if i was to upgrade my GPU, what would you do ?

ShiWarrior · 15 Aug 2015 at 21:50

I know my system is bottle necked, so tinkering with the idea of upgrading, but im happy to wait a few months if need be

current specs -

Skylake i5-6600K
MSI Gaming Pro motherboard
8 Gb RAM (dual channel)
AMD Radeon 7850 HD

I suppose a direct X 12 graphics card is best bet, , and I guess going 2nd hand would be my best option, best bang for buck..

lets say £100 budget, stretch to £150 if needed no more!

what would you do/get ?

thanks

remy87 · 15 Aug 2015 at 21:54

r9 380? or 960?

40Four · 16 Aug 2015 at 03:39

Second hand 290 is what i would look for, you should be able to find a decent one for £150.

Confused Stu · 16 Aug 2015 at 08:16

What resolution do you run, and what games do you play that your 7850 is struggling with?

If it's simply DX12 you're after then don't forget the 7850 does support DX12 and by the time there are actually DX12 games available to buy there will (almost certainly) be new cards available and current cards may well have dropped in price (especially second hand prices).

SouthEastBlue · 16 Aug 2015 at 08:57

Yeah go for a 290 if you can get one for £150 second hand, 4GB ram and enough grunt to at least push near max settings in most games with a couple tweaks.

Mr Oblong · 16 Aug 2015 at 10:03

If YOU were to do it? I would congratulate you :-P

ShiWarrior · 16 Aug 2015 at 10:06

Thanks for the help

I don't play many different games at the moment, mainly quale live, team fortress 2, Deus Ex series, oblivion (and I will get the other ones of the Elder scrolls series), X series of games, I also want to get back into fallout 3 , stalker, crisis etc etc

UTmaniac · 16 Aug 2015 at 10:33

In most cases, I'd go with a R9 380 4GB, if you can stretch to that (or save a little by getting the 2GB version).

However, there are situations where I would deliberate about getting a 960 instead for this sort of budget, such as my situation (where ~90+% of my gaming is Project CARS).

ShiWarrior · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:16

R9 290 does seem like a very fast card, it should blow my 7850 out of the water, its even quicker than the 380 isn't it ?

ALXAndy · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:29

ShiWarrior said:
R9 290 does seem like a very fast card, it should blow my 7850 out of the water, its even quicker than the 380 isn't it ?

Yes. The 380 is not a modern card it is just a rebrand of the 7970.

Quixote · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:34

R9 290s are absolute beasts and faster than 380.
But be very careful about which model you get.

Under no circumstance get a reference cooler, they are insanely hot and loud.
The Asus DCII cooler is also terrible, as is the MSI twin frozer.

The Sapphire, Gigabyte, Powercolor, HIS and XFX custom coolers are good ones to go for.
Sapphire Tri-X and Vapour X are supposed to be the best of all.

But get a good one and they are great cards.

straxusii · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:38

Second hand 290x with a custom cooler would be great bang for the buck

ShiWarrior · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:50

ALXAndy said:
Yes. The 380 is not a modern card it is just a rebrand of the 7970.

oh right, wont bother getting the 380 then, thanks for that

Quixote said:
R9 290s are absolute beasts and faster than 380.
But be very careful about which model you get.

Under no circumstance get a reference cooler, they are insanely hot and loud.
The Asus DCII cooler is also terrible, as is the MSI twin frozer.

The Sapphire, Gigabyte, Powercolor, HIS and XFX custom coolers are good ones to go for.
Sapphire Tri-X and Vapour X are supposed to be the best of all.

But get a good one and they are great cards.

wow, thanks for the information about which cards to not go for

straxusii said:
Second hand 290x with a custom cooler would be great bang for the buck

290x ? what prices do they go for?

bru · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:54

ALXAndy said:
Yes. The 380 is not a modern card it is just a rebrand of the 7970.

Unfortunately Andy, that statement is just about as wrong as it can get.
The r9 380 is a rebrand of the r9 285 which is based on the Tonga chip, which in turn is actually AMD's second most recent chip they have produced.

