Help choosing new graphics card

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Pyrophyte

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May 31, 2012
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Hi all,

I'm considering purchasing a new graphics card in the near future that will allow me to play some of the newer games on medium - very high quality, and was looking for some experienced opinions on what I should be looking for.

I'm currently using:

Graphics: AMD Radeon 3870x2
Processor: AMD Phenom 9500 quad core @ 2.2GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Power Supply: 700W

I'm looking for a new card in the $100-$250 price range after tax, and am also wondering if I'll need to make any additional upgrades to get the best out of a new graphics card, I.E more ram, better processor, more power?

Any help is greatly appreciated! :D
 
Solution
That's Canada! I guess your budget is in Canadian dollars?

This one is just over $250 CAD with shipping:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131473

If you can't really go above $250, I'd suggest going with this card instead then:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

It's not much slower than HD 7850, around 8%. It won't disappoint you, it has very nice cooler and overclocking capabilities. I have similar model (just different company) myself, and I can say it's a very nice card.

Pyrophyte

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May 31, 2012
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Edited My OP, my PSU is a Rocketfish RF-700-WPS. Sorry for the confusion :/
The HD 7850 Looks great, but I was trying to stay under $250 after tax (and shippng if I can't find it locally)..

In case I can dish out the extra cash, I only have a PCIE 2.0 slot, will this work with a PCIE 3.0 card?
 

ZigaR

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May 31, 2012
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None of modern graphic cards can make ful use of PCIe 2.0 let alone PCIe 3.0. And yes a PCIe 3.0 GPU will work on a PCIe 2.0 slot without restrictions.
 
That's Canada! I guess your budget is in Canadian dollars?

This one is just over $250 CAD with shipping:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131473

If you can't really go above $250, I'd suggest going with this card instead then:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

It's not much slower than HD 7850, around 8%. It won't disappoint you, it has very nice cooler and overclocking capabilities. I have similar model (just different company) myself, and I can say it's a very nice card.
 
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Pyrophyte

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May 31, 2012
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Wow thanks Sunius! The MSI looks like it would do perfectly!

One last question though: I've heard that NVIDIA Video cards don't get along very well with AMD processors, do you think this will be an issue for me?
 
It's my guess that it's one of the old phenoms too...... weanted to hear it from him.

.... which means ( OP ) that the 7850 will be next to useless unless you do some major hardware upgrades to go along with the card.

if not a lesser card ( 550ti or similar ).... would be the tops I would put in that system.

and no to the question about nvidia/amd........ that's fan boy ism.
 

sarah_diamond

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May 26, 2012
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All I can say is avoid buying AMD trash graphic cards IF you are a true gamer, Nvidia is the best choice for gamers :D I bet you won't get disappointed.
stick to Nvidia graphics, they rock your games.


My suggestion to you:
Customer Choice Award Winner :
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Price: $134.99

:D
 

Pyrophyte

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May 31, 2012
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My processor is an AMD Phenom 9500, as for the motherboard I tried to use Everest to figure out what the model was, but it came up blank :/

I'm still leaning towards the MSI N560GTX or the HIS 7850(This will require some saving haha). From what I've read they seem to have better cooling, and my system already runs fairly warm
 

precursoris

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Perhaps you've had some personal issues with AMD cards, but by no means are AMD cards any worse for gaming than nVidia.
 


you have entered the domain of ADULT computer hardware enthusiasts. If you can't control yourself find another site to type trash on and stop wasting everyone's time.
 

Pyrophyte

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May 31, 2012
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I thank you all for your input :), but I think I've decided to go with the MSI N560GTX. It seems to best fit my budget while still giving me a phenomenal performance boost.

Special thanks to Sunius for his excellent suggestions!

Next up will be a new processor and MOBO. I'll porbably start a new thread on that sometime in the near future haha :)
 
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