GPU Upgrade and replacement.

morgilroka

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Jul 16, 2012
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Hey guys, i am looking to upgrade my graphics card to something newer (and mostly to get out of the AMD card and go with nvidia.)

My current specs are as follows:
8GB Intel Patriot 1600mhz
3570k i5 Overclocked to 4.4ghz.
Corsair 650w PSU
Hyper 212 EVO cpu cooler
Asus z77-v p8 lk motherboard.
XFX radeon 7870 (slightly overclocked)
seagate baracudda 1tb harddrive.
5x aftermarket case fans.
Aero-Striker fan controller
Windows 7 x64

I'm looking for something that isn't ridiculously expensive, yet a upgrade worth while. Like i said, i would like to go with nvidia unless there is an AMD card that i can't live without.

I built this PC back in November of 2012, and haven't really been following computer hardware since. So i don't know what is new on the market as of late. Any responses and/or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

**No specific budget but i want bang 4 buck, and obviously not the most expensive card**
 
Solution
Considering there is no specific budget, and you're upgrading from a 7870, (which is already a great card) the recommendation I will be making will certainly be in the $300+ ranges. You should have expected this though. 7870's go for around $200 anyway.

You have a few decent options right now.
The R9 280X, 770, 780 and R9 290.

The 280X and 770 are equal, and the 780 and 290.
I think a 280X would be more relevant in this situation. The best 280X I could find right now was at $310, which is pretty good. Plus it has 3GB of VRAM for some reason...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: VisionTek Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Total:...
Your PC is pretty epic aside from the GPU, so I wouldn't touch anything aside from the video card.
A GTX 760 would be an okay upgrade for $250, but not really worth the money to upgrade since it'd only increase performance by about 10% in non-PhysX games (up to 50% in PhysX games, but those are a minority).

You'd be better off going for a GTX 770. That'd be fully capable of maxing any game at 1080p, and it'd be a pretty big upgrade in non-PhysX games and a massive upgrade in PhysX games. It's pretty common for framerates to double going from an HD 7870 Ghz to a GTX 770.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127741
 

morgilroka

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Jul 16, 2012
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Thank-you for the response. Would the MSI card be your recommended card? never really been a fan of MSI tbh.(not that it's a big deal).
I was also looking at a 770. Is that card easily overclock-able? And how much of an increase would i be looking at?

 
Nvidia has already begun producing it's Maxwell GPUs (800 series), they're just holdning them back to wait for AMD to show their next move and become more competitive.

It would not be wise in my opinion to upgrade at the current moment. I would hold off and wait until Nvidia shows their new lineup of GPUs. Maxwell provide 200% the performance per watt and 135% better performance per CUDA core, which is an evolutionary step in GPU performance.

If you can't wait I wouldn't settle for a GTX 770, the price drops of the GTX 780 makes it an attractive high-end GPU selling for under 500$ atm. and is a lot ahead of GTX 770 in terms of performance..
 

AgentTran

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Jan 21, 2014
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Considering there is no specific budget, and you're upgrading from a 7870, (which is already a great card) the recommendation I will be making will certainly be in the $300+ ranges. You should have expected this though. 7870's go for around $200 anyway.

You have a few decent options right now.
The R9 280X, 770, 780 and R9 290.

The 280X and 770 are equal, and the 780 and 290.
I think a 280X would be more relevant in this situation. The best 280X I could find right now was at $310, which is pretty good. Plus it has 3GB of VRAM for some reason...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: VisionTek Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $309.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-31 02:47 EDT-0400)

The direct equivalent to it, the cheapest 770 comes in at $315, and only has 2GB of VRAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($315.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $315.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-31 02:48 EDT-0400)

It's from PNY, a better brand than "VisionTek" but still not one of the top brands.
For only $5 more from that, here is the card I would certainly recommend.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($319.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $319.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-31 02:49 EDT-0400)

It's by ASUS, and features better cooling.

If you're playing BF4, then go with the 280X. It has a little worse performance than the 770, but supports Mantle, which from what I've heard boosts performance in BF4 by a whole lot.

Your decision though, and if you want a 290/780 you could look for those too. But they come in at around 450+.
 
Solution
That is the difficult part, HD7870 is still good for todays game.
Getting GTX760 or R9 270x will not give you any noticeable improvement.
To get a noticeable improvemenent, you must spend a bit more than R9 270x or GTX760.
GTX770 or HD R9 280x..at least...better aim higher like GTX780, GTX780Ti or R9 290x.
I know, you will hit hard on your pocket.
 


The MSI card benchmarks among the fastest and saves a few dollars, but most 770s perform pretty similarly. The OC'd Gigabyte, ASUS, and EVGA versions are all within a few % of each other.

I'm not sure about overclocking. My GTX 660 (and 460 before that) were both factory overclocked to about the maximum amount, so I never bothered to figure it out.