[Gerell]

First things first, i'm running the i5 3570K with the integrated graphics atm. Would spending more-or-less $100 on a graphics card really be worth it? (it seems to have given me decent performance so far)

Also, if i want to be able to go dual monitors, (LoL on one, browser/youtube/movies on the other) How much more, if any, would i have to spend?

System specs:

CPU: i5 3570k (ivy Bridge)
RAM: 8 GB (edit to add name)
HDD: SSD (edit to add name)
MB : Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H
GPU: Intel HD 4000

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Hi Gerell.
Use the resources on this site to get a general performance of cards. Remember that any given card may play 3 games great and 3 games not so good, a comparable card from the other stable may be exactly opposite.

Intel 4000 > http://community.fut...ics 4000/review
Intel 4000 vs http://community.fut...4000/benchmarks

$100 > http://community.fut...+GTX+650/review
$120 > http://community.fut... HD 7770/review
$140 > http://community.fut...X 650 Ti/review

Can you play a particular game, > http://www.yougamers.../?mainnavi=true

Multi display, starting with a cheap card on special,
3DVision Surround<br style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);">- Support 3 displays in full stereoscopic 3D with a single card. <br style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);">- Support up to 4 displays with a single card.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127701 With a free game, bottom line, $85

[iammykyl]

Hi Gerell.
Use the resources on this site to get a general performance of cards. Remember that any given card may play 3 games great and 3 games not so good, a comparable card from the other stable may be exactly opposite.

Intel 4000 > http://community.fut...ics 4000/review
Intel 4000 vs http://community.fut...4000/benchmarks

$100 > http://community.fut...+GTX+650/review
$120 > http://community.fut... HD 7770/review
$140 > http://community.fut...X 650 Ti/review

Can you play a particular game, > http://www.yougamers.../?mainnavi=true

Multi display, starting with a cheap card on special,
3DVision Surround<br style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);">- Support 3 displays in full stereoscopic 3D with a single card. <br style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);">- Support up to 4 displays with a single card.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127701 With a free game, bottom line, $85

[Gerell]

Thanks for the great, quality response! In your opinion, would you spend the extra $$ for the 140? Or stick with the 80 dollar one on special?

Edit: Wow, I was looking at the link you gave to compare benchmarks. Its crazy how much extra i get. I still don't exactly know how much "performance" i get for a 5% increase in the bar though.

Edited by Gerell, 29 December 2012 - 11:14 AM.

[iammykyl]

Your welcome Gerell
I would stay with the $80 special, will give you a noticeable gaming performance compared to the Intel 4000, save some money to put towards that second screen. If you want to upgrade later, the card would have a reasonable re sale value.

A performance gain is pretty hard to specificle quantify. If you are playing with everything maxed out, 5% is probable not very noticeable but playing on medium settings, FPS may reach that desired 30 fps or the magical (consistent) 60 fps giving you really smooth game play.

The results in this article gives a good demo of medium vs ultra. > http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3681/3/gpu-benchmarks-far-cry-3-incl-5760x1080!-1920x1080

[Gerell]

Heh, and if I sell the coupon on eBay I'm sure I can get 15 bucks lol

[iammykyl]

That would be a bonus.

Do you need any tutorials on how to build? any other questions?

[Gerell]

No thanks! The machine is already built! Typing from it! lol, I'm running the integrated graphics. Going for the graphics card upgrade soon. Thanks again.

[iammykyl]

Good to hear you are up and running.
Update the OS and drivers.
Create a image of the OS drive and a emergency disc, you can use the Windows built in tools.
Stay away from Reg cleaners/optimizers and programs that promise to speed up your system, they usually cause problems or brick the installation.
I would be interested in the results of the video upgrade.