Need help with choosing a new GPU

[Jawehawk]

Hello good folks of GTP.

As the newer PC releases are making it abundantly clear that my AMD 6870 is getting old, I need advise on what card to get. I know very little about the subject matter, and I do not wish to overclock anything, in fear that I might damage something. I don't require to be able to max out every new game, but being able to run stuff like Evolve at 50-60FPS at HD resolutions is a must.

My current PC specs are as follows.

Win 7. 64 Bit
Intel Core I5 3570 3.40 GHz
AMD 6870 graphics card
8GB of RAM, although I don't know if they are DDR3 or DDR5.
And a 550W power supply (LC5550)

My budget is very limited, at a maximum of 1500DKK. (200 euroes / 150 pounds / 230 dollars respectively)
I've been recommended the Nvidia 750 TI, although I'm unsure just how much of an upgrade that actually is. Help will be much appreciated.

What about the AMD 7870? Would that be a significant step up?

 

[Grayfox]

You have DDR3 RAM in your system

The 750Ti should be an upgrade to your current

Nvidia GPU clock: 1124Mhz with boost clock to 1202Mhz
AMD GPU clock: 900Mhz

Nvidia RAM Clock: 5400Mhz
AMD RAM Clock: 1050Mhz

Nvidia RAM: 2gb
AMD RAM: 1gb

The 7870 Specs
GPU Clock: 1000Mhz

RAM Clock: 120Mhz

RAM: 2GB

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/6000/6870#
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1617&products_id=28477
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Graph...f13=&f14=&f15=&f16=&f17=&f18=&f19=&f20=&f21=&

on paper the Nvidia has the better stats but best of paper and best overall in game are not the same.

 

[sesselpupser]

I'd suggest starting at the 960 and working your way down until you find a card you can afford/want to buy. The 960 has just come out so it might be wise to wait a little for the price to come down (I'd heard it's a £150 card but the very cheapest I'm seeing are about £160 and they go up to £200 for the super deluxe overclocked custom cooler models), they may even release a 950Ti soon which would, I suppose, be around the £100 mark.

I should mention that I'm one of those people who will avoid AMD at all costs, though.

 

[Jawehawk]

Looking at comparisions, the 750 doesn't look like a very big step up in performance. I've decided against it.

The 7870 however, looks like a very significant step up, while costing just a tiny bit more, and the 960 being slightly better, while having yet another tiny increase in price. Basically, the 960 (Gainward version to be more specific) fits just within my budget. I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the Nvidia card. Most sites seem to list it as slightly superior to the 7870.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

You have DDR3 RAM in your system

The 750Ti should be an upgrade to your current

Nvidia GPU clock: 1124Mhz with boost clock to 1202Mhz
AMD GPU clock: 900Mhz

Nvidia RAM Clock: 5400Mhz
AMD RAM Clock: 1050Mhz

Nvidia RAM: 2gb
AMD RAM: 1gb

The 7870 Specs
GPU Clock: 1000Mhz

RAM Clock: 120Mhz

RAM: 2GB

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/6000/6870#
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1617&products_id=28477
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Graph...f13=&f14=&f15=&f16=&f17=&f18=&f19=&f20=&f21=&

on paper the Nvidia has the better stats but best of paper and best overall in game are not the same.

Not a very good way to compare GPUs by just clock speeds. For example Nvidia RAM clock speed is 1350MHz but as it is only 128-bit, it is slower than the 6870 by quite a bit in that department but Maxwell architecture more than makes up for it due to better use of memory bandwidth. In game performance the 750 Ti is a small step up from a 6870 so really no point in upgrading.

Looking at comparisions, the 750 doesn't look like a very big step up in performance. I've decided to against it.

The 7870 however, looks like a very significant step up, while costing just a tiny bit more, and the 960 being slightly better, while having yet another tiny increase in price. Basically, the 960 (Gainward version to be more specific) fits just within my budget. I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the Nvidia card. Most sites seem to list it as slightly superior to the 7870.

The 960 is similar in terms of performance to the 7970 rather than the 7870, best to get the 960 as it is very power efficient.

 

[Jawehawk]

The choice has fallen on the Gainward GTX960 OC, as it appears to bring the most bang for the buck.

However, I have one last, and possible very stupid, question. GPU connectors are industry standard, right? So I don't have to worry about it not connecting/fitting into the thing it's supposed to connect/fit into?

Many thanks for the help, guys.

 

[BobMarley420]

If you wanna go amd, go for the 280x, i just got two of them. You can get them cheap and they are insane. awesome cooling and performance and you can always just get another when you want more performance

 

[suv139]

I would get a R9 280X which does out perform the GTX 960 by a decent amount.

 

[Jawehawk]

The Nvidia 960 was ordered yesterday, so I'm afraid it's too late for that. But thanks anyway 👍

 

[Jawehawk]

Need help again.

I received my 960, but after installing it in my PC, the PC stalls on the BIOS screen, and after beeping a bit, it goes into a black screen with a dash in the upper left corner. Reinstalled my old card, and everything words fine. The people I've talked to says I need to update my BIOS driver, however, when I do that, the update fails.

My motherboard is an Intel DH77EB. I'm assuming that this will support the card just fine?

It seems that whenver I try to change anything with my PC, something goes wrong. They hate me almost as much as I hate them, or so it would seem.

I'm desperate for help, as I don't want to pay a ridicules amount of money for a PC specialist to fix it...


Edit: Nevermind. Paid a PC specialist to fix the problem. Turned out all that was needed was a new BIOS update, but of course, the update was rather troublesome to install. It is as if PC gaming is made up in such a way that it forces ordinary consumers to shell out more cash just to get something to work...