Upgrading from Radeon 7770

Jbf89

Honorable
Jul 15, 2012
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10,510
Hi y'all PC specs are as follows:
Mobo: Asus p8z77-v
Processor: i7-3770
RAM: 16gb 1600mhz
PSU: OCZ 550W
And am currently on a Radeon HD7770, I figure I need to upgrade my graphics card next, and was looking to get one around the £300 price mark (about $450). I can get a Gigabyte 7970 for around that but wondered if theres any others you guys would recommend?
Cheers
JBF
 
I would say that a 7970 would require a more powerful PSU. It is possible to run totally fine and it is stated that a minimum PSU required is 550W, but I always like to stay on the safe side, having at least 20% more W than the maximum theoretical power draw of the system. I would suggest a GTX 770 would be running cooler and a bit quieter. Just another option to think of. Good luck.
 


550W is more than enough (although a better quality PSU may not be a bad idea for either GPU)

power-consumption.jpg

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That "total system" consumption is very abstract. For example, if you have 1 SDD + 3 HDDs and 4 RAM sticks + few more fans, a bit of OC and you are looking at a good amount of required W compared to 1HDD and 2 RAM sticks.

Also there is the issue of capacitor aging. A PSU running at 75/80% will usually last longer than the same PSU running at 95%.
 

13711412411mQcKLY2dB_2_1.gif

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http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/06/17/asus_geforce_gtx_770_directcu_ii_video_card_review/2

System specs: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2202/4/
power-consumption.png


400/550 = 73% which is a healthy load value.

 
I'm with these guys, go for the GTX 770. $49 less than the 7970 GHz edition, less noise, less power used, and much better driver support from NVIDIA than you get with AMD. I recently transitioned from 5850 crossfire setup to GTX 770 and couldn't be happier.
 


I had a pair of 5850 in crossfire and waited years for a a driver update that would make my cards 'work like they should'. I did EVERYTHING I could (RMA, customer service, driver updates, custom drivers and so on) and I had issues with every game I played with my AMD cards. Some I had to disable AA, others AF, I had to reset my computer to get the clock rates on the cards to go above a certain level after I watched a YouTube video.

I'm not beating a dead horse, just looking at my personal history. Maybe other folks had a great experience with AMD, and I'm not against them at all, but 7970 vs 770, I side with the GTX 770.
 


I understand, just didn't want you to think I was beating a dead horse (without reason ha).

When I pulled the trigger on the 5850 pair, there was rumors a 'fix was around the corner'. And I had 2.5 years of frustration instead, most of the time running just one card to avoid hassle.

But right now is a great time, at each tier of cards it's a very tough choice. Personally I had a hard time choosing between the 7970 and the 770, with even now having some small doubts.
 


Guess I was looking at the wrong sites for price comparison. And I wasn't considering OC a 7970, good point. Thank you.