GPU Recommendation

[Collider]

Haven't been following GPU reviews lately, so would like to ask for an upgrade recommendation.

I'm currently running ATI 5850 on the i7 box in the signature, decided its time to upgrade. Looking for something in the 300-500 range that will be good enough for gaming on a 2,560 x 1,440 display.

 

[Leyawiin]

Obvious answer seems to be the HD 7950. Good performance, good price and your CPU will be fine with it (especially with an decent OC). It'll be a nice upgrade from your old card. Its at the bottom end of your price range, but you really don't need more with the current CPU.

 

[Collider]

Obvious answer seems to be the HD 7950. Good performance, good price and your CPU will be fine with it (especially with an decent OC). It'll be a nice upgrade from your old card. Its at the bottom end of your price range, but you really don't need more with the current CPU.

really you think my CPU can be the bottleneck? its an older i7 but still a beast..

 

[Termie]

really you think my CPU can be the bottleneck? its an older i7 but still a beast..

Do you have an overclock on that CPU?

At stock speeds, I wouldn't go much higher than a 7870. If it's overclocked, a 7950 would make sense. I wouldn't go for a 7970 unless you have a very high overclock.

 

[Collider]

really you guys think my CPU will be that much of a bottleneck?

 

[lehtv]

7950 3GB with OC will run 2560x1440 pretty well, and that CPU shouldn't be much of a bottleneck at that resolution. It still wouldn't hurt to overclock it to 3.8-4.0 GHz.

On your budget you could also get a 7970, but the difference in performance to 7950 after OC is pretty small, not enough to justify the cost. You have more important things to upgrade - save your cash for Intel Haswell in a few months.

 

[Collider]

what about 680/670? or do ATIs offer better performance per $$ ?

 

[lehtv]

Yes, AMD cards are currently better bang for buck especially after OC. A Sapphire 7950 3GB $280 AR will typically overclock to 1100 MHz from 850 (925 boost). It will perform nearly as fast as stock GTX 680 at that speed, cost the same as GTX 660 Ti, and the higher amount of VRAM is a nice bonus for 1440p especially if you ever add another card for Crossfire.

 

[Termie]

really you guys think my CPU will be that much of a bottleneck?

A stock 920 will be a significant bottleneck to a 7970 even at 1440p in certain games. Don't spend $400 on a video card unless you're going to overclock.

what about 680/670? or do ATIs offer better performance per $$ ?

No, slightly worse on average.

 

[Collider]

on another note, is now a good time to upgrade, meaning are there any upcoming releases from either chip maker that would make me wait ?

 

[giantpandaman2]

on another note, is now a good time to upgrade, meaning are there any upcoming releases from either chip maker that would make me wait ?

I've been wondering the same thing. I need to do a brand new build though, as everything in my current machine is just plain out of date. I think the next gpu cycle doesn't begin until summer at the earliest, though? I really don't know about the next Intel cycle either. There's a bunch of games coming out or already out that I'd like to have a new system in place with to max out: Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Tom Raider, Skyrim (complete edition), Metro: Last Light.

 

[3DVagabond]

If your card will suffice for another 3-4 months then there's a good chance the next gen will be available. We should have a clearer picture by CES next month (Jan. 8-11).

 

[bononos]

really you think my CPU can be the bottleneck? its an older i7 but still a beast..

You're in luck for asking about bottlenecking. Theres a thread in the cpu subforum-
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2291604
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/778-10/crysis.html

I would upgrade to the 7950 and save the rest of the budget for a new cpu/mb later on.

 

[Collider]

Thanks for the replies, after a bunch of research I decided I will be going with 7950.

Was considering its bigger brother 7970, but 7950 seems to be a good overclocker and can easily match or surpass 7970's speeds. At clock for clock I found that the difference is in the 3-5% range.

Price difference of between $100-200 seems like a lot to pay for an extra 5-7 FPS. 7950 just a much better deal in terms of price / performance ratio.