Card upgrade

[Jabberwocke]

Hi people. My first post here so please be gentle with me.
I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card. I game a little but nothing too intensive - Over Flanders Fields, Legend of Gromrock - but would like a little more power for future games.
My current set up:

AMD PhenomII x2 550 BE 3.1ghz
Asus M3A79T- Deluxe MB
HD4830 512mb
4G Buffalo Firestix RAM
Liyama PLE2008HDS monitor
Windows 7 pro 64bit

I've been looking at the HD7770 and HD6850.
Any thoughts?

 

[Jabberwocke]

Ooops, forgot to mention PSU

OCZ mod extreme 600w

 

[skitz9417]

i would go for a hd 7850 or hd 7870 whats ur resoultion

 

[andiedee]

I believe the gtx 660 will be a good choice, it really depends on if you're a nvidia fan boy or a amd fan boy .. or girl. To be honest the only reason why nvidia beats amd is physX it does improve your gaming experience because you're looking at amazing realistic gameplay but than again do you want to spend a little bit more for it?

my choice would be the gtx 660 but if you don't care about the little bit more effects you can always get the 7870 which will beat the 660, but wont beat it when you have physX enabled...

Note: PhysX in only enabled in games such as Batman Arkham Asylum, diablo 3, Borderlands 2 (best looking) and metro 2033..

You could atleast put physX on low settings and be able to play smoothly but yeah it just comes down with your choice since i can already see that you're already a AMD boy

 

[Jabberwocke]

Thanks. Resolution is 1600 x 900.
I know it may seem that I'm an AMD boy but it was simply bang for buck (or pound as I'm in the UK) at the time. I'm really looking for a marked improvement over what I already have and my upper limit is about £130/£140. £100 would be better, then I can eat this week 😉

 

[skitz9417]

i would go for hd 7850,hd7870 u should be able to find the hd 7850 for cheap

 

[gamingboy]

Thanks. Resolution is 1600 x 900.
I know it may seem that I'm an AMD boy but it was simply bang for buck (or pound as I'm in the UK) at the time. I'm really looking for a marked improvement over what I already have and my upper limit is about £130/£140. £100 would be better, then I can eat this week 😉

At that resolution, you don't need a very powerful card. You might hit a bottleneck with your CPU.

Get a 7850 or maybe even a 7770.

 

[Jabberwocke]

At that resolution, you don't need a very powerful card. You might hit a bottleneck with your CPU.

Get a 7850 or maybe even a 7770.

I was worried about a bottleneck but I don't know enough to work out if I'll get one. Thanks for that.
As long as I can keep going for a bit longer before I build another system

 

[andiedee]

At that resolution, you don't need a very powerful card. You might hit a bottleneck with your CPU.

Get a 7850 or maybe even a 7770.

yeah at a resoultion at 1600 x 900 he doesn't need a powerful card, but he also said for future gaming.. look if i was him ill be ready now because if he was going to go 1920x1080 in the future.. he would need a 7870 ... at least.

 

[gamingboy]

yeah at a resoultion at 1600 x 900 he doesn't need a powerful card, but he also said for future gaming.. look if i was him ill be ready now because if he was going to go 1920x1080 in the future.. he would need a 7870 ... at least.

That is true.

OP might also want to wait till the new series of graphics cards come to market. They might offer even more bang for buck.

 

[andiedee]

That is true.

OP might also want to wait till the new series of graphics cards come to market. They might offer even more bang for buck.

haha myself is looking at the 7970 DD ghz edition .. its between that and the gtx 680 lightning but the price wise so soo far away.. but yet they're pretty much the same, i wont be getting it right now but in at least july.. by then i think there will be a new generation of cards like 8*** and the 7** .. we can just wait and see what happens..

also @jabber, if thats the case then there is always a choice in crossfire.. with the 7870 .. which will probs 100% compete with the new gen.. but we have to wait and see for news etc.

 

[Jabberwocke]

I'm pretty tight for desk space at the moment and I won't be looking to get a larger monitor for some while so I think I'm stuck with 1600 x 900 for the foreseeable future anyway. Even going for a 22" is currently out of the question 🙁

 

[andiedee]

I'm pretty tight for desk space at the moment and I won't be looking to get a larger monitor for some while so I think I'm stuck with 1600 x 900 for the foreseeable future anyway. Even going for a 22" is currently out of the question 🙁

I think you would do fine with the 7850, but just incase in future reference i would upgrade now and save your money later on for something more better like a screen they're cheap these days.. i got a 24inch with massively good reviews for just $200 AUD.

im getting another one when i get my new card in the future.. you always have to look into the future with graphic cards.. which is a bummer i was a noob back in the day and just got the 560 ti its not doing much with me now due to me at 1920 x 1080 i can still run most games at the highest but no AA or anything like that.. if i do im stuck at like 20 fps haha !

at least right now you can just get maxiumum fps when at 1600 x 900 but once you go from 1920x1080 you'll see a bit of a slow down..

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-6.html

you'll get 45-60 fps in b3 with the 7850 which is amazing at 1920x1080.. but you'll get atleast 60-75 with 1600x900

 

[Jabberwocke]

Well, food for thought. The 7870 is a little too pricey for me currently. I won't be going to a higher res with my current rig so perhaps I should be looking at an interim upgrade of a 7850 or 7770. When I get round to the new build I'll buy a new card to suit the rest of the components.
How does that sound? 7850 or 7770.

 

[andiedee]

Well, food for thought. The 7870 is a little too pricey for me currently. I won't be going to a higher res with my current rig so perhaps I should be looking at an interim upgrade of a 7850 or 7770. When I get round to the new build I'll buy a new card to suit the rest of the components.
How does that sound? 7850 or 7770.

7850 it is ..
http://www.hwcompare.com/12033/radeon-hd-7770-vs-radeon-hd-7850/
^ as you can see it shows that the 7850 smashes the 7770.

Comes to a conclusion that the 7850 is your choice

if it becomes way worse in the future (newer games come out) just crossfire it and it will be no problem

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999 < thats a good 7850.

 

[Jabberwocke]

Looks like a 7850 then. Is there any great performance increase between the 2gb and 1gb versions?

 

[cryptonium76]

Generally, you don't need more than 1gb unless you plan on having a multi-monitor setup.

 

[andiedee]

it can improve your performace by like 1-3 fps but i'd get the 2gb version just incase you do get another monitor EVER in the future haha !

 

[gamingboy]

Generally, you don't need more than 1gb unless you plan on having a multi-monitor setup.

Modern games do take more than 1 Gig of Vram on high settings. And of course, ever more in the future.

 

[Jabberwocke]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to get a Saphire HD7850 2gb.