7970 replacement?

[Ephraim]

OK, so my poor 7970 is borked. It was with me for a week, and now it has to go back, as it doesn't work properly.

I picked it up as a B grade bargain, spending £240 for it. It was an upgrade to go with my i5 4670k, and replaced a 6850 (which is back in the machine).

I'm not a massively heavy gamer, but I like the pretties when I do play. Current games are:

Guild Wars 2
The Secret World
Dragon Age 2
Mass Effect 3

and I'm planning soon to load Skyrim, Saints Row 3 and Grid 2.

Clearly I'm a generation of games behind, but I like to keep my hardware for a while.

So, given that there are no B-grade 7970s to replace it with, and it's unlikely to go for repair, what should I spend my £240 on? I don't mind throwing a bit of extra cash at it, if necessary, but would baulk at spending much more than £300 - and would need a good reason to do so.

I'm not adverse to another B grade or secondhand card, as long as it comes with some sort of warranty.

Any thoughts?

 

[LtMatt]

OK, so my poor 7970 is borked. It was with me for a week, and now it has to go back, as it doesn't work properly.

I picked it up as a B grade bargain, spending £240 for it. It was an upgrade to go with my i5 4670k, and replaced a 6850 (which is back in the machine).

I'm not a massively heavy gamer, but I like the pretties when I do play. Current games are:

Guild Wars 2
The Secret World
Dragon Age 2
Mass Effect 3

and I'm planning soon to load Skyrim, Saints Row 3 and Grid 2.

Clearly I'm a generation of games behind, but I like to keep my hardware for a while.

So, given that there are no B-grade 7970s to replace it with, and it's unlikely to go for repair, what should I spend my £240 on? I don't mind throwing a bit of extra cash at it, if necessary, but would baulk at spending much more than £300 - and would need a good reason to do so.

I'm not adverse to another B grade or secondhand card, as long as it comes with some sort of warranty.

Any thoughts?

You can get a VTX 7970 for £320 and sell the game to bring the price down to around £290.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-007-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938


Or you can get a 7950 and save some money be within 0-15% of the 7970 depending on how well your 7950 clocks.

These HIS 7950 cards are good and come with a decent quiet cooler. Plus we have a bios you can use with it that will disable the Boost clock/voltage.

£250 - If you sell the games it will be around £220.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

 

[RavenXXX2]

Nvidia GTX 760 is supposedly out on the 25th, should be able to pick one up for less than £240 hopefully. It's a slightly cut down 770 so the performance will be there.

 

[Freddie1980]

As above I would wait and see what the 760 brings to the party before buying besides your 6850 is no slouch btw and should be able to play those games you have mentioned pretty well.

 

[Ephraim]

Yeah, I guess that that's sensible advice. The 6850 will see me through until either, another 7970 comes up on b grade at a price I like; or something else comes along in my price range that offers decent value.

I am quite tempted by a 7950 though, as I suspect that I'd notice no real difference in fps, and it comes with free games (and free games are the best sort!).

The monitor is only a 1080p one anyway, so it's not like I'm playing at super high resolutions either. It's just, you know, shiny toys are nice.