New Member, First Build, What GPU for £250 Budget

[freakyfunka]

Hello to all here at Toms Hardware,

I am loosing two cherries right now:
My first ever forum post and my first ever complete PC build (I may not be very knowledgeable about the PC world, but I am not a stupid man & eager to learn. I have been gaming since the very beginning, Paddle Tennis(Pong), Sinclair ZX80+ZX81, the list goes on & on. But after N64 stayed with consoles until recently.)
So I have built myself a semi descent (I think?) machine but I am now looking for an upgrade of the GPU.
I currently have two Sapphire HD5770 in crossfire (These will be going in my next build for my boy.) and I have a budget of £250 for the upgrade.
I have been reading continuously for the last couple of weeks and still can't fathome what to buy? Some say, "AMD 6900 series." Others say AMD 7800 series + Nvidia 560s, 580s.
I don't now my heads all a mess.

Please help!!!!!

Kind Regards, FF

 

[freakyfunka]

Sorry, school boy era forgot my specs.

Case: CoolerMaster Storm Trooper.
PSU: Thermaltake 850watt.
CPU Type: Phenom II X6 Black Edition 1090T (O/C 4000)
Motherboard Name: Asus Sabertooth 990FX
Memory: Corsair dominator GT 1866 Mhz DDR3 (O/C 2000)
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (1024 MB) x2 Crossfire
Disk Drive 1: Crucial SSD-C300 64GB
Disk Drive 2: Corsair SSD-V128GB2
Disk Drive 3: Samsung HD753LJ Spin Point F1, 750 GB

 

[panwala95]

for 250 pounds you can get a decent hd 7870 or you could go for gtx 560 tis in sli...

 

[freakyfunka]

for 250 pounds you can get a decent hd 7870 or you could go for gtx 560 tis in sli...

What are the benefits of each???

 

[panwala95]

gtx 560ti s will give better drivers and will be better than the hd 7870 but you could run into problems like microstuttering ,poor scaling etc
the hd 7870 has advantages of being a newer part , good support, increased oppurtunities of drivers increasing performance in future , less power consumption etc

 

[freakyfunka]

Thanks budy,
will take your advice onboard.
But people please £250 is a huge chunk to me, so some more opinions would be much appreciated

 

[panwala95]

well im just a kid .
i suggest you go to the shop your buying from or contact your online retailer for more information
cheers!

 

[Ironslice]

nVidia hasn't released their mid range cards yet so AMD is your best bet for now. The HD 7870 is definitely the way to go, I recommend this one for 250 euros: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-radeon-hd-7870-twin-frozr-oc-4800mhz-gddr5-28nm-gpu-1050mhz-dl-dvi-hdmi-mdp

 

[freakyfunka]

well im just a kid .
i suggest you go to the shop your buying from or contact your online retailer for more information
cheers!

Oh great, I have upset someone already.
I am sorry buddy. I had no idea of your age

 

[freakyfunka]

What about the second hand market. More bang for my bucks or a mistake??

 

[dalmvern]

If you could possibly stretch your budget a tad or find some deal, I would say go for a GTX 670. Its not nVidia's top card, but very close, so it has really good driver support, tons of power, and you dont have to deal with the complications of SLi or Crossfire.

If you cant stretch your budget, I would agree with panwala, the 7870 would work quite well for you with a little bit of money left over.

 

[Derbixrace]

if you can spend £19.99 over your budget then get this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-008-VX

hard to beat price/perforamnce wise, especially if you OC you also get 3 free games with it.

 

[freakyfunka]

if you can spend £19.99 over your budget then get this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-008-VX

hard to beat price/perforamnce wise, especially if you OC you also get 3 free games with it.

That looks like a sweet deal for the money

 

[freakyfunka]

Right I feel I am getting somewhere now either 7950 or 560+ in sli. I have the feeling you are all going to go for the 7950.
Humour me.

 

[dalmvern]

Mark me down for the 7950

 

[freakyfunka]

I found this????

http://xbox360.fraffy.com/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-7950-3-gb-gddr5/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=05%20Jul%202012%2023:17

Anyone no this store???

 

[Derbixrace]

7950 for sure mate, 1gb of vram is not enough in some games like BF3 and crysis 2. also less hassle with a single card.

EDIT: that site doesnt look legit for some reason.