Just about to start making my purchases for my new gaming rig. Of course, the trickiest part for me is picking my GPU. I want something that will handle current games great @1080p/60fps, while also being capable with the wave of "next gen" titles hitting the PC. My budget allows for around $250 to spend on the GPU, which puts me right at the 760/7950 range. 

So which one is the better pick? Will I notice the difference at all? Should I factor in Physx into the equation? I hope to SLI these once a drop in performance is noticed, and my PSU will "only" be 750w, so will either be more efficient power wise for SLI/XFIRE

Another concern I have is memory size. Was reading an article from eurogamer where they discuss "future-proofing" your gaming PC. Given the next gen consoles (specifically the PS4) access to 5-6 GB of GDDR5 memory, a graphics card with low amounts of GDDR5 may see a performance hit in the near future. Does this really have any merit? Given the 7950's access to 3GB of GDDR5, should this automatically give the Radeon card the nod?

Am I overthinking this and should just pick one and run with it?

BTW, the rest of my rig will be an i5 4670k, 8gig DDR 1600 RAM, 750w PSU, AsRock Extreme 3 Z87 board. 

xxxLUGZxxx

OP,if you're going to OC get 7950.If not,get gtx 760(something like gigabyte,evga factory OC). 760 is a bit faster than 7950.Also i don't know about you but i like to buy new stuff,7950 is almost 2years old.If you can wait for new amd gpu,they should come next month.

Don't worry about video memory,even 2gb will last you for some time.Even if you have 3gb on hd7950 card will not have enough raw power 

Hi all i got my i7 4770 and the temp got at 60c at full load with stock fan is this normal.

nemesis951988

Did you OC,or is it non k? 60C is ok under full load,not great but ok. You should be looking at around 50-55C under full load.

What is your ambient temp.?

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

With most current and future gaming you will see better results with a FX 8350 then you will an intel quad(stock vs stock) because of the multithreaded nature of the new consoles will be and the direction into direct x 11 based games supporting 4+ threads. But there are still games and will be some that will only use 1 or two cores and only 4 cores and in those cases the intel quads will perform better then the AMD 8 cored cpu. The only thing I would change would be the psu Pick up a TX+ model of corsair psu's. Unless you plan on SLI'ing a 650w will do just fine.

hartsickdiscipl

We'll see about that.  I'm not convinced that AMD's current lineup is going to be able to handle those games as well as you think.  Remember, they aren't really full-fledged 6 or 8-core CPUs.  Some of the cores share resources in a way that a "true" multicore CPU usually wouldn't.  

Definitely agree with you.Developers are not suddenly going to forget how to port games to intel cpu.New games will be multithreaded but that doesn't mean they will prefer amd over intel architecture.That's just mean it's over for single core cpu and soon for dual core.Intel has full 4 fast cores that has 60% better IPC.Amd is solid,intel is bit better.And like you said fx6300 isn't real 6 core it's 3module+ 3core that act like hyperthreading but a bit more effectively than intel's one.If you want real 6 core it will cost you 500$ not 100$.Same goes for fx8350.Amd use a bit of marketing to "trick" people.For 20-30$ more i would go intel.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ft
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ft/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ft/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($85.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($263.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.49 @ Amazon)
Total: $809.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-02 11:49 EDT-0400)

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ka
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ka/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5ka/benchmarks/

or with better GPU


CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($86.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($388.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.49 @ Amazon)
Total: $935.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-02 11:53 EDT-0400)


or if you want to OC

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5im
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5im/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1z5im/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($263.98 @ SuperBiiz) -------------------------------------(or gtx770 -120$ more)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.49 @ Amazon)
Total: $918.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-02 11:51 EDT-0400)

[QUOTE="KyleGates"]^^^ Just beware. There is ALWAYS a new part "coming soon", a new GPU, or faster memory or a better mobo. If you always "wait a few weeks for the best and newest", youll never buy.mastershake575

The 9000 series is literally coming out SOON. Not only that but this is the first new architecture in almost two years....... (there not releasing new GPU architecture every few weeks, same thing with CPU architecture which also usually last 2-3 years so I don't understand what your talking about :question: ).

Back on topic I would try to get one of the on sale 7950s instead of the 660ti

New amd gpu will,probably,come next month.I'm only talking about 9970/9950(if they will call it that).Also op is interested in 660ti types on gpu,so some amd gpu similar to 660ti would be 9870.Midrange cards usually come 1month after flagship,so he would have to wait for 2 months more.

OP why just get gtx760?

i have 10mb download/512 up ,on average i will download at 1mb/sec rate.Sometime it goes to 1.3/1.4mb. If you have 7mb you will get about 700kb download rate not 7mb.

Well first off I don't even know when it's coming out. But I was thinking of running those in SLI since I haven't purchased my second 690 yet I thought about jumping to the GTX 790 instead. RimacBugatti

I don't get it.You want to run gtx 690 and gtx790 together in sli? 

Try to downgrade your drivers to previous version

[QUOTE="RespawnCake"]

[QUOTE="horgen123"]Should last you two years. The Tahiti model is also a great overclocker... Or so I've heard. horgen123

I probably not going to OC neither cpu or gpu,mobo isn't that great.Plus i live in a mostly hot region. 

I'm not expecting ultra detail ofc but is fx6300/hd7870xt capable of something like 1080p on medium/high during next 2 years?

Thx.I will see in 2 weeks when i will actually make new build,i would either go with fx6300+7870XT or (if i increase budget) i5+gtx760

Should last you two years. The Tahiti model is also a great overclocker... Or so I've heard. horgen123

I probably not going to OC neither cpu or gpu,mobo isn't that great.Plus i live in a mostly hot region. 

I'm not expecting ultra detail ofc but is fx6300/hd7870xt capable of something like 1080p on medium/high during next 2 years?