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Looking for a step up from a 7850 on a budget

pumaz

pumaz

pumaz

Soldato
Joined
7 Oct 2003
Posts
5,693
Location
Nottingham
Currently upgrading a HTPC and so far I have the following:

Sugo SG05 450w ITX case + PSU
ASRock Z77E-ITX
i5 2500K
8GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 1866Mhz DDR3
H50 Corsair Cooler
256GB M4 SSD
MSI 7850 2GB Video Card

Now I'm thinking the weakest link is the 7850 and while it is only a HTPC I will also do some gaming from the sofa! I only have a maximum budget of £100 (assuming I'll get back £50 for the 7850) and I'm looking for a step up in power while being quiet during HTPC duties.

Any recommendations?

Can be AMD or NVidia, New or Used :)
 
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What games and what res do you like to play - this may help people make better suggestions

The 7850 is still pretty good for 1080P - anything more than that and it will struggle though.

I think for £100 you will struggle - certainly new, as from an AMD view they have the R9 270 (essentially a slightly tweaked 7870) that is already over budget.

Anything used I think you will struggle also, as at least on AMD's side you are looking at R9 280X's or 7950/70s that are much bigger, power hungry and potentially noisier for your ITX HTPC case.

Not sure with regards to NVIDIA cards tbh
 
I've got no concerns about the PSU as i've had 7970's running fine off these 450w and it's just a normal 50" 1080p 60hz TV. I thought about a used 7970 and although doable with mods they're a tight fit and was hoping to avoid cutting cases again! good cards though.

I noticed you can get a new MSI 760 OC for £149 so what's the chances of picking a used one up for £100? also how much better is a 660ti than a 7850?
 
You wont be making much of a step up with just £100 to spend on a single card.

(Well unless you can grab a 7970 or a 680 for around £100 second hand)

Your other option is crossfire.

If your on a budget, and cant save any more, then I would go with a second hand 7970. Why? Becuase it has 3Gb of Vram which will be a step up for you as your current card only has 2Gb.

In an ideal world, you save up and grab a 970 when you can.
 
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I already have a 970 in my main rig, don't need anything quit that good in my HTPC, I know £100 isn't allot I just wanted to see if I could cheaply make an improvement, I'd jump on a used GTX 760 for £100 if I got chance but don't want the hassle of making a 7970 fit! and I can't Crossfire on a ITX board.
 
pumaz said:
I've got no concerns about the PSU as i've had 7970's running fine off these 450w and it's just a normal 50" 1080p 60hz TV. I thought about a used 7970 and although doable with mods they're a tight fit and was hoping to avoid cutting cases again! good cards though.

I noticed you can get a new MSI 760 OC for £149 so what's the chances of picking a used one up for £100? also how much better is a 660ti than a 7850?
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Seriously wouldn't recommend you going from the 7850 to a 760. It is barely an upgrade.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Seriously wouldn't recommend you going from the 7850 to a 760. It is barely an upgrade.
Click to expand...

You might be right actually after looking at some benchmarks but the 760 gives an extra 10fps in BF4 maybe I'm better off hanging on to what I have but 10fps is a difference!
 
Just seen a Gigabyte GTX 770 Windforce 2GB sell for £110 on MM, maybe that's something to think about
 
Same upgrade actually, I was advised that a 7970 or 7950 would be a good option and cheap. Cheap Is what i'm after and looking at selling 7850 I could expect to upgrade for under £100 probably about £60- £70 in total.

A 7970, 7950 or 280x should be a very nice boost from a 7850.
 
Darujhistan said:
Same upgrade actually, I was advised that a 7970 or 7950 would be a good option and cheap. Cheap Is what i'm after and looking at selling 7850 I could expect to upgrade for under £100 probably about £60- £70 in total.

A 7970, 7950 or 280x should be a very nice boost from a 7850.
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After much googling I think you're bang on the money, I'd be happy with a quiet 7950 that would fit in my case. Would be a nice £50 upgrade :)
 
7950's have been going for around £70 used, that'd be a nice little upgrade :)

Without wishing to get in trouble but is my estimation of £50 for a used 2GB 7850 about right? After earning 2 bags of Haribo through my recent purchases of MSI 970 and a Black Friday Shield Tablet Bundle I'm a little skint so adding £50 to whatever my 7850's worth is all I can afford!
 
pumaz said:
7950's have been going for around £70 used, that'd be a nice little upgrade :)

Without wishing to get in trouble but is my estimation of £50 for a used 2GB 7850 about right? After earning 2 bags of Haribo through my recent purchases of MSI 970 and a Black Friday Shield Tablet Bundle I'm a little skint so adding £50 to whatever my 7850's worth is all I can afford!
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Yeah about right. Check your for sale thread by the way.
 
Well I've gone from being dead set on a 280x to drifting to the 770, It's slowly dawning on me that a 280x will be too long for my case which is a real shame as I already have an 970 in my main rig and it would have been nice to have a AMD card in my HTPC. Another possitive about the 770's is they seem to run quieter, use less power and don't run as hot which would be beneficial.

The hunt for a used GTX 770 is on!
 
McGraw said:
I think the MSI gaming fits without case modding and I don't think many others do.

I did a lot of research.
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That would be great as that's the one I had my eye on :)

Did start looking at the 270x as they're shorter but there's not much of a price difference between thiese and the 280x's and speaking of price is it me or have video cards shot up over this past week :confused:

There's a used MSI 280x I've been trying to get on another forum but he wants £140 but I don't really want to pay more than £120, is my offer fair?

One last point! Lots of manufactures seem to exaggerate the length of their cards which creates a problem, when I ask for a cards length most people just quote the length as per written specs instead of taking a tape measure out.
 
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