Looking for new GFX Card - £300 max

jscott10 · 24 Jun 2013 at 18:49

So I'm looking to upgrade my computer very soon to a quad core, it just may require a bit of time, but I decided to boost up my GFX card for the meantime(or just hold onto it undecided yet).

Now I have a budget of £300 or so, I'm willing to go slightly over but not by much. Now I do have a Nvidia Geforce GTX560. This should hopefully give you a rough idea of what I'm looking for.

In regards to AMD Vs Nvidia, I would usually say Nvidia but the games with the AMD 7950 have caught my eye.

Now in regards to what I play I tend to play a lot of MMORPGs, RPGs and the occasional shooter. So I need something with enough power to run the likes of Guild Wars 2, Rift(I know its an oldish game), Skyrim and Planetside 2 etc decently.

Any other questions then please do ask and I shall answer asap.

Jono8 · 24 Jun 2013 at 18:54

770 or 7970 GE

mickyflinn · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:03

What resolution are you gaming at ?

Boomstick777 · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:14

HD 7970 3GB / GTX 770 2GB.

bru · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:25

Jono8 said:
770 or 7970 GE

Both over the max budget by £30 Nvidia, £50 AMD ( not counting the VTX3D HD 7970 GHZ X-Edition as it is not a genuine GHz edtion card, slower memory, but even that one is still £20 over budget.)

To the opening poster.

Do you intend to overclock?
What is the rest of your system spec including PSU?
As above what resolution do you use?

Jono8 · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:26

bru said:
Both over the max budget by £30 Nvidia, £50 AMD ( not counting the VTX3D HD 7970 GHZ X-Edition as it is not a genuine GHz edtion card, slower memory, but even that one is still £20 over budget.)

To the opening poster.

Do you intend to overclock?
What is the rest of your system spec including PSU?
As above what resolution do you use?

yes.....on overclockers.

Regardless he said he is willing to go slightly over anyway.

bru · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:28

Fair enough, I must have miss read it. Got the £300 max in the title stuck in my head.

Marine-RX179 · 24 Jun 2013 at 20:57

Majority of the games you mentioned are VERY CPU dependent. What CPU and at what speed you got may I ask? Would hate to imagine you getting into the situation of went from the GTX560 to a GTX770/7970GE only to find your frame rate is in fact (mostly) held back by the CPU and not the GTX560.

jscott10 · 24 Jun 2013 at 22:46

So a few questions to answer here are the answers:

Resolution played at: 1360 by 768(Using my Tv as a monitor at this point, that will change hopefully soon though)

Overclocking I may do, I'm unsure of how to do it at this point so probably no.

Rest of my system is the following:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo CPU - E8500 @3.16 Ghz
PSU: OcUK Rage GT 800W PSU 80+ Dual Rail "80 Plus" Efficient Power Supply(Possibly a bit high on the wattage tbh)

Motherboard: Unsure atm, trying to find the information without having to turn of the computer.

3X HDD - 1x 1Tb, 1x 160Gb and 1x 500Gb

Soundcard: very cheap soundcard.

Hopefully that is enough at this point, now in regards to the last point made. I am aware that my CPU is very possibly holding me back at this point and a new GPU isn't going to fix that which is why I'm hoping to upgrade my entire computer soon. I just figured I should get the GPU while I can.

Jono8 · 24 Jun 2013 at 22:50

Hm, i would think that CPU would hold back a 770 or 7970 quite a lot.

Marine-RX179 · 24 Jun 2013 at 22:56

jscott10 said:
So a few questions to answer here are the answers:

Resolution played at: 1360 by 768(Using my Tv as a monitor at this point, that will change hopefully soon though)

Overclocking I may do, I'm unsure of how to do it at this point so probably no.

Rest of my system is the following:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo CPU - E8500 @3.16 Ghz
PSU: OcUK Rage GT 800W PSU 80+ Dual Rail "80 Plus" Efficient Power Supply(Possibly a bit high on the wattage tbh)

Motherboard: Unsure atm, trying to find the information without having to turn of the computer.

3X HDD - 1x 1Tb, 1x 160Gb and 1x 500Gb

Soundcard: very cheap soundcard.

Hopefully that is enough at this point, now in regards to the last point made. I am aware that my CPU is very possibly holding me back at this point and a new GPU isn't going to fix that which is why I'm hoping to upgrade my entire computer soon. I just figured I should get the GPU while I can.

