Graphics card for a Gateway PC?

[Soleron]

Tarumon said:

...

Show me your quantitative measurements for everything you tried to dispute. 

OK

On motherboards barely affecting performance: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6231/gigabyte-x79sup5-wifi-review-ultra-durable-5-meets-the-c606-chipset/8
On multi-GPU killing image quality: http://techreport.com/news/21625/multi-gpu-micro-stuttering-captured-on-video
On SSDs not being needed for games: I can't find any reviews except on load times, which is proof enough because if they affected it they'd be benching

I am not encouraging him to do much with his Gateway ad it wouldnt be cost effective.  Changing GPU is the best way, and getting older GPU at a substantial discount is a great way.  

Please find me some decent pricing that makes it worth it.

The GPU clockspeed on the labels do not reveal true performance.  

You think I don't know that? WTF.

There are countless websites and publications dedicated to benchmarking GPU performance for different types of games.  

Indeed and that's exactly what I'm arguing for. Claiming motherboards or an "inefficient" system somehow affect performance without evidence is what's wrong here.

Cheaper top of line GPU on clearance to make room for new GPU cut on new dye is very economical.  

Doesn't happen.

Your opinion of whether crossfire or SLi work is based on what?  Not everyone has the budget or want to spend over $250 in this case to get a gpu.  Some time down the road, he just might wishhe bought a higher end card, without paying top dollars forone, the same GPU which he has had for a while could be mated with a now cheaper twin.  

By the time that happens your card is obsolete and you might as well buy a new one. Also microstuttering.

The boost is noticeable, measurable, is it as good as one gpu? No, but it's an option again with quantifiable results.

Then quantify them.

Is your knowledge coming from experience or are you just feeling superior because you read it somewhere?  How do you even know what he would want in the future?  PC gaming often leads down that forever hardware upgrade cycle.  

Correct. There is no such thing as future proof, buying to OC, buying for good "value". You buy to get the best performance you can with the budget you have, end of.

Your dismissing my experience hardly is surprising given the "quality" of some of the posters here.  I took the time to help him.  You took a cheap shot at me, but how does that help anyone here? And you don't even have facts to support your dispute!

Not at you. At your facts, which are incorrect, and will mislead people.

Write down what you do for a living and let's see how qualified you compared with pros and testers at Tom's Hardware.  

Research physicist (third year at Cambridge). I believe in data and only data. Have built 2 PCs and followed hardware market for six years. 

And for your lack of knowledge on hardware, you can have the same gpu, cpu, ram, harddrive and STILL have vastly different results.

By a couple of %. If it was more than that why do we even have hardware reviews? Things wouldn't be repeatable at all.

 Gateway motherboard has a lower bandwidth.

Which doesn't matter at all if you use one GPU like I'm saying.

Some motherboards support Crossfire or SLi but the bus isnt wired with enough bandwidth.  And let me tell you why PC gamers (not Zynga gamers) pursue upgrades and why the small difference matters so much:

1. In FPS, if your FPS is not enough, you are gping to die without "seeing" why.

2. In MMOs, if your party spend days organizing, and hours getting to the boss at the end of an instanced dungeon, your freezing, skipped frame, or oops I didnt see here was aggro there, could wreck the experience fo everybody.

WTF is all that. Of course you want higher FPS. Just not sacrificing image quality and smoothness. Are you playing a game or just measuring T3H POWER of your machine?

I did not make an assumption of what types of games he wishes or would eventually find fun an interesting.  What makes you even remotely qualified to say He wants to play PC games, everything is fine? Did you NOT read that he said if he liked the experience he would try to build a system NEXT? Your lack of knowledge and even worse appreciation of people's time is not a good habit to have.  I hope you are successful in real life already, cuz I'm not so sure your attitude will take you very far.

Interested in building a PC =/= wants to waste hours OCing, worrying about hardware efficiency, solving obscure driver bugs related to multi-GPU