Graphics card upgrade

[Jetster]

Newegg e mail specials. Just listed a Corsair CX600 PSU for $37 after rebate. And I do prefer Nvidia also as long as they are making better cards

http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail/latest/index-landing.aspx

 

[R-T-B]

Go nvidia. They make better graphics cards.

As much as I want to disagree with that statement, unless you can get a great bargain on an AMD card, it's pretty much spot on at the moment.

 

[qubit]

As much as I want to disagree with that statement, unless you can get a great bargain on an AMD card, it's pretty much spot on at the moment.

Yeah, I wish I was wrong too. Stiff competition with equal products = good.

Oh well, we can now enjoy ridiculous $1000 price points for the top card due to the lack of such competition. <sigh>

 

[Dovah88]

Okay well it seems the nvidia are the best price cards I guess but not sure what type, either the gtx 750 ti at $190 or asus gtx 760 2gb at $239 or gtx 760 2g oc gigabyte at $259? and if so would a 550w psu be enough?

 

[XSI]

with those prices I would take 760 asus. its good performance difference vs 750ti for 50$
psu plenty

 

[Dovah88]

Okay I might do that then but for price there's a R9 270x asus 2gb at $235 or the gtx 760 asus at $239 so which one would be more worth it or is there not much difference. Not a hardcore gamer or anything like that, just casual but do like the total war games and would like to able to play them reasonably well, my cpu is fine just psu that I'm worried about and would mean more money. Psu is a sun pro atx 550w and had suggestions thats its pretty unreliable. If i could just buy the gpu that would be great. and as I said, only play total war games and casually. Looking just to buy a decent gpu that will last a while.

 

[Caring1]

Psu is a sun pro atx 550w and had suggestions thats its pretty unreliable. ....... Looking just to buy a decent gpu that will last a while.

Can't be guaranteed if you keep that PSU.
A decent card with a low power consumption that will put little strain on the PSU is the 750Ti.

 

[Cvrk]

This is about me not the OP. But why open a new thread,cuz i also wanna upgrade.
My Computer specs :

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 840 3,2 Ghz

RAM: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 1600 Mhz

PSU: Corsait CX 600 80 Plus Bronze Certified

Motherboard: ASRock M3N78D

Video Adapter: Radeon HD 5670

Monitor: Asus MX239

Case Midd Tower



What i want is to buy another graphics card. Looking at this http://www.hardwares...rison-table/131 i wanted to buy a second-hand HD 7970.For me it's an expensive card. So a few questions come to mind.





Will it bottleneck my cpu, and if so how bad ?



Do you recommend getting a new Asus AMD Radeon R9 270 OC DirectCU II ? It is at the same money with a second hand HD 7970, but not so powerful. Thinking that 7xxx is to strong for my CPU and at the same time the R9 is brand new (rather get a new product with warranty on it then a used one with zero warranty). In my country there is no were i can get a 7xxx with warranty.



How about the PSU can it handle a R9 or a 7970 ? After some research i think the R9 takes less power. Do you agree?

Considering what cpu i have, do you think the real-life difference in games between the R9 270 and the HD 7970 is is it noticeable ? And if so how much ?



I have been looking at some Linus videos and with lower cpu's he manages to get more FPS in games with a lower card then a brand new powerful one. Paying 200$ on a video card for me is a lot. And if (and only if) both of these cards are to much bottleneck for my cpu....let's say i will be able to get 10-20 more fps in a game then i get now, i would rather buy a lower cheaper second-hand card like the HD 6970 or the HD 7850 (these come at around 150-180$).

Don''t get me wrong.If the 7970 is worth it i would definitely spend the 200$.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

yap but total war is cpu bound game so if he want better fps he will get more from cpu upgrade then gpu upgrade.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/201270/
Recommended:

• OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
• Processor: 2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
• Memory: 2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
• Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics card or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible card
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 32GB free hard disk space
• Screen Resolution: 1280x1024 minimum

7750 is way beyond those recommended hd5000 and hd6000.

Jesus, stop his i5 is fine. He needs a GPU long before CPU, Total War or not.

 

[nictgsf]

Second hand 760's are quite a steal at the moment. Have a look on eBay

 

[arbiter]

for 240$ range, gtx960 would be one best options, you can get a r9 280(5)(x) cards but power for those are a bit higher so that is something to keep in mind so to look at if you got psu room for it.

 

[Dovah88]

Yeah problem is me being in Australia prices are a tad higher and a gtx 960 is around $280 and a r9 280 is around $255 which is a abit over what I'd like to spend but it seems according to others the I would need a psu upgrade as the Sun pro atx 550w is unreliable and would probably get a corsair 550 to 600w psu for around $60-70. then looking at either a sapphire 270x oc or asus gtx 760? The sapphire being around $219 and gtx around $239. As I said not hardcore gaming or anything just would like to play shogun 2 and rome 2 fairly reasonable.

 

[arbiter]

I don't know what kinda costs it is for electric where you live, 40$ isn't much to up to a 960. it has a bit lower power draw then 760 has and its a bit more powerful to boot. It also has the Directx12 support so when win10 and dx12 games come out you are ready for it. I have no experience with that brand of psu or even heard about them so i can't comment on them. If you don't want to spend the extra 40$ then get the gtx760/r9 270x.

 

[RealNeil]

I would be concerned with the PSU first.

Steady, clean power is the cornerstone of every computer build. The fact that you got away with using the one you have for two years is surprising.

