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new graphics card for a confused muppet

muppet man

muppet man

muppet man

Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2015
Posts
26
Location
Brighton
Hi Everyone

looking to upgrade from a 6850, budget is £150 I'm trying to decide between a
msi R9 285
msi R9 280 or the kfa2 960 mini oc

I'm running an i5 3.2 16gb gigabyte z87x dh3 750w corsair

any help would be most kind:)
 
280 IMO.

But.

I would stretch that £150 to a R290. I mean you're talking basic mid ranged card to one that can stand up to a Titan.

It really will be the best extra £50 you ever spent.
 
If you don't mind buying a refurbished card, last week i took delivery of an MSI R7970 TF 3GD5/OC BE for £110. Only received the card no accessories etc.., apart from a few superficial marks on the cooler shroud, the card works perfectly.

These type of deals from OC come and go quickly so you need to grab them when you first see them. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=595&catid=683 ,you may need to search directly for them sometimes ie 7970 as they don't always appear on the page linked.
 
kration said:
That looks a good deal. Is it a significant step up from a 7870?

I'll probably wait for new cards in 6 months or so and also see what's required for the 3D headsets. But the B Grade 290 is tempting if it's a significant step up from my 7870...
Click to expand...

It's almost like running three 7870s mate. Well, that depends a little on the 7870. If it's the lame original one then yeah, about as good as three. If it's the LE cut down 7950 version then I would say about the same as two.

But yeah, top end card the 290. You're talking Titan power.
 
Should be yes. Esp as you're running an I5 @ 3.2ghz.

Edit. Sorry man got you mixed up with OP..

What's the rest of your rig? is it overclocked? loads of drives etc?
 
Last edited:
ALXAndy said:
Should be yes. Esp as you're running an I5 @ 3.2ghz.

Edit. Sorry man got you mixed up with OP..

What's the rest of your rig? is it overclocked? loads of drives etc?
Click to expand...

No problem. My fault for semi-hijacking the thread...

I've got a i5-4690 CPU @ 3.50GHz, 1 x Samsung Evo SSD, 1 x 2 TB Hard drive.

The CPU isn't overclocked and I won't be overclocking the card.
 
So a Haswell at stock yeah? I would say you'd be fine. Antec are decent enough PSUs and theoretically should shut the rig down if overloaded so you'll soon find out :)
 
ALXAndy said:
So a Haswell at stock yeah? I would say you'd be fine. Antec are decent enough PSUs and theoretically should shut the rig down if overloaded so you'll soon find out :)
Click to expand...

:) - suck it and see :eek:

Everything is stock. I'm not really into overclocking as I'm not tech-savvy and just prefer a decent stable system.

I'd be OK to fork out for a bigger psu if it proved necessary to run the card properly. But I'm fairly relaxed about trying it out with a decent 520W.

I bought the B Grade 290 anyway as it seemed too good an offer to miss. I'm glad I did as it seems to have sold out already (or at least the link says 'product unavailable')

Thanks for the advice.
 
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