39 replies to this topic

[mad kat]

So on saturday night i think my pretty decent (for me anyway) and a bit old Geforce 8800 gt decided it would start shuffling off its mortal coil. Long story short my display started giving up and after some fun with safe mode and two system restore's i have my desktop partially working in that it will display low stress programs like google earth and Mechwarrior 4 but MWO buggers up royaly. Tried the repair tool to no avail.

So when i finally got MWO to launch and get as far as the testing grounds the display went all physcadelic and then knocked my display out forcing a hard reboot.

So think perhaps its time to retire my Geforce 8800 Gt and find a replacement, I'm on a budget don't really want to spend more than £100 ish. AMD looks to be better VFM than Nvidia but could do with something at least within a shot of the old card if possible.

These any good?
http://www.overclock...id=701&catid=56

http://www.dabs.com/...9YCQ.html?src=3

I know not very much so am looking for some suggestions please?

Thanks.

Edited by mad kat, 17 November 2014 - 02:23 AM.

[Aznpersuasion89]

When I built my first rig and when mwo was still in beta I was using a vapor X 7770 oc edition and got pretty good fps. Then I upgraded to a 7850 and was still great. I'm not sure what those translate to in the new R series though. But out of the options you posted I would go with the sapphire r7

[mad kat]

Aznpersuasion89, on 17 November 2014 - 02:29 AM, said:

When I built my first rig and when mwo was still in beta I was using a vapor X 7770 oc edition and got pretty good fps. Then I upgraded to a 7850 and was still great. I'm not sure what those translate to in the new R series though. But out of the options you posted I would go with the sapphire r7

On my no brains searching for graphics cards the R7 keeps coming up as a half decent spec for the price. I'm just not as sold on Nvidia stuff for some reason as AMD seems to be cheaper which is good.

Also another thing is ASUS seems to be an option too and not sure what MSI are like?

[R Tardicus]

Powercolor Radeon R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB

available for 109.99 pound at overclockers.co.uk

Edited by Plondfair, 17 November 2014 - 03:17 AM.

[Kiiyor]

GTX970 and 980 are where it's at, if you can afford them. Should keep you neck deep in pixels for years to come.

[Egomane]

mad kat, on 17 November 2014 - 02:05 AM, said:

So think perhaps its time to retire my Geforce 8800 Gt and find a replacement, I'm on a budget don't really want to spend more than £100 ish. AMD looks to be better VFM than Nvidia but could do with something at least within a shot of the old card if possible.

These any good?
http://www.overclock...id=701&catid=56

http://www.dabs.com/...9YCQ.html?src=3

I know not very much so am looking for some suggestions please?

Invest a few £ more and get a decend card. The R7 250 is low end crap and the firepro is not a card intended for gaming at all. It will perform even worse then the R7 250!

A good example would be this:

Plondfair, on 17 November 2014 - 03:09 AM, said:

Powercolor Radeon R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB

available for 109.99 pound at overclockers.co.uk

The R9 270 is a much much more capable card then the R7 250 you looked at.

http://www.videocard...u=Radeon+R7+250
http://www.videocard...+R9+270&id=2766

Edited by Egomane, 17 November 2014 - 03:55 AM.

[Windschreiter]

Depends mainly on the rest of your system plus the desired resolution

Started out with a 8800GT myself updated that to a 6670 and now I run a R7 250 which gives me ~40-50 fps depending on the map at 1440x900 with med settings.

Though if your hardware is that old maybe you should save some cash and upgrad the entire rig to a new mid range PC.

But maybe you should check your PSU too as this may cause a lot of trouble too.

[mad kat]

Windschreiter, on 17 November 2014 - 04:04 AM, said:

Depends mainly on the rest of your system plus the desired resolution

Started out with a 8800GT myself updated that to a 6670 and now I run a R7 250 which gives me ~40-50 fps depending on the map at 1440x900 with med settings.

Though if your hardware is that old maybe you should save some cash and upgrad the entire rig to a new mid range PC.

But maybe you should check your PSU too as this may cause a lot of trouble too.

The MB is actually new, i got an acquaintance to rebuild the computer for me with new win 7 x64 and RAM but can't remember about the PSU but kept the old GFX card and HDD x2 on cost basis as up until now it has been great.

As for resolution i only run a small screen (computer is kept next to the tv) so if i want to use a bigger screen and the wife ain't around i'll use the tv but most of the time its played on a 13.6" 1280*768 resoloution.

The R9 is stretching my budget a little too much despite it looking the better option performance wise on that website. we are approaching the worst time of year too.

http://www.ebuyer.co...card-gt740-2gd3

If the R7 will do 40-50 fps on medium that will do me just fine tbh as anything has got to be better than intel HD 4000 graphics on the laptop i've had to resort too.

Edited by mad kat, 17 November 2014 - 04:38 AM.

[Egomane]

If you can't get the 270, at least go for a 260.
http://www.overclock...=56&subcat=1866

It cost only 3 pounds more then a 250 and is still very much preferable. The 250 is really not that great. It's a better replacement for the HD4000 intel integrated chip, but it is really not good for gaming. You will regret it in short time if you get the 250.

[mad kat]

Egomane, on 17 November 2014 - 04:42 AM, said:

If you can't get the 270, at least go for a 260.
http://www.overclock...=56&subcat=1866

It cost only 3 pounds more then a 250 and is still very much preferable. The 250 is really not that great. It's a better replacement for the HD4000 intel integrated chip, but it is really not good for gaming. You will regret it in short time if you get the 250.

