Are high end GPU's really worth it?

[Grizzly Summoner]

I have a GT 630 with an i7-3770 3.4GHz cpu and 12 gb ram. Obviously a GT 630 isn't as nice as a GTX 680, however that GPU alone would cost me more than my entire computer... Is that really worth it?

Edit: I was between a GTX 660 and a HD 7770 after everyone's comments. I decided on an HIS Radeon HD 7770 because it can run off my system instead of a separate wire from my PSU since that is very under powered. It is also an exhaust style card and my case had bad circulation. I didn't want to fool around with a new PSU yet so this card seems like a real breeze to change out. Thanks for all the comments!

[corsair gamer]

I am guessing you meant gtx780 and yes they cost more than my system too . for muti monitors and high res 4k ,I guess a 780s good but better off with 760-770 card imo .

[Grizzly Summoner]

Originally posted by corsair gamer:

I am guessing you meant gtx780 and yes they cost more than my system too . for muti monitors and high res 4k ,I guess a 780s good but better off with 760-770 card imo .

I am old enough to not know much about computers, if that makes sense? I appreciate the feedback. Just got a whole Xbox One for the price of "slightly" better GPU's... I have a hard time committing especialy when it could overheat my computer (like I said, not exactly super savy). You guys are helping me see the differences between cards though.

[Rove]

The very highest end ones are a bad deal, poor performance per $.

However the GT 630 is a very bad / low end GPU and is really holding back your i7-3770K (top end CPU) for any kind of gaming or graphics work.

I would recommend a GPU ranging from the AMD HD 7790, R7 260X, R9 270, R9 270X, R9 280X or the Nvidia GTX 660, GTX 760, GTX 770. That is from $100-$350 which is only the same or less price as your i7 CPU, not your whole build.

Generally for a gaming system you want to spend as much or a bit more (or even a lot more) on your GPU than your CPU.

For your i7-3770K a ideal combination might be either a R9 280X or a GTX 770 to try and really get the most out of your CPU.

However even a modest HD 7790 for $100-$115 would really darastically improve your gaming abilities and performance and enable you to run most games at respectable settings.

To give you a idea of how lowly the GT 630 is, it has less than 1/5 the GFLOPS performance of a HD 7790 and less than 1/10 that of the GTX 770 or R9 280X.

Meanwhile your CPU is relatively high performance, high performance top-level for gaming or entry level enthusiast grade is how I'd rate the i7 3770K as a gaming CPU.

Bottom level for a basic entry level home PC used for internet browsing, movies and word processing (but not as a "gaming rig" at all) is how I'd rate the GT 630.

In short you have a $300-$350 CPU paired with a $20-$50 GPU and it's way out of wack. The GPU should be considered as a co-processor for things like gaming and graphics work and it's power and performance are often more important to those things than that of the CPU.

GPU performance can be roughly (not perfectrly) measured in GFLOPS and this is most accurate when comparing products with the same architecture (IE AMD Radeon) and generation of product release (IE HD 7000 series).

TL;DR
If you plan on playing any newer 3D computer games it'd be really worth it for you to upgrade your GPU to one for $100-$350 with roughly 1800 or more GFLOPS to try and stay even to or better than the PlayStation 4 console.

Is it worth it to buy the very most expensive GPU available? No absolutely not, try and get good GFLOPS per $ value when you purchase a GPU. The top Nvidia Titan card would cost you $1000~ for 4,500~ GFLOPS while you could instead spend $230~ for a GTX 760 with 2200~ GFLOPS, less than 1/4 the price and almost 1/2 the performance. As you can see you can get a much better deal on performance by being a little modest and taking only what you really actually need.

[Grizzly Summoner]

Didn't realize they were that cheap, thought GPU's around a GTX 770 were in the +500 range. What is a good card that runs off modest power and can use it's packaged fan efficently? I can't have my work computer heating up on me, and I am too new to this for a complicated heat system. Just calling it as I see it for my level of knowledge about this stuff haha!
P.S. I have a 430W I believe, I can get a bigger power supply so long as it is idiot proof.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Graphics card hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Looks like you have some office PC with small badly ventilated case and small PSU. With small case the more powerful graphics cards might not fit inside.
I would suggest to get proper case, PSU, CPU cooler, graphics card and transfer your entire PC into new case with decent ventilation and room for any parts.
This would cost less then you might think:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Wc5c

[Grizzly Summoner]

Originally posted by Rumpelcrutchskin:

Graphics card hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Looks like you have some office PC with small badly ventilated case and small PSU. With small case the more powerful graphics cards might not fit inside.
I would suggest to get proper case, PSU, CPU cooler, graphics card and transfer your entire PC into new case with decent ventilation and room for any parts.
This would cost less then you might think:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Wc5c

Really doubt my PC would survive all that with me in charge.

