Looking to upgrade to gtx 670/7970/ xfire 6870

[newbie1337]

Hey,

I've decided although my gaming performance at the moment in time is adequate I would like to see more performance in games such as bf3 so I would get constantly above 60 fps in 64 man servers and in WoW on ultra to have 60 + fps always.

My current system is as follows;

Cpu: intel i5 650
Gpu: amd 6870
ram: 6gb ddr3 1333hz

I have a £1000 budget to either build a new system or upgrade the current one. I have 3 main graphic options I will be looking at ;

Gtx 670: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294
Amd 7970: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-097-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938
Or another 6870: http://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-Radeon-HD-687A-ZHFC-Graphics-Memory/dp/B005C31F2M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356252267&sr=8-1

This brings me on to my next question of in terms of graphics performance would I be better buying a whole new rig with these specs and one of the graphics options above;

Cpu: intel i5 2500k/3570k
Ram: 8gb corsair vengeance low profile @ 1600mhz
Gpu:See above

Or just replacing the graphics card in my current rig?

PS. this is more of a discussion topic than one where a defiant answer can occur so please have your say

 

[regina_49]

Core i5 3570K. For those who regularly build and keep up to date with the latest and greatest hardware, you’ll know that it’s just about the best processor you can get for the money today. With plenty of performance, top notch overclocking capability and enough horsepower to run any game you throw at it, the choice is a no brainer.Motherboard - Gigabyte Z77X-D3H

Ever since Intel’s introduction of the Z77 chipset, motherboard giant Gigabyte has made huge leaps in in improvements on their motherboards all the way from the budget end to the extreme high end and the Z77X-D3H is a perfect example of what kind of top quality products can be achieved.

With support for PCIe 3.0, SATA 3 6Gb/s, 8 channel integrated audio, Gigabyte’s fully digital power delivery system, and ultra durable 4 features, it’s got a lot going for it.

That said, once you realize that Gigabyte only wants a mere $114.99 for it with an additional $15 rebate bringing it down to only $99.99, this makes the Z77X-D3H one of the best priced, fully featured Z77 motherboards on the market today! Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

$25 cooler that will work magic. Seriously though, at this price, there’s no cooler out there can that beat this thing.It's best bang per buck!


Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3 Low Profile 1.5v

Unless dangerous amounts of voltage is pumped into the memory, memory simply doesn’t overheat and high profile “flashy” memory ends up serving as interfere to larger CPU coolers more than anything else. Thanks to another round of recent price reductions, the 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz kit is now only a mere $39.99! With excellent reliability, great performance, a low profile and an amazing price, there really isn’t a better option on the market.


Case - Corsair Carbide Series 200R

You’ll notice throughout the build that i am using a lot of Corsair components, and it’s for good reason too. It was only a year ago that Corsair cases were among the most high end in terms of both quality, features and price, but lately it seems like Corsair is taking a huge step in providing more affordable solutions without sacrificing a ton of quality and features.

The Corsair Carbide Series 200R is one of those new budget oriented cases that comes in at a mere $69, but includes a ton of features to make it suitable for anyone looking to build a new PC, but is limited to a budget.

With support for up to 8 fans, dust filters for the PSU and intake, tool free design, and a clearance of up to 320mm for those extra long graphics cards, it’s a beast of a case that doesn’t carry a beast of a pricetag.


GPU - MSI GTX 670 Power Edition

We’re building a gaming PC today, so that means we’re going to splurge a little on graphics and what better graphics card than the MSI GTX 670 Power Edition?None the 7970GHz would likely beat it at high res and OC'd be roughly 10-15% faster but cost over $50 price premium so i would leave that up to you to decide if the increase in performance is worth that.

Based off Nvidia’s new Kepler design, the GTX 670 provides top notch performance with extremely high efficiency, so you’re guaranteed to be getting a ton of performance without a lot of energy or creating a lot of heat either. With MSI’s Power Edition GTX 670, you’re also getting MSI’s legendary Twin Frozr IV cooler, which will provide excellent cooling and comes with a large clock speed boost out of the box, making its default clock speed even higher than GTX 680 stock clocks.MSI’s triple overvoltage design that allows you to do a little overclocking to improve performance if you’re feeling adventurous.

