Upgrade Help

[Kihlo7]

Okay so i have been slowly upgrading my PC and my latest buy was an Intel i7 4790k which was pretty nice jump up from the older AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition cpu i was using. The only thing im really lacking is a new graphics card, im currently still using an older Radeon HD 6850 and definitely need to upgrade. I really don't play many gpu intensive games but at the same time i would like to play any game i want without having to worry about my fps etc. Right now the most i can spend is around 300-400 and im also not using anything over 1080p as far as gaming and only 1 monitor. If you guys could give me some good cards in that price range even specific cards if you want. Even if you think i should wait for something upcoming let me know and i appreciate it.

 

[nillawafers]

If you don't care about power or heat: AMD R9 390X

If you want to go Nvidia: GTX 970

I will say that, from what I've seen, the 390X outperforms the 970 in pretty much anything. It also has double the Vram if you ever do decide to go for more resolution.

But it does come at the cost of more power consumption and possibly heat (the 290X is like a furnace).

 

[Seba]

Your HD 6850 is a major bottleneck in games. A cheap GTX 750 Ti outperforms that card so you have a lot of room for improvements.

What power supply do you have?

What is the maximum length of the graphics card that fits in your case?

Would you buy a second hand graphics card?

A GTX 970 or a R9 390 could be good choices if you buy a new card, but they could also became outdated in less than a year (faster than usual) because the new Pascal (Nvidia) and Arctic Islands (AMD) cards are expected to be major improvements.

 

[Kihlo7]

Thanks for the replies and im not sure about the space in my case but it's a full tower Thermaltake Overseer and my motherboard is MSI Z97 gaming 7 and power supply is Corsair TX650 watt. As far as buying second hand i would have no problem with doing that if i knew for sure i was getting a working card. As far as other components 8 gig ram, Corsair H100I cooler, Samsung Pro SSD 500 gig and a 2 TB storage drive.

 

[Seba]

Maximum graphics card length for that case seems to be 344mm, so no problem here.

Also the power supply should be enough for any single GPU.

Check the prices for second hand R9 280X 3GB and R9 290 4GB (but exclude R9 290 models with the reference cooler - "blower" type, with centrifugal fan).

R9 280X 3GB is significantly slower than R9 290, but it would still be a major upgrade from your HD 6850 (more than double the performance) and could be a nice stop-gap card if the price is right. There are other cards around this performance level that you could search for in used market, staring with various editions of HD 7950 or HD 7970.

Second hand R9 290 would provide better performance, but at increased cost, so it would be less of an stop-gap card (assuming you will buy a new card next summer/autumn).

 

[TXBPNT]

In this review,a sapphire r9 390 Nitro @ 1125 Mhz was pitted against a EVGA GTX 970 SSC @ 1442 Mhz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE2zxZFM5DA
The 390 won 4 out 6 games.Most sapphire r9 390 Nitro can overclock to 1175-1200 Mhz.You can also force tessellation level to 16x or even 8x in Crimson driver,which greatly boosts the 390's performance while producing the same image quality.

 

[Kihlo7]

Okay thanks i appreciate it ill check them out and i have been thinking about it and ill probably do like you say get a card that's way better than mine but one i can upgrade once the new models come out without feeling like i wasted a ton of money. I knew my card was causing a bottleneck and i hate having a good cpu and not a comparable graphics card.

 

[Kihlo7]

In this review,a sapphire r9 390 Nitro @ 1125 Mhz was pitted against a EVGA GTX 970 SSC @ 1442 Mhz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE2zxZFM5DA
The 390 won 4 out 6 games.Most sapphire r9 390 Nitro can overclock to 1175-1200 Mhz.You can also force tessellation level to 16x or even 8x in Crimson driver,which greatly boosts the 390's performance while producing the same image quality.

Man i really like that card and that never really crossed my mind but looks like it is a great card and huge upgrade from what im using.

 

[happy medium]

Man i really like that card and that never really crossed my mind but looks like it is a great card and huge upgrade from what im using.

but it costs 50$ more than the gtx970 and that's with rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202164

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127833&cm_re=gtx970-_-14-127-833-_-Product

and you get a free game with the gtx970

 

[Kihlo7]

but it costs 50$ more than the gtx970 and that's with rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202164

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127833&cm_re=gtx970-_-14-127-833-_-Product

and you get a free game with the gtx970

Yeah but isn't the 390 beating the 970 in a lot of benchmarks? I also need one with a nice cooler and that 970 doesn't even have the gaming 7 cooler on it but hell i may get a 970 i don't know lol

 

[RaistlinZ]

^Then just get the Sapphire 390. No need to overthink these things.

 

[Kihlo7]

^Then just get the Sapphire 390. No need to overthink these things.

Yeah your right i tend to do that wayyyyyyy too much and more times than not i wish i would have just gone with what i originally wanted.

 

[happy medium]

Yeah but isn't the 390 beating the 970 in a lot of benchmarks? I also need one with a nice cooler and that 970 doesn't even have the gaming 7 cooler on it but hell i may get a 970 i don't know lol

Why do you need a nice cooler for a 970? they run cool and quiet.

A 390 uses 100 watts more power than the 970 and they need a furnace cooler to cool them and then all that heat is dumped into your room or case.

 

[fourdegrees11]

This time next year $300-400 gpu's should be significantly faster. IMO unless you can snag a good deal on a 290/290x/390/970 for close to $200 you might be better off spending less now.

380's are going for pretty cheap

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131673&cm_re=r9_380-_-14-131-673-_-Product

 

[happy medium]

380's are going for pretty cheap

You are right, 180 and 160 AR is a good price.
gtx960's actually went up since I bought mine

 

[Kihlo7]

Yeah ill check them out also and i eventually want to get top of the line card but not this year and maybe not even next if i get a decent one now i guess it will all come down to how long whatever i get will run the games of a year or 2 from now. I was originally looking to get the MSI Gaming 7 970 because it's same model motherboard i have with red and black. Is the 100m edition card basically the exact same just with a backplate? and green lol