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Best GPU for this rig....

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2006
Posts
5,289
Location
Midlands, UK
Hi all,
so the gaming rig below is being built next week as a project by and for a work experience student.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Corsair Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMV8GX3M2A1333C9) £53.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x TOSHIBA TS-T633 8x Slim SLOT IN DVD±RW DL Drive - OEM £26.99
Total : £426.86 (includes shipping : £10.00).





Have £200 for a gpu that will fit into the case. Max build budget is £600. He already has a Samsung Pro 250GB SSD and a Corsair HX-650 psu.
He wants the best bang for buck, considering that BF4 and the new 8000 cards will be out in a few months, but obviously cant wait that long.
AFM cooler is not needed.

Just want advice on the best card to fit the case and for performance in games please.

Thanks
 
Ok, so what's the most important factor between 7870 and 7950? (barring the price)
Core? Quite a few 7950's are LOWER than 7870's, why is that?
Memory? 3gb on the 7950 is obviously better, but would BF4 require that much?
Stream Processors? More on the 7950, but still....?
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Ok, so what's the most important factor between 7870 and 7950? (barring the price)
Core? Quite a few 7950's are LOWER than 7870's, why is that?
Memory? 3gb on the 7950 is obviously better, but would BF4 require that much?
Stream Processors? More on the 7950, but still....?
Click to expand...

7950 is better than the 7870 all round. 7950 will be good for future proofing because of its 3gb of vram and 384 bit memory bus, as well as its full voltage control and overclock ability.
 
Thanks LtMatt.
So no takers for nvidia then?
Just wondered, personally i always buy and build with AMD cards, but itsn't BF4 optimised using nvidia?
The student has expressed his love of the BF franchise ya see?!
 
Does he definately want a K processor in that case? I've got it and theres not much space above the CPU once the PSU is in so overclocking might be a problem. If hes not going to overclock, I'd be tempted to get a non K i5 and put the saving the GPU

I think the boost above might take up 2.5 slots and looking at my Elite 120 case, it wouldnt fit in.

photohie.jpg
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks LtMatt.
So no takers for nvidia then?
Just wondered, personally i always buy and build with AMD cards, but itsn't BF4 optimised using nvidia?
The student has expressed his love of the BF franchise ya see?!
Click to expand...

Nope battlefield 4 is going to be an AMD gaming evolved title. Battlefield 3 runs faster and smoother on equivalent AMD hardware these days. Before November 2012 and the 12.11 Never Settle Drivers it did run better on Nvidia hardware but those days are long gone.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks LtMatt.
So no takers for nvidia then?
Just wondered, personally i always buy and build with AMD cards, but itsn't BF4 optimised using nvidia?
The student has expressed his love of the BF franchise ya see?!
Click to expand...

TBH Nvidia cards aren't cheap. AMD is value for money. If you have to stay in your budget I would get AMD GPU. If you have money to spend I would say get a GTX 780 or 770, but theirs no way £200 is gonna get you anywhere near a 770 let alone a 780.
 
tribz, i was actually thinking the same thing.
AFAIK. the 'K' series just give HD4000 onboard graphics, over the non-K having HD2500, unless i'm wrong.
And with a discreet GPU he won't need onboard.
Can the drive cage be removed? He'll only be using 1 x SSD in there and a slot loaded dvd-rw (see basket).
 
The k CPU's allow overclocking. If your not overclocking the CPU, you could go for the cheaper non k model. Cage rivoted in I'm afraid.
 
I think you could drill it out of so inclined. :) Looks like 4 rivots from underneath which would remove the HD bays. The 5.25" looks to be screwed in.
 
LtMatt said:
Nope battlefield 4 is going to be an AMD gaming evolved title. Battlefield 3 runs faster and smoother on equivalent AMD hardware these days. Before November 2012 and the 12.11 Never Settle Drivers it did run better on Nvidia hardware but those days are long gone.
Click to expand...

http://m.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM2OTc2MTg4NzRYS0dWUXlLOENfNV8yX2wuanBn

Yeah the 7950 is miles faster than a gtx 670 on metro. BF3 is nearly the same. This test was done in may 2013.

Do you get commission every time you mention how much better / faster / value AMD is?

Oh a bf3 random search showed this. http://www.techspot.com/review/675-nvidia-geforce-gtx-780/page3.html Looks like an nvidia win to me.
 
Last edited:
Ian Evey said:
http://m.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM2OTc2MTg4NzRYS0dWUXlLOENfNV8yX2wuanBn

Yeah the 7950 is miles faster than a gtx 670 on metro. BF3 is nearly the same. This test was done in may 2013.

Do you get commission every time you mention how much better / faster / value AMD is?

Oh a bf3 random search showed this. http://www.techspot.com/review/675-nvidia-geforce-gtx-780/page3.html Looks like an nvidia win to me.
Click to expand...

"7950 is faster in BF3"

"No it's not, look at these Metro Last Light benchmarks"

Wat? :confused:
 
spoffle said:
"7950 is faster in BF3"

"No it's not, look at these Metro Last Light benchmarks"

Wat? :confused:
Click to expand...

BF3 was added to bottom way before your post. 2 current demanding games same nvidia Win. Even the norm amd is better value for money is no more, its a shame it took a £550 gtx 780 and a £800 titan cards to make nvidia reduce prices.
 
Hmmm....the GTX 670 does seem to batter the 7950 is almost all cases that i can find.
But would it suffer in BF4 due to 2gb of vram instead of 3gb that the 7950 had?
Which is the quieter of the 2 cards generally, without clocking?
 
The 670 is a faster than the 7950 boost in bf3 at stock. However of the four 7950's I've owned the worst clocker went 250mhz over the stock core clock. So any small lead the 670 has will be wiped out with relative ease if you decide to overclock the 7950.
 
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