You would have to sort out the priority/order of your upgrade. At this moment, the monitor and CPU are your weakest links. I would recommend you upgrading in the following order:

1. 1920 res monitor
2. CPU upgrade (Intel i5-K and overclocking is the way to go looking at your game list)
3. Graphic card (by the time you done upgrading monitor and CPU+platform and save up enough money, the AMD HD8000 series would most probably already out by then)

arc@css · 24 Jun 2013 at 22:58

Yes, I'm sorry to say that unfortunately you will be bottlenecked by that cpu rather a lot. Also, I'm not that confident that the psu is a 'good' one.

Jono8 · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:05

Indeed. I would upgrade to an i5 - k platform of some sorts. Overclock to over 4GHZ and you should be good to go with any graphics card really.

Although, spending £300 on a card seems a waste if you are only gaming at that resolution :/

Duff-Man · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:14

Jono8 said:
770 or 7970 GE

These are the two options really... As far as performance goes they are virtually identical. The 770 comes out ahead by a miniscule 2-3% overall, but they "trade blows" game-to-game. With Nvidia (GTX770) you get PhysX, and with AMD (7970GE) you get a bunch of top-end games for free (Crysis 3, Far Cry3, FC3 Blood dragon). Which is more valuable to you is up to you. PhysX is great, but is only supported by a few games.

An alternative would be the 7950, which is close to the performance of the above two, and a little cheaper. IMO the 7950 is (still) the best price : performance card in the high-end.

I also have to agree that gaming at 1360x768 with any of the ~£300 cards is overkill. Unless you're planning to upgrade your screen in the near future, I would go for the 7950 and save a little cash.

jscott10 · 25 Jun 2013 at 00:10

I'm well aware that a new monitor is of priority however given my current situation I just don't have the room for a new one. Hence using my Tv as the monitor.

As expected the CPU bottle-necking the GPU. I do plan to get an i5 processor when I build the computer from the ground up which I will get hopefully soon.

Saying that if the best option is to pretty much just get a new mobo and processor then I will happily do so. I don't mid having to wait a bit longer for the GPU.

jscott10 · 25 Jun 2013 at 01:40

I had a look at this GFX card a while ago. Its below budget and does appear to be quite nice.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £249.95
Total : £260.75 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Now the main reason I'm kind of focusing on the GFX card and not the processor/mobo etc is due to the game offer with selected AMD cards. I mean Farcry 3, Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3 sweeten the deal and I don't want to miss out on them. I would prefer Tomb Raider over Bioshock Infinite tbh but ill take what I can get lol.

Yea I think I will go with the GFX Card I just linked above. The games with AMD are a bit more of a deal maker than Physx. I'm also guessing the crad above would have no issue should I upgrade to a 1920 monitor when I can.

Thanks a lot for the help so far guys, feel free to suggest more if need be. I know I still have issues to solve in regards to tower/monitor but these will have to wait for now.

bru · 25 Jun 2013 at 01:44

for the same £300 you could be looking at something like this instead of the GPU first, it would certainly allow the 560 to not feel any effects of bottlenecking that the e8500 might have, than you could get a new GPU at a latter date.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
Total : £301.97 (includes shipping : FREE).

of course with a little more you could get better i.e. a haswell setup and a decent cooler to allow you to clock it up nicely

Orcvader · 25 Jun 2013 at 01:46

arc@css said:
Also, I'm not that confident that the psu is a 'good' one.

KABOOM!

No, seriously OP, you need to replace that PSU ASAP. It may be 800w but it's cheap for a reason, if you overload it then there's a chance that it become faulty and start damaging the rest of the PC. A quality branded 500w PSU such as Seasonic, XFX, Corsair, etc would be a much safer option.

bru · 25 Jun 2013 at 01:55

Orcvader said:
KABOOM!

No, seriously OP, you need to replace that PSU ASAP. It may be 800w but it's cheap for a reason, if you overload it then there's a chance that it become faulty and start damaging the rest of the PC. A quality branded 500w PSU such as Seasonic, XFX, Corsair, etc would be a much safer option.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying its a good PSU but I wouldn't say its a cheap one either.

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Rage GT 800W PSU 80+ Dual Rail "80 Plus" Efficient Power Supply £67.99
Total : £67.99 (includes shipping : FREE).

That puts it at a similar price to the Corsair 600w gamer series, or the Seasonic S12II 620W.

jscott10 · 25 Jun 2013 at 01:58

Alright, so starting to get concerned about the PSU unit given that a few have mentioned it.

Now I do think that 800w is a bit overkill. So dropping it to 500-650w would probably be a safe bet. Any recommendations specifically?? Keeping to within a £100 budget for the PSU. I want to have at least some money to survive the next month XD