Upgrading Graphics Card

simon360

Alright Lads, so I want to upgrade my graphics card. Had my eye on a GTX 660 but I might as well ask other peoples opinions. Want to go for an nvidia card for the tweaks in their control centre for certain games. I'm on a budget of around 180. I'd like a good cooler on it also. Would be using it to play BF4 and a range of next gen games at around high or medium quality. Cheers!

Gumbi

simon360 wrote: »

Alright Lads, so I want to upgrade my graphics card. Had my eye on a GTX 660 but I might as well ask other peoples opinions. Want to go for an nvidia card for the tweaks in their control centre for certain games. I'm on a budget of around 180. I'd like a good cooler on it also. Would be using it to play BF4 and a range of next gen games at around high or medium quality. Cheers!

What does the rest of your setup look like? What are your current specs? AMD has all those tweaks too (and their cards tend to be voltage locked less often) so I don't understand why you specifically wan nVidia.

simon360

Gumbi wrote: »

What does the rest of your setup look like? What are your current specs? AMD has all those tweaks too (and their cards tend to be voltage locked less often) so I don't understand why you specifically wan nVidia.

I currently had a Zalman Z7 case, Asus M5A97 mobo and an AMD Phenom X4 965 cpu. Just want to go for a Nvidia as I heard it is better than AMD and it's control centre has a lot of tweaks.

marco_polo

As it happen there is a decent price on the Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce on amazon especially when you factor in the free shipping, that is pretty much exactly on your budget.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GTX660-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B0099AOAUI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374488730&sr=8-1&keywords=GTX+660

If you had a few extra quid I'd go for this but it would probably work out a shade over €200 delivered.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+DD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140

simon360

marco_polo wrote: »

As it happen there is a decent price on the Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce on amazon especially when you factor in the free shipping, that is pretty much exactly on your budget.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GTX660-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B0099AOAUI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374488730&sr=8-1&keywords=GTX+660

If you had a few extra quid I'd go for this but it would probably work out a shade over €200 delivered.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+DD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140

Cheers for that! I had my eye on the Windforce alright, you cant go wrong for that card & cooler for that price. I'll keep shopping around and if I don't see anything I might go for that!

Gumbi

nVidia isn't "better than AMD". The better card depends on the price point. They trade blows at all price ranges, some might say that AMD wins more often than not (in the bang for buck war). Having said that, the 660 isn't a bad deal. I would hope you have that CPU overclocked, though, as a non-overclocked one will probably start limiting your 660's performance in some games.

yoyo

Gumbi wrote: »

nVidia isn't "better than AMD". The better card depends on the price point. They trade blows at all price ranges, some might say that AMD wins more often than not (in the bang for buck war). Having said that, the 660 isn't a bad deal. I would hope you have that CPU overclocked, though, as a non-overclocked one will probably start limiting your 660's performance in some games.

Having changed from Nvidia to AMD I have to disagree. ATI do make good hardware, but rubbish drivers. Some older games (Max Payne 1 & 2, Manhunt etc.) I need to play in a VM as ATI drivers broke them, Max Payne was fixed after myself and others on Steam forum reported it (eventually...).
Manhunt still won't open, even with DEP patch and it's driver related. Then there is the odd texture corruption on some websites (not video card issue/overheating), partly due to browsers hardware acceleration and drivers. I also needed to use a 3rd party driver removal tool to fix a crashing in game issue recently, where the whole screen would go blank and system would lock up (ATIs uninstaller doesn't actually uninstall the drivers? ).

I wouldn't be in a rush to get another ATI card after this experience, have a HD7850 btw... You may say GPU related, which I thought at first but never get graphics issues in games like Crysis 3 etc..

Nick

Gumbi

Sure, but to an extent, that's anecdotal. I can throw it right back at you and say I have a 7950 that I bought almost a year ago for ~320 euro that's outperforming a 770 which was released this last month for 50 euro more! (Superb over l OCing potential vs minimal overclocking potential). Tell me that ain't superb value.

yoyo

Gumbi wrote: »

Sure, but to an extent, that's anecdotal. I can throw it right back at you and say I have a 7950 that I bought almost a year ago for ~320 euro that's outperforming a 770 which was released this last month for 50 euro more! (Superb over l OCing potential vs minimal overclocking potential). Tell me that ain't superb value.

Not really, driver stability and functionality I would view as quite important, maybe it's not for some though. I never had any "issues" with Nvidia drivers or cards, except a 8800GTS which failed. The ATI cards are excellent value for money, even the 7850 maxes out most games I play at 1920x1080 and only cost €150 iirc. In saying that though I think driver support is just as important as slightly better performance, I doubt I'm alone in thinking that either.
ATI users seem to associate these issues with AMD drivers as "normal", but coming from a Nvidia card this does surprise me... I knew AMD drivers were poor in the past and decided I'd go ATI to chance them recently as I'd heard they've improved. The drivers did disappoint me, and obviously not changed that much! (I also had hassle with my dual monitor setup also, but we won't go there and I sorted it eventually!)

