Should I upgrade with my $200 budget?

[Renob]

Just curious if I can get a worthy video card upgrade on a $200 budget.

Here is my hardware.
AMD 7750 one gig ram.
Board: 970 extreme3
CPU: FX-6300 Vishera
Mem: 8 gigs
Win 7

I've not overclocked anything.

 

[Jimzz]

What games do you play?

But for $200 you can almost get into the 7950 range or less than $200 for the 7870

7950 $225 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127667

7870 $177 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202025

 

[toyota]

what is the exact power supply that you have? and what is the resolution of your monitor? and can you really not check prices and look at reviews for yourself?

 

[Renob]

Playing Crysis 3 and BF3 right now Grid and NFS games...

I have a 4yo 1000 I think its Zeus something. it's good quality

Res is 1680 x 1050 my guess is I will upgrade my monitor soon also.

 

[toyota]

Zeus 1000 watt power supply? is that what you are saying? without searching I have never heard of such but it sounds like piece of crap. any quality 1000 watt psu would be very expensive not to mention your pc doesnt even use 250 watts under 100% load so not sure why a psu with that many watts would have ever been purchased. please check the exact psu.

and if you like your screen then stick with it. a 7850 would be fine for that res and your system. or a 7870 would be too if you dont want to oc he 7850 which is one of its selling points.

 

[lehtv]

I'd definitely upgrade to a 7870. The difference is staggering... about 2x higher framerates. I don't think the 7950 is justified at your res and considering the GPU you're upgrading from. And if you upgrade your monitor to 1080p at some point, the 7870 will still handle it fine.

I would sell away that 1000 watter and buy something reasonable (~500W, at least bronze, from a decent brand).

 

[Essence_of_War]

Here's a 7870 GHz Edition for 176 shipped, AR

As lehtv said, that will handle 1080 real nicely too if you do upgrade the monitor.

If you feel like stretching your budget a bit further, you can get 7950s for a steal:
Sapphire 7950 for $225 shipped, AR
MSI 7950 for $225 shipped, AR

The 7870 comes with Silver Rewards, and for what it's worth, the 7950s would get you Gold Rewards.

 

[raghu78]

OP go for a HD 7950. the best value for money. with next gen games like BF4 i would not advise you to go any lower even for 1680 x 1050.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202026

and overclock the cpu to 4.5 ghz to reduce bottlenecks.

 

[toyota]

OP go for a HD 7950. the best value for money. with next gen games like BF4 i would not advise you to go any lower even for 1680 x 1050.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202026

and overclock the cpu to 4.5 ghz to reduce bottlenecks.

I bet for next gen games his cpu will be just as much as limitation in many cases. I would not bother with a 7950 at 1680 unless I had an oced i5/i7. and the op is used to playing games on a 7750 so even a 7850 is twice as fast.

 

[spat55]

I would just wait till the new gen cards are out, no point in upgrading now, you have a okay card, just save the money for something better later or get a new monitor and PSU. The PSU is also getting older meaning it will be less affective later on, and you can see I don't worry about the PSU that much by my sig.

 

[toyota]

I would just wait till the new gen cards are out, no point in upgrading now, you have a okay card, just save the money for something better later or get a new monitor and PSU. The PSU is also getting older meaning it will be less affective later on, and you can see I don't worry about the PSU that much by my sig.

lol he has a bottom of the line card so whats the point of waiting when there are great deals on cards more than twice as fast as his. sometimes waiting makes sense but for him there is absolutely no reason to.

 

[spat55]

lol he has a bottom of the line card so whats the point of waiting when there are great deals on cards more than twice as fast as his. sometimes waiting makes sense but for him there is absolutely no reason to.

Because he can wait for 3 months and get something 3-4 times more powerful?

EDIT: Always go for the newest tech, even if it means waiting around!

 

[Renob]

So I got that PSU years ago and like I said I’m not sure of the brand/model but I remember all the reviews stated it was a very nice PSU except for the price, I picked it up on sale at Fry’s for just under $300 so other than age my guess is its still fine. sorry just to lazy to open the case and see what it is lol.

Thanks for the input seems I will up my budget and get the 7950 and do some overclocking…

 

[Renob]

Ok found out its a SilverStone Zeus PSU and its 850 watts...

 

[raghu78]

Because he can wait for 3 months and get something 3-4 times more powerful?

EDIT: Always go for the newest tech, even if it means waiting around!

the OP is talking close to USD 200. So how much do you think the HD 9950 is going to sell for ? those cards are targetted at USD 400 - 600 price range. the HD 7950 is available for USD 240 (220 after MIR). with 3 free games. There is no card which will beat the HD 7950 at the USD 250 price point. not for a long time.

even if AMD were to refresh the HD 7800 series with HD 9800 series GPU and match GTX 770 perf, it would be priced at USD 300 - 350. and we already know an avg HD 7950 OC(1125 mhz) = HD 7970 Ghz, which is on par with GTX 770.

