Where to spend my Money?

Nolars

250Euro's to upgrade PC. Recommendations on were to upgrade?

i3-2120 - 8gb Ram, b75 pro 3 mobo, Sapphire HD 6870, 120gb SSD, 500gb hdd, 450w 80+ amazon.

I mainly use pc for gaming @ 1920 x 1080 res.

Merl1n

maybe get a new psu for future upgrades

8gb is good ram wise so the big gains will be graphics and cpu

Nolars

Merl1n wrote: »

maybe get a new psu for future upgrades

8gb is good ram wise so the big gains will be graphics and cpu

Yea was thinking about upgrading the psu, if my current one doesn't support a 7870 or something.

Gumbi

Nolars wrote: »

Yea was thinking about upgrading the psu, if my current one doesn't support a 7870 or something.

Your PSU is more than fine, he mentioned the CPU.

joetoad

A 450 watt CPU is fine and is fine for 80% of computers. The only upgrade I can see that is worth doing is for an i5 processor and maybe a 7870 or something. Are you noticing much bottleneck with games lately? The i3 should hold up for another while anyway so maybe just the graphics card but the one you have isnt too bad

Nolars

joetoad wrote: »

A 450 watt CPU is fine and is fine for 80% of computers. The only upgrade I can see that is worth doing is for an i5 processor and maybe a 7870 or something. Are you noticing much bottleneck with games lately?

90% of games i play are fine. Its the likes of Arma 3 where I'm getting low fps. so maybe a 7870 is my solution.

joetoad

Nolars wrote: »

90% of games i play are fine. Its the likes of Arma 3 where I'm getting low fps. so maybe a 7870 is my solution.

I think it could be your processor holding your back. I think that games prefers/needs more than two cores.

OS – Windows 7 / Vista
CPU – Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 or faster
GPU – Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5770, shader Model 3 and 896 MB VRAM, or faster
RAM – 2 GB
HDD – 15 GB free space
DVD – Dual Layer compatible
DirectX® – 10

Nolars

joetoad wrote: »

I think it could be your processor holding your back. I think that games prefers/needs more than two cores.

OS – Windows 7 / Vista
CPU – Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 or faster
GPU – Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5770, shader Model 3 and 896 MB VRAM, or faster
RAM – 2 GB
HDD – 15 GB free space
DVD – Dual Layer compatible
DirectX® – 10

they are only the recommended specs tho the i3-2-120 easily beats the minimum specs. would i not get more fps with a new GPU than an i5.

RoverZT

Don't think a 7870 is much of an upgrade.

It's getting on a bit now as well, not worth the bother imo.

Wait for next generation of cards.

What's your i3 2120 running at?

Even a moderate overclock should be plenty fast, great little cpu's.

Nolars

RoverZT wrote: »

Don't think a 7870 is much of an upgrade.

It's getting on a bit now as well, not worth the bother imo.

Wait for next generation of cards.

What's your i3 2120 running at?

Even a moderate overclock should be plenty fast, great little cpu's.

3.3Ghz. and you cant overclock i3's!

BloodBath

A 7870xt would be a pretty good upgrade over the 6870 and should give you bigger fps gains. You can upgrade the processor down the line.

Good deal on amazon atm for the club3d model. You could be waiting another 6 months for the next gen of cards.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club-3D-7870XTV-JokerCard-Graphic/dp/B00BF9EYFM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1364171457&sr=1-3

SickBoy

Sell the i3 and 6870 and get an i5-2500/3570 and 7850 from Adverts / Ebay.
Should be doable with €250
You won't be able to overclock the CPU so no point getting a k version but you can overclock the 7850 a nice bit.

SickBoy

Nolars wrote: »

3.3Ghz. and you cant overclock i3's!

No matter what chip he gets he cannot overclock as the motherboard will prevent it.

RoverZT

Nolars wrote: »

3.3Ghz. and you cant overclock i3's!

3.3 ghz is decent.

That's not entirely true about overclocking, you can't get it to 4ghz of course, but it's not that difficult to get it to 3.5ghz and it's stable at that.

BloodBath

You can't overclock with that board or those processors. Raising the bus speed is not advisable.

Nolars

BloodBath wrote: »

A 7870xt would be a pretty good upgrade over the 6870 and should give you bigger fps gains. You can upgrade the processor down the line.

Good deal on amazon atm for the club3d model. You could be waiting another 6 months for the next gen of cards.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club-3D-7870XTV-JokerCard-Graphic/dp/B00BF9EYFM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1364171457&sr=1-3

yea im planning on a i5-3570 in the summer. That looks like a good deal.

RoverZT

BloodBath wrote: »

A 7870xt would be a pretty good upgrade over the 6870 and should give you bigger fps gains. You can upgrade the processor down the line.

Good deal on amazon atm for the club3d model. You could be waiting another 6 months for the next gen of cards.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club-3D-7870XTV-JokerCard-Graphic/dp/B00BF9EYFM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1364171457&sr=1-3

That's an interesting card.

Is it worth the extra over say a standard 7870 for 185 euro delivered?

Including delivery it's coming to around 235 euro.

Same price as 7950.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/12947776/art/sapphire-technology/radeon-hd-7950-3-gb-gddr5.html

SickBoy

The 7870 XT has the same GPU as the 7900 series (Tahiti)
The 7950 would be a better option at that price as it has 3gb RAM instead of 2gb on the 7870 XT.

