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New upgrade on old rig

aoaaron

aoaaron

aoaaron

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2012
Posts
3,638
My current rig is: 4GB Corsair DDR2, Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H AMD 790GX, AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Denab 3.0 Ghz+, 1GB Sapphire HD 4870


I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card. Budget is around £180 tops; although lower is better, I want this card to be used in an intel rig in 1-2 years time. I will for the mean time not be overclocking. My current options are:


1. GeForce GTX 670 Overclocked (965 Mhz / 1045 Mhz boost) for £180

2. Asus GeForce GTX 670 for £195
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-299-AS

2. MSI HD 7950 OC BE 3GB £180
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-203-MS

3. MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2GB DDR5 for £150
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-MS



Which shall I go for? I've read about and it seems the 670 edges it but most people moan about it being more expensive. Since that is a non-factor and I won't be OCing.... can I get better bang for buck with my £180 and a 7950 OC BE (I am interested in bioshock and crisis).. Also I need these installed by this Friday so I can't wait for any cards which are set for pre-order (GTX 670 is a diff deal).


Noise is a pretty big annoyance for me BTW. I like to use PCSX2.
 
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I would go with the 7950 personally, there isn't much at all between the 7950 and the 670, plus you should get bioshock and crisis bundled with it
 
i was thinking of going for the GTX 670 4GB for £240. would that be overkill?

1. asus GTX 670 2GB 200
2. asus GTX 670 4GB 230
3. 7950
4. 7850

will i really get bottlenecked by the CPU? im after a card i can use again in a build in 2 years time. with the next gen around the corner, i thought future proofing would be best with additional VRAM?



i am planning to update my CPU next year... so still go for the 7850?? i want to factory in the potential for an upgrade in 2 years.
 
aoaaron said:
i was thinking of going for the GTX 670 4GB for £240. would that be overkill?

1. asus GTX 670 2GB 200
2. asus GTX 670 4GB 230
3. 7950
4. 7850

will i really get bottlenecked by the CPU? im after a card i can use again in a build in 2 years time. with the next gen around the corner, i thought future proofing would be best with additional VRAM?



i am planning to update my CPU next year... so still go for the 7850?? i want to factory in the potential for an upgrade in 2 years.
Click to expand...

is your upgrade in a year or 2 years? :P

Either way its not worth buying a you now for a new rig in 12-24 months time, a new generation or two will be out by then and the 670 (even) may be lagging behind.

If you wanted to get a card before a rig overall make the gap a few months 1 or 2 because then you won't be far off the pace.

Whatever got you got now would be worth half the value by the time your upgrade comes...

Us either get a cheapish GPU now to tide you over then upgrade it all in 18 months or so.. Or wait and get a new CPU, motherboard and gpu together...
 
a new rig definitley isn't on the cards until next summer... in terms of mobo + procc + RAM.



my plan was to get the GTX 670 given the current price drops or the 4950 and then smack that card into my new rig next year? is that a bad plan?

if so what do you reccomend getting ATM? its rly difficult as a 670 can be found for around £20-30 more than the 4850!
 
ive just read up on bottleneck a bit more... so just to make it clear, if i get something like a 670, performance will actually be poorer than a cheaper card because of the bottleneck??


is there a cheap processor i can buy to tide me over until then if i still go for the GTX 670? if not which 7850 shall i get?
 
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It may give a little more performance than a cheaper card, or even moderately so in some games, but it will still be held back considerably overall. You won't be getting your monies worth; it would be like receiving 50 or 60% of something that you've paid in full for.
 
thanks.

okay well after a bit of thought, im considering splashing an extra 350 for a new rig.

it would look like this:

2GB Asus GTX 670
600W Corsair Builder PSU
2x4GB Corsair DDR3
4670k
Asus Z87-K

would the GTX 670 fit in nicely there or would i be better off with a 7950? i dont want to OC for now.
 
I would go with whatever suits your budget best, as both cards are excellent high end choices. I'm not up to date with the game bundles, but I think some 7950s come with free games.
 
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