Need video card advice

[SiGfever]

Hello,
It has been a while since I was on the forum, good to be here again. I need your advice on a new video card. My current specs are an EVGA 9800GTX 512mb. I want to do a little gaming and the card will not be a cruncher. I am limited to $300.00 and it has been a good while since I read any vid articles or reviews. My computer is an old QX9770 w/4GB ram on a Maximus Formula. The CPU has its own watercooling and the Northbridge and Mosfets have a separate circuit. I realize at this price point I won't get much wow in today's market but it will be a lot better than what I have now. I am not set on Nvidia or AMD, suggestions and reasons why to choose one over the other will greatly be appreciated.
SiG

P.S. I also posted this in the "Nvidia" section but would also like the advice of the forum


How about this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202030

[Utroz]

You could get a 7790 1GB for $149 at newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125455 They have a 2GB version for $169 of the same card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125454 but considering your system it probably doesn't need the extra video memory. I really would not bother getting anything faster or more expensive than that because your Cpu will bottleneck it quite a bit so unless you are planning on getting a new cpu and motherboard setup soon don't spend $300 dollars on a video card. The jump from the 9800GTX 512mb to either cards will be night and day faster even on the old QX9770 (Your cpu is at about the level of a Phenom x4 955 so it is getting kinda long in the tooth).

[SiGfever]

You could get a 7790 1GB for $149 at newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125455 They have a 2GB version for $169 of the same card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125454 but considering your system it probably doesn't need the extra video memory. I really would not bother getting anything faster or more expensive than that because your Cpu will bottleneck it quite a bit so unless you are planning on getting a new cpu and motherboard setup soon don't spend $300 dollars on a video card. The jump from the 9800GTX 512mb to either 7790 will be night and day faster even on the old QX9770 (Your cpu is at about the level of a Phenom x4 955 so it is getting kinda long in the tooth).

Thank you for your input. Yes the QX9770 is a little outdated but it was given to me by someone I hold to high esteem. I will run it in one of my setups until the wheels fall off. I also have an I7 920 that might take its place in the lineup.

[STEvil]

What is your monitor? QX9770 isnt that bad as long as you have it overclocked decently

[SiGfever]

What is your monitor? QX9770 isnt that bad as long as you have it overclocked decently

Samsung SyncMaster 245BW

[BlindShot]

The free game codes from AMD are nice. I have a Msi 7950 twin frozr3 o/c running at 1215mhz core 1500mhz mem. The card is crunching 24/7 maxed out with no problems at all.

[STEvil]

I second a 7950

[SiGfever]

I second a 7950

What brand do you recommend?

[Andi64]

HD7950.

Try to avoid XFX, unless you are going to watercool it. The stock cooler is crap. Brand? The cheaper you can find with a reference design.

[SiGfever]

I think I have settled on this card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121656

[Andi64]

Noooo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202006

[SiGfever]

Noooo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202006

Why?

[STEvil]

Avoid both Sapphire and Asus. See ket's thread on his Sapphire issues or my thread for Asus issues..

[yojimbo197]

Avoid both Sapphire and Asus. See ket's thread on his Sapphire issues or my thread for Asus issues..

Yeah I gotta disagree with you on ASUS cards. I've got a ASUS 2Gb HD7770 that has been humming along without a problem 24/7 the past 3 months. I will say that their GPU Tweak program sucked. Once I got rid of that I stopped having problems.

[SiGfever]

So what brands are better?

[OldChap]

have had a good experience with 2 of these https://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/HD7950DC2T3GD5/

but with MVG not so much

[bearcatrp]

I think I have settled on this card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121656

Not bad but future proof yourself with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125450 . Pretty good card. Have had it a few weeks and so far no complaints. Getting 80 to 110 fps on WoT's.

[SiGfever]

Not bad but future proof yourself with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125450 . Pretty good card. Have had it a few weeks and so far no complaints. Getting 80 to 110 fps on WoT's.

NIce card, do you prefer Gigabyte over Asus? I am afraid my current PC setup will hold back such a nice card?

[STEvil]

Yeah I gotta disagree with you on ASUS cards. I've got a ASUS 2Gb HD7770 that has been humming along without a problem 24/7 the past 3 months. I will say that their GPU Tweak program sucked. Once I got rid of that I stopped having problems.

thats a 7770, not a 7950 or 7970.

[bearcatrp]

NIce card, do you prefer Gigabyte over Asus? I am afraid my current PC setup will hold back such a nice card?

After reading the negative reviews on newegg on the complaints about asus cards, I decided with gigabyte. Good reviews. May not be as fast as asus but so far zero issues. Your mobo may not use all the bandwith but if you upgrade your system, you will be ready with this card. If your really worried about bandwith not being used due to your mobo, get a 7790 for the lower cost until you do upgrade your system.

[STEvil]

bandwidth wont be an issue for a single card.

[CrazyNutz]

^^ True.

Don't worry about it. There's only about ~1% difference in FPS between 1.1 2.0, and 3.0

[SiGfever]

Thanks so much to all they have offered me help on this journey. I have been out of the loop for too long. So of these two cards which would you all recommend?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-202-030

or...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-130-817

[Ivanlabrie]

Thanks so much to all they have offered me help on this journey. I have been out of the loop for too long. So of these two cards which would you all recommend?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-202-030

or...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-130-817

Stick to the 7950, it's a far better card all around. People will say "but runt frames..." and I say, a Radeon will be useful for many different things cause of it's strong compute and faster and bigger ram.
It may pay for itself in little time if you mine litecoins, exchange for bitcoins and then sell the btc locally or at ebay.

[SiGfever]

Stick to the 7950, it's a far better card all around. People will say "but runt frames..." and I say, a Radeon will be useful for many different things cause of it's strong compute and faster and bigger ram.
It may pay for itself in little time if you mine litecoins, exchange for bitcoins and then sell the btc locally or at ebay.

So which one of these then?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202031

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-202-030

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414