Looking for a step up from a 7850 on a budget

McGraw · 4 Dec 2014 at 09:25

Yeah you need to get a proper measurement.

I ordered a pcs 290 believing it to fit but it turns out powercolor list the board length, not the entire card including cooler. Fortunately I realised this before opening it up.

Reviews tend to have the correct lengths.

Bonjour · 4 Dec 2014 at 09:29

I sold my 270x on the MM for £70 earlier in the week. Seems to be about the going rate, so £140 for a used 280X is a bit steep.

I picked up a used 290 for £130.

pumaz · 4 Dec 2014 at 10:04

What's your thoughts on this deal?

MSI R9 270X GAMING 2GB GDDR5 + AMD Gold Rewards Space Edition £129.99

Maybe I could bring the price down by selling the Games voucher, don't know the going rate though.

Customer reviews suggest it plays games like BF4 etc. with high details at 1080p. Can a budget card like this really produce such results?

Bonjour I saw your card, sadly too late

Bonjour · 4 Dec 2014 at 10:18

It's a very good card. Good performance without the ridiculous power requirements of a 290. Perfectly fine at 1080p for games released up until the 2nd half of this year. Requirements are getting a little ridiculous if you want to run the latest games with all the details cranked up.

pumaz · 4 Dec 2014 at 10:28

Hmmm, maybe the 270x could be a serious contender, it's going in a HTPC and games that will be played on it mostly going to be racing like F1 2014, Grid Autosport and similar. I do like my games to look good but not necessarily "ultra" and if I could get back say £20 for the codes I'd have a brand new card for £110 or will I find it lacking?

Here's a stupid question! Do low end cards like the 270x support Mantle?

eddyr · 4 Dec 2014 at 11:33

The 270x is a 7870 so it not a big upgrade to your 7850.

wazza300 · 4 Dec 2014 at 11:54

used 7970 is about the best bet,other than overclocking your 7850

Armageus · 4 Dec 2014 at 11:56

pumaz said:
Here's a stupid question! Do low end cards like the 270x support Mantle?

Yes as essentially a rebranded 7870, which also support Mantle

eddyr said:
The 270x is a 7870 so it not a big upgrade to your 7850.

Basically a 7870Ghz edition - but memory clock is slightly higher 5.6Ghz vs 4.8Ghz, so can be ~5% quicker depending on game.

pumaz said:
I'd have a brand new card for £110 or will I find it lacking?

Probably lacking, but depends how much you value a "new" card, plus your htpc requirements of low noise, and size constraints.

If it sweetens the deal, the 270x is available in a specific ITX version as well by some manufacturers.

Just for perspective - a 280X would be almost double the speed of your 7850, rather than the ~20% of a 270X.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/13

pumaz · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:27

It's not so much I want a "new" card that I want a card! My new motherboard and cpu arrive today (bought off MM) and I wanted to build it from scratch with a better card than the 7850. Despite advertising in "wanted" and scanning "for sale" sections in two forums like a mad man (oh yeah and ebay) I've pretty much drawn a blank with just one possibility from a seller who wants £140 for a 10 month old MSI 280x Gaming that was this price new only a week or so ago. also really hard to get a response from

So I've started looking at new cards and guess what 280x's are rising in price so I thought I'd look at the 270x (MSI would be my preferred choice for either 270x or 280x)

Here's a youtube link showing a 270x getting twice the FPS of a 7850

So ultmately if I was to buy new and get £50 back for the sale of the 7850 and say £20 back for codes which would be a better deal - MSI 280x Gaming at £178 or MSI 270x Gaming at £140?

Or even just resist temptation and keep what I have?

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:31

pumaz said:
It's not so much I want a "new" card that I want a card! My new motherboard and cpu arrive today (bought off MM) and I wanted to build it from scratch with a better card than the 7850. Despite advertising in "wanted" and scanning "for sale" sections in two forums like a mad man (oh yeah and ebay) I've pretty much drawn a blank with just one possibility from a seller who wants £140 for a 10 month old MSI 280x Gaming that was this price new only a week or so ago. also really hard to get a response from

So I've started looking at new cards and guess what 280x's are rising in price so I thought I'd look at the 270x (MSI would be my preferred choice for either 270x or 280x)

Here's a youtube link showing a 270x getting twice the FPS of a 7850

So ultmately if I was to buy new and get £50 back for the sale of the 7850 and say £20 back for codes which would be a better deal - MSI 280x Gaming at £178 or MSI 270x Gaming at £140?

Or even just resist temptation and keep what I have?

That's a 280x in the YT vid not the 270x!

David Bisset · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:34

pumaz that's a youtube link of a 280X getting double a 7850, not a 270X. The 270X is a clocked up 270, which is a 7870 - a well clocked 7850 is almost as fast (lots of headroom on these, can get about +45% clockspeed over stock).

