graphics card advice?

[penguindogexd]

hi guys,
i am currently working out what parts to use for a gaming PC. and im stuck. this is also my first time building a pc so get the facepalms out of the way now ^^

i am lookin for a graphics card that will run most games on very high detail (HDMI cable will be used) it also needs to be less than $200AUD (exchange rate is basically the same to american dollars) so far i have chosen these components:

RAM
8GB 1866MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP T1 Black Series (kingston)
LINK: http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/hyperx/t1

PROCESSOR
AMD FX 8-Core Black Edition FX-8120 (AMD)
http://shop.amd.com/us/All/Detail/Processor/FD8120FRGUBOX#Reviews

MOTHERBOARD
M5A99X EVO (ASUS)
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A99X_EVO/#overview

what would your recommendations be? remember that this is a gaming build so im looking for alot of power for a relatively cheap price. do me proud internet

 

[penguindogexd]

You don't need 1866Mhz RAM, go for 1333 or 1600.

Don't get an AMD FX chip, get the i5-2500K or any of the i5 range.

There are many new GPUs coming out right now but for this moment you should get the AMD 6870 as it is less than $200 and good value.

As far as I know though, PC parts are much more expensive in ozzy land. Could you link to a reputable shop for parts?



hey thanks man

just a few questions.

1) what is the difference between those speeds (RAM) and is it noticeable when playing demanding games?
2) thanks for the processor advice, but i heard that win 8 will support 8 cores and i want to future proof this as much as i possibly can (im stingy ). so here is the question, is there a major difference between these cpu's, all the specs seem the same and i am not into any particular brand, so i just kinda went for the most cores, bad idea?

oh yeah, i dont know of any reliable or major parts retailers in australia, but there are many little stores scattered around so i should be fine, and i can import the stuff if i need anyway.

thanks man you are a legend.

 

[Supernova1138]

For RAM you don't need to go beyond 1600MHz, anything above that speed will only be beneficial if you are overclocking. As far as game performance, there is little appreciable difference for anything 1333MHz or above. Most applications don't really see benefit from high speed RAM, most of the time you'll only notice a difference if you are running a memory benchmark.

As for the CPU, the i5 2500k is much, much better as a gaming CPU than any of the FX chips, the 8 core FX only slightly surpasses the 2500k in a few content creation applications that are designed to use many cores. Most games still only use two cores, they are getting more multithreaded, but no game uses more than 4 cores right now, and that doesn't seem likely to change for quite a long time. Most games are bound more by the graphics card than the CPU.

While the specs look similar, when your work is not heavily multithreaded, the i5 is a much faster CPU than the FX, and improvements to the scheduler in Windows 8 will not change that. The i5 can get a lot more work done per clock cycle thanks to Intel's much more efficient architecture, so for any task that uses 4 cores or less, the 2500k will smoke any FX CPU. To put it in perspective, to make any FX chip run as fast as a 2500k in situations that use 4 cores or less, you would have to overclock the FX to about 5GHz to do what the 2500k can do at its stock clock speed.

In conclusion, right now don't worry about core count unless you are using software that can take advantage of that, the vast majority of software including games will only use 2 to 4 cores.

 

[penguindogexd]

thank you so much to both of you

For RAM you don't need to go beyond 1600MHz, anything above that speed will only be beneficial if you are overclocking. As far as game performance, there is little appreciable difference for anything 1333MHz or above. Most applications don't really see benefit from high speed RAM, most of the time you'll only notice a difference if you are running a memory benchmark....

You don't need 1866Mhz RAM, go for 1333 or 1600.

Don't get an AMD FX chip, get the i5-2500K or any of the i5 range.

There are many new GPUs coming out right now but for this moment you should get the AMD 6870 as it is less than $200 and good value.

As far as I know though, PC parts are much more expensive in ozzy land. Could you link to a reputable shop for parts?

snip

thank you so much guys you have been a massive help in my quest for a gaming pc but i do have one more question, can you recommend a motherboard for my build?


EDIT: sorry guys forgot to mention im going to use the 15 2500k