Would like some suggestions for a New Graphics card

addx9 · January 18, 2016, 03:25:35 PM

So I have been running all of my games on a raedeon HD550 now for over 4 years and I'm finally in a position where I can up my game and buy a better graphics card.

I have had some suggestion's however I would like to get a wider range of options for my price range if anyone has any knowledge on this.

My budget is around Â£180 - Â£250.

Thanks!

sulky_uk · January 18, 2016, 03:31:29 PM

you will need to post up the specs of your power supply, or better still a picture. It will help us know you upper limits as it you go for a too high powered card you will need a power supply as well

addx9 · January 18, 2016, 03:37:57 PM

I have a 103w power supply which I can upgrade as well

OldBloke · January 18, 2016, 03:42:51 PM

Quote from: addx9;409073I have a 103w power supply which I can upgrade as well

And so it starts ...

Tutonic · January 18, 2016, 05:57:49 PM

Quote from: addx9;409073I have a 103w power supply which I can upgrade as well

Yea, you'll need to upgrade that - 500W is probably as low as you want to go for a modern gaming PC. Here's a suggestion, but DYOR: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/corsair-builder-series-cx-600w-v2-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-cp-9020048-uk-ca-048-cs.html

The Nvidia GTX 970 is still insane bang-for-buck power, they go for about Â£250 which is the top of your budget but shop around and you might find a good deal.

Gorion · January 18, 2016, 06:26:30 PM

The Bang for Buck king right now is the AMD R9 390 at Â£240. Do not go for the GTX 970 route for the same price as you will be shooting yourself in the foot.

Forget Nvidia, unless you want to buy a Â£400-500 card.

Comparison. Also, keep in mind that the 970 only has 3.5GB of fully clocked VRAM, the other 500MB uses a lower clock rate, and has been quite the PR Nightmare for Nvidia.

addx9 · January 18, 2016, 07:01:03 PM

Alright thanks guys!! ill check these out and i'll certainly get the 500W upgrade

Gorion · January 18, 2016, 07:40:12 PM

I'd go with more than 500W if I were you.

And, I would first check the power requirements of your PC before buying said PSU.

lionheart · January 18, 2016, 08:48:55 PM

Was desperately looking for the LIKE button for this post.......

lionheart · January 18, 2016, 08:50:32 PM

Quote from: OldBloke;409074And so it starts ...

I meant this post of course.

Gone_Away · January 18, 2016, 09:15:03 PM

Quote from: OldBloke;409074And so it starts ...

LOL OB - Nice one

TeaLeaf · January 19, 2016, 07:26:07 AM

I'm surprised nobody has asked what the current CPU is yet. There's a balance to be struck with many games, the CPU has to process and the graphics card has to render. If you have a Â£1,000 graphics card on a Â£50 CPU then the graphics will still suffer badly.

Which brings us back to Oldie's point!

Depending on how old your current system is, you might need to upgrade the whole lot. E.g.

To stop your new graphics card being CPU-bound then you need a new CPU.
Your new CPU probably uses a different socket to your existing CPU, so that triggers the need for a new mobo and RAM.
Your new CPU's low power/sleep states along with the higher power need of the new graphics card mean you need a bigger PSU and one that is compliant with the latest power standards.
So that's pretty muchb your whole PC upgraded!

Gunda · January 19, 2016, 06:18:35 PM

I'm not sure i've ever seen a 103watt powersupply, are you sure that is what you have now? and as TeaLeaf says probably best to post your whole PC spec so we can take a look at advise accordingly.

sulky_uk · January 19, 2016, 06:59:40 PM

103 watt max on the 12v rail?or per rail

Obsydian · January 21, 2016, 02:20:56 PM

Quote from: Gorion;409084The Bang for Buck king right now is the AMD R9 390 at Â£240. Do not go for the GTX 970 route for the same price as you will be shooting yourself in the foot.

Forget Nvidia, unless you want to buy a Â£400-500 card.

Comparison. Also, keep in mind that the 970 only has 3.5GB of fully clocked VRAM, the other 500MB uses a lower clock rate, and has been quite the PR Nightmare for Nvidia.

By way of adding balance to Gorion's above argument, I would have to disagree and state the complete opposite!

Pricewise, the 970 and 390 are about the same (Â£240+, or Â£260+ for overclocked versions), whereas the cheapest 390x on the market is about Â£315.

The GTX970 easily outpaces the 390 by about 20%, and betters the 390x by about 10%. VRAM, while probably becoming more important over the next few years, isn't terribly important right now as there are very few games out on the market that would tax the 4GB of VRAM on the 970, so the 8GB on the 390 will really only be of use if you're planning on running a 4K screen or 3 x 1080p screens at high FPS rates (or you are wanting to run one of the very few games that want to use all available VRAM they can find!)

I have used both NVidia and AMD cards over the years, usually choosing one over the other based on relatvie performance at that time, and I can honestly say that while NVidia has never given me any problems, I have had huge problems with almost every AMD card I have bought, to the point that about 18 months ago, after having to send my last card (R9 290x) back to AMD for 'repair' for the third time, I finally decided that I will never go AMD ever again.

For transparency, my current card is a 970 and it runs Star Citizen at 1080p max quality at a steady 60fps in Vanduul Swarm. It'll probably go higher but my monitor only supports 60Hz. Memory usage never gets much higher than 2GB and temperature under load tops out at around 65-75 degrees.

But the choice is, of course, yours.