Graphic Card Replacement newpost.

[Bert_1]

Graphic Card Replacement.

My current setup - W7 on a Dell 8700 w/i7-4770CPU@ 3.4GHz, 8G RAM & an OEM GTX 645 vid card.

Will It Run suggests a NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB vid card. I only see used ones on Amazon so I'm looking at a GTX 970 series (I am price sensitive).

Then confusion sets in - First these cards are not packaged by NVIDIA which seems to only be the GPU manufacturer. There are several unit makers (MSI, GIGABYTE, EVGA). Using the EVGA website, there are 11 different card 'flavors' listed under the 970 label. I do understand a little of the differences such as Wattage usage, base & overclocked speeds, texture fill rate, etc.

While I think I can swap a card beyond that I'm not all that savvy to make a decision on which of these cards to bank my money (though there is just a $30 spread between 2nd - 10th high to low).

So my questions -
1. Are there considerations to be made between models based on my computer?
2. Are there considerations based on the card maker?
3. Is my assumption it would be better to have a lower wattage card?
4. What else am I missing?

 

[TechyInAZ]

First off, before you do ANYTHING...what is your PSU wattage? That alone is going to be your guideline for buying a graphics card.

GPUs can be confusing, so I hope this helps:

Nvidia is the GPU Manufacturer that produces the graphics CHIPS THEMSELVES. Then, other vendors like Asus, EVGA, and Gigabyte take those GPUs created by Nvidia and put them in their own PCBs and custom coolers. Nvidia just produces the chips, the others like Asus and Gigabyte produce the CARDS themselves.

There are overclocked versions and stock clocked versions, and all sorts of cards. Typically the best bang for your buck is going to be a mid ranger version, like the SCC+ or SC cards from EVGA. The high end FTW cards are typically not worth the price while the stock cards are nearly identicaly in price with the SC versions (SC stands for superclocked btw).

Here are the requirements to check before you buy a video card:

1. Check the PSU wattage to make sure it can supply enough juice to the graphics card.
2. Check the dimensions of the computer case, where the Graphics card goes, some graphics cards are pretty huge to the point that they can possibly not fit in your case.
3. In general it is good to have a lower wattage card, but your PSU will determine that.