Considering if it's time to upgrade

[Deleted]

Hello champions :-)

I am currently considering primarily to upgrade my GPU, but I don't know if it's worth it yet.

I currently have a HD7850, and I'm looking to possibly replace it with one of the following cards:
- R9 280X at $295
- GTX 960 at $240
- R9 270X at $225

Does brand matter? (AMD vs NVidia // ASUS, MSI, etc.)
Which card would you recommend for games like The Witcher 3 and GTA V? (As long as they run at ~50+ FPS at medium-high settings I am satisfied, but I want it to be a bit future proof as well)
How big of a difference in performance should I expect?
Can a GPU fit on any motherboard? I currently have a Z77 Pro3 and I know if I were to upgrade my CPU I'd have to upgrade my motherboard, but is it the same with GPUs?
Does a motherboard affect performance (in-game wise)? What separates a "good" and "bad" motherboard?
Is it worth upgrading from 3570k to 4670k?

[Akainakali]

Brands for video cards matters mostly in terms of the cooler used. Things like how much noise do they make and what is the amount of heat they can dissipate. MSI and Asus seem to be two of the top makers in those regards currently, but it is generally speaking a good idea to look up reviews on a specific card, since the coolers used can vary and do change over time.

Most manufacturers also have their cards segmented by the degree of overclocking that is guaranteed and top end/limited edition cards may have more robust maximum power capabilities on the cards. You are often paying a substantial premium though.

This is usually a good guide to what cards are worth looking at in the different price ranges.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...view,3107.html

Essentially all cards currently use PCIe as the interface and that's been the situation for quite a while now. So compatibility in the video cards is not typically limited by the interface. PCIe has been evolving in terms of the maximum speed, but most cards take a very limited hit in performance from dropping down fairly low in terms of the number of PCIe lanes/speed used, but your z77 does use the latest PCIe Gen 3. So that's not really an issue. 16 is the "ideal" number of lanes, but even dropping down to 4 lanes doesn't make for a massive hit given PCIe Gen 3's bandwidth.

Buy motherboards for features not performance. Essentially all motherboards have identical performance, that's no longer an issue really. Where they do differ is in their overclocking ability and support, but the ability to overclock is much more down to other components like the CPU and memory. So any difference in overclockability due to the motherboard tends to be marginal at best, something like 4.4 ghz vs 4.31 or 4.2.

BIOS stability and support is probably a bigger issue and something I'd look for in reviews.

There haven't been dramatic increases in performance since the 25xx chips from the previous gen to what you have. So not really on that score, chips have gotten more efficient and have dramatically better integrated graphics, but performance is pretty much at best a 5%-15% improvement at the same clockspeed for similar chips.

[Deleted]

Stretch your budget and get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-899-_-Product. It's only $35 more than the 280x and you'll even get The Witcher 3 for free.

I live in Denmark so Newegg is not an option. That card would cost me $444.

<Snip>

Thank you for the in depth reply.
Do you know how of big a performance increase I should expect upgrading from HD7850 to one the new cards?

[Akainakali]

AMD vs nVidia does matter. The AMD cards can offer more bang for your buck, but they do that in no small measure because their chips have a MUCH higher power draw (up to x2 as much for a similar graphics power chip), which means they run hotter and require louder coolers for the same amount of performance.

If you care about quiet and efficiency (means you can use a smaller wattage PSU), then nVidia wins hands down. Price and performance are much more of a mixed bag, though nVidia does tend to command at least a small premium in price due to it's greater efficiency and quieter cards.

Well a 960 MSI beats or is roughly equal to a 7950, which seems to be roughly 50% more powerful than your 7850. The 7850 is an old card, so there aren't a lot of direct comparisons that I could find with a quick google.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...Gaming/15.html