So it could be said that it is modern and it isn't a 7970.

Lustral · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:54

I had a 7850 myself, I went to a 285 which i had for about 3 months , then 290X as the 285 didn't really cut it for me on GTA V

Id say if u can source one get a 290X , if not get a 390 as they are very good cards as well for the money .

40Four · 16 Aug 2015 at 12:59

ShiWarrior said:
oh right, wont bother getting the 380 then, thanks for that

wow, thanks for the information about which cards to not go for

290x ? what prices do they go for?

If you can find a Tri-X (Sapphire) then go for it, imo it is by far the best. i used to have one until last month and it was a great card.

Doubt you'll get a 290x for £150 unless it's been heavily abused.

ShiWarrior · 16 Aug 2015 at 13:01

something like this ? (are links allowed to auctions?)

Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290X (4096 MB) (11226-00-40G) Graphics Card

Used Sapphire AMD R9 290X TRI-X OC Graphics Card (4GB, DDR5, 512 Bit, PCI-E) graphics card:

SAPPHIRE R9 290X Tri-X features the latest GCN (graphics core next) architecture from AMD with 2816 stream processing units and an enhanced engine clock of up to 1040Mhz. It is equipped with 4GB of the latest high performance GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit interface and now clocked at 1300 MHz (5.2GHz effective) delivering higher bandwidth than the reference design.

Brand Sapphire
Item Weight 998 g
Product Dimensions 40 x 25 x 6 cm
Item model number 11226-00-40G
Series Radeon R9 290
RAM Size 4096 MB
Computer Memory Type GDDR5
Hard Drive Size 4096 MB
Graphics Chipset Brand AMD
Graphics Card Description SAPPHIRE AMD R9 290X TRI-X OC 4GB Graphics Card
Graphics Card Interface PCI-E
Wattage 750 watts

40Four · 16 Aug 2015 at 13:12

ShiWarrior said:
something like this ? (are links allowed to auctions?)

Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290X (4096 MB) (11226-00-40G) Graphics Card

Used Sapphire AMD R9 290X TRI-X OC Graphics Card (4GB, DDR5, 512 Bit, PCI-E) graphics card:

SAPPHIRE R9 290X Tri-X features the latest GCN (graphics core next) architecture from AMD with 2816 stream processing units and an enhanced engine clock of up to 1040Mhz. It is equipped with 4GB of the latest high performance GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit interface and now clocked at 1300 MHz (5.2GHz effective) delivering higher bandwidth than the reference design.

Brand Sapphire
Item Weight 998 g
Product Dimensions 40 x 25 x 6 cm
Item model number 11226-00-40G
Series Radeon R9 290
RAM Size 4096 MB
Computer Memory Type GDDR5
Hard Drive Size 4096 MB
Graphics Chipset Brand AMD
Graphics Card Description SAPPHIRE AMD R9 290X TRI-X OC 4GB Graphics Card
Graphics Card Interface PCI-E
Wattage 750 watts

Just make sure it hasn't been used for Bitcoin mining or something in the past if possible. If you can get a working demo that would be your best bet or failing that try and do the transaction through Paypal to protect yourself somewhat.

If it's £150 or less for a 290x i would be slightly cautious.

You have over 1000 posts so maybe try the members market on this forum.

ShiWarrior · 16 Aug 2015 at 13:25

40Four said:
Just make sure it hasn't been used for Bitcoin mining or something in the past if possible. If you can get a working demo that would be your best bet or failing that try and do the transaction through Paypal to protect yourself somewhat.

If it's £150 or less for a 290x i would be slightly cautious.

You have over 1000 posts so maybe try the members market on this forum.

sent of an email to him and he says gaming mostly, and some overclocking

UTmaniac · 16 Aug 2015 at 13:47

ALXAndy said:
Yes. The 380 is not a modern card it is just a rebrand of the 7970.

The R9 380 is a re-brand of the R9 285, IIRC, which now has a 2GB and 4GB variant (original only had 2GB). It is one the most modern AMD cards out there.