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gfx suggestions

Markuk86

Markuk86

Markuk86

Associate
Joined
24 Aug 2011
Posts
128
hey all, had a few problems in the past with my cards hitting temps of 100+
put some thermal paste on them and the problem went away. now my cards have just started to cook again and hit 90-100 and instead of doing more paste i think its time for a new pair!

i currently have:

2x nvidia gtx 280
quad core Q9550 2.83
8gb ram
1000w corsair psu
antec 900 gaming case

Which card(s) would you guys recommend? Something that will suit my system, nothing silly like the top new cards atm :x
would you recommend me getting 2 or dropping down to just 1? I can spend around 350 maybe push to 400 MAX

thanks in advance!
 
Dropping down to one would be a good option. As it leaes room to upgrade in the future. And scaling doesn't agree with all the games on the market.

My suggestion is the GTX 670: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-018-KF

I read somewhere that the GTX 680 would be bottlenecked by your processor, so i assume the GTX 670 (my suggestion) is on the borderline. If you can overclock your CPU you will see more FPS. Around 3.4Ghz, if thats atall possible.
 
a 670 would be a fine buy although not sure whether your CPU would be the bottleneck.

a 7850 is a big favourite at the moment and 7850 Crossfire might be a good replacement if your motherboard accepts it.

As for temps GTX 280's were hot but I take it you have invested time in making sure your case has good airflow and no dust build up ?
 
rahhh, didnt expect to see them kinda cards in the replys :p my system does have some dust but nothing major. I know i could reapply the paste and it would keep the cards going for longer but as they are 5years old or so i thought i'd treat myself =)

thanks for the replys!
 
I wouldn't recommend going too far up the graphic card ladder unless you will be upgrading your CPU/platform soon.

Personally with the CPU consider (especially not overclocked), I say you should just go for a 6850 for around £80...or even, just get a 3rd party cooler for the GTX280:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-056-AR&campaign=pcm/googleshopping

Edit: It seem to be sold out...wonder if OcUK would be able to get more stock, cause other places sell this for around £40...

Actually you think you would consider selling your current rig, and get something like: i5 3570K (£170), Z77 motherboard (£90), 8GB DDR3 1600MHz ram (£35), 7850 (£200)? That would work out to be just around £500, and will offer better frame rate (consistantly higher minimum frame rate) than smacking a £400 GTX680/7970 onto your current rig and with the CPU bottlenecking it .
 
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ideally i wanna get a new system but that wont be happening for atleast another 6months or so :/ I only game at 1680/1050. Would a jump from two 280s to a single 6850 be any good? I do like to play with "high" settings.
 
Dunno if you need to know but i also got a ASUS p5N-D motherboard, would this be a good choice:

MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards ?

thanks again!
 
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Markuk86 said:
ideally i wanna get a new system but that wont be happening for atleast another 6months or so :/ I only game at 1680/1050. Would a jump from two 280s to a single 6850 be any good? I do like to play with "high" settings.
Click to expand...
Quite frankly the GTX280 should eat majority of the games for breakfast for that res...let alone two. If anything, it would be your CPU holding it back.

I think your best bet is probably go for a 7850 for now, and seriously look into selling your current system and upgrading to faster CPU/platform soon.

For now, I would say may be try to use just one GTX280 rather than SLI and see if you actually losing any performance or do you actually find the games you play smooth enough with one card (due to less likely to get microshuttering)? Also, what games you maining playing at the moment?
 
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hi again. to be honest i hardly notice any difference when SLI is enabled :p my games still run fine with just 1 card. I only really play wow/diablo, i was only gonna pick up new card(s) as i thought anything would be better than my 5year old cards -.-

Maybe i'll just hang out until i've enough money for a new system. Im not too great with computer stuff so i was gonna buy a pre-built one :x

thanks for the replys!
 
Markuk86 said:
hi again. to be honest i hardly notice any difference when SLI is enabled :p my games still run fine with just 1 card. I only really play wow/diablo, i was only gonna pick up new card(s) as i thought anything would be better than my 5year old cards -.-

Maybe i'll just hang out until i've enough money for a new system. Im not too great with computer stuff so i was gonna buy a pre-built one :x
Click to expand...
If you play WOW a lot, investing in i5 3570K system would very worth it, as the game pretty much only uses ONE core, so a faster CPU would make a huge different, particularly if you comparing a Q9550 at stock clock to a i5 3570 overclocked to 4.0GHz+ on per core performance. Online gaming particularly mmos is oftenly CPU limited rather than graphic.
 
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