Nick

BloodBath

I'd have to agree with their poor driver support. It's not an issue most of the time but it can be.

Amd were just the kings of this generation of cards at every price point. Nvidia have only started to compete again with price drops and the newer range of cards.

I'm still happy with my Sapphire 7970 got for under €300 in November

Ebay ftw although I had a nightmare as the first 7970 I won, when delivered, turned out to be a broken 7950. I got a refund and won a new card but it delayed me by a month. Was using the onboard graphics and only playing lol for a month.

The seller gave me €30 to remove my negative review though which wasn't too bad.

simon360

Made my mind up, Going to get this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-036-KF It's factory overclocked and has good cooling, also on overclockers, which is around 15 euro more expensive than amazon, you get Splinter Cell Blacklist free with gtx 660-780 cards, I was going to buy blacklist as well so its win/win really. Cheers for all the help lads!

The Golden Teapot

If you haven't ordered yet this might be worth looking at! https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/PowerColor+PCS%2B+Myst.+Edition+Radeon+HD+7870+%28Tahiti+LE%29+OC+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BAX7870+2GBD5-2DHPPV3E%5D+?operation=shoppingBasketAdd&productId=54322&context=superSpecial

carpejugulum

Sapphire 7870 OC for £148.55 on waeplus.co.uk (free delivery to UK so use Parcel Motel)

simon360 wrote: »

Made my mind up, Going to get this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-036-KF It's factory overclocked and has good cooling, also on overclockers, which is around 15 euro more expensive than amazon, you get Splinter Cell Blacklist free with gtx 660-780 cards, I was going to buy blacklist as well so its win/win really. Cheers for all the help lads!

much cheaper on waeplus.co.uk

simon360

carpejugulum wrote: »

Sapphire 7870 OC for £148.55 on waeplus.co.uk (free delivery to UK so use Parcel Motel)



much cheaper on waeplus.co.uk

Oh sound!

Gumbi

That's not as fast as the one Golden Teapot suggested. His is an XT, a cut down 7950. The cooler on the OC one is better though. I think I'd go for the one on Aria TBH, though.

Nolars

Yea I have that card that Golden Teapot mentioned, be warned its a tad loud under load for games like bf3, arma 3 etc, if that doesn't bother you deffo go for it.

carpejugulum

Gumbi wrote: »

That's not as fast as the one Golden Teapot suggested. His is an XT, a cut down 7950. The cooler on the OC one is better though. I think I'd go for the one on Aria TBH, though.

That one is also on waeplus.co.uk

Aria's delivery costs are outrageous

marco_polo

carpejugulum wrote: »

That one is also on waeplus.co.uk

Aria's delivery costs are outrageous

They have actualy dropped the charge to £9.99, just not updated the website. I am pretty sure it remains £9.99 (It could be easily verified before final checkout).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84189433

EDIT: Damn just noticed it out of stock :P Although for another £10 I'd get the XFX, should be quieter than the Myst and comes with the 4 game bundle.

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+DD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140

carpejugulum

marco_polo wrote: »

They have actualy dropped the charge to £9.99, just not updated the website. I am pretty sure it remains £9.99 (It could be easily verified before final checkout).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84189433

EDIT: Damn just noticed it out of stock :P Although for another £10 I'd get the XFX, should be quieter than the Myst and comes with the 4 game bundle.

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+DD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140

You'll get 3 of the 4 games from AMD for purchasing 7870.

marco_polo

carpejugulum wrote: »

You'll get 3 of the 4 games from AMD for purchasing 7870.

Not quite correct, participating retailers get allocated blocks of codes, you don't get them from AMD directly. So unless it is stated explicitly by the retailer you don't get the games.

marco_polo

Also I had never heard of them before but weaplus appear to be one of the worst online retailers in the whole of the UK, so I certainly wouldn't be giving them any of my money based on what 5 minutes on google has revealed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews-plague-consumer-websites

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/nov/16/we-are-electrical-plus-complaints-new-website

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/waeplus.co.uk

carpejugulum

marco_polo wrote: »

Also I had never heard of them before but weaplus appear to be one of the worst online retailers in the whole of the UK, so I certainly wouldn't be giving them any of my money based on what 5 minutes on google has revealed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews-plague-consumer-websites

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/nov/16/we-are-electrical-plus-complaints-new-website

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/waeplus.co.uk

sounds like Pixmania