If it fails, it will be when you least expect it, and it may take out the components in your PC.

I have a pair of GTX-760s and they work fine. If you can find a R9-280X on sale somewhere get that. I have them too and they're better than the 760s.

 

[Devon68]

If you make your mind up about the psu you want take a look at this site, it might have a review on it and it's a pretty great site.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews
As for the card I think the 760 is a good choice but I would go for the R9 270x or look for a used HD 7950 3gb card.

 

[Dovah88]

Okay then well I guess psu would be main focus then either the 270x or gtx 760 will be fine. Sapphire 270x only $219 compared to asus $235. I'm in no rush for gpu so might buy one next month and as for psu probably pick that up pretty soon. not looking to spend anything over $240 unless the extra $10-15 has a significant difference.

 

[GhostRyder]

Okay then well I guess psu would be main focus then either the 270x or gtx 760 will be fine. Sapphire 270x only $219 compared to asus $235. I'm in no rush for gpu so might buy one next month and as for psu probably pick that up pretty soon. not looking to spend anything over $240 unless the extra $10-15 has a significant difference.

Well if you want to compare the two from a pure performance standard, the two are even

If it is between the GTX 760 and the R9 270X, I would just get whichever is cheaper as again they are pretty much the exact same performance wise. Though as the others said I would probably get a new PSU up first because especially if you start getting into the upper end of the GPU spectrum you may have problems with that PSU.

 

[RealNeil]

Okay then well I guess psu would be main focus then either the 270x or gtx 760 will be fine. Sapphire 270x only $219 compared to asus $235. I'm in no rush for gpu so might buy one next month and as for psu probably pick that up pretty soon. not looking to spend anything over $240 unless the extra $10-15 has a significant difference.

Sapphire is a good brand for Radeon GPUs.

 

[Cvrk]

Interesting @GhostRyder The R9 270x is lower then the HD 7950 and much lower then 7970.
From what i have sen in real life drivers make all the difference. Newer drivers are pretty much all the time better then older ones. The R series being a revamp it has newer drivers,right ?
So i see this in two ways in real life. Even tho on paper the card has lower specs it will perform better with the new games . maybe this is why @Devon68 recommended the R9 before the HD series ? Just thinking out loud here.

Second....in my mind (without any real proof) an old Phenom (like the one i have) makes a good match with HD series (cuz it's an older series) rather then R-series. I'm thinking a FX 8xxx CPU will go with a R-series gpu ....

Is my logic ok? Feel free to criticize and show me otherwise . Please.

And third . I have been searching for this,and it's still not clear to me. When Exactly do we have a bottleneck situation ? How much powerful does a video card have to be in order to surpass the cpu in a way that it will bottleneck it ?

Take my example: I have one of the lowest Phenom 2 X4 out there. Most people have the 9xx .I am probably the only black sheep that got the 840. And I am trying to peer it with a monster like the HD 7970. Witch at his time was one of the top cards out there. In my mind i see this bottleneck....But it's an old HD series,nont a new R-one. So it should do ok ...i guess.

F#Ck! If i could only take a R9 and stick it in the rig just for 30 minutes to see how it goes. And i know 2 guys that have it! But they don't wanna help me.

 

[Jetster]

A R9 270x should not out preform a HD7950

Matching hardware is not a bad idea but really makes little difference.

Bottlenecking is a very broad term. It really means nothing. There are two many variables that can affect performance. Other than the obvious like a Celeron single core and a GTX780

 

[Cvrk]

@JESTER many years back i had an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ . i couldn't play games that came out with Shader 3.0 requirement,my motherboard was agp. Most cards that had Shader 3.0 were pci express. A friend got this Sapphire Ati Radeon X19xxx.....not ideea but it had agp and it had Shader 3.0. For some reason my cpu after a clean windows install ran at 80-100 full load in idle. It freaked me out so badly. I was afraid it will burn. Maybe it was because my psu at the time was a no brand complete crap.
After another year i remember getting another ago Sapphire Shader 3.0 ,new PSU (but still no brad crap) and it all was fine .
Ever since i always think that a very powerful video card can destroy a cpu.

Also GPU Boss and other website show that the R9 270x and HD 7950 are exactly the same.

 

[Jetster]

R9 280 = 7950
R9 280x =7970


And the part about the GPU harming the CPU is not possible.

You can run a Pentium and a GTX980. However the GTX980 will not preform to its potential on most games and wont be very efficient. So its good to balance hardware but its not going to harm anything

 

[MxPhenom 216]

@JESTER many years back i had an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ . i couldn't play games that came out with Shader 3.0 requirement,my motherboard was agp. Most cards that had Shader 3.0 were pci express. A friend got this Sapphire Ati Radeon X19xxx.....not ideea but it had agp and it had Shader 3.0. For some reason my cpu after a clean windows install ran at 80-100 full load in idle. It freaked me out so badly. I was afraid it will burn. Maybe it was because my psu at the time was a no brand complete crap.
After another year i remember getting another ago Sapphire Shader 3.0 ,new PSU (but still no brad crap) and it all was fine .
Ever since i always think that a very powerful video card can destroy a cpu.

Also GPU Boss and other website show that the R9 270x and HD 7950 are exactly the same.

R9 270x = 7870
R9 270 = 7850

You should realize that all cards but the R9 290 and 290x in the new R naming scheme from AMD are rebadged GPUs of previous HD generation. Meaning they are not new GPUs, just the same ones, new names, possibly higher operating frequencies.