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Best GPU for £100-130

Telecaster

Telecaster

Telecaster

Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2012
Posts
5,951
As per thread title, looking to move the 980 on as I simply don't have the time to do enough gaming to justify a 980 and it seems sensible to get rid of it whilst there's still value in it.

So what's my best bet on the new or used market for £100-130? Red or green doesn't matter, monitor is 1200p and I value quietness above outright speed, so something that maybe is silent at idle/low load. 980 is an MSI gaming and it's perfect from an acoustic POV.

I was thinking maybe an R9 290 or 780? Please, no suggestions of "well if you just go up to £160 you can have XYZ card" budget as per thread title.

Cheers.
 
The 290 would be a better bet over the 780 moving forward. As for noise level, just try to find one with a custom cooler that's quiet- most ain't noisy as long as you have decent airflow.
 
Are 290's and 780's really as cheap as £100-130? Somehow I seriously doubt it. The cheapest would be the 290 reference model but even that would typically go for more than £130 and it's ridiculously loud.

A GTX950 would be in your price range new. Major downgrade though. Second hand I would have thought it would be R9 280s, 7970s, GTX770's, 680s, etc in that price bracket.
 
Telecaster said:
As per thread title, looking to move the 980 on as I simply don't have the time to do enough gaming to justify a 980 and it seems sensible to get rid of it whilst there's still value in it.

So what's my best bet on the new or used market for £100-130? Red or green doesn't matter, monitor is 1200p and I value quietness above outright speed, so something that maybe is silent at idle/low load. 980 is an MSI gaming and it's perfect from an acoustic POV.

I was thinking maybe an R9 290 or 780? Please, no suggestions of "well if you just go up to £160 you can have XYZ card" budget as per thread title.

Cheers.
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You've got the posts so see whats on the MM, I let my MSI 290x gaming go for around 130 not too long ago and seeing as winters coming someone got a bargain as it doubles as a space heater.

I'd opt for Hawaii over a 780. Your best bet is too look for a 290 or 290x.

If you can find a Sapphire 290 tri-x grab it.
 
How about the new Asus GeForce GTX 950 Strix which has been getting some good reviews and should just squeeze into your your price bracket?

I an actually seriously thinking of getting one of these myself for a new system, although my monitor's resolution is only 1920 x 1080, so not too demanding.
 
Telecaster said:
Yeah I had looked at them, but they just offer really poor VFM compared to what you can get used, IMO.



Any reason in particular for that?
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It's slightly faster (I went from a 780 Classified to an MSI 290x gaming) and that extra gb of ram does sometimes matter. It did for me due to texture modding, That may be a non issue though. Mainly because it tends to be a bit faster.
 
You can definitely pick up a 290 for 130 in the MM, that is what i would go for and will last you quite a while. I cant imagine any other card which will go the distance comparatively at £130
 
nashathedog said:
You've got the posts so see whats on the MM, I let my MSI 290x gaming go for around 130 not too long ago and seeing as winters coming someone got a bargain as it doubles as a space heater
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was the 290x that bad?
Im using the Msi 7950 the now and didint think the temps were bad on it. but ive seen a few folk say that about the 290x.
 
Most of the folks who say that never owned one.

I have owned three, two reference and one MSI gaming. All have been brilliant. The reference ran a little toasty when they still had their air coolers on but not enough to affect my performance. I use a nice and airy Carbide 540 case and they have since gone on water. You can definitely find cool running 290xs with aftermarkets for cheap.

The second hand market was over saturated with them because they were mass bought for mining and then mass sold when the bubble broke.
 
jbh110tdi said:
was the 290x that bad?
Im using the Msi 7950 the now and didint think the temps were bad on it. but ive seen a few folk say that about the 290x.
Click to expand...

Even with a 1 for 1 fan profile it would sit in the mid too high 80's on the most demanding titles, Dying Light being one. And yes it would have a noticeable effect on a smallish rooms temps after a few hours in a demanding game.
 
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Yeah I had a reference 290 as well and it was a joke. I thought to myself, "OK, the reviews say the noise levels are bad, but sure, I'll be playing a game, it won't matter".

It was so loud and hot I ended up selling it, it was almost like having a hairdryer on inside the PC. Quite the opposite to what the guy said above, I find people who've never owned a reference model don't quite understand how hot and loud they are.
 
My 7950 can get fairly noisy at times but ive never seen it over 70c in games. highest ive seen it was 75c and that was in heaven.
I'm hoping the gtx 970 should be around the same.
 
Picked up the EVGA 780 Classy out of the MM for £150, £20 over my budget but I had more hanging around in my PP account than I remember after selling some tat on ebay so it's not all bad, probably cost me around £75 actual outlay.

Looking forward to giving it a spin.
 
While I have overclocked my GPU that's 3ish months old, I would still probably buy the gtx 750 if I didn't already own one, best card I've had and suppose for a new priced point it's in the middle??
 
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