New Graphics Card

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 17:58

Im really torn and not sure what to get

with a budget of about £350-£400 im at a loss but this is what ive been considereing:

two GTX 560Ti in sli

eg: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-267-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=

or a single HD7950 or HD7970

ive always had Nvidia in the past so the SLI setup is just what im used to, rather than it being a preference

ive got a MB that can be SLI or Crossfire, but if i was to go down the AMD route, id probably want one of their new cards

Thanks for the help

M

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:00

7950.

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:02

ALXAndy said:
7950.

simple and to the point.

Cleeecooo · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:04

+1 for 7950... unless you're willing to ait to see what kepler brings

Caracus2k · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:08

What res your going to be playing at?

Because if its 1080p single monitor forget SLI buy one of the 480's on sale from EVGA for 185 and buy an aftermarket cooler to tame it a bit. Put the money saved towards next graphics card

PCplod · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:09

7970 if thats your budget

Cleeecooo · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:11

Caracus2k said:
What res your going to be playing at?

Because if its 1080p single monitor forget SLI buy one of the 480's on sale from EVGA for 185 and buy an aftermarket cooler to tame it a bit. Put the money saved towards next graphics card

or even save the money for watercooling...

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:15

Caracus2k said:
What res your going to be playing at?

Because if its 1080p single monitor forget SLI buy one of the 480's on sale from EVGA for 185 and buy an aftermarket cooler to tame it a bit. Put the money saved towards next graphics card

ive got 3 1080p monitors but i only ever use 1 whilst gaming.... never been inclined to use more than 1 for gaming...i like having atleast 1 monitor up incase im playing an RTS with some kind of odd stratagie. usually have some kind of background tv show on the 3rd...its all its ever been, even when i am working

M

Cleeecooo · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:25

Mark2 said:
ive got 3 1080p monitors but i only ever use 1 whilst gaming.... never been inclined to use more than 1 for gaming...i like having atleast 1 monitor up incase im playing an RTS with some kind of odd stratagie. usually have some kind of background tv show on the 3rd...its all its ever been, even when i am working

M

you sir, are a multitasking god!

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:29

If you can space the cards properly and have a big PSU then yes, SLI 480s would offer you about the most bang for buck right now.

By spacing them properly I mean like this, or go home.

If not, and you game on one screen then 7950 for sure.

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:29

if only!
its usualy for tutorials on how to do stuff (pdf one screen, work on t'other)

then i live on a main road, so i prefer some kind of backgound entertainment rather than road noise. especially with the ammount of roadwork cardiff seems to be doing these days! one day i might be able to drive down them!

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:31

ALXAndy said:
If you can space the cards properly and have a big PSU then yes, SLI 480s would offer you about the most bang for buck right now.

If not, and you game on one screen then 7950 for sure.

i think this is what ill be doing, as my screens are HDMI and 2x DVI and the 7950 just has miniDP, and i dont want to by 2 converters for the sake of it.

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:32

What PSU are you running? you sound quite educated on the matter mind

But yes, there's no faffing with converters or odd sockets.

Cleeecooo · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:33

ALXAndy said:
If you can space the cards properly and have a big PSU then yes, SLI 480s would offer you about the most bang for buck right now.

By spacing them properly I mean like this, or go home.

If not, and you game on one screen then 7950 for sure.

Some spotcools aswell maybe?

Or keep no spacing.... but watercool them!

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:37

Crikey, just looked at the prices of those TIs :eek:

Yeah 480s fo sho. Same price FFS and will murder two TIs.

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:40

ALXAndy said:
What PSU are you running? you sound quite educated on the matter mind

But yes, there's no faffing with converters or odd sockets.

1000w. almost a year old and still going strong. my old 9600gt sli however, is not [chug chug chug].

everything has been upgraded except the PSU and graphics, and the PSU is well within warrenty.

i was impatient and when i made the build i didnt hold out for the AMD fx; that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

why AMD? simple; everyone else has Intel in my house and so for some variety i stuck with them. (although when the SB pricing came out it was a hard choice)

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:41

Yeah it would take a miracle to get me back on AMD CPUs now.

Mark2 · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:50

ALXAndy said:
Yeah it would take a miracle to get me back on AMD CPUs now.

same. its probably my last AMD build, shame after so many happy years, but i cant see things improving after such redesigning with so little thought... the whole thing stank of "we couldnt keep up with intel so this will have to do"

even though i wasnt going to buy an FX, i was very disapointed.

Gregster · 4 Mar 2012 at 19:06

If you can, hang out a month for some hard news from Nvidia if you tend to sway team green TBH.

ALXAndy · 4 Mar 2012 at 19:20

Mark2 said:
same. its probably my last AMD build, shame after so many happy years, but i cant see things improving after such redesigning with so little thought... the whole thing stank of "we couldnt keep up with intel so this will have to do"

even though i wasnt going to buy an FX, i was very disapointed.

All they are (Bulldozer) are re branded Opterons. I could have told you exactly how they would perform myself, given that they are pretty much identical to Magny Cours.

Intel are equally as guilty. The Sandybridge Es, 980x, 970, 990x and so on are all simply rebranded Xeons. Most of which are absolutely useless for desktop use (see also a Bulldozer AKA rebranded Opteron) as most desktop use doesn't give a stuff how many cores you have (and that includes gaming, too).

I don't understand why the two companies don't just unify their bloody sockets. Reason being? an 8 core Opteron is cheaper than a FX. Only for Opteron you have to have a server motherboard that costs about £500 and is bloody useless for desktop use.

However. There is just a dull glistening with the Bulldozer......

It isn't supported yet by Windows. It's a new technology, and right now Windows 7 doesn't know what to do with it. This is set to change with Windows 8 however.

It's kinda like when they bought out the Athlon XP and people scoffed and laughed, and then Windows XP came out and they slapped Intel all over the place.

Or like that time where they invented the FX 64 bit CPUs that Intel laughed at and thought AMD were being funny.

Both of those times AMD had the last laugh, so you never know.....