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Best card for 170£

£170 is poorly served price point for now. A 960 is overpriced and underpowered. A 280X is a little overpriced too when a 280/285 can be had for £150.

Erm I suggest a 2nd hand 680.
 
Speaking from experience I'd recommend keeping tabs on the b-grade stuff. I recently bought a 780ti for £199 and it's been fantastic. You'll have plenty of time to notify the returns dept if you receive a dud.
 
ossieclap said:
Speaking from experience I'd recommend keeping tabs on the b-grade stuff. I recently bought a 780ti for £199 and it's been fantastic. You'll have plenty of time to notify the returns dept if you receive a dud.
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That's just what I was thinking. I really just need a decent, entry level videocard to get me started. Because I have had to start from scratch, tower, table, chair, screen etc, my money can only stretch so far..

So, lets say we go bgrade, what card do you recommend? If we scrap the sum of 170£ and as cheap as possible( within reason). I don't neccessariy need to to be able to run games on full settings.

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290 you posted for 150£ seems like a right bargain!
 
Would the R9 270x be a good choice? or does it lack umph? One of the reviews I've red, it doesn't look like A LOT of difference between the 290x and the 270x....... I could then add a second 270x for better performance, but by then the 300 series will probably be out.

Apparently my mobo runs one card at x16 and crossfire at x8... Will 8x reduce performance dramaticly or does it not matter much?
 
Theres a massive drop from the 290 mate, the 270 is essentially a tweaked 7870. It's normally less hassle to go for the fastest single gpu you can afford and forget about crossfire/sli due to the issues they introduce such as micro stutter, bad game support etc. Obviously if you're running higher res crossfire comes into it's own and is the only solution.

Heres a link with benches:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1043
 
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Fair enough. But the 290x is more than twice the money 270x..... Is 270x a good entry level? Even if it only lasts me till the summer when hopefully the 300 series will be released?

Looking at the benchmarks you linked, the fps of the 270x aren't overly bad considering the price it's goingfor....

at 130-140£, canyou get a better GPU from nvidia?
 
Don't get me wrong the 270,is still a good card and will run most things with max settings 1080p above 30fps, it just doesn't compare to a 290 for £150. At the normal price comparison then yes it's a good value card and will no doubt tide you over til the 300's arrive.

As for nvidia the only card they have around that price is the 750 Ti which is slower, other options 660 gtx, again slower and older, 760 gtx (if you can find one second hand) or the final option is the 960 gtx which is more expensive but faster than the 270.


Ps the 270 non x is practically the same, clocks to 270x speeds and cheaper
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Thank you for input and help. I think, like you say a normal 270 will tie me over till 300 series are released.

When you say clock, you mean overclocking the 270? by overclocking would I need any additional cooling for the card? like another x31 kraken?

I've got two 140mm front intake fans, 1 140mm roof exhaust and hoping for a pushpullconfig on my x31 kraken.
 
I would have thought that one of the B Grade 290s is the best answer. You can see what happens in Summer with the 3xx and probably get nearly all of what you spent back if you sell.
 
You're welcome and yes with overclocking you'll be fine with the cooler it comes with, they're identical to the ones found on the 270x across the various manufacturers. You won't even need anymore volts to hit 270x speeds, just enable overdrive in the control panel and set the clocks the same as a 270x. I've had a good few 270 non x for builds and none have never failed to overclock to 270x speeds, it's only a very mild overclock anyway. Even if you don't fancy clocking it theres very little perceivable difference between the 270 and 270x anyway.

sweols said:
Thank you for input and help. I think, like you say a normal 270 will tie me over till 300 series are released.

When you say clock, you mean overclocking the 270? by overclocking would I need any additional cooling for the card? like another x31 kraken?

I've got two 140mm front intake fans, 1 140mm roof exhaust and hoping for a pushpullconfig on my x31 kraken.
Click to expand...
 
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