Looking for new GFX Card - £300 max

[RetrogamerX]

Alright, so starting to get concerned about the PSU unit given that a few have mentioned it.

Now I do think that 800w is a bit overkill. So dropping it to 500-650w would probably be a safe bet. Any recommendations specifically?? Keeping to within a £100 budget for the PSU. I want to have at least some money to survive the next month XD

A PSU is the most important thing for your PC. You cant go cheap

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-047-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-012-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

 

[pipson]

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/VTX3D/Radeon_HD_7870_XT_Black/1.html

This is whay i bought vtx3d black edition 7870 for £170 and performs like a 7950 which cost around £250

 

[subbytna]

^VTX are shoddy for returns and general help imo^

 

[~>Dg<~]

upgrade your cpu mobo and ram first

 

[Orcvader]

Alright, so starting to get concerned about the PSU unit given that a few have mentioned it.

Now I do think that 800w is a bit overkill. So dropping it to 500-650w would probably be a safe bet. Any recommendations specifically?? Keeping to within a £100 budget for the PSU. I want to have at least some money to survive the next month XD

If you don't plan on going crossfire, these will be enough and will leave enough for a 7950:

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
Total : £111.08 (includes shipping : £9.25).



If you do plan on crossfiring, RetrogamerX posted some good ones.

 

[Havana_UK]

My opinion: forget a GPU upgrade, you simply don't need it when running at 1366x768! Aside from the fact that your GTX560 will run things happily at that low resolution your CPU will be holding a new GPU back. You'll spend a bunch of money and gain practically nothing.

Others have already told you where best to spend your money, which I'll repeat:
1. New (quality) PSU
2. New CPU, mobo, RAM (could look at 2nd hand i5-2500K setup)
3. New 1080p monitor
4. THEN new GPU

 

[Marine-RX179]

^VTX are shoddy for returns and general help imo^

You forgot to mention the general lower build quality as well comparing to other big boys

 

[jscott10]

Funny how things change. Wanted to get a GFX card, ended up going for a new CPU/Mobo/Ram and PSU. This is currently what I'm looking to get now. I did change the Ram as I do plan to have a stylized build once I get the other components but this should hopefully do for now.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
Total : £369.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).




Once again, thanks for the help guys

 

[Marine-RX179]

Funny how things change. Wanted to get a GFX card, ended up going for a new CPU/Mobo/Ram and PSU. This is currently what I'm looking to get now. I did change the Ram as I do plan to have a stylized build once I get the other components but this should hopefully do for now.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
Total : £369.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).




Once again, thanks for the help guys

For that kind of price, you should really be looking at Intel Haswell rather than the EOL IvyBridge.

 

[jscott10]

Is there any real difference between the Ivybridge and Haswell other than efficiency?

I mean I found a Haswell processor for the same price as the I5 above - though the i5 is the retail version which comes with a cooler(from my understanding anyway) which I would be using as my current cooler most likely wont be compatible with the new processor/mobo.

I really dunno what to go with now... Somebody recommends one thing then somebody else recommend another.


By all means recommend a build(just processor/mobo/ram and PSU mind) with the Haswell processor, but it just seems that the parts keep going up in price - its almost like you work for Overclockers to try get people to spend more money lol

 

[a66as]

Why would you want to buy older tech for the same price? the haswell processor has better CPU onboard graphics, around 5-10% faster and runs cooler

 

[bru]

I really dunno what to go with now... Somebody recommends one thing then somebody else recommend another.


By all means recommend a build(just processor/mobo/ram and PSU mind) with the Haswell processor, but it just seems that the parts keep going up in price - its almost like you work for Overclockers to try get people to spend more money lol

I know what you mean, sometimes it can be a right minefield to get consistent advice.

Haswell is better than Ivybridge, but it also runs a little hotter and is slightly more expensive, coming in about £40 or so dearer after taking into account the dearer CPU and motherboards.

you can get a budget Ivy bridge setup as I spec'd earlier for a smidgen over £300 but it only has the stock cooler and for overclocking you will need better.

A Haswell setup will be more for example: (incl a cooler)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £97.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper T4 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £20.99
Total : £342.96 (includes shipping : FREE).




As for your PSU, now I'm not saying its a good one by any means, but swapping it out for a £50 500w one with a better name on the side isn't really going to do you any favours. If it was a £15 really cheap and nasty one then of course, but it isn't. It is a £68 near top of the OCUK range PSU and I would expect it to be just as competent as a £40-£50 named 500w one.
By all means swap it out for a better one but in my opinion changing it out for a £50 one is a bit of a side step.

(it would be nice to know who makes these PSU for OCUK hint hint)

 

[jscott10]

So hopefully this build will be final, but still open to changes. It is another Haswell build. Now I did spend the past hour or so looking over various parts( would have prefered to be playing Skyrim XD).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £194.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £97.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £74.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
Total : £429.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Processor - Able to overclock(from what I found) should I wish to better than the i5-4670.

Mobo - Current Mobo is ATX so ATX mobo required to use until I get a new case(new case does have ATX compatibility).

PSU - Decent brand, nice 850w if i so desire to SLI/Xfire GFX cards.

Ram - standard 8GB, only choose the blue to match the White/Blue look of my new case once I get it. If its really bad Ram then please let me know.

Now I may not be able to reply within a few hours as I do have to go out.

Once again thanks very much for the help and patience in hopefully getting my PC somewhat upgraded.

 

[bru]

PSU - Decent brand, nice 850w if i so desire to SLI/Xfire GFX cards.

Just to mention the board you have picked out (yes I know it is the one I suggested) is not Nvidia SLI compatible, it is AMD crossfire compatible.
This one is the cheapest Xfire and SLI compatible board I believe, but it is still a micro ATX format just to make you aware.

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock Z87M EXTREME4 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £113.99
Total : £113.99 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[Orcvader]

(it would be nice to know who makes these PSU for OCUK hint hint)

Powercool makes them... I still wouldn't trust using one .

RAM is fine, no need to worry about that.

Maybe try to stretch to one of these boards:

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock Z87 EXTREME3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
Total : £274.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).



Both are ATX so should look better than mATX (as mATX will look oddly small in an ATX case). Also does x8/x8 Crossfire/SLi as well. Colour scheme should also go nicely with the rest of the components.

And I just realised how over we went budget wise for you OP ...

 

[bru]

Good call on those boards +1

 

[jscott10]

Just to mention the board you have picked out (yes I know it is the one I suggested) is not Nvidia SLI compatible, it is AMD crossfire compatible.

Given that my next GFX card will most likely be an AMD Radeon 7950 then is should not be a problem for me. Even then I'm still unsure whether I want to crossfire or not at this point.

And I just realised how over we went budget wise for you OP ...

Yea it has went above the £300 I had originally planned to spend but if it helps improves my FPS(which it really should) then its money well spent. Even then I would be having a similar discussion in about a months time. So probly better to get the main parts of the new build just now and wait until I can get the added extras.