Question: After almost 30 years developing software on stock PCs, I finally performed my first build from the pages of Maximum PC. I scoured your pages from many issues and planned a build during a long weekend and it’s been purring along for 18 months. I have a Core i5-3570K on an Asus P8Z77.V board, with 16GB RAM, two 128GB SSDs, a 3TB backup drive, and 850W PSU in an NZXT Phantom 410 chassis. Now I’m thinking of adding a graphics card. I don’t do a lot with graphics, so I’ve managed with onboard but I might do more. The GeForce 780 Ti sounds very cool. Will it work well in this system? Will overall performance improve? Apart from a Hyper 212 CPU cooler, I’m only using the Phantom’s stock fans. Will I need more cooling? —David Kates
The Doctor Responds: Yes, performance will certainly improve—that’s one of the best graphics cards on the market, period, and it’s going to be faster than your integrated graphics by a factor of four or more. But if you’re not gaming or doing much graphically intensive work—and that seems to be the case—the Doc thinks the GeForce 780 Ti might be a little overkill.
There’s nothing wrong with overkill, and your rig can certainly handle the 780 Ti, but if you’re just getting into applications that need more graphical oomph, the Doc suggests starting with something cheaper, like the GTX 760. It’s roughly a third the price of the 780 Ti but has the oomph for gaming on high settings on a 1080p panel. If you won’t be gaming and just want a little more graphical muscle for everyday tasks, you’ll be fine with something even less expensive.
