Best value energy efficient card for light gaming?

[xKratosx]

Hi,

I'm having problems with my Radeon 5750's fan, and instead of replacing the fan I've decided to just buy a new more efficient card.

I've just bought a new computer for downstairs which has a low profile 750 Ti - I'm tempted to get a regular 750 for this machine as they are so energy efficient, but I wasn't sure if there were any better (or cheaper?) alternatives I should consider?

This computer is left on almost 24/7, and time spent gaming is probably an hour or two a week at the very most, and that's usually just some older game or something that isn't very demanding like League of Legends.

Would really appreciate any recommendations, thank you

 

[xKratosx]

Just thinking, should I try to wait another couple of months for the new cards to come out?

 

[AlamoX]

750ti seem to be the best compromise atm.

 

[xKratosx]

Thanks, do you think I'd regret it if I went with a regular 750 then and saved ~£30?

 

[Marine-RX179]

Depends on how you would want the balance between power consumption and performance.

The GTX750Ti is no doubt the probably the most bang for watt card in the sub £100 price range, but it is quite a bit slower than the R7 265 that are in the similar price point, but just slightly higher in power consumption.

If your were happy with the power consumption of the 5750, I don't see why you wouldn't consider the R7 265 which is similar in power consumption. The biggest cause of the 265 being superior to 750Ti's performance is because it has 256-bit bus instead of 128-bit bus, thus with the higher memory bandwidth it will handle higher graphic settings better; but if you were only running games at medium and 0xAA, then yea there might not be much different between the performance of the two cards.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-184-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1699

TPU measures the GTX750TI having 4W power consumption at idle and the HD7700 7W at idle,but if the computer is not used overnight for example,zero core should enable which would drop the power consumption even further.

BTW,LoL runs at 1440X900 fine at max settings on the IGP of my relative's quad core Llano based system,and my mate's HD7770 runs it fine at 1920X1080 on his 1080P TV.

 

[xKratosx]

Thanks all for the replies, I'm running 1680 x 1050 on this computer, I do have integrated graphics but it's a first generation i7 so I'm not sure how good they are

I guess I could always try it before rushing into getting a new card, though I know playing any newer games would be pretty much out of the question.

The R7 265 sounds like it could be worth considering then, I'll take a look at them now

Regarding the 750 Ti, the cheapest one is the one I've just put in my HTPC: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-067-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1854

Are there any disadvantages since it's low profile? It seems weird that the specs are the same, but it doesn't need the extra power connector and it's a much smaller card than other more expensive ones.

Thanks

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,if you are only running LoL then a £60 HD7770 would be fine. Like I said the IGP on my relative's quad core Llano system was running it fine at 1440X900 at mostly max settings.

Edit!!

Toms Hardware tested the game last year:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/league-of-legends-performance-benchmark,3484-5.html

The HD7770 is producing over 100FPS in the game.

 

[xKratosx]

Thank you! I am tempted to look at maybe an older card, but I think the cheapest I can get a 7770 for is around £80, so I'm wondering if a newer (and more efficient) card is the way to go It'd be more future proof then too, I guess

 

[Marine-RX179]

Thank you! I am tempted to look at maybe an older card, but I think the cheapest I can get a 7770 for is around £80, so I'm wondering if a newer (and more efficient) card is the way to go It'd be more future proof then too, I guess

IMO it's not worth spending £80 on a 7770 in this time and age. You'd better off getting GTX750 or a R7 260 at the that price.

If you want to future proof a bit, the R7 265/270 is the best way to go.

 

[Svyper1]

If you want to future proof a bit, the R7 265/270 is the best way to go.

completely wrong...

only R9 series has dx12 capability where is all nividia cards are for 400 series up. AMD cards a re not "future proofed". The difference between the actual performance is not much anyway...

the 750ti is still a very good card. Better than a gtx480 and only alittle less than gtx660. Perfectly fine for the resolution...

and really if you really want to get an efficient card with better future proofing then wait a little bit more and get a 800 series...

 

[Marine-RX179]

completely wrong...

only R9 series has dx12 capability where is all nividia cards are for 400 series up. AMD cards a re not "future proofed". The difference between the actual performance is not much anyway...

the 750ti is still a very good card. Better than a gtx480 and only alittle less than gtx660. Perfectly fine for the resolution...

and really if you really want to get an efficient card with better future proofing then wait a little bit more and get a 800 series...

"Completely wrong"? Seriously?

All AMD GCN cards will supposingly "support" dx12 in the same sense as the current Nvidia cards will "support" dx12, but none of the current dx11 cards (both Nvidia and AMD) will support some of the new dx12 specific features. So using "dx12" as a the point for consideration for "future proofing" is pointless.

750Ti cannot compare to the 265 performance, and there's no going around it. And it is certainly ain't "is not much" in terms of performance difference:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1130?vs=1127

Yes the R7 265 does consume around 40W higher than the GTX750Ti, but as I already mention above...it is up to OP himself to decide whether he want lower power consumption, or higher performance.

As for 800 series, they are going to launch with 870 and 880 range first...it will be months before cards such as 850/850Ti available, with even the 870 and 880 is still at the stage of being unclear on the exact launch date.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thank you! I am tempted to look at maybe an older card, but I think the cheapest I can get a 7770 for is around £80, so I'm wondering if a newer (and more efficient) card is the way to go It'd be more future proof then too, I guess

Its 60 quid on ocuk. Btw, I would get an r7 265 over a gtx750ti too if they cost the same and I own a gtx660.

 

[xKratosx]

Thank you all so much for the replies guys - based on the above I think for me the most important thing is power consumption over pure power, so I've gone with the 750 Ti

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thank you all so much for the replies guys - based on the above I think for me the most important thing is power consumption over pure power, so I've gone with the 750 Ti

I think you overspent IMHO. Did you even bother looking at what I posted?? I run LoL and so do mates,an R7 265 or GTX750TI is OTT for the game.

FFS,there is a 3W difference at idle between an HD7770 and a GTX750TI:

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/images/power_idle.gif

Did you read about Zero core??

If you have your computer on 24/7 which I assume means you won't be literally using the monitor for most of the day,the card switches off to save power:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5261/amd-radeon-hd-7970-review/11

You have saved nothing in power consumption by going for a GTX750TI.

Plus you say you game 1 to 2 hours a week.

There is a 14W difference in average gaming power load between an HD7770 and a GTX750TI:

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/images/power_average.gif

At 18P a kWh that works out as 26P a year if gaming 2 hours a week for 52 weeks.

The HD7770 is £59.99 on OcUK ATM.

Edit!!

Plus you get free postage from OcUK too:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17943556

This is the other kicker too - all the load power consumption tests are usually made using intensive 3D games like Crysis 2 or 3 or Batman if you are lucky but usually synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark or Furmark which are the upper end of the scale.

Looking at my own tests with a pre-overclocked GTX660,with a Xeon E3 1220 I see around 200W to 210W at the wall when running 3DMark.

When running Crysis3 upto 200W is seen at the wall.

Skyrim with massive amounts of HD mods sees between 175W to 195W wall,and other games as low as 150W(less intensive ones).

This is with a GTX660 which consumes more power than a R7 265,GTX750TI,GTX750 or HD7770.

I could run my system fine off a decent 300W PSU,and shows the big variance I have seen in game power consumption.

Even a 50W difference at 18p a kWh for 2 hours a week saves you 94P a year.

Even at 36P a kWh it saves you £1.87 a year.

Honestly,it just shows you how little it really makes a difference.

 

[r7slayer]

290X
/thread

Yea cat has a point btw lol.