Need advice on a GPU stopgap

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kevin1981

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Sep 17, 2012
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Hello!

This holiday season I budgeted and upgraded my work&play desktop.
I'm not an overclocker, and enjoy a stable, quiet system that can take whatever I need to through at it (within reason).
However, cutting costs I elected to wait until later this year to upgrade my old GPUs.
Couldn't hurt to wait for new generation of cards and black Friday deals, right ?... :pfff:

I am currently running dual BFG 9800 GT 1GB Eco cards, on a single 1920x1200 monitor.
Now, I just can't take the noise being generated by the cards after mucking around and changing my CPU, motherboard, ram, and case. My new case fans are pretty loud, but the 9800GT's are drowning them out!

I need to find something that will be my best bang for the buck stop gap until we finally peek at what's around the corner, so I can't really justify spending more than 200$. I wish that deal for a PNY reference GTX 670 for 299$ last Christmas was still around.

I'm not a heavy gamer, but my main monitor is 1920x1200, and I do occasionally connect additional monitors if needed. I play all blizzard games, have a decent Steam library of games (most bought and not yet finished), and enjoy streaming video. I also dabble in SolidWorks, and other CAD software.

Specs:
Intel Xeon E3-1240 v2 (like I said, not an overclocker)
MSI Z77A-GD65
2x4 gig Corsair vengeance 1600 (XMP)
Antec Earthwatts 650 PSU (debut edition)
Corsair 600T Case (card size is not an issue)
Please note that I am a Canadian buyer.

And the dual under-clocked 9800gt's:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143187
They have served me very well, but the time has come to ride to Valhalla in end of life screaming glory!
(RIP BFG :( )

Cheers!
 
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Kindredsouls
I agree with Fokissed. I think I'd recommend a HD 7870 or GTX 660 Ti for what you're doing. Multiple monitors ask for more and you're running at a higher screen resolution then most people do (Most run at 1920 x 1080).

I know that's more then what you want to spend but I believe for what you're looking to do that's my recommendation. Rather get what you need then try to skimp by and end up buying again later this year. If it helps, from what I've been hearing the next generation of AMD and Nvidia cards probably won't be as big of a performance jump as the last generation was. Sounds like 10-20% performance increase and everyone seems to be pushing releases back to summer and fall now. So if you want to do something I believe waiting...
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Kindredsouls

Kindredsouls

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Mar 4, 2010
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I agree with Fokissed. I think I'd recommend a HD 7870 or GTX 660 Ti for what you're doing. Multiple monitors ask for more and you're running at a higher screen resolution then most people do (Most run at 1920 x 1080).

I know that's more then what you want to spend but I believe for what you're looking to do that's my recommendation. Rather get what you need then try to skimp by and end up buying again later this year. If it helps, from what I've been hearing the next generation of AMD and Nvidia cards probably won't be as big of a performance jump as the last generation was. Sounds like 10-20% performance increase and everyone seems to be pushing releases back to summer and fall now. So if you want to do something I believe waiting is pointless. No one is releasing anything new within the next month or so.

If you do really want to skimp then, as Fokissed said, look at the HD 7850 or GTX 660. The next tier down from those are the HD 7770 and 650 Ti. I wouldn't go any lower then that though.

I hope that helps and I wish you luck!
 
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kevin1981

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Sep 17, 2012
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10,510
Thanks for the recommendations Fokissed and Kindredsouls. I just spent the last hour eyeballing price vs performance and the tahiti 7870 seems like a clear winner for an extra 20$ over the 660/7870 at 240$. The 650 ti feel atrociously over priced at 160$, and is easily outdone by the 6850 that can squeeze in just under the 200 bar...
Damn that power hungry little package! Clashes with my low power CPU =/
 
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