AMD 7970 replacement for around £200 and 1080p gaming

mossi

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Feb 27, 2013
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Hi all

I'm looking to replace my aging Gigabyte 7970 OC Windforce edition (GV-R797OC-3GD) with something that runs cooler, quieter, maybe with a smaller power consumption and that gives a substantial performance increase to warrant the actual change.

I'm a casual gamer and don't have a freesync monitor. I have the an IPS Acer ET241Y.

I'm interested more in longevity and value for money.

My budget is around the £200 mark (+/- £20) and I'm looking to get it from UK site.

Any recommendations would be appreciated! I don't have any 'allegiance' to Nvidia/AMD. My only loyalty is towards value for money!

Thank you in advance!

ps. the rest of my rig is:
[AMD FX-8320]
[2x4GBs DDR3 Kingston HyperX Blue 1866]
[Corsair HX750W]

ps. I recently replaced my motherboard so i have an entry level Asrock one so no overclocking or anything like that in mind. I might be upgrading to a Ryzen in April or around that time.
 
Solution
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Nvidia-1060-GDDR5-Black/dp/B01KHWOAR4/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1536431474&sr=1-4&keywords=gtx+1060, 189 pounds at the time of writing.
An even better offer for the 6GB model if you wish to spend a little more, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-NVIDIA-GeForce-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B01IA9FEOO/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1536431474&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+1060 240 pounds at the time of writing.
You could also look around for used video cards, but that would compromise your need for longevity, so I do not recommend that.
 
Yep, GTX1060 ( 6Gb for preference but the 3Gb should be fine if you keep game settings within reason ).
Also consider the AMD RX 570, ( slightly slower than the GTX1060 but carries more memory ) or the RX 580 ( slightly faster than the GTX 1060 and carries more memory ).
Take a look over at PcPartPicker: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ it'll give you some idea as to pricing and availability, but also make a note of the suppliers it lists, most have ongoing specials that don't often turn up on price comparison sites.
 


Thank you for this suggestion
There seems to be about £50 difference between the 3gb and the 6gb versions.. is the difference in performance proportionate? seems like quite a steep increase. Does the extra RAM make that much of a difference?

 

The extra VRAM and CUDA cores is for futureproofing and gaming at higher resolutions than 1080p. In a nutshell, the 6GB model will be able to cope with games for a couple of years more than the 3GB model. The difference is indeed big and I would personally get the 6GB model. I mean, as coozie7 noted, there are AMD video cards with 8GB or VRAM for the same price, so the 3GB model is beginning to get obsolete already. However, if your budget is very tight, the 3GB is a very decent option as well.

 
Solution