Looking to upgrade from a AMD HD 5770

[harshbarj]

After 5 years of service, I feel it's time to retire my old trusty 5770. From looking around there are a lot of choices that are many times faster so this will likely give me a better bang for my buck than replacing the CPU / motherboard.

Right now I have a Intel core i5 750 with 12gb of ram. I really don't think this is much of a bottleneck and an upgrade that would give me a good boost quite frankly would cost more than I have.

Most of my problems are in modded minecraft. Though even vanilla minecraft gets a bit choppy. Oddly, games like borderlands 2 or bioshock infinite cause no issues for my current system even at max settings (I game at 1080p).

I am looking for a drop in replacement, so it needs to work with my existing 630w psu which has a limit of 25A on the video card rail (300 watt). It also must run off the existing 6-pin connector. These two things have been the stumbling point for me. Were it not for the PSU issue, I would get a R9 285 and be done with it, but it needs 2 6-pin connectors.

I prefer AMD/ATI, but am open to any card that will give a good boost (given my power issues, nvidia may be a better/safer bet).

I would like to stick to $200 max, though lower is better. Just looking to add a few more years to this rig.


Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I think most, if not all, of the R9 28x series cards use two 6-pin adapters.

Maybe look into the GTX 960, which would still be a massive upgrade over your 5770.

 

[TemjinGold]

You're looking at an R9 270. Though I would honestly replace that PSU. No top-tier PSUs come in the 630w size and if you've had it for a few years, you may be pushing your luck on it.

 

[harshbarj]

I think most, if not all, of the R9 28x series cards use two 6-pin adapters.

Maybe look into the GTX 960, which would still be a massive upgrade over your 5770.

I was considering the GTX 960. Thing is I did not really know what to expect. I ditched nvidia back in the geforce 4 days because of the number of bad chips I was having and the number of dead cards I had to return. Hopefully they have improved over the last ~12 years. I have stayed true to ati(amd now) from that point.

I'll give it some thought, thanks for suggesting a product I already was eyeballing. Make it a easier choice (and likely the correct one).

You're looking at an R9 270. Though I would honestly replace that PSU. No top-tier PSUs come in the 630w size and if you've had it for a few years, you may be pushing your luck on it.

I'll also look into the r9 270. It appears to be lower priced, so I'll have to take power useage into account, as well as performance.

As for the PSU, I don't expect issues. I have been building gaming rigs for about 16 years and have never had a psu issue even with budget supplies.

 

[Red Hawk]

The best option from the AMD side for single 6 pin PCI-E is the R9-270 (non X).

 

[happy medium]

the fastest option is a Evga gtx960 superclocked for 200$, 3.5x faster than your 5770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-093-_-Product

next is the r9 270 for about 150$ and is 2.5x faster than the 5770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-449-_-Product

and finally the gtx750ti for 120$ and is 2x faster than the 5770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-348-_-Product

They should all work with your power supply.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You're looking at an R9 270. Though I would honestly replace that PSU. No top-tier PSUs come in the 630w size and if you've had it for a few years, you may be pushing your luck on it.

Yea, what brand is that PSU? I am surprised that a unit rated at 630w would have only one six pin connector?

 

[Udgnim]

if you don't want to upgrade your PSU, go with a GTX 960

 

[harshbarj]

Yea, what brand is that PSU? I am surprised that a unit rated at 630w would have only one six pin connector?

It's a modular psu but I misplaced the extra cables years ago. I forget the make, but do recall spending around $80. One plug has a dedicated 12v rail, the other is shared with the rest of the psu.


I'll likely be going with the gtx 960 as it needs only 12 more watts than my current card. Seems to be a nice upgrade that should last another 3-5 years.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yea, what brand is that PSU? I am surprised that a unit rated at 630w would have only one six pin connector?

That's a sign. Not a good one, of course. It says, "Hey, I'm a cheap PSU. Don't load me down too much, or I'll blow up on you!".

 

[96Firebird]

Have you looked into finding another cable to replace the one you're missing? If you really want to stick with AMD, that would be the best choice as it really opens your options up.

 

[AtenRa]

I would really go for the R9 290 for $245 AR and dont look back (knowing it is over your budget).

But if you want to stay on budget i would consider the R9 285 at $160 AR or R9 280X at $205 AR.

R9 290 and 285 gives you full Freesync Gaming support and due to their architecture higher future DX-12 (compute) performance. You also get Mantle support.

ps: R9 285 is consistently faster/smoother than R9 280 and GTX 960 with Game Engines that support latest DX-11/Mantle/DX-12 features (compute).

 

[happy medium]

I would really go for the R9 290 for $245 AR and dont look back (knowing it is over your budget).

But if you want to stay on budget i would consider the R9 285 at $160 AR or R9 280X at $205 AR.

R9 290 and 285 gives you full Freesync Gaming support and due to their architecture higher future DX-12 (compute) performance. You also get Mantle support.

ps: R9 285 is consistently faster/smoother than R9 280 and GTX 960 with Game Engines that support latest DX-11/Mantle/DX-12 features (compute).

he only has 1, 6 pin power connector

 

[AtenRa]

he only has 1, 6 pin power connector

He has a 630W PSU, he can use the 4pin Molex

 

[happy medium]

Quote:
It also must run off the existing 6-pin connector. These two things have been the stumbling point for me. Were it not for the PSU issue, I would get a R9 285 and be done with it, but it needs 2 6-pin connectors.


This is what I read........

Plus with a stock core i5 750, he wont push much more than a mid range gpu anyway.

 

[Valantar]

Plus with a stock core i5 750, he wont push much more than a mid range gpu anyway.

