Advice - What Card - Performance/Watts

[sqwerty]

It's all down to budget but for me the 7970 is unbeatable value right now at around the £200 mark.

[Butuz]

Hmm. Your looking for a card that is faster, yet doesn't use more power? Not really possible! The 660 is on the same level as your 7850 for speed and power draw, the 270x, isn't all that much faster yet does draw a third more power. Really you'd need to go 7950 level to see a big increase - but you'd get a big increase in power draw too! Your PSU can handle all the way up to a 290 non X.

I think as others have mentioned you need to work out what you want. Do you want more power so you can run at 1080p with all the bells on (7950) but will cost a few quid a year more in electricity, or not.

Butuz

[mikeo01]

I actually think my HD 7850 is superb at 1080P. 30fps+ is good for me, I don't notice it hugely unless it dips below 30fps.

From benchmarks it shows the GTX660 to be superior and keeps a consistent frame rate (which is all I really need). It comes with 2x free games!

Truth is I only really want that extra little nudge to keep the frame rates consistent. I don't notice lag or sorts, but also 2GB VRAM may come in use.

That said the only benefit I think I'd find from a HD 7950+ is the draw range in ARMA 3 or other real time rendering games

I regret buying the 1GB version of this card though I'm not willing to shell out too much, as long as the performance is slightly better really (so I don't notice tearing or hiccups). 40fps+ doesn't really bother me, my eyes are messed anyway

[sqwerty]

You're lucky then, anything below 60 drives me nuts in most games. I borrowed a mates PS3 and bought GTA5 but had to get rid as it was unplayable for me.
A good visual comparison: http://boallen.com/fps-compare.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The R9 270 non-X is probably more energy efficient than a GTX660 as it has consistently higher performance and only uses a single PCI-E power connector. Also,the HD7870 has better peformance with AA applied and better compute performance.

Has the OP tried overclocking their HD7850??

[mikeo01]

Yeah I've tried overclocking it, not the best without voltage tweaks unfortunately.

Ah, that's a head scratch because now I'm looking at the free game bundles to make my decision. I can see the R9 270 is better now, but then I may as well go all the way to the 270X then as it's only a few quid more.

Well here's my choices now:

R9 270 MSI - Suits my motherboard, but look at that cooling solution
VTX3D R9 270X - Cheapest r9 270X going, looks decent for the price.
GTX 660 MSI - Comes with 2 free games (which cost a bit new, one which I wanted).
HD 7870 Tahli LE XFX - I know these cards are hungry but for the price should I be that concerned? 2 Free games
XFX R9 270A Boost + BF4 - Free game

Problem is they all have their ups and downs, mainly the bundles if I have to be honest.

[herulach]

Honestly, just buy the games, even if you get all 3 it will be cheaper than a new card, and none of those represent significant upgrades, particularly at 1080p.

Or if you're into that kind of money, an extra £20 will get you a GTX670 from scan today only.

[mikeo01]

Ah really? Going by Amazon all three would cost £90.95!

Well judging by the benchmarks over at Anandtech it seems the R9 270X gets on average 10 fps more than my current HD7850 in most games.
The R9 270 seems to be in the middle.

Here's the ones I'm debating now (that is if it comes with the free game).

Sapphire R9 270X
MSI R9 270X
XFX R9 270
MSI R9 270

I'll probably wait for a bit but those are in mind. I think I'll stick to the 270s

[sqwerty]

Out of what you linked there I'd say the MSI, but around that range your in 7950/gtx670 monies.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-m...roductId=53072 is £159.59 in today only
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...roductId=56014 is £161.99 in today only

[mikeo01]

The GTX 670 you linked is £191.60 and the HD 7950 you linked is £174.95?

Well at the moment I'm trying and seeing how well this card overclocks. May as well you've all suggested it, so no harm in trying I suppose!

[sqwerty]

Look at the very top of the scan page and click Today Only section.

[mikeo01]

Yeah true.

I'll take everyone's advise and go straight for the HD 7950 when a real pops up (and when I sell my current).

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Also thanks for pointing out the deals sqwerty I'll keep an eye out for any new bargains :-)

[sqwerty]

No probs but I wouldn't wait too long for the 7 series. I don't know how many they have left but once they're gone, they're gone.

[mikeo01]

I have gone back and forth and back and forth

Results: I don't think I can pass on these two deals, free games and superb performance.

HD 7870 - Then overclock a bit
HD 7870 Tahli LE - Leave as is.

As mentioned I'm going to see power consumption rise either way. And for £133.99 it's a bargain

[PowerPie5000]

XFX Pro 550 is a seasonic M12II in a different box, easily capable of handling any single card solution going.

I probably wouldn't want to use it with a GTX 690 or Radeon 7990... It should be ok for single GPU cards though (GTX 780Ti and R9 290X might be borderline).

[MrRockliffe]

I've done an awesome guide on how to OC the 7850. It's on another forum, however, so I'm not sure if I can post it here? I'm on my phone at the moment as well, so I'll do it when I get home.

Just seen your last post. The 7870 LE is awesome, but a large power consumption compared to a 7850. I would get the XFX version from Aria if you plan to get one at all.