Buying new gpu

[DragaO]

Hello everyone,

I'm thinking to replace my old HD 5770 as it is choking on new games :| yet this card is still very good. I'm planning to play DayZ Standalone, maybe Battlefield 4, GTA V etc when they will be released. I was looking at the GTX 660 Ti, GTX 670, GTX 680, HD 7950, HD 7970, HD 7870 and didn't decide which one suits best for me. Or should I wait for HD 8 series? My current rig is: i5 750 @ 4 GHz, 8 GB of RAM @ 1600 MHz, HD 5770 1 GB, Corsair 650W psu, max monitor resolution 1680x1050. I hope you'll help me to decide which card to pick. I'm not sure if my cpu would bottleneck GTX 680 or HD 7970. I think that HD 7950 would be the best choice as it's powerful enough and I'd sqeeze it's full potention at 1680x1050 res.

What do you guys think? Cheers.

 

[johnnyq1233]

Ya the 7950 would be good choice as the value for performance is great!
The 660ti is also a good performer but you pay a bit more for the big brand names.
Stability wise I like the nvidias as the drivers are sooo stable..
Amd is getting better but I still see so many help request and they are 90% radeo..

 

[DragaO]

Thanks for the reply.

Well, that's a problem. If it wouldn't be all about drivers, I wouldn't ask and pick the ati card. Should I be afraid of amd drivers since I haven't had any issues with my current HD 5770?

 

[DarkSable]

Go for a 7870xt - your CPU is going to bottleneck a 670 and up. (*The 670 is within 5% of the 680, which is why nobody sane recommends the 680 for 25% more money.)

The reason I recommend the 7870xt is because of its insane performance/price ratio and lower cost - plus at your resolution it'd be able to play any game on medium-high settings and 60fps with ease.

EDIT: AMD's drivers are fine, they're just slightly more finnicky than Nvidia's.

 

[Murissokah]

I've had both AMD and Nvidia recently, and would buy any of them again. It's true Nvidia's driver release tends to be a bit more hassle-free, but I've never had any major issues with AMD.

The only thing I really recommend against is going Crossfire. I've done it, and it was a major pain. No more multi-GPU here, and if I ever have to do it again, I will give Nvidia a shot.

 

[DragaO]

Hamz.. DarkSide thanks for suggestion. So you are saying HD 7950 is too powerful for my cpu? Even at 4 GHz?

 

[DarkSable]

Hamz.. DarkSide thanks for suggestion. So you are saying HD 7950 is too powerful for my cpu? Even at 4 GHz?

There's going to be a little bit of a bottleneck there, yeah - and it's also more GPU power than you need for your resolution. Might as well save some money, especially since the card you're "dropping down" to is such a little wonder. Here's Tom's review of it:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/tahiti-le-7870-7930-benchmark,review-32627.html

 

[DragaO]

Oh, i see. Thanks. I thought my 1st gen cpu is still capable of holding new gpu's on par ^^ Well.. i guess HD 7870 is the answer, and the best edition of all 7870's is MYST edition right?

 

[DarkSable]

It's the Power Color myst edition also known as a Sapphire 7870 XT also known as a 7870 LE.

But keep in mind that it's not a 7870 - it's a slightly disabled 7950 with a different name.

(And your cpu is still capable, but it'll bottleneck a little bit and won't matter anyways - both cards will get over 60fps, which means you shouldn't spend the extra money.)

 

[DragaO]

Thank You for clearing my mind I'm taking one of the moded 7870's

 

[badtaylorx]

2nd the myst ed. card......put one in my lil cousins rig (with an amd phenom ii 975...no bottlenekz)

the card is AWSOME o/cd all the way to 1280 1600mem.......

absolute ripper