That's questionable at best, if not outright wrong. Very few games today are CPU limited, even with CPUs as old as my ancient Q9450. You might not get 100% of the performance of a high end card today, but 80-90% of a high end card is still a lot more than the current card.

 

[will889]

In your shoes I would go with a GTX 960, that way you can use the PSU you have now. Save for a better platform like a current gen I5 with the mobo and get another 20% increase.

 

[KingerXI]

Check the For Sale forums and save some $$. I just got two brand new R9 280x cards for $275 ($137.50 each!), and I sold my GTX 760 for a $10 profit, so my cost for one of the cards is $127.50. And I bought a Seasonic X560 for $50. Take your time to find the gear, and you can upgrade for cheap.

 

[shady28]

After 5 years of service, I feel it's time to retire my old trusty 5770. From looking around there are a lot of choices that are many times faster so this will likely give me a better bang for my buck than replacing the CPU / motherboard.

Right now I have a Intel core i5 750 with 12gb of ram. I really don't think this is much of a bottleneck and an upgrade that would give me a good boost quite frankly would cost more than I have.

Most of my problems are in modded minecraft. Though even vanilla minecraft gets a bit choppy. Oddly, games like borderlands 2 or bioshock infinite cause no issues for my current system even at max settings (I game at 1080p).

I am looking for a drop in replacement, so it needs to work with my existing 630w psu which has a limit of 25A on the video card rail (300 watt). It also must run off the existing 6-pin connector. These two things have been the stumbling point for me. Were it not for the PSU issue, I would get a R9 285 and be done with it, but it needs 2 6-pin connectors.

I prefer AMD/ATI, but am open to any card that will give a good boost (given my power issues, nvidia may be a better/safer bet).

I would like to stick to $200 max, though lower is better. Just looking to add a few more years to this rig.


Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

Generally if all else is equal, I'd rec you stick to the mfr (AMD vs Nvidia) that you already have. Reason being, less chance of driver conflict issues.

A 630W PSU should be good for anything out there short of dual GPUs if you are careful about which rails you put the GPU and other components on. If you don't want to mess with that and just want to stick with the single 6-pin, the most powerful options available are the R9 270, GTX 660, and GTX 960 - all of these are sub $200 if you look a bit. Of the 3 the 960 is by far the most powerful one within your $200 budget.

If you don't mind MIR and are stateside, the 960 can be had for $179. There is also an additional $10 off available from tiger, making it $169 + s/h/tax.

I would expect to see more of these discounts in the next month. There is also a 4GB version coming in March.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=9602271

 

[myocardia]

In your shoes I would go with a GTX 960, that way you can use the PSU you have now. Save for a better platform like a current gen I5 with the mobo and get another 20% increase.

This. For almost exactly the amount of power as your current card, you can have ~300% higher framerates, or even better, 150% higher framerates, with much higher visual settings.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I would expect to see more of these discounts in the next month. There is also a 4GB version coming in March.

I doubt that is actually coming,smart move on Nvidias part is keeping it to 2gb. If they bring out a "7gb" version of the 970 then maybe but as with the current line-up it would be a fatal mistake on Nvidias part.

While every 970 owner including myself is stuck with a "3.5gb" card,the 960 ends up with a full fledged 4gb,yeah it won't be pretty.People are returning these cards sometimes in pairs of 3 cause of the memory situation.

 

[shady28]

I doubt that is actually coming,smart move on Nvidias part is keeping it to 2gb. If they bring out a "7gb" version of the 970 then maybe but as with the current line-up it would be a fatal mistake on Nvidias part.

While every 970 owner including myself is stuck with a "3.5gb" card,the 960 ends up with a full fledged 4gb,yeah it won't be pretty.People are returning these cards sometimes in pairs of 3 cause of the memory situation.

Well I have some doubts on how well the 4GB thing will work, especially as regards the price premium for that.

But Asus did just come out with a 4GB 750 Ti :

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX750TIDC2OC4GD5/


Technically the 970 is a 4GB card, it's just that it's unable to use the last 2 512MB banks at the same time. It's a variation on memory 'bank switching' which is technique old as dirt. First time I saw it used was in the 1980s when 8 bit PCs went over the 64K RAM limit.

My guess is that the 750 Ti / 960 4GB would use something like bank switching - which means it could only access one of two 2GB segments at once.

Would have to see a thorough test / review to see what that means in the real world. A review of that 4GB 750 Ti would probably lend some insight.

Inno3D is the company advertising the 960 release :

 

[skipsneeky2]

Inno3D is the company advertising the 960 release :

This company if i recall really has made some of the better over the top cards,they need to bring out a 8gb 970/980.I think they or someone similar makes 8gb 290/290x cards but with a obvious premium.

Sucks they aren't a U.S vendor lol.

Edit:Sapphire makes the 8gb 290x

 

[Valantar]

Are you suggesting that people returning their GTX 970s would willingly replace them with 4GB GTX 960s? There is no way in hell a GTX 960 could come close to the performance of the 970, no matter the amount of VRAM. If this actually happens, I don't even ... gah. People can be incredibly stupid.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Are you suggesting that people returning their GTX 970s would willingly replace them with 4GB GTX 960s? There is no way in hell a GTX 960 could come close to the performance of the 970, no matter the amount of VRAM. If this actually happens, I don't even ... gah. People can be incredibly stupid.

You had 4gb 760,770....why the hell should there be a 4gb 960 and a 3.5gb 970?Unless the 960 gets the same treatment?The 970 says 4gb sure but it isn't lol.

That is why i don't honestly see a 4gb 960 coming officially from Nvidia,unless the 970 ends up with a another model with more vram first.