Best budget card?

[James2000]

Hi all,

I looking to replace my graphics card the AMD HD6990. I would like to buy a temporary graphics card until I can afford to buy one next year. I would ideally like a gpu that does not produce any heat and is very quiet, I would also like to be able to play games such as Age of Empires 2 HD and Torchlight 2 at my native resolution 2560x1600. Also, if it is possible to be able to future proof it to support 4k . My budget is £80 but I would prefer to spend less.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Phil87]

At that price range you're looking at something like:

GTX 750 - £79.99

GTX 750Ti - £89.99

Radeon R7 360 - £89.99

I don't know if it's worth spending less than that because you'll end up with something very low end. Also I could be wrong but isn't the HD6990 more powerful than any cards at this price point?

 

[PhoenixUK]

I am sorry, can 6990 not play torchlight 2 and Age of Empires on that res???

Do neither of those games scale at all in crossfire?
I remember playing torchlight on a single 6950 on 1920x1200 so this shouldn't have a problem.

You won't get anything for £80 probably that's going to be better.
Best case scenario I can think of worthy of upgrade is if you sell your GPU for around £100 and add another £100 on top, you could get a 2nd hand 980.
A 970 would be good as well but it might not be good enough for 4k.

 

[Aretak]

A used 7870/R9 270/R9 270X would be my suggestion. They don't use too much power (~120W) and so run pretty cool and quiet whilst still offering some decent performance. All are the same GPU underneath, so it doesn't really matter which one. You might be able to get a 7950 for the same money, but they do use quite a bit more power (although still far less than a 6990).

A 750 Ti is the best you'd do brand new, unless AMD's new RX 460 comes in at that price (but I'd expect closer to £100 for that). It's a way off a 7870 in terms of performance, but uses even less power. How it'd hold up at 1600p I don't know though.

 

[ExoMale]

+ 1 on the 270 as im biased of having the x version which came in under £80 or if thats not an increase then im sure you can pick up 7950/70 maybe even a 90 for your budget.

 

[AlamoX]

Hi all,

I looking to replace my graphics card the AMD HD6990. I would like to buy a temporary graphics card until I can afford to buy one next year. I would ideally like a gpu that does not produce any heat and is very quiet, I would also like to be able to play games such as Age of Empires 2 HD and Torchlight 2 at my native resolution 2560x1600. Also, if it is possible to be able to future proof it to support 4k . My budget is £80 but I would prefer to spend less.

Any help would be much appreciated.

the 460 is rumored to launch with 480 in the 29th, it should be around 70-80£, well at least should have been , nobody is sure anymore with you bi-polar £
it should be around 50watt typical draw, 75tdp with pci-e only, probably going to have passive cooler AIBs, and perform better than 270X, and if lucky might come with 4Go version, thats a + for your resolution.
if i were you, i would wait to next week, and see the reviews, and custom cards with passive cooling.

 

[yoyo59]

a used 7950 boost would be best bet I reckon

 

[James2000]

I would end buying the GTX 750 instead and I can finally retire my HD 6990 which has turned my room into a sauna. This would allow me the time to save up money into buying Nvidia next flagship graphics card next year. Thank you for all your help guys I really appreciate it.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I would end buying the GTX 750 instead and I can finally retire my HD 6990 which has turned my room into a sauna. This would allow me the time to save up money into buying Nvidia next flagship graphics card next year. Thank you for all your help guys I really appreciate it.

Even the 750Ti is only around on par with a HD6950/70 in performance...you are going for a downgrade if you were to go for a 750!

Also the 750 cards has a very small bus size (128-bit bus) and low memory bandwidth, it would really be no good for 2560 res. The 750 is really just a budget entry level card for 1920 res (meaning settings would need to be turned down even at this res).