So I currently have a HD6870 that's getting a bit long in the tooth and I've got £100 in Amazon vouchers to spend, so figured I'd put them to use on an upgrade (gf will inherit the 6870 as an upgrade for rig).

The problem is I'm out of the loop and this doesn't seem like a great time to buy. The R9 280 looks like the best value for money right now, but everyone at work is telling me to stay away from AMDTi and go back to nVidia, better cards overall, better drivers, etc.

Looking at what's available I could get the GTX 960 which seems to perform okayish at Full HD ultra settings with the latest architecture, features, low power requirements and quiet operation - but doesn't seem to offer very good bang for buck overall at nearly £200.

Is there something better on the horizon I could hold out another month for? Should I spend a bit more on the scaled back 970 cards? Should I get an older gen 770/780 which seems to perform a lot better?

It took some digging out via forum search, but it seems I have a 'Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular Whisper Silent PSU' if that's a factor.

my nephew (who's up[ to date on gfx cards)

says get a 970, and your PSU will be fine :-)


check anandtech.com for benchmarks :-)

I've read a few reviews now saying the 970 is only about 10% slower than a 980. Hopefully the price will drop a bit following the memory 'scandal'

prob won't reduce it because of the memory thing....

but AMD reduced the price of there equivalent card by about 10% to capitalise on the memory scandal/thing.... so they might reduce theirs to match ?

Hopefully, I won't be ordering for a while yet so maybe the prices will drift over the next few weeks. I gather there are no new cards coming out that soon so it does seem like the ideal choice.

The 970 as Knighty has said its pretty much the only card i would consider, unless you can get something like a R9 270X on special as thats what i currently run

I even toyed with the idea of upgrading again soon and mine is only a few months old

Yeah, I can't see anything better around. I'm probably going to go for the MSI Gaming 4G one as it seems like one of the most reliable, slightly smaller and passive/quiet running.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-graphics-card-upgrade-guide

As above really, but this is a good guide published today

Thanks, confirms it as much too

Also, lol @ the guy in the comments saying his PS4 will be good for the next 5 years of games. Trollolol.

Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on February 02, 2015, 21:47:43 PM
Yeah, I can't see anything better around. I'm probably going to go for the MSI Gaming 4G one as it seems like one of the most reliable, slightly smaller and passive/quiet running.

I was thinking of getting one of these myself, problem being an MS! Z87-G43 mobo - crossfire, If I want to use a pair it's going to have to be AMD. I have is which one. I'd like to consider the use of 4K rez in future.

Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on February 02, 2015, 23:55:58 PM

Also, lol @ the guy in the comments saying his PS4 will be good for the next 5 years of games. Trollolol.

Yes, but, if they only use 1080p and don't get a higher resolution screen they may be fine. A lot can happen in 5 years tho. It certainly is funny and would have been even more so a few years ago. Someone said the same about their games console to me about 15 years ago. In 5 years we could have 4K 'paper thin' LEP screens hanging on our walls  

The other side of this is improvements in graphics and general processors have slowed dramatically. For CPUs since the I5 2500K it's been slight incremental improvements of just a few percent per year. Graphics cards are showing a similar lethargic stance. Problem is 1080 doesn't really push them and 4K is still fairly rare.

Well, so far everything I have thrown at it has run beatifully at 1920x1200 ultra everything. Crazy good card!

And fairly decently priced too. Some are using a pair to power 3840 x 2140 resolution monitors. It should be able to power at least a pair of 1080p monitors. That would allow you to run the game on one screen while keeping tabs on business stuff on the other.

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There seems to be a lot of rumors about the expected AMD Radeon R9 300 series, including possible announcements. over-cocker's have had a forum thread on it for some time. Most are just that, rumor, but it is expected to introduce at least some improvement over the present situation. AMD's high bandwidth memory might come in useful when some of us start moving to 4K resolution. There are voiced hopes for lower power consumption and higher graphics processing speed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Bandwidth_Memory

Expectation is an official announcement sometime June. If they do produce a significant speed improvement this could drive movement towards higher resolution screens.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2893701/amds-upcoming-radeon-r9-300-series-flagship-secretly-powering-vr-demos-at-gdc.html

Then again 4K Ultra HD Monitors are dropping in price rapidly, you can now get them for under £300, but it's suggested to get a 60Hz refresh screen for £400-600. A suitable single graphics card would make a very interesting setup option

....someone pass the Kleenex, pls.