Oh, and did I mention there’s also a $20 rebate bringing it down to only $359.99? Now I did.


Storage - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM

Well, we had a budget of only $1,000 and you know some sacrifices had to be made in order to fit the budget. This is one of those sacrifices. For your build today, we’ll be going with a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, which if you asked me one or two years ago would’ve probably been my ideal choice when building a new gaming computer.

Nowadays, I think every PC should include an SSD period. They’re waaaaaaaaay faster and they draw less energy, but unfortunately they do cost a significant amount more than a traditional hard drive.

If you have some extra budget laying around, I’d definitely suggest going with a 128GB Samsung 840 Pro or 256GB Samsung 840 Pro in combination with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda. This will allow for plenty of hard drive space for storage while OS and application files may be placed on the SSD for that extra top notch performance.


Final Pricing

Current pricing on Amazon for the build is $1,015.53 with an additional $35 in rebates bringing the system to about $980.53 after rebates. This is an excellent price for an extremely good gaming build that will play pretty much everything you throw at it at high to ultra settings.

Optional - If your current build has suitable parts.You could reuse certain things Example- your current case,hard drive,ram, powersupply remember this is assuming any of it is compatible.You save a good amount of money that way possibly.

 

[jtenorj]

I'm guessing you have a p55 mobo(crossfire capable) and you have already overclocked your i5 650 to around 4ghz(if you haven't, then you should). That should make it perform as well as or better than a sandy/ivy i3, letting you play most games quite well. Some games do prefer having a fast quad core like a sandy/ivy i5. As I'm sure you're aware, you can add a hd6870 for around 120 like this one:

http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6870-900mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7QFX.html?utm_source=td&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=TB00?ReferrerID=tb&utm_source=td&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=TB00

or the one you linked in your original post(same model, but you deal directly with dabs for the once versus an amazon seller).

of course, something like a gtx670 or hd7970 would be faster than 2 hd6870s in crossfire, and not require dealing with all the issue crossfire and sli bring about. If you get core i5 cpu(preferably an unlocked one you can overclock), you should be set in the cpu are for quite some time(same goes for a good card like hd7970, once overclocked). With that in mind, here is a suggested build under 1k:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£26.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£60.96 @ Dabs)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£78.13 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£285.35 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£64.28 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£59.94 @ Aria PC)
Total: £923.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-23 10:38 GMT+0000)

I threw in a copy of windows in case you find yourself needing a new one. I imagine you can reuse your optical drive, and possibly other components as well(as was mentioned in the post by regina_49). Both the i5 3570K and corsair vengeance low profile ram are popular components, as we are all aware. I went with an asrock extreme 4 mobo which is pretty popular, too. Packed with features, but still pretty cheap. the 212 evo is one of the best bang for the buck coolers in the UK. The crucial m4 is a great ssd, and this low power samsung f4 hdd will give you quite a lot of storage space. This xfx hd7970 has their double dissipation cooler, which should alow for a pretty decent overclock. The cooler master haf 912 plus is a pretty freature packed case for the price. IF you want front usb 3.0 and a more understated case, you could go with a antec three hunderd two. If you did that, you might want to rearrange the fans inside for better intake and exhaust( making sure to take advantage of the dust filters that are inside it, just like the haf 912 plus).

This made by seasonic psu has a long life ball bearing fan and 5 year warranty. It's more than enough for a build like this. 80+bronze.

If your old copy of windows is oem, you need a new one when installing a new mobo. If you have a retail copy, you don't need this.

That's about it. You can overclock and upgrade your current build(and face the potential issues of crossfire) or you can spend some or most of your 1k budget to build what will basically be a whole new system(which should last for several years). It's up to you. GL

Oh, yeah. you may want to compare prices on these components at different sites. If you pay a little more at a site with free delivery, it may be worth it(unless you can get a discount on shipping by bundling stuff, evening things out or making them cheaper). I'm done.

 

[unksol]

The 7970 is a better.card than the 670. If prices are close it wins hands down. If the 670 is cheaper its still a great card.

