Graphics card upgrade time?!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I seem to have a touch of upgradetitus ATM,and I am considering replacing my HD5850 1GB with a new card. TBH,the card runs everything the games I play fine,and it overclocks by around 30% too,so I get around HD5870 level performance anyway.

The cards I am considering getting are the VTX HD7850 2GB OC(975MHZ core) or the Sparkle GTX660 OC(slight overclock) for around £140. I can get the AMD game bundle with the AMD card which should drop the price,by around £20 if I sell it,and I can get the latest Metro:2033 installment with the Nvidia card,which I would keep.

OTH,should I wait until the GTX700 or HD8000 series,although the upgrade should cost under £70 for me.

Edit!!

I have a Xeon E3 1220 and 8GB of DDR3.

A few upcoming games I am interested in are:
1.)The next Metro game
2.)Remember Me
3.)Saints Row 4
4.)D3 expansion

[kalniel]

If those are your games I'd probably go with the 660. If you wait it'll be a long time, and then you'll have to wait further for early adopter prices to go away, whereas it's a competitive market right now.

[cptwhite_uk]

Why you need to ask advice, Moose, puzzles me.

I'd get a 7870 to be honest, nice step up for another £35 or so:
http://www.ebuyer.com/413364-sapphir...s-11199-19-20g

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=548

The performance pretty much scales with price @ £175

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its more that I am indecisive!!

My budget is not more than £150 and I do need a card not more than the length of my current one,ie, around 9" to 9.5" IIRC. The HD7870LE/XT would just about get to under £150 if I sell the games,but its too long a card so it is out of the equaton.

Edit!!

Here is the Sparkle card:

http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...96250-1-1.html

[kompukare]

Not many reviews of either of them, is there?

Managed to find this for the VTX
http://www.cowcotland.com/articles/1...x-edition.html
but it looks more like a glance than a review.

If the sparkle is the dual-fan version
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/en/products_detail.asp?ID=72
then it might be quieter. But it's really hard to tell without an actual review.

Power consumption is a fair bit worse for the 660 (96W vs 126W), but neither is that bad. But then again at stock the 7850 is a fair bit slower too:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...0_HAWK/26.html

Warranty wise, neither brand is on the sticky list which is not a good sign either.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Sparkle is the dual fan version(check the link in my previous post in the thread). Its a Novatech branded card,which should cost around £135 after cashback.

[Macadee]

The 7850 I have is a reference VTX, clocks like a good 'un upto 1290 / 1450.

[Willzzz]

Buy a 660 from Scan and sell AC3 and the free2play bundle to make up the difference.

The fact you can get three offers at once for a limited time is a bargain that will soon disappear.

[Willzzz]

A recent comparison of 7850 vs 660:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/...w#.UXGcZaLqksI

Although an expensive 7850 vs a reference 660, and on 5/6 AMD bundled games, not that that necessarily means that they favour AMD of course, after all most games come bundled with AMD cards at some point!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was looking on Scan yesterday and it seems the F2P bundle has disappeared from the card description today!!

Edit!!

It seems the VTX HD7850 is not on Dabs anymore too.

[Willzzz]

It was on this morning :/

Selling AC3 should still take a decent 660 to under £150 though.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How is the Novatech warranty,generally??

My last few graphics card have been secondhand though. My current card is an XFX reference HD5850!

Pixmania have OEM HD7870 cards for around £150 delivered,but they have poor CS and are located in France.

[abychristy]

I am gonna go for the Sapphire 7870 XT.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had a ponder at the PNY card,but went for the Sparkle one instead.

Sparkle card




PNY card

[Terbinator]

I imagine the Sparkle one runs cooler too.

[Willzzz]

It's also a very conveniently short card.