Need advise on new GPU

[Toilet_pepper]

I'm mostly gaming at 1080p and in need of a new GPU as my Sapphire 6870 died. I'm thinking of getting a 7950 or a non-GE 7970. I've cut my choices to a few cards and brands that are roughly the same price roughly $10USD difference. Nvidia cards here are overpriced as well as cards from Asus or MSI. (except the 670 from Gainward) The ones available here in these parts are these:

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=398

7970 non GE (2 year warranty)

(I don't like the cooler. I cant seem to find any review if the VRM or memory are cooled or at least have heatsinks on them.)

or

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&lid=1&pid=1713&leg=0

7950 with boost (2yr warranty)

(I cant find any review on these as well but I know the VRM and memory are cooled. There seems to be a lot of different SKUs for these. One with 2 + 6 pins and the other would have a 6+8 pin power connector. Don't have an idea what makes the difference and how to know it just by looking at the box.)

or

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-731.shtml

7950 IceQx2 (10 mo warranty)

(The warranty is a meh and it sucks a lot of power but the numbers off benchmarks are great. And cooling on this thing is amazing. I don't care about the noise it makes just as long as the cooler does its job.)

Cheapest of the 3 would be the HIS 7950. Going up a tier to a 7970GE or a 680 would cost roughly $100USD more here. But I'll get one if you think it is worth it. I get my gear at this store.

http://www.tipidpc.com/useritems.php?username=PCHub

(scroll down to VGA section)

My power supply could power any of them. I have a 750w FSP Aurum. Thank you!

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Where will you be buying from so we can recommend you cards from that place.

 

[toilet pepper]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm in the Philippines and I posted a link at my original post. They have the cheapest price around here and it isn't hard to have something checked for warranty.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I recommend this card.

http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=17790668

But the pricing is poopy.
But any 7950/670 will do, im not sure you really need a 7970 for 1080p gaming.

 

[Toilet_pepper]

Yup! Saw that one. Price is too steep I could get a 7970GE with that. Or I could get a Gainward 670 Phantom. But judging by the games that are being released getting an AMD card might be a good idea.

 

[Durvelle27]

did anybody not see the OPs systems specs. OP you need to upgrade your CPU or you'll have a big CPU bottleneck. I suggest you get a FX 6300 & HD 7870 Tahit or HD 7950 and add 4GB more of RAM

 

[Dent1]

I think you're shooting too high with the 7950.

Your CPU isn't built for that type of card. Go down for 7850 or 7870 and upgrade the CPU to an FX 6300 or FX 8300 at the same time.

Also 4GB of ram isnt enough RAM these days. Upgrading to 8GB should be high on your priority list too.

 

[toilet pepper]

Thanks! I'm upgrading one part at a time. I'll grab a stick of ram with the gpu. Then get a new cpu after a month or so. My cpu really needs upgrading. If I'm not mistaken it is better to have a powerful gpu now than a cpu rather than other way around.

On the other hand, I'm not really sure how much performance I'll loose due to bottleneck. Gaming at 1080p and upwards are more gpu limited anyways. I'll definitely upgrape it anyways in a few weeks.

 

[Lionheart]

If I were you, I would aim for a FX6300 or higher or whatever your mobo can support , 8GB RAM kit & a HD7870 or something around those lines

 

[tokyoduong]

Thanks! I'm upgrading one part at a time. I'll grab a stick of ram with the gpu. Then get a new cpu after a month or so. My cpu really needs upgrading. If I'm not mistaken it is better to have a powerful gpu now than a cpu rather than other way around.

On the other hand, I'm not really sure how much performance I'll loose due to bottleneck. Gaming at 1080p and upwards are more gpu limited anyways. I'll definitely upgrape it anyways in a few weeks.

if you can only afford one part at a time then you shouldn't aim so high for gpu. Go with radeon 7850 and a decent cpu.
If you do it your way then you computer will always feel slow because there is a huge bottleneck. As soon as you upgrade the next part then you will find out another major bottleneck appeared. It could be your motherboard, psu, cooling, etc...In a year a mid range gpu will outpace a high end gpu while consuming much less energy. You will feel that need to upgrade again. Then DDR4 will come out, intel 5XXX series will launch.

Buy what you can afford. the one part at a time thing only cost you more money in the long run.

What you're doing is like having $5000 24" chrome wheels on a $1000 car.

 

[Toilet_pepper]

I got the 7950 boost from sapphire and another 4 gigs of RAM. Really loving it but all of you are correct, I have to upgrade my cpu. Gonna get one soon. On to the next question, 8350/20 in 2 weeks or 6300 now?

 

[Dent1]

I got the 7950 boost from sapphire and another 4 gigs of RAM. Really loving it but all of you are correct, I have to upgrade my cpu. Gonna get one soon. On to the next question, 8350/20 in 2 weeks or 6300 now?

Get the FX 8350 in a few weeks. The longevity of two additional cores will reduce the need to upgrade so soon as it has a lot of untapped potential so it'll only get better with time.

 

[Norton]

Get the FX 8350 in a few weeks. The longevity of two additional cores will reduce the need to upgrade so soon as it has a lot of untapped potential so it'll only get better with time.

+1

Having run both FX-8xxx and FX-6xxx chips I would definitely go with the 8350.... worth the extra bucks imo

 

[Cotton_Cup]

8350 would do but well just to let you know pchub doesn't have the best prices, they tend to be more expensive than the other stores and they don't know most jacks of what they are selling, oh I buy there too and many of my old parts that's why I know ^_^.

 

[Mindweaver]

I wouldn't get anything less than a HD7950 for 1080p gaming. I've got 2x rigs with that Athlon 2 640 @ 3.4 crunching 24/7, and they are kickass quad core chips for the money. It's not going to be as good as the 8350, but you've got nice components(Motherboard/ram) to help that CPU to reach it's full potential.

I'd get the best GPU you can afford now, and then like you said in a few weeks get a 8350. Norton, and Dent1 are spot on telling you to get the 8350. Check out how well it performs in Crysis 3. Those Vishera chips are a lot better than the Zambezi chips. The 640 is in that list as well... you can see how well the 8350 out performs the 640, but for a few weeks you should be able to hand those FPS until you can get the 8350.


EDIT: Plus you are overclocking so you should gain another 5-10 fps in game over the stock 640. That 640 really shines overclocked.

 

[toilet pepper]

8350 would do but well just to let you know pchub doesn't have the best prices, they tend to be more expensive than the other stores and they don't know most jacks of what they are selling, oh I buy there too and many of my old parts that's why I know ^_^.

Kabayan! Any store that you could recommend? I know they don't know jack-$hit about components but they sell things cheaper than others.

 

[Dent1]

Kabayan! Any store that you could recommend? I know they don't know jack-$hit about components but they sell things cheaper than others.

It will always cost more in stores. Online is your cheapest option. If you're in USA Newegg and Tiger Direct. I'm not from USA but I'm sure somebody could recommend another.