Nolars

SickBoy wrote: »

The 7870 XT has the same GPU as the 7900 series (Tahiti)
The 7950 would be a better option at that price as it has 3gb RAM instead of 2gb on the 7870 XT.

7870 XT is about 210 Euros on amazon with free delivery. plus 2 49.99 games.

RoverZT

Nolars wrote: »

7870 XT is about 210 Euros on amazon with free delivery. plus 2 49.99 games.

Are you in the UK?

It's coming up as £25 delivery for me.

SickBoy

Nolars wrote: »

7870 XT is about 210 Euros on amazon with free delivery. plus 2 49.99 games.

You have to take into account your long term strategy. If you plan on getting a better CPU in 6 months time then spending a little more on the GPU now makes sense because in 6 months time the 2gb RAM on the 7870 XT might be your bottleneck.

Nolars

RoverZT wrote: »

Are you in the UK?

It's coming up as £25 delivery for me.

No just click "FREE Super Saver Delivery (4-5 business days)" instead of the standard which is pre-selected.

BloodBath

It's free delivery. It's only €202. I don't think 2gb of graphics memory is going to be an issue any time soon.

Nolars

Any idea how much a "Sapphire 11179-09-20G HD 6870 1GB GDDR5" bought in 2012 wud go for on adverts. its probably still in warrenty aswell.

BloodBath

I'd imagine somewhere in the €100 region.

RoverZT

SickBoy wrote: »

You have to take into account your long term strategy. If you plan on getting a better CPU in 6 months time then spending a little more on the GPU now makes sense because in 6 months time the 2gb RAM on the 7870 XT might be your bottleneck.

I would go with SickBoy.

A 7950 is a monster of a card.

Going by reviews that model for 235 can oc to 1000mhz and more.

At that speed it's matching 7970/GTX 680.

For the price it's a steal.

BloodBath

The 7870xt will clock just as high if not higher. The cooler on that 7950 is not very good. I'd say performance would be neck and neck with both overclocked except the 7870xt is €35 cheaper and includes €100 of brand new games.

RoverZT

BloodBath wrote: »

It's free delivery. It's only €202. I don't think 2gb of graphics memory is going to be an issue any time soon.

I don't know, it's a hard choice.

It's a great deal, but 7950 is a bit of a monster.

Back in the day I went for a 8800gts over the 8800GTX, which was on offer and I think only 90 euro between or something.

General feeling was a oc'd GTS is almost like a stock GTX.

Didn't turn out that way, 8800gtx was rocking it for years:pac:

BloodBath

I'm not disputing that. It is for sure a monster but the 7870xt ain't far off it and is the new king of mid-high end price/performance.

Some benchmarks.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/club_3d_7870_joker_xt_edition_review/7

Nolars

BloodBath wrote: »

I'm not disputing that. It is for sure a monster but the 7870xt ain't far off it and is the new king of high end price/performance.

Some benchmarks.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/club_3d_7870_joker_xt_edition_review/7

Would that be OK to OC on my PSU?

Also looking for a CPU cooler that's quiet the stock one for the i3 is annoying me, and one i can use on the i5-3570 aswell.

RoverZT

BloodBath wrote: »

I'm not disputing that. It is for sure a monster but the 7870xt ain't far off it and is the new king of high end price/performance.

Some benchmarks.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/club_3d_7870_joker_xt_edition_review/7

Your right it's the better deal.

Amazing what 200 euro can get you now.

Two good games too.

Far Cry 3 and Sleeping Dogs.

BloodBath

For sure. The bundle comes with Tomb raider and Bioshock Infinite though. 2 great games that only just came out in the last week.

You should be fine overclocking the card on that psu.

For a cpu cooler it depends how much you want to spend. This is a pretty good silent cooler.

If you turn the fan speed down a bit it's virtually silent and a good overall cooler.

SickBoy

Is it possible to choose the games from the Never Settle bundle or are you stuck with the offer the card comes with?

BloodBath

I think it's whatever it comes with. The bundle has changed a few times over the last few months. There was a 6 game bundle with 7950's a while back.

SickBoy

I'm in the market for an upgrade and wondering if I could get Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider some how in a bundle.

marco_polo

SickBoy wrote: »

I'm in the market for an upgrade and wondering if I could get Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider some how in a bundle.

No oddly enough the current bundled seems to be Tomb Raider and Bioshock for the 78XX cards or Crysis 3 and Bioshock for the HD79XX, I say odd because I would have expected an extra game or two with a HD79XX.

BloodBath

Doesn't look like it. The bundles atm seem to be crysis 3 and bioshock or tomb raider and bioshock.

ninjad.

Nolars

Does the card with games only have 1gb ram is it worth to go for the 2gb one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club-3D-HD7870-Graphics-Processors/dp/B00AAAFE7E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365091679&sr=8-2&keywords=hd+7870+xt

vs

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club-3D-7870XTV-JokerCard-Graphic/dp/B00BF9EYFM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1365091679&sr=8-3&keywords=hd+7870+xt

BloodBath

No it has 2gb as well and a better gpu. It performs better than the other card. Closer to a 7950 in performance with an overclock.