• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Upgrade time

floz

floz

floz

Associate
Joined
1 Jul 2009
Posts
249
Hi guys,

Currently running a 4870 from what 5 years ago. I'm due an upgrade now and my gfx card seems to be the only thing holding my pc back. Won't be buying until next month but my budget will be around the £150 mark.

My pc is currently running an M3 SSD, i5 3270k and 12gb ddr3 1200mhz (ish) RAM. PSU is like 850W and more than enough to cope with a decent gfx card.

GFX cards i have no clue about so any advice will be well received.

My current card sounds like a jet engine so I'd really like a quiet one!

Many thanks.
 
The budget is approx £150

I recommend the AMD 5850, it's ok at stock speeds plus has outstanding overclocking potential.
 
Thanks guys, looks like the majority recommend the 7850. What sort of things should i be looking for in terms of RAM on a gfx card. I'm really unsure as to what makes a gfx card good. I'm fine with other pc components just never really got my head around the gfx cards.
 
floz said:
Will do.

so is the ram the most important part of a gfx card?
Click to expand...

It can be. The processing power a card has, eg. stream processors, texture units, memory interface, and so on, are generally more important, though. It's no good having a card with stacks of vram if it hasn't got the grunt to make use of it. We see this time and time again, and this is marketed effectively at the uneducated members of the public that through no fault of their own, aren't always clued up on any more than the very basics, if that.

On the other hand, memory does have its place, as does the speed of the memory, too. If you're running demanding games, heavy duty mods, memory hungry applications or gaming at high resolutions, then 1gb is probably going to have an impact for the worse in some instances.

So, all in all, a balance of resources is pretty much always optimum.

A 2gb card will serve you well.
 
Last edited:
As arc says, memory has it's place, but only badly designed cards suffer VRAM shortages in most cases. There are only three circumstances you need to look at RAM:

* You're playing skyrim with a ridiculous amount of graphic enhancing mods
* You're using triple CF/SLI on triple screen
* You are looking at two otherwise identical cards, and one has higher RAM than the other. For midrange and lower cards, get the higher ram version (like when deciding between 1GB and 2GB 7850), and for the high range cards, if the other two points don't apply, get the lower VRAM version (like choosing between 2GB and 4GB 680s).

If none of the 3 points above apply, ignore VRAM when deciding your graphic card. It will have enough.
 
If you are going to be running at 1080p or above I'd definitely go for a 2gb card. Whilst the 1gb version has exactly the same amount of grunt, it may start to run out of VRAM at higher resolutions and settings in some games.
 
Slam said:
The budget is approx £150

I recommend the AMD 5850, it's ok at stock speeds plus has outstanding overclocking potential.
Click to expand...

LOL 3 year ago maybe. You can get 2 generations newer for less than £150 so please dont take this advice. You might squeeze a 7870 for that if you shop about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom