Looking for suggestion on a new card

[StuffyKnows]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU:

AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer 3.6GHz.

II. Current Graphics Card:

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3.

III. Display Resolution:

ASUS VW246H 1920 x 1080 2ms.

IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications:

Corsair 750W ultra quiet ATX Power Supply.

V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent):

Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 with Coolermaster Hyper 212.

Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.

Around $300.

II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?

No manufacturer preference. Would like a card that doesn't run hot though.

III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?

Looking to only do single card at the moment.

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?

7870 / 660 TI

V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?

Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Guildwars 2 on High+ Settings (1920 x 1080)

VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?

No (Don't know how!)

Additional Notes

I recently upgraded from a Shuttle XPC P4 when the mobo died. Looking for a nice bang for buck card for $300 give or take to play Guildwars 2 with little bottlenecking.

Thanks guys.

 

[tviceman]

If you don't yet own Borderlands 2, the gtx660ti comes with it. If you already own Borderlands 2, then getting an extra copy wouldn't really matter to you that much, beyond selling it for $20 or so. At your resolution, and without overclocking, the hd7950 and gtx660ti will perform very, very close to one another. Actually, the cheapest 660ti will probably slightly outperform the currently cheapest hd7950. HD7950 comes with Sleeping Dogs. If you want to take the time to learn how to overclock, the hd7950 is the faster all around card.

These are the two cheapest gtx660ti's currently listed on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162121 - $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125441 - $285 + $20 mail in rebate

I would recommend the gigabyte over the galaxy, it has a better cooler.

Here is the cheapest hd7950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150616 - $299 + $30 mail in rebate

Another small tidbit perhaps pertinent to you, Borderlands 2 takes advantage of Nvidia's physx - providing noticeable graphical additions to the game which cannot be used on AMD graphics cards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

 

[DominionSeraph]

Hard to recommend anything other than the $195 7870:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131466

 

[tviceman]

Hard to recommend anything other than the $195 7870:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131466

I say if he has the budget to get a better card, why not get a better card?

 

[The Alias]

If you don't yet own Borderlands 2, the gtx660ti comes with it. If you already own Borderlands 2, then getting an extra copy wouldn't really matter to you that much, beyond selling it for $20 or so. At your resolution, and without overclocking, the hd7950 and gtx660ti will perform very, very close to one another. Actually, the cheapest 660ti will probably slightly outperform the currently cheapest hd7950. HD7950 comes with Sleeping Dogs. If you want to take the time to learn how to overclock, the hd7950 is the faster all around card.

These are the two cheapest gtx660ti's currently listed on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162121 - $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125441 - $285 + $20 mail in rebate

I would recommend the gigabyte over the galaxy, it has a better cooler.

Here is the cheapest hd7950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150616 - $299 + $30 mail in rebate

Another small tidbit perhaps pertinent to you, Borderlands 2 takes advantage of Nvidia's physx - providing noticeable graphical additions to the game which cannot be used on AMD graphics cards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

you're being blatantly biased if you're spending $300 why wouldn't you oc ? the 7950 competes against a 670 oc'ed when it's oc'ed the 660ti is grossly overpriced especially when it costs the same as a 7950

 

[DominionSeraph]

I say if he has the budget to get a better card, why not get a better card?

Because they're $105 more for a 10% difference? This when he has a Bulldozer?

 

[raghu78]

If you can spend 300 bucks get the HD 7950. the best price performance card you can buy. overclocks very well. clock for clock HD 7950 is 3 - 5% slower than HD 7970.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Vapor-X/31.html

BF3 1920 x 1200

HD 7970 Ghz (1050 Mhz) - 72.3
HD 7950 (1135 Mhz) - avg 74.8

HD 7950 (1.2 Ghz) can easily exceed a GTX 670 (1.3 Ghz) performance :thumbsup:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950/2

Get the Sapphire HD 7950 Boost for 290 bucks after mail in rebate. 850 mhz core clocks with 925 mhz boost speeds. good cooler which can handle 1.15 - 1.2 Ghz overclocks. comes with sleeping dogs game. i have finished playing the game and its fantastic

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202006

 

[DominionSeraph]

If you can spend 300 bucks get the HD 7950. the best price performance card you can buy.

Is it 52% faster than a 7870?
Not even close.
Costs 52% more, though.

 

[tviceman]

you're being blatantly biased if you're spending $300 why wouldn't you oc ? the 7950 competes against a 670 oc'ed when it's oc'ed the 660ti is grossly overpriced especially when it costs the same as a 7950

He said he does not overclock, smart guy. The 660ti is $20 cheaper today. It comes with a game he explicitly said he wants. I gave options for both and explains the pros and cons of both.

Read what people say and take a minute to look up and verify what it is you're saying before you make posts like the one you just did.

 

[AnandThenMan]

If you don't yet own Borderlands 2, the gtx660ti comes with it.

I don't see it listed with those cards, has the offered expired?

 

[tviceman]

I don't see it listed with those cards, has the offered expired?

Good catch, I'm not sure. It's no longer listed on newegg's website, but the promotional page is still at geforce.com - http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/borderlands-2/deals-promotions

 

[raghu78]

Is it 52% faster than a 7870? Not even close. Costs 52% more, though.

At normal SRP (Suggested retail pricing) most of the HD 7950s sells for 300 - 330 and lesser when you count mail in rebate. same as GTX 660 Ti. HD 7870 sells for 240 - 270 and lesser when you count mail in rebate. At those prices the HD 7950 is unbeatable when you consider overclocked performance.

Also there is no direct scaling of price and performance. Is the GTX 680 66% more faster than GTX 660 Ti . this is a silly line of thinking.

i accept the powercolor HD 7870 card is priced very well. but what if someone wants to buy some other HD 7870 from another brand like Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX.

The XFX HD 7950 is selling for 270 after mail in rebate. HD 7950 (1.15 Ghz) is 25 - 30% faster than HD 7870 (1.25 Ghz) . so you see even then the HD 7950 is unbeatable in price performance. Remember performance does not scale linearly with price.

OP learning to overclock your graphics card is very easy. you can get help on the forums and there are lots of articles on the web.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Good catch, I'm not sure. It's no longer listed on newegg's website, but the promotional page is still at geforce.com - http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/borderlands-2/deals-promotions

That would be for people that have the code, the page itself is of no use without it.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Also there is no direct scaling of price and performance. Is the GTX 680 66% more faster than GTX 660 Ti . this is a silly line of thinking.

Above the level of sufficiency it is largely linear, which is why we don't recommend the GTX 680/690/7970 over on General Hardware very often. The only change is to the slope as the value of the amount of money to the person changes. To Bill Gates there is literally no difference in cost between the GTX 690 and the GTX 670, as the sum total of purchases in his lifetime will be changed by zero. To your average person, however, that $650 makes a difference.

Now, OP said he was looking at the 7870. He said he wasn't overclocking. His stated budget was not, "Unlimited," implying that Benjamins mean enough that he's not going to be throwing them out willy-nilly. And he wasn't graphics whoring, so there's no implication that we have to go to the far end of his budget just to squeeze every last percentage point out that he can possibly purchase.
With all that, a $195, 10% factory overclocked 7870 is stellar.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=548

$100 more for a 7950? It ain't gonna get him much.