 

[newbie1337]

Core i5 3570K. For those who regularly build and keep up to date with the latest and greatest hardware, you’ll know that it’s just about the best processor you can get for the money today. With plenty of performance, top notch overclocking capability and enough horsepower to run any game you throw at it, the choice is a no brainer.Motherboard - Gigabyte Z77X-D3H

Ever since Intel’s introduction of the Z77 chipset, motherboard giant Gigabyte has made huge leaps in in improvements on their motherboards all the way from the budget end to the extreme high end and the Z77X-D3H is a perfect example of what kind of top quality products can be achieved.

With support for PCIe 3.0, SATA 3 6Gb/s, 8 channel integrated audio, Gigabyte’s fully digital power delivery system, and ultra durable 4 features, it’s got a lot going for it.

That said, once you realize that Gigabyte only wants a mere $114.99 for it with an additional $15 rebate bringing it down to only $99.99, this makes the Z77X-D3H one of the best priced, fully featured Z77 motherboards on the market today! Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

$25 cooler that will work magic. Seriously though, at this price, there’s no cooler out there can that beat this thing.It's best bang per buck!


Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3 Low Profile 1.5v

Unless dangerous amounts of voltage is pumped into the memory, memory simply doesn’t overheat and high profile “flashy” memory ends up serving as interfere to larger CPU coolers more than anything else. Thanks to another round of recent price reductions, the 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz kit is now only a mere $39.99! With excellent reliability, great performance, a low profile and an amazing price, there really isn’t a better option on the market.


Case - Corsair Carbide Series 200R

You’ll notice throughout the build that i am using a lot of Corsair components, and it’s for good reason too. It was only a year ago that Corsair cases were among the most high end in terms of both quality, features and price, but lately it seems like Corsair is taking a huge step in providing more affordable solutions without sacrificing a ton of quality and features.

The Corsair Carbide Series 200R is one of those new budget oriented cases that comes in at a mere $69, but includes a ton of features to make it suitable for anyone looking to build a new PC, but is limited to a budget.

With support for up to 8 fans, dust filters for the PSU and intake, tool free design, and a clearance of up to 320mm for those extra long graphics cards, it’s a beast of a case that doesn’t carry a beast of a pricetag.


GPU - MSI GTX 670 Power Edition

We’re building a gaming PC today, so that means we’re going to splurge a little on graphics and what better graphics card than the MSI GTX 670 Power Edition?None the 7970GHz would likely beat it at high res and OC'd be roughly 10-15% faster but cost over $50 price premium so i would leave that up to you to decide if the increase in performance is worth that.

Based off Nvidia’s new Kepler design, the GTX 670 provides top notch performance with extremely high efficiency, so you’re guaranteed to be getting a ton of performance without a lot of energy or creating a lot of heat either. With MSI’s Power Edition GTX 670, you’re also getting MSI’s legendary Twin Frozr IV cooler, which will provide excellent cooling and comes with a large clock speed boost out of the box, making its default clock speed even higher than GTX 680 stock clocks.MSI’s triple overvoltage design that allows you to do a little overclocking to improve performance if you’re feeling adventurous.

Oh, and did I mention there’s also a $20 rebate bringing it down to only $359.99? Now I did.


Storage - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM

Well, we had a budget of only $1,000 and you know some sacrifices had to be made in order to fit the budget. This is one of those sacrifices. For your build today, we’ll be going with a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, which if you asked me one or two years ago would’ve probably been my ideal choice when building a new gaming computer.

Nowadays, I think every PC should include an SSD period. They’re waaaaaaaaay faster and they draw less energy, but unfortunately they do cost a significant amount more than a traditional hard drive.

If you have some extra budget laying around, I’d definitely suggest going with a 128GB Samsung 840 Pro or 256GB Samsung 840 Pro in combination with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda. This will allow for plenty of hard drive space for storage while OS and application files may be placed on the SSD for that extra top notch performance.


Final Pricing

Current pricing on Amazon for the build is $1,015.53 with an additional $35 in rebates bringing the system to about $980.53 after rebates. This is an excellent price for an extremely good gaming build that will play pretty much everything you throw at it at high to ultra settings.

Optional - If your current build has suitable parts.You could reuse certain things Example- your current case,hard drive,ram, powersupply remember this is assuming any of it is compatible.You save a good amount of money that way possibly.

It's £1000 not $1000 budget so more like $1615.90

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section Graphics & Displays to section Systems by Mousemonkey