35 replies to this topic

[BlackDrakon]

Well, my Sapphire HD 7870 OC edition just died on me, what do you guys recommend?

Im looking to spend no more than $275.00, old card was great, gave me around 60 fps at 1680x1050, never got it higher coz my monitor couldnt handle it.

What do you think it runs best MWO, AMD or Nvidia?

[Catamount]

Nvidia used to have crippling issues in MWO about five or six times more often than AMD, but I haven't kept track of that in a long time, so I couldn't say now. I'm guessing both will work.

Pricewise, you can't afford a 770, so you'd be stuck with a 760, whereas you do have the money for a 280X, or a 285 of your choice which can get pretty close. The 760 doesn't measure up to either.

http://www.techpower...al-X_OC/25.html

Here's a 280X you could afford

http://www.newegg.co...2-124-_-Product

Here's another

http://www.amazon.co.../?tag=pcpapi-20

You could get a 770 if you stretched to $300 (unless someone can find one cheaper than I'm finding them; I'm not counting MiRs), but only a 2GB 770. I personally have no preference between the 280X and 770 besides VRAM (where the 770 can have less or more), and price

[Bill Lumbar]

I am running a Amd 7970 xfx 3gb and loving it. Picked it up on CL for around $240 :-)


The last time I got a nvidia it was a 8800GTX and a solid card lol

Edited by Bill Lumbar, 17 September 2014 - 08:35 PM.

[Armament]

For that budget go AMD. A R9 290 can be had on ebay for $240. Here's an example: http://www.ebay.com/...=item35dc9d170c

[Goose]

http://www.tomshardw...iew,3107-3.html

Don Woligroski, on September 14, 2014 9:00 PM, said:

Serious Upper Mainstream Performance

AMD's Radeon R9 270X is essentially an overclocked version of the Radeon HD 7870 it replaced. In particular, the card's memory subsystem is more capable. Priced at $180, you're getting a graphics card notably faster than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660, earning it our recommendation.

Also: http://www.tomshardw...iew,3107-7.html

Quote

You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal, and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not even notice any worthwhile difference in performance.

[Catamount]

Well going used just changes things up entirely. I'd get a used card, certainly. Not everyone would.

Here's the thing about that 290 though: it has the reference cooler. The 290 reference cooler is known throughout the computing world as the worst GPU cooling setup known to man. That's probably why they're going so cheap; people are desperate to get rid of them. That cooler is so bad it will not only easily allow that card to get well into the 90s, but it will actually hamper the performance of the card, and the cooler runs very loud while not doing its job

To get a good 290, you need to get something like the Sapphire Tri-X or Gigabyte Windforce, cards like these

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3ce84c621f

http://www.ebay.com/...=item43cf7c2144

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3ce81b5d0d

not quite so cheap when you get a card with a good cooler

Edited by Catamount, 17 September 2014 - 09:12 PM.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

Keep in mind that some of these update cards may need additional power, somewhere in the 700 to 750 Watt range min.

Also check out 'TigerDirect' for some really great deals, I get all my stuff from them, great selections. The reviews tell quite a bit about if the latest and greatest really is or not. I had a quick look for the price range you were looking at and there a lot available, the side bar on the site allows you to 'drill down' through the various specs your looking for.

9erRed

[Flapdrol]

The new nvidia cards are supposedly coming tomorrow, not on that budget, but they might have an effect on the pricing of the other cards.

nvidia supposedly has lower cpu driver overhead, which might be an advantage, but I've not seen it tested for this particular game.

[Egomane]

9erRed, on 17 September 2014 - 09:44 PM, said:

Keep in mind that some of these update cards may need additional power, somewhere in the 700 to 750 Watt range min.

Sorry, way overpowered for a single chip GPU. Most single GPU systems can easily work with a 400 or 450 watt. If you want to play it safe, go for 500. Anything beyond that, unless you are already calculating for a second GPU for crossfire/SLI is wasting energy. Of course we are talking about good PSUs, not cheap chinese explosives.

Back on Topic:
In that price range, if you want a new card, I'd go for an AMD R9 280X. Unless you can find a 4 GB version of the GTX770 below 300,-, then go for that one. Of course, as you are playing in a lower resolution the 2 GB version is probably sufficient for you, but maybe you will want to get a new screen whith a better resolution while you have your new card, and then the bigger memory might come in handy.

Nvidia is about to release it's 900 series. This will probably have some consequences on the prices of the 700 series. So if you can wait for a week or two, you might be able to save some money. AMD also announced a price reduction for its R9 290 and 290X, so there might be even more powerfull options available for you soon, in your price range.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Take advantage of the MIR's and get a 770

http://www.newegg.co...ID=3938566&SID=

Otherwise wait and see the effect on prices the new cards have

Edited by DV McKenna, 18 September 2014 - 12:39 AM.