Edit: Rats, too slow

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:37

Does anyone know here I could find reliable power consumption comparisons for a 7850 2GB, a 7950, 7970, 280x and NV 970?

David Bisset · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:41

Darujhistan said:
Does anyone know here I could find reliable power consumption comparisons for a 7850 2GB, a 7950, 7970, 280x and NV 970?

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2014-vga-charts/23-Power-Consumption-Gaming,3615.html will give you an idea

or, comparing only the cards you asked about: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/chart...=on&prod[7114]=on&prod[6804]=on&prod[6785]=on

Summary (better always on left):

gaming low to high: 7850, 7950, 970, 7970, 280x
max draw low to high: 7850, 7950, 970, 7970, 280x
performance per watt under load high to low: 970, 7850, 7950, 7970, 280x
idle power low to high: 7850, 7950/7970, 280x, 970

Toms are not the best, but at least they have a comparison of all the cards

pumaz · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:43

Darujhistan said:
That's a 280x in the YT vid not the 270x!

LOL how stupid am I

Armageus · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:49

pumaz said:
So ultmately if I was to buy new and get £50 back for the sale of the 7850 and say £20 back for codes which would be a better deal - MSI 280x Gaming at £178 or MSI 270x Gaming at £140?

Or even just resist temptation and keep what I have?

280x is a worthwhile upgrade for the money - 270x isn't really. 7850 is still fine for 1080p - gaining 10fps here and there isn't going to make anything hugely more playable.

Personally I always look at Tom's GPU hierarchy -
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

whilst it provides a simplistic view, a 7850 to a 270X is a jump of 1 performance bin - 7850 to 280X would be 3 bins. Personally a 1 bin jump is probably not going to be noticable.

Other view is that it may be worth holding off for the next Radeon cards - I suspect the mid range cards of the next generation will be based on the new process (easier to make than high end cards - better yield), and as a result will be back to a more reasonable ITX friendly size.

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:51

pumaz said:
LOL how stupid am I

It's easily done!

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 12:57

David Bisset said:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2014-vga-charts/23-Power-Consumption-Gaming,3615.html will give you an idea

or, comparing only the cards you asked about: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/chart...=on&prod[7114]=on&prod[6804]=on&prod[6785]=on

Summary (better always on left):

gaming low to high: 7850, 7950, 970, 7970, 280x
max draw low to high: 7850, 7950, 970, 7970, 280x
performance per watt under load high to low: 970, 7850, 7950, 7970, 280x
idle power low to high: 7850, 7950/7970, 280x, 970

Toms are not the best, but at least they have a comparison of all the cards

Thanks!

Right, on second thoughts total draw on system is probably most telling. Especially when gaming, on idle surfing etc probably doesn't matter that much.

Do have any idea if any cards might be forthcoming which give me 280x kind of performance but with lower power consumption, I really only need a mid range card, the 970 seems better than AMD counterparts power wise but it quite expensive and probably overkill, then again, it's a card I can keep for 3 years or so, like my 7850 (3 years in April).

AAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 13:01

Other view is that it may be worth holding off for the next Radeon cards - I suspect the mid range cards of the next generation will be based on the new process (easier to make than high end cards - better yield), and as a result will be back to a more reasonable ITX friendly size.

Is the new process likely to mean lower power consumption?

To clarify, I'm not bothered whether the card is AMD or NV, no preference really. I might lean to NV if it's close, as I wouldn't mind a change, that's definitely not a important factor though.

David Bisset · 4 Dec 2014 at 13:03

If you're not in a hurry then maybe wait for the 960 to come out? Obviously don't know how it's performance will be till it's out but seems like it might fit your description. If the 3xx stuff from AMD comes out in the meantime then we get to see if any of the rumours about it's power use are true...

Edit: Just saw your second post. A smaller process will mean lower power consumption for equivalent performance yep

I've no idea which cards might come out first or when though - most likely it'd be mid-range stuff so possibly of use to you but we don't know for sure.

Darujhistan · 4 Dec 2014 at 13:14

David Bisset said:
If you're not in a hurry then maybe wait for the 960 to come out? Obviously don't know how it's performance will be till it's out but seems like it might fit your description. If the 3xx stuff from AMD comes out in the meantime then we get to see if any of the rumours about it's power use are true...

Edit: Just saw your second post. A smaller process will mean lower power consumption for equivalent performance yep I've no idea which cards might come out first or when though - most likely it'd be mid-range stuff so possibly of use to you but we don't know for sure.

Yeah not in a rush, i've been umming and ahhing for 6 months already!

280x performance or thereabouts, low as poss power consumption and 3GB VRAM are basically my req's.

Shame there's no clear any idea when the 960 or AMD cards come out.

edit: Sounds like Q1 '15 for 960

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-pushed-back-to-q1-2015.html