[Rove]

Edit: getting a new GPU may very well require a new PSU and some of the longer ones may require a new case to fit their length.

You should look into both these things.

Cheap & great with low TDP (85w to 115w) and excellant cooling:
AMD Radeon HD 7790 1GB DC2-OC factory overclocked from 1000MHz to 1075MHz
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-hd7790dc2oc1gd5
SuperBiiz $127.99 -$20.00 +$4.99 s/h $112.98
$20.00 mail-in rebate

Fancy rebranded version of the same card with higher factory overclock to 1190MHZ and +1GB more memory for total 2GB:
AMD Radeon R7 260X 2GB DC2-OC factory overclocked from 1075MHz to 1190MHz
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r7260xdc2oc2gd5
$144.99 +FREE s/h $144.99

Getting more expensive & hotter but still great using the stock coolers in a case with enough airflow
:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42761kr
NCIX US $249.32 +FREE s/h $249.32

Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx770dc2oc2gd5
$319.99 -$10.00 +FREE s/h $309.99
$10.00 mail-in rebate

I'd also recommend the R9 270X (Proper price $200-$240) or R9 280X (proper price $300-$350). However they are out of stock in a lot of places due to a shortage in North America. Most high-end AMD cards are out of stock or low on stock in North America unfortunately. Much of the remaining stock has had the prices jacked up to unreasonable levels higher than the products original launch price. If you search you can usually still find something affordable but you will have to source your own since availability is constantly changing and I don't feel like searching for them right now.

You can use the stock cooling fans on any of these cards however you should make sure you have adequate case fans to move the airflow through your case. If you only have 1 case fan consider adding another 120mm or if smaller than a high-airflow fan that can push as much as the average 120mm fan.

If you don't have room for any more fans to be mounted on your case you can get a cheap new case for $30-$50 or you can simply try replacing your current cooling fan with a high-quality, high-airflow fan that can push as much as possible through the case.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Originally posted by Grizzly Summoner:

Originally posted by Rumpelcrutchskin:

Graphics card hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Looks like you have some office PC with small badly ventilated case and small PSU. With small case the more powerful graphics cards might not fit inside.
I would suggest to get proper case, PSU, CPU cooler, graphics card and transfer your entire PC into new case with decent ventilation and room for any parts.
This would cost less then you might think:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Wc5c

Really doubt my PC would survive all that with me in charge.

Well, thing you could do with very minimal effort would be to get HD 7790 graphics card. It's not that big and should run with your PSU. It's not high end but still vastly better then your current GT 630.

[Grizzly Summoner]

Originally posted by Rumpelcrutchskin:

Originally posted by Grizzly Summoner:

Really doubt my PC would survive all that with me in charge.

Well, thing you could do with very minimal effort would be to get HD 7790 graphics card. It's not that big and should run with your PSU. It's not high end but still vastly better then your current GT 630.

Sounds like a good idea, let me try and upload some pics of my inner workings and case. http://puu.sh/6WVJb.jpg
http://puu.sh/6WVI4.jpg

Wow just saw how much better that HD 7790 is haha. I think the score difference is like 6x higher? Anyways, that card looks kinda big with its double fans. Do I need a new case? Also, what part of that picture I posted (inside the case) is my PSU? Looks like the box in the top right seeing as this is where the power cord attaches...

[Rove]

Can you check the technical information on your PSU?

Total wattage?
Total Wattage on each of the different voltage rails? Amps each on those, 3.5V, 5V and 12V rails?

Even for a HD 7790 your PSU will also require 1 PCIe 6 pin connector for additional power direct from your PSU, the motherboard is not enough for any of these graphics cards we recommended.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

This would most likely work better:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/zotac-video-card-zt6110710m

It's quite compact card, same power as HD 7790. It has 6-pin to molex adaptor so your PSU would need to have two free molex plugs that look like this:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Molex_female_connector.jpg

[Rove]

That 650 ti is less perforamnce than the HD 7790 though.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Originally posted by Rove:

That 650 ti is less perforamnce than the HD 7790 though.

Same tier as HD 7790 according to hierarchy chart. Difference would be quite minimal.

[Rove]

It'd still be a huge improvement over a GT 630 but it's like 500 GFLOPS below HD 7790 OC.

[NightHawk71]

I would also recommend you check out Tom's Hardware Performance per Dollar chart. If your question is whether it's "worth it", you can look at the price difference alongside benchmarks to fine your budget range and where it's worth it for you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-8.html