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Time to start considering an upgrade

Judgeneo

Judgeneo

Judgeneo

Soldato
Joined
15 May 2010
Posts
10,111
Location
Out of Coventry
My trusty 5870 has served me well over the years, but years indeed it has been, its old. The upgrade bug is biting.

I'm no longer in the market for the best of the best graphics card, and neither does my budget stretch near that far. What I'm really looking for is information on what different price points will get me?

Most of my gaming these days is on Runescape, so no worries about performance there :p. I'd like to play Fallout 4, and be able to play new games at 1080p, mid-low settings for a couple of years at least. Needs to be able to simultaneously drive two monitors off DVI/VGA and one using HDMI for work and video - gaming will be on the single monitor. My 5870 is also far far too loud... Quiter the better please :)

I'm not looking to make an immediate purchase, just want to know what £100, £150, and £200 would get me, and what specs and features to look out for. Is 4gb vs 2gb vram actually useful? Mantle useful over dx12 for mid-low settings? My last few cards have all been AMD (and all but my current processor), but I'm willing to go green if the product is better at these price points.
 
For £150 you can get a second-hand custom AMD 290 on the bay... Will play anything at 1080 on max settings. Don't think its worth going over that for your needs.
 
 
jamiehard1989 said:
But thats not for under £200, so would be better of with a 380 4gb model as 2gb is starting to be a fine line.

For £170 i go for 1 of these

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapphire-radeon-r9-nitro-380-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-with-backplate-11242-13-20g-gx-374-sp.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-radeon-r9-380-gaming-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-290-ms.html

Or if you want to go green, plus free games.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-960-windforce-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gv-n960wf2oc-4gd-gx-162-gi.html
Click to expand...

A 390 is £220-£240, depending which one he goes for. Yes it's a little over budget, though he gets the advantage of a brand new card with full warranty, 8GB VRAM, plus a much better cooler than what was used on the 290 series back in the day.

It's good to have options just in case he wants to go a little above budget, many people prefer buying new, so their new purchase has some warranty etc.
 
390. Going a score or so over budget for years of long term gains and value is better than anything else that £40 is going to be used for. 8GB VRAM even if you never use it is always going to be a comfort if you're planning on keeping the card for 3+ years.

You get a free copy of DIRT as well that you can flog to get costs back to nearer £200.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...ess-graphics-card-r9-390p-8db6-gx-227-xf.html
 
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