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Ideal Graphics Upgrade from 6950 1GB

marshalex

marshalex

marshalex

Associate
Joined
27 Aug 2015
Posts
77
Hi All

New to the forum and am after some advice on a graphics card upgrade. My current card (XFX 6950 1GB XXX) is how struggling to handle a few games I picked up recently (mainly COD:MW) so I've decided it's time for an upgrade.
Don't want to spend more than £200 if possible so from my research that puts me in the R9 380/GTX 960 bracket.
Looking to play Ashes of the Singularity when it comes out along with a few other RTS games and most likely the new COD later this year at 1080p.
Thanks
 
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920 and 650W PSU is more than enough for any GPU.

Overclock the i7 to as high as you can and get an r9 380. I would recommend pushing budget up a bit and picking up an r9 390, or get lucky and grab a used 290/X. It's a MASSIVE performance increase for a (not so massive) price increase. If you plan to keep it for a long time then it should max games for a lot longer than a 280 which already can't max out some games like crysis 3/the witcher 3 (including AA) at 1080p.
 
Meladath said:
920 and 650W PSU is more than enough for any GPU.

Overclock the i7 to as high as you can and get an r9 380. I would recommend pushing budget up a bit and picking up an r9 390, or get lucky and grab a used 290/X. It's a MASSIVE performance increase for a (not so massive) price increase. If you plan to keep it for a long time then it should max games for a lot longer than a 280 which already can't max out (including AA) the witcher 3 at 1080p.
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I had seen a few 290's kicking around for the £200 mark, which seem to add a significant performance increase over the 380. Only concern I have is the power consumption as it's a fair bit more than the 380
 
marshalex said:
I had seen a few 290's kicking around for the £200 mark, which seem to add a significant performance increase over the 380. Only concern I have is the power consumption as it's a fair bit more than the 380
Click to expand...

It is yes, but unless you are doing crazy overclocking they never go over 275W, usually stay around 250W. That's still quite high mind you, but the performance increase over the 380 is totally worth it in my opinion, and with your PSU you have more than enough power. In the worst case scenario there is 100W difference between the two, with real case tests showing more like 60W difference. For instance. I've never seen my system pull over 750W from the wall. Take away the loss from the efficiency of my PSU and my system doesn't use more than 680W. Given my CPU and other components, you can guess that the cards don't use over 275W.
 
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you dont even have to go for the r9 290

you can just go for an r9 380 sapphire nitro 4gb

i have one here at work overclocked it to 1125mhz you can play any game you want 1080p with max settings 60-100fps

you can even play 1440p with that card on highest setting with more then 40fps but when you drop down some settings easily over 60 fps again
 
Yeah it's between the Sapphire R9 380 Nitro or the Asus 290 which I've seen for around £210. Only concern with the Asus is that it's a beast of a card and although I've measured my case it will be a bit tight.
I've also seen a few reports around the latest AMD drivers are more optimised for the 3XX than the 2XX series of cards. Eugh why can't nvidia bring out a 960 Ti or AMD a 380X!
 
HardStyler3 said:
search for another card then an asus please you wont be happy with the cooler trust me
Click to expand...

That was the other thing putting me off the 290, lots of people saying how the Asus 290's get really hot.

Factoring all this in is just pushing me further towards the 380 as the only reasonably priced 290's I can find are the Asus ones
 
Look at it this way : a 380 will perform twice as fast as your current card, and be brand new. You can always return it within 14 days under DSR (distance selling regulations) if you aren't satisfied.
 
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ASUS AMD cards suck. Everyone they have released since the 7xxx series has had a terrible cooler. I will never even consider buying one again unless I see many reviews showing good results. They have the nerve to charge ASUS tax due to their huge amount of ignorant fanboys too.

Check ebay, there are some 290's on there for like £200.
 
If you have a bit of a search, you can find a 290 for about £205. A 390 for £230. If you don't want to push the boat out that far, get a 380 ... amazing value at under £150.
 
I may have had asus cards before (in the distant past), though I can't be sure. My current card, however, is asus (matrix platinum). To tell the truth, I wouldn't have bought it had it not been so cheap / as well OcUK giving me added confidence about replacing it should a fault develop.

The only issue, albeit a potentially serious one, is that quite rarely it does exhibit some artifacting. However, I'm not sure it's too far gone to warrant sending it back just yet. Apparently, this is due to asus not providing adequate cooling on all the memory chips, which is shame, especially for such a prestigious card. :/ All other aspects of the build quality are excellent, and probably the best all round that I've experienced.
 
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i was in the same boat with a 1Gb 6950 which i wanted to upgrade recently.
couldn't decide which way to turn, slightly favoured a 390 but in the end picked up a 2Gb 285 second hand wirhout spending the earth. it's a fine bump up from the old card and now i'll probably wait for next years new tech before upgrading further.
 
I think it's going to be the 380. Should hold me in good stead for a few years without busting the bank or needing to get anything else for the time being.

Thanks for the help!
 
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