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best way to spend £200?

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
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Including 2nd hand :)

was in fact bidding on some 2nd hand 670s (I have an nV bias), but the final price went north of £250, so I gave up.

I really don't like the 660s and their crippled memory bus. I also don't think the 7850 is going to be powerful enough to last more than a couple months. Crysis 3 will probably not be playable with high settings on a 7850.

so with £200 would you...

a) wait for 8800 series
b) increase the budget (last resort)
c) buy a 7870 now?
d) keep looking for 2nd hand 7950s/670s
e) wait for price drops on 7950s?

btw, £200 is a large chunk of my monthly wage, so keep it realistic :)
 
7870 is a great card, but with your budget i'd push for a 7950.

What's the rest of your system btw, that way we can see if a 7950 would be bottlenecked?
 
7950 would be no problem, i'd aim for one of those tbh, not to discount the 7870, but the 7950 is a whole lot more gpu power for not much more money imo.
 
First I would overclock that 2500K. :D

I would spend £20 extra and get a 7950. If 7970 is on offer and you could perhaps save a bit more or wait and get one, I think it's worth it. I ordered a 7850 and it was DOA, swapped it for a 7970 no regrets. Nothing bad about a 7950 though. :D
 
Swapped for a 7970 lol? You mean payed over double for it?

The 7870 is not worth the price and like everyone said the 7950 is tiny bit more 3gb vram and much better card.
 
No love for the 7870 then? From the latest AMD drivers the 7870 gained 10% vs the 7850 4%, so is it still a bad card for the money?
 
FoxEye said:
No love for the 7870 then? From the latest AMD drivers the 7870 gained 10% vs the 7850 4%, so is it still a bad card for the money?
Click to expand...

It's a great card imo, but the 7950 is priced so closely to the 7870 it's kind of made it redundant. The cheapest 7870 on OcUK is £191 and the cheapest 7950 is only £28 more, the same price as the most expensive 2gb 7870!! If it was £40-£45 difference then it would be a different matter.
 
I got my self a 7850 last month, my idea was to use just a single card until the point it won't run almost everything on ultra to a decent degree. at that point the prices would have come down and I'm just going to get another in x fire. 680 performance for roughly £250.
 
I agree, the 7870 is a very capable card, but the 7950 is more capable and for £220 / £230 new its a steal.
 
2 x second hand 6950/6970/gtx580 and quite a few others are faster than a 7970 for around £200
 
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The 7870 is a very good card for the money, especially after they have gained so much with the new drivers. The trouble is the 7950 is so close in price and a good step up in performance when fully over clocked. I would save a little longer and spend £240 on a custom cooled 7950, and over clock it.

If you are sensitive to noise like me, I think I would prefer a custom cooled 7870 than a reference 7950, not sure though. Its always worth paying a little more for a good cooler IMO.
 
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