Best GPU on a budget?

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Ollie147

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May 2, 2013
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Hi,

Had my eye on a GTX 770 lightning, low end 780 or a R9 290 after selling my 7970 and making a bit of cash buying and selling on a noisy GTX670, but now a few bills have fallen through my door I wasn't expecting and my budget has seriously decreased!

Ive got about £180~200 max to spend but I don't want to buy something i'll lose a lot of money on in the future if I want to sell it on and upgrade. I need a new card asap as Im running on the Intel HD in my 3570k.

Im not worried about brand or chipset, Ive had both NVidia and AMD and they are good in their own right, I just want something that will play such titles as Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2 World of Tanks etc at around 60fps with relatively high settings for the least amount of money till I can save up again.

Ive looked at NVidia's offerings and I could afford the 650ti, 660 or the 760 reference but the 650ti/660's seem underpowered compared to some of the AMD cards at the same price (~£140) and the 760 (~£200) seems like a poor version of the 770 which is only £40 more. The reference 760 is only £180 but I would prefer a cooler, quieter card if possible. I'm worried I'll regret buying the 760. I cant SLI either as my MB only allows for xFire and I cant afford £100 to change that any time soon and buy another card.

Ive looked at the R9 270's (~£140) or R9 270x (~£180) which I could, in the next couple of months, buy another and xFire without changing my MB. I know the 270 can be overclocked to near the 270x. Is xFire any good right now? I have no experience and Ive heard the microstutter arguments but im guessing that also happens in SLI and both drivers are improving all the time.

I just need advice on what going to suit my needs. 650ti/660 and wait less time till I can afford to upgrade (3-4 months?), 760 reference and accept its not a 770 and never will be, sell it in 6 months making a loss and then get a 770? Or get a R9 270, overclock it and get another in a few months for xFire?

Any help or advice would be appreciated
(For price reference I used Novatech as they are just down the road so no postage)
 
Solution
HiTechObsessed
Yeah, don't get a reference card. I have the MSI HAWK 760 and it overclocks itself using GPU Boost 2.0 all the way to 1,300MHz, which benchmarks me just a hair below a 770. That might be a good medium for you price wise. My HAWK never ramps up it's fan from it's lowest setting, and stays pretty cool.
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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n760tf2gd5oc

The 760 is not a poor version of the 770, if you go by that logic, you could start with a 210 and say they're all poor versions of the next card up until the 780 Ti lol

I have a 760 from MSI in my PC, and GPU boost puts me up to 1300MHz all the time, and the fan never even ramps up at all. I get great FPS on Ultra in pretty much everything.

Sli is much better than CrossFire as of right now. Supposedly AMD is working on it, but they've been saying that forever lol
 
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It sounds like your really on a budget, problem being you will not find a card quite as good as your 7970 was.

I would recommend just getting a 270 (non "x"0 and OCing it to a 270x. It will play quite well at 1080p and save you a bit of cash.
Or just wait if you can until you have more $$.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270series/r9270gaming2g.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270series/r9270gaming2g.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdr9270series/11220-00-25g.html

All will OC well.
 
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well a vapor-x 270x is pretty good you will play on high at 60 fps plus both crossfire and sli have problems but but crossfire has larger scaling and actually the 270x is considerd better for money than the 770 and if u could buy the hawk edition or toxic then you will have also more oc potential for me i prefer 270x .
and sorry for my english
 
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Ok poor was the wrong word lol not as good value for money would be better. A 770 for £40 more for nearly a 1/3 more cores should be better value for money but its frustrating I cant reach it!
 
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Me and credit cards don't get along lol. Many years ago I pretty much paid for an ex to go to Uni and was promised that i'd get it back but got taken for a ride. Still paying for it to this day...
 
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Ahh, my dumb joke is in poor taste, sorry about that 🙁 but anyways, you are right. The 270 is a better performance/dollar, I was just trying to max out your performance to your budget. I have the MSI HAWK 760 and it's an absolute beast, gets pretty dang close to 770 levels of performance. GPU Boost 2.0 automatically overclocks it to 1300 MHz on its own.
 
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Ok after sleeping on it, realising if I crossfire I'll have to use a x16/x4 pcie setup with my current MB and that I fancy a change after AMD for a year, im thinking 760/770. Just need help on deciding between two. Zotac reference 760 at £180 or Zotac 770 twin fan (not Amp!) for £240. The other non reference 760's are £200+. The £60 difference between the 760 and 770 is quite a lot but I had a reference blower on my 7970 and it was loud and hot until I got a Gelid Icy Vision for it. Don't want to be in the same position where I have to pay for an aftermarket cooler effectively making it close to the 770 price. Are the reference coolers that loud/hot on the 760? Anyone got one? Guess a blower type card would be better for sli in the future for blowing out heat?
 
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Yeah, don't get a reference card. I have the MSI HAWK 760 and it overclocks itself using GPU Boost 2.0 all the way to 1,300MHz, which benchmarks me just a hair below a 770. That might be a good medium for you price wise. My HAWK never ramps up it's fan from it's lowest setting, and stays pretty cool.
 
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Solution
At that budget, I would go quad sli 780 ti, which leaves you another £120 for a mansion in the Bahamas.

In all seriousness though, at that budget you have basically downgraded from your old gpu, so I would save up some more money so you haven't wasted any more than you already have
 
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Thanks for all your help. Managed to squeeze a few extra £ into my budget by selling a couple of things and got the Zotac 770 and i'm pretty impressed. A minor overclock to 1190mhz and memory to 7.6ghz and its so far given me 5-10% more performance than my old overclocked 7970 I had doing 1175/1600 on a variety of benchmarks and games. If I hadn't been able to find the extra money I was gonna get an MSI 760 gaming or hawk.
 
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