 

[toyota]

Because he can wait for 3 months and get something 3-4 times more powerful?

EDIT: Always go for the newest tech, even if it means waiting around!

are you really that ignorant about hardware? it will be many many years before he gets something 3-4 times as fast for the same amount of money. and if you are always waiting around then when do you buy something?

smart people that care about money buy stuff when there is a killer deal and some of the deals we have now stand little chance of getting much better.

 

[spat55]

the OP is talking close to USD 200. So how much do you think the HD 9950 is going to sell for ? those cards are targetted at USD 400 - 600 price range. the HD 7950 is available for USD 240 (220 after MIR). with 3 free games. There is no card which will beat the HD 7950 at the USD 250 price point. not for a long time.

even if AMD were to refresh the HD 7800 series with HD 9800 series GPU and match GTX 770 perf, it would be priced at USD 300 - 350. and we already know an avg HD 7950 OC(1125 mhz) = HD 7970 Ghz, which is on par with GTX 770.

Hmm, I would still wait, lower power, plus the fact that the HD 9870 should be in his budget especially if he saved, but you are correct.

 

[spat55]

are you really that ignorant about hardware? it will be many many years before he gets something 3-4 times as fast for the same amount of money.

No a HD 7850 will match a HD 6970, and a HD 7850 will match a GTX 570, but it might not (more than likely) be that way this time.

EDIT: So a HD 7970 is about twice as powerful as a HD 6970, I know I was incorrect about what I said thinking about it. But then again depending on what this new series brings you will not know till the time, although it is unlikely, you might aswell wait rather than be disappointed, you can always get a HD 7xxx card even when a HD 9xxx (or whatever it is) is here.

 

[toyota]

No a HD 7850 will match a HD 6970, and a HD 7850 will match a GTX 570, but it might not (more than likely) be that way this time.

EDIT: So a HD 7970 is about twice as powerful as a HD 6970, I know I was incorrect about what I said thinking about it. But then again depending on what this new series brings you will not know till the time, although it is unlikely, you might aswell wait rather than be disappointed, you can always get a HD 7xxx card even when a HD 9xxx (or whatever it is) is here.

and you dont realize when the 7 series came out they offered the same or less performance per dolar than the cards they replaced. so yes please review what you actually claimed as it is way beyond silly to say we are getting cards 3x to 4x as fast for the same money. again that takes many many years. and the 9x series cards will be still be on 28nm so there is not going to much more performance per dollar if any. and power consumption will probably go up for the cards that get replace. again we have great cards at well under 200 bucks now so there is zero reason to wait. and also again his 7750 is low end so basically every thing you have said in this thread is incorrect.

 

[spat55]

and you dont realize when the 7 series came out they offered the same or less performance per dolar than the cards they replaced. so yes please review what you actually claimed as it is way beyond silly to say we are getting cards 3x to 4x as fast for the same money. again that takes many many years. and the 9x series cards will be still be on 28nm so there is not going to much more performance per dollar if any. and power consumption will probably go up for the cards that get replace. again we have great cards at well under 200 bucks now so there is zero reason to wait. and also again his 7750 is low end so basically every thing you have said in this thread is incorrect.

When I said 3-4 times faster, I meant 3-4 times faster than his HD 7750 :lol:

 

[Arkaign]

Ok found out its a SilverStone Zeus PSU and its 850 watts...

You are ludicrously over-covered in the power supply department then

 

[Renob]

You are ludicrously over-covered in the power supply department then

Not when I got it

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 660 Ti . gl

 

[Alamat]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I'm kinda like in the same situation. I have an i5-3570K and an EVGA GTX 560 Ti 1 gb right now ( both not overclocked )and I play BF3 a lot at 1080p. My brother would like to play COH2 on his C2D rig and would like to get my card. I probably have also $200 to spend on a new card so I can play BF4 properly. FYI, have a SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W in there.
The 7870 or the 7950 look great but what is the counterpart in the NVidia series?

 

[skipsneeky2]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I'm kinda like in the same situation. I have an i5-3570K and an EVGA GTX 560 Ti 1 gb right now ( both not overclocked )and I play BF3 a lot at 1080p. My brother would like to play COH2 on his C2D rig and would like to get my card. I probably have also $200 to spend on a new card so I can play BF4 properly. FYI, have a SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W in there.
The 7870 or the 7950 look great but what is the counterpart in the NVidia series?

GTX660 and the gtx760 currently.