12/372

 

 

Any context as to why these three are your only options? (Especially since you imply it's not a price thing)

 

 

EDIT: What I'm particularly not grasping is why you're specifically going after the custom 2GB variants of what are entry level gaming cards. Each of those cards normally comes with 1GB of RAM, which is just as well since they're not really powerful enough to drive the resolutions and AA-settings that 2GB would allow.

Edited October 13, 201213 yr by Humanoid

Any context as to why these three are your only options? (Especially since you imply it's not a price thing)

 

It is a price thing actually. I am not sure if it's a good idea to spend too much money on a GPU right now.

 

Also, I am open to suggestions. Haven't had decent rig for years and as you have already noticed, I am quite the n00b.

 

EDIT: What I'm particularly not grasping is why you're specifically going after the custom 2GB variants of what are entry level gaming cards. Each of those cards normally comes with 1GB of RAM, which is just as well since they're not really powerful enough to drive the resolutions and AA-settings that 2GB would allow.

 

They didn't have any 1GB versions of the cards because again, where I live, people happen to be stupid enough to measure graphics cards by their memory. Moar GB = Moar Power!!!

Edited October 13, 201213 yr by Astiaks

Recommending gamer oriented graphics card is easy nowadays:

 

Mainstream: 7850

Performance: 7950

 

There can be some arguments made for cards above that level, but not in terms of good value. Below the standard recommendations are the 77x0 cards, but the 2GB variants are wasteful. This is all based on US pricing though, which goes from about $100-120 for the 77x0; $160-180 for the 7850, $300-320 for the 7950, and $400+ for anything above.

 

If you can stretch for it, try for a 7850, it's a massive gain over anything below it, both and stock speed and even more once overclocked (which it excels at).

Edited October 13, 201213 yr by Humanoid

Thanks for the info! Yeah, it seems the 7850 is quite sufficent for the next 1-2 years. I might go for it.

Go with the 7950, maybe get 3 years out of it

If I was able to get this with a substantial price reduction, re-sale but barely touched, should I bite.

 

The Alienware part of it sounds fine, but its put together by Dell. Aside from the fact that it looks ridiculous how current are the parts.

 

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-aurora-r3/pd

Looks like they are being deliberately obtuse about the specs. I found them elsewhere though.

 

 

Intel® Core™ i7-3820 (4 Core, 10MB Cache, 3.60GHz) - 16384 MB (4 x 4 GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 Quad Channel - Original Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, Dansk - 500GB (7200RPM) Solid State Hybrid + 1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7200RPM) 32MB Cache - Uden skærm - DVD+/-RW (læse/skrive) 24x - Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital capability - Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555 SLI™ - 1

Can't tell because that's just a skeleton spec, presumably when the system was current the website would have allowed the buyer to specify all the guts of the machine. The only real hint there is the P67 chipset, which likely means it's a Sandy Bridge based system, therefore from the generation just prior to the current one.

 

EDIT: Posted before second post, oops - from the specs It's nominally a high-end system: the CPU is on the high-end of the reasonably-priced CPUs of last generation, and there's a stack of memory. But the graphics setup is utterly ridiculous and should be replaced as soon as practical. It's a very unbalanced system. (EDIT2: Sort of withdrawn, see next post)

Edited October 20, 201213 yr by Humanoid

It's a bit tricky to find definitive information about the graphics setup, mainly because the GTX555 is an OEM card which never sold at retail, although I did fail to note that it had two of them running. With that in mind, I'd revise the score to say that in terms of raw graphics power it can keep up, at roughly where a good single card today will do. However the 1GB memory limit will be an issue: I suspect that at 1080p, even 4xAA will be too much in the more graphically intensive titles, and it'd choke badly if you ever went for a 2560x1440/1600 screen, or a multi-monitor setup. Aside from that though, you can keep using it through to the next gen.

 

 

Basic Googling reveals that a single GTX555 is about equivalent to a single GTX460: reviews for the latter are much much easier to find if you want to get a gauge on performance.

Edited October 20, 201213 yr by Humanoid

Graghraghagh, let me reset: it looks like the initial link and the specs after don't match - I didn't notice the "R3" in the URL, which tends to happen when I'm posting at 1am. Anyway, the specs you posted are from an Aurora R4, which is the successor model, kinda. The giveaway is the CPU, which is an LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E CPU which runs on the X79 chipset, where the R3 had a "standard" LGA1155 Sandy Bridge CPU which runs on the P67 platform.

 

So what's the difference? Sandy Bridge-E is intended to be a workstation CPU: the 3820 is the basic one, but most of the range are 6-core CPUs. The 'standard' Sandy Bridge is more consumer oriented and are what you'd typically find in shops. Now here's a catch though: for gaming purposes they perform more or less the same, except the workstation CPU can't be overclocked. Yeah that's right, the CPU in the newer model is effectively *worse*, unless you customise their default spec and pay for the next CPU up, which is over double the cost of the base one.

 

 

So yeah, best try to nail down the actual specs before you buy, including whether it's an R3 or an R4.

Maybe I'll spring for new board ram and processor for my old box instead. It's a more manageable prospect anyway. Certainly cheaper.

What's a solid state hybrid by the way. Does it use SSD for indexing, frequently used files, that kind of thing. The rest is optical.

Well, magnetic, not optical, but yeah, basically a regular spindle drive plus some flash memory chips it uses for caching. It will almost certainly be this Seagate drive because they've been the only company pushing the tech.

Another great tool is the GPU Review Comparison chart. I reference this thing all the time:

 

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php

 

Drop your card choices in there, and you can compare important specs side by side.