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What GPU should I get?

Gimli

Gimli

Gimli

Associate
Joined
17 Jun 2012
Posts
448
Location
Yorkshire
Hello guys,

Originally I had purchased a 7870 LE but after a month and a half of mucking around with the store and two cards later, I just got a refund.

What I'm thinking of doing is buying a GPU now and then upgrading again at the end of the year (probably to next gen?). But I'm not sure what card to go for. I think my main options right now are the 7870 LE and the 7950 range.

The 7950 is more of a future proof card from what I know as although it is pretty much on par with the 7870 LE with most current games, it will probably run future games better? But as I am considering upgrading again at the end of the year, I'm not sure if it's worth the extra.
I will most likely be selling the card when the time comes to upgrade to help cover costs on any new card.

Some of the games I'm looking to play:
  • Batman Arkham Asylum
  • Batman Arkham City
  • BioShock Infinite
  • Tomb Raider
  • BF3
  • BF4 (On release)
  • Crysis 3
  • Far Cry 3

That should hopefully give a good idea what I want to play. As for the upgrade near New Year, I'm thinking of going Nvidia due to Mirror's Edge 2 but I'll think more about that nearer the time.

Thanks for any help, if I've made a mistake regarding the performance of the cards, do not hesitate to tell me. :D

Drew

Edit: Added 'Some of the' to 'Games I'm looking to play'.
 
Last edited:
Ian Evey said:
For the sake of £50 i'd get the 7950 and enjoy games more now.
Click to expand...

Thing is from the benchmarks I've seen I don't think there's too much performance increase? I think the main difference is the vram and memory interface. I may be wrong though.

But I also don't want to buy a 7870 LE and have the price drop big time when I go to sell it (I presume second hand would be about £130 now), I presume the 7950 will remain at pretty much the same price?
 
The 7950 is the best bang per buck card but the top 2 games you have pointed out are PhysX titles (nothing special there) and could be suited better to Nvidia.

Nvidia are releasing a new card on the 25th supposedly called the 760 and this is supposed to be a 670 under the hood but cheaper. If you can hold out for 11 days, it could pay to wait.

http://videocardz.com/42960/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-to-be-released-on-june-25th

If you can't wait, get a 7950 and don't look back :)
 
Gregster said:
The 7950 is the best bang per buck card but the top 2 games you have pointed out are PhysX titles (nothing special there) and could be suited better to Nvidia.

Nvidia are releasing a new card on the 25th supposedly called the 760 and this is supposed to be a 670 under the hood but cheaper. If you can hold out for 11 days, it could pay to wait.

http://videocardz.com/42960/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-to-be-released-on-june-25th

If you can't wait, get a 7950 and don't look back :)
Click to expand...

11 days more isn't much of a problem for me, as I mention in the OP, I had been trying to get a working 7870 for almost 2 months! :D

Is the 670 the Nvidia card that matches the 7950? I almost bought one last year but a friend persuaded me to go for AMD due to the costs/performance.

I shall wait and see what comes of the 760 and if it isn't as expected I'll probably go for a 7950. Is there any particular 7950 you'd recommend? I've heard good things about this. I try to make the rig look nice but right now I'll focus on performance, can always make upgrades and changes later. ;) If possible though I'd prefer black and white, though I can incorporate blue due to the heat syncs on my motherboard. :)

Can only be picky if you've got the money to be sadly. :(
 
I see some PhysX titles in your list and Mirror's Edge 2 will very likely be a PhysX title too since the original was. Therefore I'd advice you to get a nVidia card like GeForce GTX 670 or wait for the GTX 760 Ti.
I have played both Batman titles on AMD cards prior to nVidia, and when I revisited the games with nVidia cards and physX enabled both games felt much more immersive.

But all in all physX or not physX it's a matter of personal "flavour".
 
I agree with all above, wait and see what the 760 is like price and performance wise , then either get a 760 or get a 7950. under 2 weeks is not long to wait.
 
DrewSecrets said:
11 days more isn't much of a problem for me, as I mention in the OP, I had been trying to get a working 7870 for almost 2 months! :D

Is the 670 the Nvidia card that matches the 7950? I almost bought one last year but a friend persuaded me to go for AMD due to the costs/performance.

I shall wait and see what comes of the 760 and if it isn't as expected I'll probably go for a 7950. Is there any particular 7950 you'd recommend? I've heard good things about this. I try to make the rig look nice but right now I'll focus on performance, can always make upgrades and changes later. ;) If possible though I'd prefer black and white, though I can incorporate blue due to the heat syncs on my motherboard. :)

Can only be picky if you've got the money to be sadly. :(
Click to expand...

Like Arc@css said, the 7950 you linked is top notch (from users here) and the 670 beats the 7950 in some and loses in others. We will call it a tie. :)

Like Gripen has said, PhysX titles are in your list and another factor is that PhysX is in the new consoles. I wish I was more clued up and even my research doesn't give a straight answer on the way the next console games will be used on PC. From what I can understand, it is so much easier to code for Console and PC, so I see no reason for a Console game using PhysX and then that being used more in our PC games. Like I said, I don't know enough about it sorry :(
 
I think the X2 has a slightly higher boost core clock, and yes, maybe a tad better cooler. Regardless, both of them are among the very best for cooling anyway. The X2 'may' also clock a little further, though I'm unsure about that.

I like the look of the X2 more, so for such a small difference in price, I'd go for that.
 
I think the IceQ X² BOOST cooler is fugly but it is a personal preference. I imagine it will be quieter than the other card but would need confirmation on that.
 
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