GPU

What about the i5 4440? that's the only i5 I can afford.

 

If you're on a tight budget, maybe go with an AMD like I did. (Got an FX-8320 brand new for $160.) Don't forget that you should also get a decent motherboard. (Mine was about $80 IIRC.)

 

I added the price of the 4440 and an msi mobo and it totaled for $220.

 

Be careful with MSI boards. Some budget LGA 1150 boards have issues with PCI GPUs.
If you're on a tight budget, I'd say go for a decent ASUS AM3+ board, AMD FX 8320, and a R7 260 graphics card. If you have some more money, go for the R9 270, it's more than enough for most games at 1080p. When I upgraded my 6670 to a 270 the performance boost was huge.

 

I bought the i5 4440 and I'm pairing it with an MSI Z87 G41 PC mate board. Once I get those components, I'm good to go I just need a gpu because I don't want to run a 6670 on an i5.

 

Get a R7 260. Or, if you have some more money, a 280. Actually, you shouldn't get a 270. Right now I'm in a weird place where I'd like a bit more performance to get 60 FPS in very resource intensive games, but my GPU is just good enough that upgrading to a high-end one isn't worth it unless I want to go 4K, so I must wait a generation or two in order for the upgrade to be useful.
A.K.A I want a 970 but upgrading isn't really worth it since I get 60 FPS in 90% of games already.

 

I'm playing on 1600 by 900 monitor. I want to play on high to ultra settings at 60 fps. Does the 270 not provide 60 fps? Or what's wrong with the 270? Can I get a 270x instead?

 

At 900 you'll get well over 60 FPS on pretty much everything (exception crysis 3 etc). I don't recommend the 270 because there are always those games where you don't get the right framerate, and you want to upgrade but it isn't really worth it yet because it's quite close to the high-end cards.

 

the 260 is a weak card to pair with my i5 though. I want a card to last me for a long time though. Are there any nvidia cards for less than $200 for my i5?

 

If you want to keep it for a long time, you chose the wrong i5. The 4440 is a mid-range CPU and it's locked.
You could buy a 750 Ti if you want nvidia, it's between the 260 and 270 in terms of performance.
I'd say either buy a 260 or 750 Ti, I'd get the 260 on that budget, since the 750 Ti falls into the same problem as the 270 and 760. If you're planning to keep your card for a long time and don't mind not getting 60 on some games, go with the 750 Ti. However, if you're like me and want to get a better card as soon as you can afford it, go for a 260 or else you'll find the upgrade isn't really worth it.

 

I have a used MSI GAMING R9 270 that I got for $120 off eBay. I game on a 1600x900 monitor like you (I have two but I only game on one) and I'm perfectly happy with its performance.

 

I'm also perfectly happy with its performance on 1080p. And that's what pisses me off. I want to save up and buy a top-end graphics card, but I have no reason to. I just want to have a great GPU, but I don't need to. And that's annoying me.
So, god dammit, if you're at all like me, don't buy a 270. The same thing goes for the 760.

A 260 on the other hand, will remind you that it's a budget card when playing graphics-intensive games, and you will then have a reason to buy a top-end GPU.

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Then again, that's coming from someone who bought a $250 CPU just because I damn wanted to. I pretty much used BeamNG as an excuse to myself, "No, that FX 6100 might be fine for every game but it can't run BeamNG. Need to change it."
Although that was worth it. The FX is a budget CPU, and now my PC is overall much faster. But a GPU upgrade doesn't make sense for the next 2-3 years, or until I go 4K. I guess I'll just buy an SSD :/

Oh wait, SSDs will get cheaper and better in a year or two as well. Shit :/

 

Yeah, that's why I got a new CPU. An 8320 isn't the best for Drive, but it's a hell of a lot better than my A8-3850 anyway. I got an SSD simply because my 3 way HDD RAID 0 was slow as hell and was eventually going to fail. SSDs are so much faster it's almost unbelievable. (Went from ~100MBs max to ~500MBs.) I do want to get a second 270 and Crossfire but it's not like I'm saving up for that. I've got other things that need upgrading first. (Bigger screens, new mouse, SSD for netbook, etc.)

 

I just have this thing that I need to be constantly upgrading my rig. Now I just changed CPU and I need a cooler. Then, I'll get some DDR2 RAM and build my second PC (core 2 quad). I'll also need a case, but I can just use a box until I find one. Metal is overrated :/
If the GT 9600 is dead I might buy some old GPU to use with it for basic gaming etc. Or I might sell it and buy an old laptop, because I actually need one.

As for SSDs, I don't really need one since my PC already boots in under 20 seconds. Win8 was faster to start though.

 

So should I get the 270 and or 270x?

 

Yes.
Unless you're like me and want an excuse to upgrade to high-end parts, because the 270 won't give you one.

And don't waste your money on the 270x, a slight OC on the 270 and it's the same.

 

Do u know if it will run Drive 60 fps high to ultra settings?
?

 

I run Drive on max without any problems.

 

Yes it will, your CPU might struggle with the T75 though.

 

Why though?