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GPU Upgrade, cheapest option

willhub

willhub

willhub

Caporegime
Joined
3 Jan 2006
Posts
25,276
Location
Chadderton, Oldham
Hi.

Mulling over upgrading the GPU

I'm upgrading to i7 and 16gb ram that I got off MM

I have the option of both sli and crossfire.

Currently have a HD7970 which does seem powerful at 1080p but needs abit more for highest settings.

What's the best option

1 source another 7970 and crossfire them
2 sell a 7970 and upgrade to something else but how much for a worth upgrade?

I need to consider my PSU, Corsair VX 550W or Corsair HX520 I can use either.

So yea what's the most cost effective solution?
 
At full load you are probably going to be at 350-400 watts.

That 550W PSU isn't going to cut it for Crossfire IMO. You'd be better off with a 750 or bigger really.

So in that regard it might be worth selling the 7970 and putting that towards a new card.

If you can get £100 for that card you've done well. The new card just depends on your budget, but personally I would want to be at RX 580 level as a minimum.

GPU prices are a joke right now. You'll be paying over £400 for a GTX 1070, a graphics card that is also over 12 months old.
 
Last edited:
willhub said:
What new card would be a worthy upgrade, consider the price of another HD7970 and new psu
Click to expand...

Oh you can keep the PSU. There's nothing wrong with either of them. Just that 550W won't be enough to drive Crossfire or SLI setups and to be honest I wouldn't bother, it's more hassle than it's worth.

You'd probably be looking at the RX 580 at least. That is about 50% faster than the 7970.

But the problem is that they are insanely priced at about £400 due to crypto-miners buying them in their thousands.

A GTX 1070 is faster still and is only a little more expensive.

The only cards that have not seen massive price hikes are the very top end like the GTX 1080 and 1080ti. These are massively powerful but you will do well to get one under £600.

Literally the crypto-mining craze has created a massive demand on graphics cards and even modest mid range cards that usually cost £250 are now selling close to £400 due to demand.

You may be better off just holding on a little longer if you can. AMD are launching their Vega line soon and we hope that nVidia will respond with some price cuts or a new product.

Don't hold your breath though.
 
if you dont need too much power sell you 7970 for what you can get and use a 970 gtx or 980 gtx.dont fetch much and play pretty most things at 1080 very well.
 
http://www.pcgamer.com/amp/cryptocurrency-miners-are-selling-used-graphics-cards-at-a-huge-markup/

And as far as used cards go. Well you need to make sure that you know what you are buying. Normally when people suggest waiting for a purchase another might say "but you will be waiting forever". That's a fair point and if you really need a replacement then you will have to buy something. But if your card is still doing fine, albeit not at top settings then at this present moment we are all waiting for the market to correct itself.

I think graphics cards will always be more expensive than they used to be at each particular "tier" of performance. But they should settle to a more reasonable price at some point
 
Well that's something I didn't realise, yeah I remember when you could get a high end card for 250 quid. 600 quid seems insanity unless someone has got loads of money to burn or can save that much in a single month.
 
I would say GTX 1060 atleast for 1080p. GTX 1070 would be better if budget allows.
With 550W, you should be okay as long as you're not planning on OC'ing
 
I think for the first couple of weeks you could unlock the VRAM. Then AMD simply didn't fit it. It's kinda like the first few GTX 465s could be unlocked to a 470.. It was only to make stock. I'm pretty certain you can't do it now. Flash it to a hot 580? yeah, but that's a bit risky.
 
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