GPU upgrade from 7970 for 1440

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 07:57

Hi all,

After many years of faithful service it looks like my trusty 7970 is about to fail and I would like to know what GPU I should look to replace it with.
I game at 1440 and either make will be fine.
I'm looking for a card with a bit of room as I don't game heavy anymore but you never know when something will grab you, no freesync or gsync plans so max 60fps required.
Any guidance would as always be appreciated.

Supernova · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:00

Budget? Used or new? There’s not much choice. You might get away with an RX580 or GTX 1060 but really a 1070 is required for comfortably running 1440p60.

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:09

Hi MSTRBKR,
New is what I would like, budget is a flexible £500 but prices are crazy.
I was looking at the 1060's but unsure and now I shall have a look at the 1070's.
Do the RX580 and the 1070 range perform around the same?

TechnoCorruption · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:14

RX580 is very slighty above 6gb 1060. A 1070 will be above that.

willhub · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:23

I had the 7970, I felt the only worthy upgrade was a GTX1080, whole world of difference and isn't like a vacuum cleaner. Price tag is hefty as you know. If you've got 500 quid I wouldn't settle for less than a GTX1080 tbh.

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:29

Thankyou all for your fast replies.
Getting a GPU is looking to be headache.
@TechnoCorruption thanks for the scale on the GPUs that was where I lost the plot lol.
@willhub when did you swap from the 7970 to the 1080 and is that the one in your signature?

willhub · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:30

Yeah, about 2 to 3 weeks ago. Price tag is hefty but it's so much better, uses less power, only one connector, silent and super fast, clocks to nearly 2GHz core and 11GHz memory too.

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:33

Might have to get a bit more cash together for the 1080, nice to know it feels like an upgrade.
I dont see the Palit dual OC on the 1080 list, will google that later.

willhub · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:45

Jason1973 said:
Might have to get a bit more cash together for the 1080, nice to know it feels like an upgrade.
I dont see the Palit dual OC on the 1080 list, will google that later.

It's scary to see that some minimum system req's for games have a GPU that is faster than a 7970! And at 1440P and 4K it's defenitly better, at 1440P my 7970 could just about managed GTA V on mostly max settings but shadows, grass, no AA, the GTX1080 I can crank it up all the way now, and that's at 4K too. It's a good 4 times faster I rekon at least.

sunn · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:55

As others said, 1070 as a min, maybe a used 980 TI if you want to 'save' some cash, but the last time i saw those prices, seem pretty high too, if i sold mine for around that, i'd feel guilty.

Back in 2H 2015, i went from 7970 to 980 TI, a good upgrade, but with 6GB, starting to show its age @ 2560 * 1600

willhub · 17 Mar 2018 at 09:26

sunn said:
Back in 2H 2015, i went from 7970 to 980 TI, a good upgrade, but with 6GB, starting to show its age @ 2560 * 1600

Wouldn't say that, 8GB is fine at 4K so 6GB should be more than fine at 1440p.

Terrorfirmer · 17 Mar 2018 at 10:39

willhub said:
It's scary to see that some minimum system req's for games have a GPU that is faster than a 7970! And at 1440P and 4K it's defenitly better, at 1440P my 7970 could just about managed GTA V on mostly max settings but shadows, grass, no AA, the GTX1080 I can crank it up all the way now, and that's at 4K too. It's a good 4 times faster I rekon at least.

Minimum requirements these days are a pile of hot garbage that actually have no relation to reality. I sometimes wonder if they're just made up or if they actually get some sort of kickback form GPU manufacturers for grossly inflating requirements.

You're right - there are games that list cards like HD7950 as a minimum - then the game ends up running at 1080p high settings on that card.

Dunno, maybe developers are now just seeing 'minimum' as in 'the minimum we recommend to enjoy the game the way it should be run', eg 1080p mid-high 60fps.

Minimum requirement used to mean, literally, the minimum requirement to run the game at low res/low-medium settings relatively well. Now it seems to mean 1080p high in most cases.

nashathedog · 17 Mar 2018 at 11:06

Jason1973 said:
Hi MSTRBKR,
New is what I would like, budget is a flexible £500 but prices are crazy.
I was looking at the 1060's but unsure and now I shall have a look at the 1070's.
Do the RX580 and the 1070 range perform around the same?

If the 7970 hasn't broken down yet try and wait, Todays pricing is terrible and options are poor, Plus on the green side the current architecture is close to 2 years old so something new can't be that far off so waiting will be a good move as old stock may drop in price along with lots of Pascal cards appearing on the secondhand market, Also, you could ask Gibbo if any deals are coming up as he does offer deals not on the main shop front, Do you have access to the Members Market? A few decent GPU's have been selling on there recently so if you can't wait or the 7970 does die visit the MM on a regular basis.

arc@css · 17 Mar 2018 at 12:37

nashathedog said:
If the 7970 hasn't broken down yet try and wait, Todays pricing is terrible and options are poor, Plus on the green side the current architecture is close to 2 years old so something new can't be that far off so waiting will be a good move as old stock may drop in price along with lots of Pascal cards appearing on the secondhand market, Also, you could ask Gibbo if any deals are coming up as he does offer deals not on the main shop front, Do you have access to the Members Market? A few decent GPU's have been selling on there recently so if you can't wait or the 7970 does die visit the MM on a regular basis.

+1

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 17 Mar 2018 at 12:43

A GTX1070/Vega 56 class card at a minimum if you are playing newer games.

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 13:07

No death on my card as yet. I can hear coil whine now when I game and I tried the beta of Sea of Theives and it defaulted to 1080 resolution at high.
No plans to pull the trigger right now but its been a while since I was looking for a GPU and thought i would ask the wise forum members for advise.
I can go to members market but prefer to get a nice new shiney card.
Just praying prices drop a little by the time I need to purchase.

Tommy_Here · 17 Mar 2018 at 14:05

hold off for now if you can £500 should be able to get you a 1080 in normal conditions as it's coming up to 2 years old. Hold off if you can

MrRockliffe · 17 Mar 2018 at 14:10

MSTRBKR said:
Budget? Used or new? There’s not much choice. You might get away with an RX580 or GTX 1060 but really a 1070 is required for comfortably running 1440p60.

Yeah, if you want to run ultra.

Be clever with your settings, and a 1060 is more than good enough. High textures with good effects and lighting and you probably wouldn't be able to tell the different Vs ultra, unless you're looking for the detail, and then you're not really playing the game.

andy_mk3 · 17 Mar 2018 at 14:13

I went from crossfire 280x (rebranded 7970 I think) to a GTX1080 and the difference is truly phenomenal, especially at 1440p144

Jason1973 · 17 Mar 2018 at 14:29

As always with opinions they are bound to differ.
I can see from the comments that a 1060 will suit my gaming but a 1080 will give room to spare.
I'm gunna keep my money and pray for a drop in prices and hopefully pick up a 1080.
Now the question is which one.?