Best place to purchase A GFX Card???

TheTacticsGuy

Where is the best place to purchase a GFX??? Amazon.co.uk seems to be very expensive

BloodBath

Amazon do good deals on some cards and delivery is free on all super saver items. You just have to shop around. Scan, Pixmania and overclockers.co.uk also do good deals from time to time.

What is your budget?

TheTacticsGuy

I already have an Evga GTX 670 FTW and am thinking of SLI'ing but am open to suggestions. Budget is around €300

BloodBath

Might as well sli them then if your psu and board will support it.

Scan have the Asus model which has the best overall cooler for around €265 delivered. Comes with a free copy of the new splinter cell as well.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gtx-670-directcu-ii-28nm-pcie-30-(x16)-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-915mhz-boost-980mhz-cores-1344-2xd

What's the rest of your specs like?

TheTacticsGuy

8GB RAM
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.4 GHz
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W
Thermalright HR-02 Macho

BloodBath

You're sorted then. I'd grab the asus card on Scan. Overclock your cpu while you're at it. You're good for around 4.5ghz.

Luck100

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I already have an Evga GTX 670 FTW and am thinking of SLI'ing but am open to suggestions. Budget is around €300

I have exactly the same card. I upgraded to SLI with a second gtx 670 (different brand - Zotac) for 175 pounds from scan.co.uk. Unfortunately that deal is gone now. Generally the prices for 670's don't seem to have dropped as much as I would have expected by this point.

TheTacticsGuy

BloodBath wrote: »

You're sorted then. I'd grab the asus card on Scan. Overclock your cpu while you're at it. You're good for around 4.5ghz.

I've read the Nvidia FAQ on SLI and it seems to be ok with SLI'ing the same card type from different manufacturers, have you any experience with doing something like that? Alot of SLI specs have the exact same 2 cards

TheTacticsGuy

Luck100 wrote: »

I have exactly the same card. I upgraded to SLI with a second gtx 670 (different brand - Zotac) for 175 pounds from scan.co.uk. Unfortunately that deal is gone now. Generally the prices for 670's don't seem to have dropped as much as I would have expected by this point.

The EVGA GTX 670 FTW is still the same price now that it was when I bought in August 2012.

BloodBath

It doesn't matter if you mix manufacturers. The Asus card has a better cooler than the EVGA anyway. Unless you can get a much better price on a different card I'd go with the Asus.

Luck100

The EVGA FTW seems to have held it's value quite well, though I'm not sure why. It's a nice card but there are plenty of ones with better cooling.

For SLI, I don't think it's worth paying too much of a premium for a card with multiple fans (the kind that vent inside your case) because you just end up with one card heating up the other.

TheTacticsGuy

Ok cheers

BloodBath

The top card will always be warmer regardless of what fan design you go for. While the blower fans might be more efficient at removing hot air from the case their base cooling performance is poor. HIS were the only company making a good blower design but I don't think they do Nvidia cards.

TheTacticsGuy

Right, I'm holding off on purchasing another GFX card, have ye seen the reviews for the R9 290??? That card looks very promising. http://www.pcgamer.com/review/amd-radeon-r9-290-review/

TheTacticsGuy

Reviews from other websites are giving out about the temps and noise of this card.

Luck100

Tom's is saying that they bought a couple of retail units of the 290x and they're performing much worse than the review unit they received.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659.html

At any rate, the 290 and 290x clearly have horrible reference coolers. No point in jumping on either until the third-party versions come out.

BloodBath

The problem with high end cards is that they don't hold their value well and their price/performance ratios are crap. Why spend €500-600 for an upgrade when you can spend less than half that for better performance and better resale value.

Gumbi

AMD are investigating that issue as we speak.

Ralph M Noonan

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

Right, I'm holding off on purchasing another GFX card, have ye seen the reviews for the R9 290??? That card looks very promising. http://www.pcgamer.com/review/amd-radeon-r9-290-review/

Came in to tell you to look @ that. I'm holding off for one of those aswel

Gumbi

My advice to any prospective 290/290x buyer would be to wait for the non-reference cards or to put them under water, otherwise the price drops on the 780s let nVidia take the cake (especially at 1080p).

Ralph M Noonan

Gumbi wrote: »

My advice to any prospective 290/290x buyer would be to wait for the non-reference cards or to put them under water, otherwise the price drops on the 780s let nVidia take the cake (especially at 1080p).

Hense holding off, gpu's are about to get a lot more consumer friendly in the coming months, regardless of what you're looking for.

Vicxas

Gumbi wrote: »

My advice to any prospective 290/290x buyer would be to wait for the non-reference cards or to put them under water, otherwise the price drops on the 780s let nVidia take the cake (especially at 1080p).

Hold off until MSI or EVGA bring out their insane coolers.

Thats what im doing

altairscreed

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

Reviews from other websites are giving out about the temps and noise of this card.

Picking up a 290 myself but going to wait for the non reference cards to come out hopefully in the next 2 weeks or so

sink

I've a Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom on order from Dabs.ie for €448.42 with free shipping (best value I've found anywhere). However they're not going to be in stock until the 14th with 3-5 days shipping so I'm looking at 10 days at least for it to be delivered.
http://www.dabs.ie/products/gainward-geforce-gtx-780-902mhz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-phantom-8VXP.html?q=780%20gtx&src=16

I've shopped around a good bit and the R9 290x is at least €60 dearer. The GTX 780 with a decent cooler has same performance when overclocked while remaining a helluva lot quieter. R9 290x does not look like a smart buy at the moment, if you're set on one definitely wait for the non-reference cards. R9 290 is more interesting but then again the noise it a real problem.