Of course, for that difference i'd go for the top end R7. Anything worth doing is worth doing properly and all that. Within reason.

Now just for comparison what's the situation with the Nvidia stuff loads of manufacturers seem to using Nvidia technology and their names are getting me a little lost with what kinda level to go for in the sub 100 notes area?

What's this for example?

http://www.pcworld.c...426698-pdt.html

Edited by mad kat, 17 November 2014 - 04:53 AM.

[Egomane]

In that price range you could get a GTX 750
http://www.overclock...914&subcat=1854

Not a bad card, but the lower amount of memory will hurt (though with your low resolution it could work well).

I have no experience with the lower end Nvidia products, so don't take my word for it, but I guess they'd perform equally well on average. A quick search brought up a few sites favoring the 750, while others favor the 260.

Do not go for brand hype! Nvidia plasters their name on every game they can lay their hands on, but very rarely do their products actually perform better in those games. AMD is just as involved with the developers as Nvidia is, they just don't make such a fuss over it. Though recently I have come across a few games, that now carry the AMD Gaming Evolved logo.

mad kat, on 17 November 2014 - 04:50 AM, said:

What's this for example?

http://www.pcworld.c...426698-pdt.html

Bad! I'd say it's even worse then the R7 250.

Edited by Egomane, 17 November 2014 - 05:09 AM.

[mad kat]

I noticed that too. A quick google search for gaming PC's (out of curiosity) and the AMD logo shows up just as much if not possibly slightly more than the Nvidia one so go figure i suppose.

I use an AMD firepro V4800 at work for Solidworks. yeah not great i know but it gets the job done and i like the level of software support to go with the AMD's too.

Does having more on-board memory really become a deal clincher?

ah my resolution is actually 1024*768 and current spec:

[Egomane]

The FirePro line is for professional work, not for gaming. It lacks severly in the capability to be used for the later.

Memory on the graphiccard has become an issue over the past years. It is inflating really quick with new technologies and higher resolution texture packs needing more and more of it. In your resolution 1 GB might be enough, but having 2 GB will definatly not harm you and has the potential to offer you more bang for the same bucks. On top of that it will be a better long term choice, in case you get a new screen in the future.

[Catamount]

Egomane is giving very sound advice here on all points, OP; listen to him.

Do not drop below a 260, spring for a 270 if in any way possible. Nvidia cards are fine, but don't buy the hype. If you think their logo appears everywhere, just remember, both of the latest next gen consoles use AMD hardware But that's neither here nor there. Nvidia has never owned the value segment, at least not for a long, long time, and they probably never will for a long, long time. If you had the money for a 970 I'd tell you to heavily consider a 970, but you don't, and that's fine. That plants you firmly in the territory where AMD owns the market, offering better cards with more memory and performance for the same or fewer dollars.


The 260X matches or outperforms the GTX 750, even when it's a stock 260X and a OCed 750, and you can get an OCed 260X. In fact, both the MSI and Sapphire 260Xs on Overclockers are overclocked.

http://www.techpower...R7_260X/26.html

In short, I see no reason to consider going Nvidia.

Also, I know it's a tiny stretch for the budget, but really, a 270 is a decent jump. Yeah you're paying 30 quid more, but you're getting that much performance out of it, and it's only 9 over your stated budget

http://www.overclock...rodid=GX-169-PC

Edited by Catamount, 17 November 2014 - 08:37 AM.

[mad kat]

I appreciate all the sound advice and after permission from the wife she's not gonna kill me if i stretch the budget to around 100 for the R9 270. We were thinking about replacing the laptop but that will have to wait for now or just get a tablet for her to use and the gfx card.

Anyway now that i've had a chance to get into the computer i can confirm the card is the culprit. I removed it and ran off the motherboard and all the weird effects disappeared.

why does all stuff break around winter time. Oh well.

This would be handy for me as i could pick it up from the local ahem store:

http://www.pcworld.c...010488-pdt.html

Edited by mad kat, 17 November 2014 - 12:17 PM.

[Lord Letto]

looked on uk.PcPartPicker and the best options i found was the R7 260X or GTX 750TI, my recommendations of the 2:
GTX 750Ti: http://uk.pcpartpick...5x75ts13411073f
R7 260X: http://uk.pcpartpick...rd-gvr726xoc2gd

I Don't know how big Black Friday is across the pond, but if you wait you could possibly get something better on sale in your budget.

[Goose]

These are your options, kid: http://uk.pcpartpick...ard-r9270acdfc/

Teh R7 265 costs moar then that R9 270, so is disqualified …

[Flapdrol]

mad kat, on 17 November 2014 - 12:04 PM, said:

I appreciate all the sound advice and after permission from the wife she's not gonna kill me if i stretch the budget to around 100 for the R9 270. We were thinking about replacing the laptop but that will have to wait for now or just get a tablet for her to use and the gfx card.

If cost is that much of an issue you could manybe look a used gtx460 or hd6850 or something similar? They go for 40 euro here.

[Lord Letto]

http://uk.pcpartpick...ard-r9270acdfc/

[Comrademig]

Depends on how you feel about doing mail-in rebates.

R9 270 at $99 with the promo: SHDFSF67 and a $30 mail-in rebate.- http://www.newegg.co...1-545-_-Product


R7 260X for $77.98 after the $20 MIR ($95 without it)- http://www.newegg.co...1-604-_-Product

Edited by Comrademig, 17 November 2014 - 06:39 PM.