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Which graphics card to £160.

Gripen90

Gripen90

Gripen90

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Joined
20 Nov 2009
Posts
2,050
Location
Haarby, DENMARK
I must admit that my HD 6990 is way to power consuming and noisy for my little ITX machine and to what its used for - and also the Core i3 3220 may be a small bottleneck also.

So I have decided to go after at mid-range class card to max £160, since I have set myself defined and non-negotiable budget this time because usually I'm pretty bad at keeping budgets always justiying £15 for 5 FPS more or so with a better card.

I have been looking at two cards that are both just a a few quid under £160 and they are:

ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost DirectCU II OC 2GB
CPU clock speed 1020 Mhz
Processor boost clock speed 1085 Mhz

and

eVGA GeForce GTX 650Ti Boost Superclocked 2GB
CPU clock speed 1072 Mhz
Processor boost clock speed 1137 Mhz
The card is to be using in a Cooler Master Elite 120 ITX case, so there's enough room.

I'm not sure which card I should choose ? the eVGA is the fastest but the Asus has the best cooler and slightly OC'ed also.
 
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Don't bother with a 650 Ti Boost, unless it's on offer around £135. It's a bit slower than a GTX 660, so not worth £150 when you can find GTX 660's for £155 delivered.

An overclocked 650 Ti Boost still doesn't match up to a GTX 660 fps wise. Plus the 660 will have overclocking headroom too.

A 7850 is a better buy than the 650 Boost.

I'd say it's neck & neck between the 7850 & GTX 660 though. Guess it depends on which one has the better price, and whether you prefer Nvidia drivers over AMD's.
 
Well in Denmark you're looking to probably have to spend a little more because of your 25 percent tax, but I would try and stretch your budget slightly for a 7850 or 660 :D
 
The 7850 Overclocks better, to around 7870 levels of performance. Whereas the 650Ti boost from the reviews I have read will overclock to around GTX 660 performance. Although the thermals of you case may limit their OCing potential.

You also get two free games with the 7850 Vs F2P currency with the 650Ti boost.
 
Hmm well I see they also have a GigaByte VGA GTX660 OC! WINDFORCE 2X for £165.

and more expensive a Club 3D Radeon PCI-E HD7870XT 2GB JokerCard for £182... but that's stretching it too far.

Hmm it's really not as "easy" as I thought it would be.
 
What games are you playing / going to play?

Check the various 660 & 650 Ti reviews for comparisons against the 7850 & see which card gives the highest fps.
 
MoodyB said:
What games are you playing / going to play?

Check the various 660 & 650 Ti reviews for comparisons against the 7850 & see which card gives the highest fps.
Click to expand...

The games would be Batman, Alice, Bioshock Infinite, Crysis (all games, not maxed out), Far Cry 2/3, COD MW3, MOH Tier 1 & Warfighter - these would be the most "demanding" ones.

My fiancee has a MSi GTX 660 TwinFrozr III OC 2GB card, and plays the above mentioned games just fine (even Crysis 3 at Very High 0xAA).

The eVA GTX 650Ti Boost SC makes a good impression here.
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-650-Ti-BOOST-Review/?page=7
 
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With the games you've listed, I'd say its between the 650 Ti Boost & the GTX 660, as they favour Nvidia cards over AMD it seems, going by benchmarks.

Just depends on how strict you are with your budget / purse strings :)
 
MoodyB said:
With the games you've listed, I'd say its between the 650 Ti Boost & the GTX 660, as they favour Nvidia cards over AMD it seems, going by benchmarks.

Just depends on how strict you are with your budget / purse strings :)
Click to expand...

Yea, you're right about that.

It seems like there's 3 choices.

eVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB for £156
Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce 2 OC 2GB for £165

or if I skip the budget and go for Club 3D Radeon HD7870XT 2GB JokerCard 2GB for £182...

Hmm I guess it all comes down to what I can get for that old HD6990 4GB card.
 
Gripen90 said:
Yea, you're right about that.

It seems like there's 3 choices.

eVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB for £156
Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce 2 OC 2GB for £165

or if I skip the budget and go for Club 3D Radeon HD7870XT 2GB JokerCard 2GB for £182...

Hmm I guess it all comes down to what I can get for that old HD6990 4GB card.
Click to expand...

Why are you quoting UK prices if you are buying from another country. There is some price differences so you shouldn't even be considering a 650 ti. Your budget can get you a 660, regular 7870/xt easily.
 
spixelspixel said:
Why are you quoting UK prices if you are buying from another country. There is some price differences so you shouldn't even be considering a 650 ti. Your budget can get you a 660, regular 7870/xt easily.
Click to expand...

I am not qouting UK prices, but merely translating like 1383Dkk into UK currency like which is £157.
My budget cannot get me a 660/7870(XT) easily since when I search for available cards in Denmark.

However I have decided not to go AMD route... I'm more into nVidia and their drivers and I'm not so keen on giving up PhysX in Alice, Batman, Metro2033, Mafia II.


Every one - thank you for sharing your thoughts an views.

I've decided to wait and find another £15 somehow and get an eVGA GeForce GTX 660 FTW 2GB card. I want a blower style fan for the little Cooler master Elite 120 case - and I want an eVGA card again :)
 
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