[Ghogiel]

Egomane, on 18 September 2014 - 12:33 AM, said:

Sorry, way overpowered for a single chip GPU. Most single GPU systems can easily work with a 400 or 450 watt. If you want to play it safe, go for 500. Anything beyond that, unless you are already calculating for a second GPU for crossfire/SLI is wasting energy. Of course we are talking about good PSUs, not cheap chinese explosives.

The wattage is the maximum total draw a PSU can make. It's won't draw more that it needs to power the components. And PSU are more efficient at a 50%~ draw. So larger might actually be more efficient.

[Flapdrol]

I thought this thread was about gpu's.

Anyway, if you buy nvidia, wait a week and see if the 760 / 770 comes down in price.

If you buy amd the r9 285 is the one to get for that budget.

[r4plez]

Buy Nvidia if you dont want troubles with drivers&games

Buy AMD if you want best money to performance ratio

[Egomane]

Ghogiel, on 18 September 2014 - 01:16 AM, said:

The wattage is the maximum total draw a PSU can make. It's won't draw more that it needs to power the components. And PSU are more efficient at a 50%~ draw. So larger might actually be more efficient.

And how much time do you believe the PSU will be running at 50 %, if you buy a PSU this large? Most systems spend most of their time idling and even while gaming they will usually not reach the maximum possible powerload.

r4plez, on 18 September 2014 - 01:33 AM, said:

Buy Nvidia if you dont want troubles with drivers&games

Buy AMD if you want best money to performance ratio

AMD and Nvidia don't really matter on the driver part. They both have equally often problems with various games and applications. When ATI was still ATI there was a real problem. Since AMD took over (in 2006), the drivers have constantly improved.

That is a really an old and no longer fitting argument and for MWO it might even be wrong, as in the past we had more users with Nvidia cards reporting problems, then with AMD.

[Ghogiel]

Egomane, on 18 September 2014 - 02:02 AM, said:

And how much time do you believe the PSU will be running at 50 %, if you buy a PSU this large? Most systems spend most of their time idling and even while gaming they will usually not reach the maximum possible powerload.

Mine? Between gaming and 3D, probably about 70% of the time it's on.

[Nayonac]

I'm running an AMD 7990 at the moment vsynced it rarely drops below 60 fps but you do get a lot of weird glitches like artefact's in water and some flashing on textures at long range. Can't comment on NVidia as I haven't had one since the 8800 series

[Goose]

Or, you could do the math …

[Egomane]

Goose, on 18 September 2014 - 04:03 AM, said:

Or, you could do the math …

I just used that one to test it. It is using some weird numbers there. Probably for safety meassures, but the SSD one suprised me.

My 6 fans are supposed to draw 43 watts. They are not nearly close to that number, but that's ok!
My one SSD is calculated with 1 watt (oh... that sounds good, but I believe 3 would be more realistic for a full load usage).
My 3 HDDs are calculated with 19 watts each. Which is again to high.
My stock clocked i7-4770K CPU plus mainboard and RAM are supposed to draw 209 watts (overclocked to 4.3 GHz it's 228 watts). Lets just say, I never wittnessed my PC using that much power from those components alone.

With my CPU overclocked, this one is telling me I'll need a 560 watt PSU. It's a somewhat realistic number and the size I'd recommend for my own system (+/- 10 %). I know, from measuring my power needs myself, that I'm not even close to that number. My System has never gone beyond the 400 watts mark, even when I really pushed it to its limits with several benchmarks running simultanously. And that number is taken from the plug, so my real needs are clearly below that. Really guys... stop listening to the "buy a bigger PSU" crowd. Even this PSU calculator, with its "safety" numbers is already calculating a little high on some things. Buying an even bigger one is just wasting energy and therefore money.

Edited by Egomane, 18 September 2014 - 05:37 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

One thing i have noticed in my time, american's tend to overestimate how big their power supply needs to be ( i think it's part of the american thought process of bigger is better)

A standard single GPU gaming system should not need more than a decent PSU 500- 600W (at a push).

There really are no if's and but's that's just it.

Edited by DV McKenna, 18 September 2014 - 05:57 AM.

[Catamount]

I think people sometimes get confused by the numbers AM and Nvidia  put out,  inflated as they are to compensate for crap PSUs.  There's definitely no need for a 700w PSUs to power components that might draw 350w in gaming and 400 in an artificial stress test. If you're building a new system then sure,  shoot for optimal load percentages and go  80PLUS gold and whatever to save half a dozen watts of power if that floats your boat,  even though most of us pay like 8 cents per KwH in the US. But for a GPU upgrade the OP certainly doesn't need hundreds of watts of extraneous capacity to physically run a new card

Edited by Catamount, 18 September 2014 - 07:58 AM.