Sapphire Radeon 7770 vs XFX Radeon 7770 for gaming upgrade

[sharnthor]

Hi everyone

System: Asus m2a-vm hdmi mobo
Amd am2 6000+ 64 bit cpu
2gb corsair ram and 2gb kingston ram
120gb Sandisk ssd
500gb WD HDD
Current graphics card: Ati Radeon 4640 hdmi

I play a lot of games and until recently I could play everything just fine. I bough L.A Noire and now the graphics is extremely slow!!

Im looking at one of the 2 cards in the title, but not enirely sure if that will give me a descent upgrade for another 3 years. Budget is very tight but I would like to buy the card within the next 2 weeks.

Please help me out? I can get the XTX for R1700, around $165, and the Sapphire for R1600, around $155.

 

[Onus]

I have had good results with cards of either brand. Right now, my personal rigs are all running XFX cards. If your PSU is a cheap one that came with your case, I would suggest a HD7750 instead, which uses very little power and is still a substantial jump over what you have now.

 

[sharnthor]

Well, I just bought the CoolerMaster extreme power 500W psu so that should be fine. How about the comparison between 7770 and the 6850? Everywhere I see everyone rates th e 6850 quite highly?

 

[Onus]

Ouch, a CM... Well, the Extreme Power PLUS is actually capable of 500W, but becomes electrically noisy and very inefficient at or above 400W; I don't know about the Extreme Power though, I couldn't find a competent technical review, but here's an old forum reference: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5716
(so yeah, it's obsolete, inefficient, and overrated)

 

[sharnthor]

So you think I should rather return it? Budgets are very tight and Im in SA, so add some more cash to the US pricing...

 

[ASHISH65]

coolermaster psu are crapy return it.hd 7770 is very good choice.add 2gb ram more.you need 4gb ram to play most of the games

 

[harishphk]

both of them are good choices. There is nothing difference between them both of them show the same perfomance

 

[sharnthor]

K, I got the supplier to exchange the psu, Ill get a Thermaltake or someting. Right now Im aiming at a 700w psu just in case. For only $10, R100 more. Then Ill get the XFX 7700 early next year. Thanks everyone.

 

[Onus]

Thermaltake isn't much better, unless it's 80+. Get an 80+ PSU, not so much for the efficiency, but because it would have been tested at 100% of its label. They use an artificially low temperature of 23C for testing, but in the absence of competent technical reviews it's better than nothing.
If where you buy has a web site, post it and we can look and see if they have some decent PSUs.

 

[sharnthor]

http://www.takealot.com/computers/power-supplies-psu?order=price&direction=asc

Now Im looking at the Gigabyte Supurb 620w? Thats about the max I could go with regard to spends.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[sharnthor]

Actually, the highest I can go is the following:

http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/huntkey-jumper-550w-active-pfc-power-supply-unit,27506315

 

[Onus]

Get this one: http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/huntkey-jumper-550w-active-pfc-power-supply-unit,27506315
Based on this review: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Huntkey-Jumper-550-Power-Supply-Review/989
If that's really too much, then the 450W version is enough: http://www.takealot.com/computers/computer-components/huntkey-jumper-450w-active-pfc-power-supply-unit,27506314
Huntkey sold some really awful PSUs a few years ago, but their Jumper series seems to be a lot better.

 

[sharnthor]

Awesome, I thougt of it as well, but its gonna take a while. Ill order it anyway. Thank you very much for the help.

Can you help me here as well please?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/325780-30-shutting-down#t2169587