Need help choosing GPU and RAM for computer

dwykes23

dwykes23

dwykes23

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Joined
2 Nov 2013
Posts
23
Location
Coventry, England
Hi everyone,

I'm need of a new GPU and RAM for my PC and have a budget of around £400 (give or take £20)

I have been looking for the past few days but I'm totally unsure what to go with; I believe I should go for an AMD card though as the System is built with the AMD CPU and the GeForce GTX 560 Ti caused me no end of problems due to beta drivers etc..

I recently upgraded the CPU to the highest my Motherboard could support and installed a after market cooler (I have yet to overclock the CPU), advice on the best way to do this (specs below) would be greatly appreciated!

Specs:

Power Supply: Corsair 600w (CAIR 600W CMPSU-600CXV2 PSU)
CPU: AMD FX 8350 4.0 ghz
After Market Cooler: HN-14D Noctua dual fan cooler
Motherboard: M5A99X Evo (Rev 1 with newest bios)
Current Graphics: GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Current Ram: 4GB 2x2GB CMX4GX3M2B1600C9

Things that I have looked at:

RAM: G.Skill Sniper DDR3 1866 PC3-14900 8GB 2x4GB CL9 (price unkown, havent looked into this but saw this recommended for the Motherboard on a thread somewhere)

RAM: G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £79.99 inc VAT

GPU: MSI HD 7970 Lightning BOOSTED Edition 3072MB GDDR5 £329.99 inc VAT

Thanks for any help given! :p
 
 
Thank you for the advice.

Please could I ask if there is much difference between the cards apart from the addons you get with the lightning?

The deal is still on now for the Asus HD 7970 :) I am thinking of going for this but just need to be certain, I can get something that will give me an improvement for the money then I'll get the other instead.

Thanks for any help again, :)
 
The Matrix is good value for the price, but bear in mind, it is a triple slot card.
The Lightening is faster out the box.
My choice would be the Lightening, especially if you wanted to xfire it at a later date.
 
Hi Idleman,

Thanks again. I am looking to potentially get a new MB due to my MB having only a 4 pin EATX and I believe I cannot reach the potential needed to overlclock the CPU (although it may be down to cooling, I'm discussing it on another thread) would you recommend MSI HD 7970 Lightning compared to the GeForce GTX 770? I understand both have completely different pros/cons etc. but benchmarks that I've checked have the Geforce 770 higher compared? Sorry for the noob question!!
 
Get the sapphire 280x toxic, it'll blow both the matrix and any 770 out of the water and will give a 780 a run for its money for fraction of the cost.
 
Decided on the Sapphire R9 290 Pro at £319.99 quite a steal I think :) also bought the above mentioned RAM and a new PSU, thanks for all your help all of you. :)
 
Definitely! My friend said I should have chose the HD 7970! But I am extremely happy with this choice tbh, I dont think my friend looks at benchmarks much! lol.

Cheers mate! :)
 
dwykes23 said:
Definitely! My friend said I should have chose the HD 7970! But I am extremely happy with this choice tbh, I dont think my friend looks at benchmarks much! lol.

Cheers mate! :)
Click to expand...

The 290 and 290X have a rubbish reference cooler. We can't deny the performance but they run so hot and loud, unless people are going to slap on a water block. I'd suggest a 7970/280X too till Gigabyte, MSI etc slap on their coolers and we see how the 290s do then.
 
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