What do I do? GPU upgrade and more, very confused.

[vgamedude]

Hello. I recently received a XFX 7870 for a very, very good price. In fact that is the only reason I bought it. It is a dated card I understand and it will not perform up to snuff with new games like BF4, or some things like ARMA 3 etc.

I have been trying to decide what to do with it ever since I ordered it. My computers current specs are pretty meager, it was built in 2010 so it is quite dated.

I have:
Sapphire 6870 GPU
AMD X4 965 CPU
4 Gbs of RAM
and a 1 tb hdd ( I think its WD but it doesn't really matter)

I was looking at new cards the past couple of days and many caught my eye, I would say namely the r280x, but many others also look interesting. The R2 290 looks good, the Nvidia 780 and 770 looks good also, but from what I can tell the AMD cards give you a much better value.

So my questions are what should I do with the 7870? That is first on the list, I suppose I could sell it on ebay (my first thought) but I honestly have no idea how much I could get. Judging by current listings I would think somewhere around the 200 dollar mark, which is quite good, but I've never sold anything on ebay before and that is a process I'm most definitely not familiar with.

If I were to sell the 7870 I would be able to purchase a better card. I don't think i'd want to go to high though, but I suppose I could even sell the 6870 for a little extra if needed. A good price for a GPU if I took this route for me would probably be somewhere around the 300 dollar range, but if there was a GPU that was immensely better in many categories I maybe (big maybe) could go up to 400.

Second option is to keep the 7870 and install it. This sounds kind of stupid to me as I would think this card is already outdated, and if it isn't now it will be in 5 or 6 months. If I went this way I wouldn't have to deal with anything else though as I have the card right here.

So what should I do? How much would I get for the 7870 and maybe the 6870? Which GPU would be the best to purchase if I sold the card? Is there anything around the corner I should wait for? I could wait until around christmas I suppose if there was.

Sorry for the long post and all the questions, I posted here a while ago building my first computer in 2010 and came back to ask questions yet again. The community here has always been very helpful and informative.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. didn't think about it until I had finished writing, but would the CPU I have bottleneck these cards? Thanks.

 

[duhmentia]

the 7870 CAN run games like bf4 and Arma maybe not at 1080p ultra but it will run exceptionally well, but if you have the money i would go with the 780 which is a pretty good card. oh and im not too sure about that processor you might need to look for an upgrade

 

[Embra]

At 1080p the 7870 is not a bad card at all. How much are you willing to spend? Are you ocing that cpu?

 

[vgamedude]

At 1080p the 7870 is not a bad card at all. How much are you willing to spend? Are you ocing that cpu?

I'd prefer to spend around 300 in total for a new card (if i go that route), that will leave me with out of pocket spending of about 100 dollars assuming I can sell the 7870.

I have never OC'd my cpu but if it was necessary or would really improve performance I would do it. I assume that means without an OC it would bottleneck?

So far the most attractive card to me is the r280x. But the 400 dollar 290 doesn't look bad either. Not sure if I'd want to spend 400 dollars for 1920x1080 gaming though.

 

[duhmentia]

A 290 will most likely bottleneck that cpu

 

[Embra]

If you move much past the 7870, I would recommend ocing the cpu... you will need a cooler.
List all your specs if you would, so we can better give advice. More ram would help for games like BF4.

 

[duhmentia]

Yeah like Embra stated you will most likely need to atleast get 4 more gb of ram and ocing your processor would be good but that is pretty much your last option with that cpu

 

[vgamedude]

If you move much past the 7870, I would recommend ocing the cpu... you will need a cooler.
List all your specs if you would, so we can better give advice. More ram would help for games like BF4.

I'm on a phone (not at home) so this is off the top of my head. Not sure what I missed in the op.

6870 card
X4 965 3.4ghz CPU
4gbs RAM (I think it's g skill ripjaw I can't remember speed or anything at the moment)
Can't remember my mobo
1 Tb hdd

What am I missing? Stock CPU fan.

