Looking for a GFX card upgrade.

[Temp_185]

Hi there,

As the title says, I'm considering upgrading my graphics card but I'm a bit out of the loop for the last couple of years. I've been reading a few reviews and such but can't decide on what's the best on performance vs price, and the old AMD vs nVidia.

My current card is an Sapphire Radeon HD 5870, other specs include Intel i7 930 - H50 cooled, 12gb RAM, SSD etc.

I'm not looking at spending £800 fortune, as I've read the new generation cards are likely 2H of this year.

So, Any quick advice chaps?

 

[arc@css]

Get a 7950.

 

[Temp_185]

Any suggestion as to which? Also, I'm considering dabbling in a watercooling loop for my GPU, would the block's be easy to get for these in say, a couple of month?

 

[arc@css]

I know very little about watercooling, but I think this would be a good choice if you wish to go down that route :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-049-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

 

[Temp_185]

Hmm, I've been debating between the Gigabyte and the MSI - the the MSI's comments seem to say there's possibly problems with it, although they may also be fixed I cant work out.

I'm not looking at watercooling instantly, it's just a project I have/had in mind for later - I was considering doing mine but when I priced things up I figured I'd be best off getting a new card to begin with.

 

[arc@css]

You may wish to contact customer services concerning which ones are voltage locked, especially seeing as you might be watercooling. That aside, I also like the Gigabyte version, and it would certainly be one of the contenders if I was buying. I have the same cooler on my 480, and it has been faultless.

As far as I know, MSI have had a continual string of problems with the 7950's (fan speed being one of them), and as it stands now they've released a third version of the 7950. I don't know if every issue has been cleared up, though personally I would want complete assurance that all is well again before going for one of their 7950's.