38 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

So, it has been a long and arduous journey for my twin AMD XFX Radeon HD 6870s, but the warranties are up, the fans are dying, and the video cards themselves are not able to perform at the highest settings I often like to enjoy on my games (plus I can't run Star Citizen at all anymore). Which has had me looking around for a little while.

However the time has come and unfortunately it has come early. I noticed the fan has died on the now lonely video card (its twin suffered problems too after a storm). This basically means I can't actually play MWO without killing it (as MWO is the game that makes my GPU run the hottest and it already runs those temperatures just typing to you now despite blowing on it with a windmachine fan).

My motherboard I don't know the exact thing but it is a Gigabyte brand with support exclusively for crossfire (no SLI support). Its southern bridge worries me but it isn't a serious problem. One thing I've learned is that Gigabyte's brand is cheap, functional, and much like Liao mechs it can push through damage but that overall fragility makes me weary of their own variants of video cards. Which is a shame, I like the open case of this video card by Gigabyte, as it means very easy cleaning without having to dismantle the case (dust is a massive problem in my area).

I have an AMD Phenom II X4 975 processor at 3.60 ghz.
16 gigabytes of RAM.
I had two 1-gig video cards (I had wanted 2 gigs each but money limits; I was buying the computer outright).
I have a 1000 watt power supply with the 4-pin auxiliaries and the addition 2-pin auxiliaries, and two separate wires each with a total of 12 pins (twin 4-pins and twin 2-pins). I have space for two cards but only the funds for one good one.

I don't know if this matters, but I also run a lot of hard drives. Six hard drives to be specific, plus two external ones (so 8 total). These do not effect the space for my video card however.

My budget is severely limited, 160 dollars is an extreme stretch because property taxes and college payments are going basically take up my savings this year, but I would like something of a Radeon 270x or similar video card, doesn't matter if its AMD or Nvidia. I would like to have a minimum of 2 gigs video ram, more is ideal.

Thank you for your help.

(Edit: Thought I'd add this: I require DVI and HDMI ports.)

Edited by Koniving, 21 November 2014 - 03:36 PM.

[Gumon Choji]

http://www.nowinstoc...videocards/amd/

Look here and if you love me later add me as a friend.

[Aznpersuasion89]

I'm selling 2 powercolor r9 270x devils. Let me know if you wanna work something out

[Pet Dude]

Selling an Sapphire Radeon r9 290 Tri-X OC. Best deals right now are the R9 290 and r9 290X. You can get an r9 290 for under $290.

[Flapdrol]

Could get a used 7950 for $100, should last you a good while.

[Aznpersuasion89]

I would have to say the gtx 970 would be a better choice the the 290x

[Redshift2k5]

sorry bro, I know the feeling since my old PC died last September.

[Gauvan]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. The video card situation changes so quickly I'm afraid my card advice is out of date, even with a recent card. I did do a lot of research before my last purchase and have a couple of thoughts that might be helpful.

First, I decided that one better card is better than two lesser cards on parallel--it uses less power, generates less heat and is more efficient as the seconday card in SLI and Crossfire only gets partially used.

Also, this site might have some interesting information for you: http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Their focus is on quiet PCs for things like media servers, but a lot of the stuff they cover is low air flow cooling. Depending on the heat your card puts out you may be well servered by an aftermarket passive GPU cooler. The benefit to you would be a passively cooled PC isn't pulling a lot of dust into the case. If you are interested in aftermarket VGA cooling you need to be sure the card you buy is a 'reference design' which takes a little homework.

Good luck!

[stratagos]

Completely unhelpful to your issue, but what the heck do you need that many drives for??

[Catamount]

I love all these people here suggesting $330 GPUs on a $160 max budget.

OP, Radeon HD 7970s are really cheap with the end of the Lightcoin boom. I suggest you pick one up cheap off the used market. I've seen them as low as $120 on Ebay.

Edited by Catamount, 21 November 2014 - 07:59 PM.

[Advil]

How about this? After today's 10% off and a $30 rebate you can have a 280. About $170 up front, $140 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.co...1-570-_-Product

Or get this 280x for $200 after rebate... and you'll get another Star Citizen ship to play with with the offer. I've added one of these to my SC account, so yes you can do that:
http://www.newegg.co...2-125-_-Product

[Aznpersuasion89]

i suggested my 270x devils....hint hint lol. 140 a piece!

[Flapdrol]

Aznpersuasion89, on 21 November 2014 - 09:44 PM, said:

i suggested my 270x devils....hint hint lol. 140 a piece!

too expensive, you can get 7950's for $100

http://www.ebay.com/...=item339902c207

[Aznpersuasion89]

Pretty similar cards for the performance. That being said get the cheaper card

[Alienized]

well... i would suggest you a gtx 750ti-oc since it simply doesnt overheat but AMD and nvidia doesnt seem to work that good...

[Alienized]

sneeking, on 22 November 2014 - 04:15 AM, said:

Replace the fans.

doesnt solve already applied damage

[Padjo]

If I read it right, you have one card with a dead cooler, and the other one has surge damage or similar.
So you have one good cooler and one good card? If they are twins, could you take the best cooler and put it on the best performing card as a short-term solution? (if you do this, use fresh thermal paste)

[UrsusMorologus]

My advice, replace the fans, and maybe upgrade the heatsinks while you're at it. Or switch to liquid cooling.

If you can lower the card temps below their prior levels you can overclock a bit more

Cheaper than new cards and it will deliver good results for the low cost.

Edited by UrsusMorologus, 22 November 2014 - 07:00 AM.

[Jazzbandit1313]

Friend, I will sell you my PNY GTX 760 Enthusiast edition (stock overclocked) for $160! let me know if you'd like to purchase it!

[Flapdrol]

Aliisa White, on 22 November 2014 - 03:42 AM, said:

well... i would suggest you a gtx 750ti-oc since it simply doesnt overheat but AMD and nvidia doesnt seem to work that good...

AMD cpu and nvidia gpu goes together fine, in fact in many games it performs better, nvidia drivers seem more efficient on the cpu side.

The 750Ti isn't the best in price/performance. Nice cards though, use only 60W and outperform my old gtx470 that uses over 3 times as much.