Video Card Decisions

[DasDestroyer]

So I've decided to put together a new gaming rig since my old one can't run half of the new games on the market. Most of the components were rather easy to pick out as my Dad has some experience in putting computers together. But as it turns out, the one thing he isn't knowledgeable about is graphics cards. This is why I need your help, Escapist!
I have a nice bit of cash saved up, so I can got up to about 500$, and I am thinking of getting an Nvidia GTX580, but what I really want to know is if it is worth it.
Should I save a couple hundred bucks and get an Nvidia GTX460?
Should I forget Nvidia altogether and go for an AMD card?
Thanks beforehand ^^
My specs:
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
Intel i7 2600k @5GHz CPU
Zalman CNPS9900A Cooler
Seasonic M12II PSU
2x Adata AX3U2000GC4G9B-TG2 RAM
Kingston Hyper SSD 120GB

Also, this is my first topic... [sub]yay!
And I ended up double posting this after all...[/sub]

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

For gaming I doubt you'll need an i7 2600k, I bought an i5 2500k for my new PC very recently and it performs great.

As for the video card, my GTX 570 maxes out any game at a nice steady framerate, though I've heard good things about the 580s for the extra money.

 

[DasDestroyer]

For gaming I doubt you'll need an i7 2600k, I bought an i5 2500k for my new PC very recently and it performs great.

As for the video card, my GTX 570 maxes out any game at a nice steady framerate, though I've heard good things about the 580s for the extra money.

So GTX570 is good enough? Okay, I'll keep that in mind, thanks

 

[Sheamus]

the 460 will be able to run games well enough, I just got a comparable amd 6870 and it runs deus ex wonderfully. I prefer to spend less and upgrade more often than spend double and hope it lasts twice as long. but that's just me, and I don't care about having max graphics.

 

[DasDestroyer]

the 460 will be able to run games well enough, I just got a comparable amd 6870 and it runs deus ex wonderfully. I prefer to spend less and upgrade more often than spend double and hope it lasts twice as long. but that's just me, and I don't care about having max graphics.

Well, my previous PC has lasted... about 7 years with little to no upgrades, so I favor buying things to last. And whereas my new PC might be pretty powerful right now, it will most likely be sub-par in 7-8 years.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

Do you really need a 2600K, the performance difference isn't worth the price increase unless you really need hyperthreading.

Plus, no current gen games can make use of more than a 6MB L3 cache or hyperthreading at all.

 

[DasDestroyer]

As I've already said, I'm building it to last. I want to still be able to play games on it, albeit not on max settings anymore, many years into the future.

 

[DasDestroyer]

Snip

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Hm... I guess tech specs do increase pretty much exponentially... Problem is the parts were purchased a bit over a month ago, but due to circumstances it only got put together recently... I'll have to check what the refund policies are for the various parts.

It seems to be a pretty good motherboard, so it should be able to support the upgrades

The only two problems with the SSD are that apparently it has a limited, although large, amount of write cycles, and that when it dies, it dies instantly, unlike an HDD.
Of course, that means that any backups, as well as the other unimportant programs, should be stored on a separate HDD. Thankfully my old PC won't be needing the 2TB drive it had

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

[

Get a 2500K and buy a cooler with the money saved and OC it to 4.5 Ghz, then it will last long term.

My 2500K with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 stays at 30ºC Idle at 3.5ghz, I haven't tried to push it any farther yet though.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

[

Get a 2500K and buy a cooler with the money saved and OC it to 4.5 Ghz, then it will last long term.

My 2500K with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 stays at 30ºC Idle at 3.5ghz, I haven't tried to push it any farther yet though.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/949908-i5-2500k-ocd-4ghz-stock-cooler.html

This person got it to 4Ghz with a stock cooler with P95 temps reaching the 80s. With a good cooler I have no doubt you could get it to 4/4.5 and have decent temps.

You could probably push yours a bit further but it really doesn't matter.

Yeah, the 2500k is an amazing overclocking CPU.

I've only got one fan mounted on the heatsink too, I could put another on but it's really not needed at this level IMO.

I'll Prime95 test it sometime and see what temps I get there.