Budget GPU - a bit lost

[Pull My Finger]

I currently have a Radeon 4870 HD. Yes I do. It's a 7 year old GPU or something. I thought it might make sense to replace it one of these days.

The thing is, I'd actually prefer to spend as little as possible. However, being out of the loop for so many years, it's hard for me to tell what I really need from today's GPUs.

I really don't care much about extraordinary performance of something, which is probably obvious, considering what I'm using now. I don't play a whole lot, and rarely the latest, most technically demanding titles.

I'd like to finally be able to experience a prettier WoW and crank up the settings a bit, especially when Legion hits. I still have some games in Steam waiting for me. Nothing wild I guess - there's Bioshock Infinite, the Castlevania - Lords of Shadow games, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon ... those are probably already the most graphically demanding ones of the bunch. So that's basically what my new GPU is supposed to be able to handle. I would of course like to be able to play the occasional current/upcoming title like the next Deus Ex game in decent quality. Dual monitors is a must for work.

I'm running in 1920 x 1080. PSU is a 750W. Win7 machine with an i7 3820 and currently 32GB RAM.

Now I'm aware that there are some very cheap GPUs out there, like the Radeon R7 range or the GeForce GT 740. Very attractively priced, but I'm not sure if those things would be enough of an upgrade, without having to replace them again in 2 years or something. Then there's models like the Radeon R9 270X, which is still considered cheap, entry level tier, but is already pushing it in terms of pricing for me. Not sure if it would really bring anything noticeably better to the table, considering my fairly modest gaming needs.

What do you think?

[Lumineus]

You could probably get comparable performance to a 270x by overclocking a 950GTX with a decent cooler, that would save you around 20-30 bucks. In general I recommend nVidia products over AMD anyway, just because a lot of developers are lazy and don't optimize their games for both.

Really you should check the usual sites (NewEgg, Tiger, Amazon, etc) tomorrow and see what they've got for Cyber Monday.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't touch anything R7. You don't mention a budget so i can't get into specifics. But i would consider a gtx950 the minimum of a gaming card atm. After that there is gtx960 and R9 380. 380 is better performance per money atm unless you can grab a sale on gtx 960.

[Pull My Finger]

Well I was kind of hoping that I could get away with a ~100 EUR solution, since I don't really have the demands of a dedicated core gamer, but perhaps that would be cutting too many corners even for my needs. I'd say 200 EUR would be the absolute limit - it just doesn't make sense for someone who only plays games casually to spend big money on a GPU.

[Tuesdays]

I got the MSI 270 gaming edition for 119.00 about 2 years ago, should be able to net something better for the same, or less.

[Sigo]

This http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Nvidia-...1&keywords=gpu

[Tuesdays]

This http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Nvidia-...1&keywords=gpu

S/he is looking to get away with 100 euro, that's more than double.

I'd say R7 370, is about 150.00 performs close to a 270x

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-882-_-Product

[Sigo]

S/he is looking to get away with 100 euro, that's more than double.

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On the uk site its £94

[Deleted]

You can get for ~170euro a gtx950. You can find a gtx960/r9 380 around 190-200euro.

[chazus]

I picked up a 960 for $120 this weekend through Jet.com. I don't know if the sale is still on but you can get them pretty reliably for the next few days for $150. I'd take that over a 950 if its just 20 bucks more

[Deleted]

That would be insane if things like that existed in EU Chazus Usa prices are very very low in general compared to everywhere else. Since he/she mentioned euro thats the prices that usually got around, the ones i mentioned above.

[Tuesdays]

On the uk site its £94

Oh, auto converted for me as 226.58.

£94 is 141.30 USD - strange that it's over 200 here.

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That would be insane if things like that existed in EU Chazus Usa prices are very very low in general compared to everywhere else. Since he/she mentioned euro thats the prices that usually got around, the ones i mentioned above.

That explains a lot, thanks.

[Pull My Finger]

Yeah, the difference in US pricing compared to EU is quite remarkable. While still trying to stay on the affordable side of things - wouldn't a Geforce GTX750 already be sufficient for WoW with high settings and the occasional 3D game like Bioshock Infinite? Really not looking for anything fancy and I don't care if I miss out on some measly 3,5 fps or something compared to a higher model.

[Artorius]

Yeah, the difference in US pricing compared to EU is quite remarkable.

Wait until you see prices down here in BR, it's funny to look at.