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£200 for GPU - 460/470?

Yeah I am stuck between the 460 and 470 Gigabyte as well. It seem's according to Guru3D that in some games, the Gigabyte 460 is beating the stock 470's in terms of frame rates. My only concern is that I need a quiet cooling solution with whatever card I buy.
 
I received my Gainward 470 yesterday, so if you have any question ask away. But I will warn you that I'm about to post a thread to do with the clock speeds either not being correct or for whatever reason not applying the clock correctly.
 
Well I've just changed from a 4850 which had the Accelero S1 with a silent 120mm fan on it so it's a little louder than that, but literally marginally.

At standard the fans run at 40% ~ 1200rpm iirc and it's inaudible over my case fans. The only thing is it can get a little hot as it idles around 65oc, and this is in a Fractal Design Define R2 with 5 case fans so cooling isn't an issue, my 4850 never went over 55oc even in stress test so I find the temp a little uncomfortable, but at the same time, the load of the card is 80oc with the fan only going up to about 47% speed (Still in audiable). It's not till the fan gets to about 50% speed, not sure what temp on stock profile as it's never got that far, that you hear a slight hum, and it's only after about 60% that the fan noise is more than noticeable.
 
Yeah don't get me wrong, it's a very good card and plays nearly all my games completely maxed out except GTA IV but that game is just greedy.

But for such an expensive card with such a big heatsink and 2 direct cooling fans I definitely would have expected better cooling. Feel slightly let down by this and the clock speed problem.
 
Do I need a 650W PSU to be able to run a 470, or will a decent 500W one do the job? As I say everything else I'm running is in my sig.

I was looking at this one:
Corsair CX 500W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUK) [CMPSU-500CXUK] £49.98 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS

If I need to go up to a 650W one that's fine but if I can run a 470 and my existing setup with the PSU above that'll save me £20.


As for which card, I'm veering towards the Gigabyte offerings as they get consistently good reviews. Probably a 470 SOC:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-066-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810
 
I'm same as you Jaysus need to upgrade graphics and PSU.
I'm going from a 8800GT playing @ 1920x1200 Just about ok for COD but want to get Black Ops so hence the upgrade.
After looking around I've got the these 2 in my basket waiting for me to press the checkout button.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-067-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-CS

I would liked the Gigabyte SOC but for the extra £75 I can't justify it. If I didnt have to upgrade the psu then I might have gone for it.

I figure this card will be sufficient at stock speeds for the next 12-18months then if need be I'll upgrade the cooler and o/c - It has plenty of headroom. If the card is going to fail it will be within the first 12months.
 
Gobbo666 said:
I'm same as you Jaysus need to upgrade graphics and PSU.
I'm going from a 8800GT playing @ 1920x1200 Just about ok for COD but want to get Black Ops so hence the upgrade.
After looking around I've got the these 2 in my basket waiting for me to press the checkout button.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-067-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-CS

I would liked the Gigabyte SOC but for the extra £75 I can't justify it. If I didnt have to upgrade the psu then I might have gone for it.

I figure this card will be sufficient at stock speeds for the next 12-18months then if need be I'll upgrade the cooler and o/c - It has plenty of headroom. If the card is going to fail it will be within the first 12months.
Click to expand...

Reading the reviews the extra £75 pushes it into low 480 territory (if you believe Toms Hardware anyway) so it is tempting.

However two people now have said this:
billysielu said:
6870
Click to expand...

And looking at the technical specs it seems like it might be a sensible choice. I've only ever used nVidia cards before now. I figured that for mid range cards they were the way to go but now I'm not so sure.




Okay, perhaps I should look at this afresh. £300 budget for a PSU that will support it and a GPU. What do I go with?
 
I thought I should reply back here after doing a bit of research and messing about with the card. It seems that after installing the drivers that originally came with the card and then updating to the latest drivers, that seems to have sorted out my 2d profile, it now idles at 42oc, which needless to say I'm more than happy with, but at the same time I'm having a bit of a mess about with 3d clocks and It's not going past 75oc with a fair clock and with the fan more than 50%.

My thoughts on the card have definitely improved.
 
What put me off the 6870 is the price cheapest about £190 and generally performance slightly under the 470 but is quieter and cooler depends on priorities, however whereas the 470 has considerable o/c headroom with stock cooler, like for like the 6870 has less. I think the 6870 is overpriced cf the 470.

You'll need a budget around the 325 mark for the psu/SOC combo. Soc or not to Soc that is the question. There is one more option - wait to the end of the month when the new cards are out(if the launch is not delayed) and see what happens to prices. I'm not so sure the 470's will come down much further they've been edging down as it is but maybe the 6780's will fall to a more realistic price.
 
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