Would OC only be required if I get a 290? Because if more ram is required too and I have to buy that I think I might throw it off the table because that's extra money.

Would the CPU hinder me even with an OC?

 

[Embra]

How about posting your Mobo and PSU when you can. Those are the two things that would help seeing what sort of upgrade path to recommend.
I am thinking you should pop the 7870 and OC your cpu first, saving money for a proper upgrade.

 

[duhmentia]

Yeah the 7870 would work good because i have a 7770 in my build and i can run bf4 on ultra at 1080p with about 30-40 fps average, so the 7870 will last

 

[vgamedude]

How about posting your Mobo and PSU when you can. Those are the two things that would help seeing what sort of upgrade path to recommend.
I am thinking you should pop the 7870 and OC your cpu first, saving money for a proper upgrade.

Psu is a corsair 750 W ill post mobo later.

 

[Embra]

How about posting your Mobo and PSU when you can. Those are the two things that would help seeing what sort of upgrade path to recommend.
I am thinking you should pop the 7870 and OC your cpu first, saving money for a proper upgrade.

Psu is a corsair 750 W ill post mobo later.

k ... that's one thing you will not need to change. 😉

 

[vgamedude]

How about posting your Mobo and PSU when you can. Those are the two things that would help seeing what sort of upgrade path to recommend.
I am thinking you should pop the 7870 and OC your cpu first, saving money for a proper upgrade.

Psu is a corsair 750 W ill post mobo later.

k ... that's one thing you will not need to change. 😉

Found mobo in order history. Newegg is awesome

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131655

 

[duhmentia]

Yeah i would say OC and then use the 7870

 

[Embra]

With that mobo, I would recommend OCong your cpu and using the 7870. You have all good hardware, just too dated. I was hoping you had a AM3+ mobo.

I still think you will play most game and see improvement with the 7870. Maybe add 4 gb ram and OC.

You would need the $300+ to do a proper upgrade minus a new gpu.

 

[vgamedude]

With that mobo, I would recommend OCong your cpu and using the 7870. You have all good hardware, just too dated. I was hoping you had a AM3+ mobo.

I still think you will play most game and see improvement with the 7870. Maybe add 4 gb ram and OC.

You would need the $300+ to do a proper upgrade minus a new gpu.

So just upgrade with what I have now and do a full system upgrade down the road?

I could wait and do one in July 2014 after the maxwell stuff is out. That's my 19th birthday and the relatives are usually pretty good to me.

So you think that would be the best course of action?

 

[Embra]

With that mobo, I would recommend OCong your cpu and using the 7870. You have all good hardware, just too dated. I was hoping you had a AM3+ mobo.

I still think you will play most game and see improvement with the 7870. Maybe add 4 gb ram and OC.

You would need the $300+ to do a proper upgrade minus a new gpu.

So just upgrade with what I have now and do a full system upgrade down the road?

I could wait and do one in July 2014 after the maxwell stuff is out. That's my 19th birthday and the relatives are usually pretty good to me.

So you think that would be the best course of action?

Yes ... hit them up for $$$!!


Your mobo is limiting you to go past your 965x4.

Good luck!

 

[Kari]

7870 isn't really outdated as such, it just got renamed into R9 270x.... 280x is basically 7970GHz edition
Sure it is like 2 years old now but nothing better has come up in its current price range.

At least try it out and see what kind of performance you get out of it. Keep an eye on the cpu and gpu usages both, you might get some cpu bottlenecking in some games.

 

[vgamedude]

7870 isn't really outdated as such, it just got renamed into R9 270x.... 280x is basically 7970GHz edition
Sure it is like 2 years old now but nothing better has come up in its current price range.

At least try it out and see what kind of performance you get out of it. Keep an eye on the cpu and gpu usages both, you might get some cpu bottlenecking in some games.

Yeah I'll try it I suppose. Opening it lowers the value quite a bit but after reading these responses I need to wait and upgrade my entire computer down the road.

Thanks for the responses guys and girls, I really appreciate the help. To everyone.