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  1. #1

    Post Graphics card upgrade

    I am clearly in the market for a new graphics card as I have been stringing this one along since I purchased it in 2007 and was looking for some recommendations. Price point would be around $250+/- with an absolute max of $300 although that would be pushing it and would require quite a price/performance ratio boost.


    <<< System Summary >>>

    Mainboard : ASRock H67M
    Chipset : Intel H67
    Processor : Intel Core i3 2100 - 3100 MHz
    Physical Memory : 8192 MB (2 x 4096 DDR3-SDRAM )
    Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
    Hard Disk : KINGSTON SV200S3128G ATA Device (128GB)
    Hard Disk : SAMSUNG HD400LJ ATA Device (400GB)
    DVD-Rom Drive : ASUS DRW-24B1ST c
    CD-Rom Drive : FST 1QBODQV SCSI CdRom Device
    Monitor Type : E552VL - 55 inches - 1920x1080

    Mostly used for gaming which primarily consists of Warcraft but wouldnt mind giving Skyrim and some other things a try also.
    Last edited by Houston; 2013-02-24 at 07:50 PM.

  2. #2
    High Overlord Sayier's Avatar
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    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130826

    Not going to do too much better then a 660 for under $250

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  4. #4
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    This is A LOT better than some GTX 660, for the price. The 660 is really poor, do not buy it.
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    This is A LOT better than some GTX 660, for the price. The 660 is really poor, do not buy it.
    Always been more of an nvidia fan, I apologize for not mentioning it prior. Is there an equivalent?

    From what I've gathered it's typically not worth it to purchased the lower end of the current generation in the nvidia lines. Perhaps I am wrong.

  6. #6
    From my personal experience as well as many close friends of mine, never buy AMD/ATI cards.

    They have HUGE driver issues and each of us had the GPUs die during mid warranty at least once - sometimes even twice.

    Switched to Nvidia GPUs and never looked back - they might be more expensive, but are BY FAR more reliable (software and hardware) plus a lot of games have the "made for nvidia" video thingy meaning that the game devs and Nvidia banded together to make the performance better... i don't think i have ever seen the "made for amd" sign at all.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    The 660 is really poor, do not buy it.
    "Really poor"? Rather ignorant claim. If GTX 660 is so poor, how do you explain this:


    Quote Originally Posted by Aleksej89 View Post
    From my personal experience as well as many close friends of mine, never buy AMD/ATI cards.
    They have HUGE driver issues.
    It used to be the case indeed, but their drivers improved significantly. Nowadays I see more people complaining about "Nvidia driver stopped working" issues.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    outdated graph and wow is known to favor nvidia gpu's.
    Ghz and XT edition of 7870 are on par with 660Ti's iirc.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by haloa View Post
    "Really poor"? Rather ignorant claim. If GTX 660 is so poor, how do you explain this:

    It used to be the case indeed, but their drivers improved significantly. Nowadays I see more people complaining about "Nvidia driver stopped working" issues.
    Nothing really seems to look bad at all compared to my poor card.

    Food for thought, Since WoW will always be my go to would it be better for me to perhaps pursue a CPU upgrade like a i5-3570K instead and just go for the GPU in another few months?

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by shroudster View Post
    outdated graph
    Care to show us "up to date" graph?

    Quote Originally Posted by shroudster View Post
    and wow is known to favor nvidia gpu's.
    Yes, and your point is what exactly? Op said he primarily plays WoW.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Houston View Post
    Nothing really seems to look bad at all compared to my poor card.

    Food for thought, Since WoW will always be my go to would it be better for me to perhaps pursue a CPU upgrade like a i5-3570K instead and just go for the GPU in another few months?
    Its totally worth it

  12. #12
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by haloa View Post
    Care to show us "up to date" graph?
    He means this graph
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...rmance/20.html

    And as for the OP, I think the best you can get at that price point would be a sapphire 7870 XT, altho it seems newegg isnt selling them anymore (I would check other stores first tho) so a normal 7870 will do just fine as well.
    And if you are hung up on Nvidia, than get a 660, but the 7870 is a better choice both for wow and skyrim.

  13. #13
    Thank you all the for advice you have given

  14. #14
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by haloa View Post
    "Really poor"? Rather ignorant claim. If GTX 660 is so poor, how do you explain this:
    That's not the same 7870 as was linked, that's the original 7870 in that graph. AMD quietly launched several new GPUs, including the 7950 and 7970 GHz Edition and the Pitcarn 7870, often called "GHz" or "Tahiti LE" or "XT".

    Before you say I am the one being ignorant, perhaps you should educate yourself. The 660 is a low membus card with a lower-end chip versus the 660 Ti+ cards. GK106 is worse than the GK104 based 660 Ti, 670, and 680, and of course the GK110 based Titan.
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Houston View Post
    Food for thought, Since WoW will always be my go to would it be better for me to perhaps pursue a CPU upgrade like a i5-3570K instead and just go for the GPU in another few months?
    Purely in terms of of performance gain in WoW, I doubt, WoW is rather old game and doesn't scale too well, and also your CPU is more "capable" than your GPU is. On the other hand, WoW relies more on CPU than GPU so I can't really predict relative gains in this particular case.

    Your graphic card is, in my opinion, in bigger need of upgrade. Any of considered new cards 660/ti/7870/whatever are relatively much bigger upgrade over GTS 8800 than i5-3570K would be over i3 2100.
    In short, if I were you I would definitely upgrade graphic card rather than CPU at this time.

    I am not advocating any particular brand or model, but should you go with GTX 660 do not buy that EVGA linked above. EVGA is good brand but that card uses reference nvidia cooling which is likely to be more noisy yet less efficient than some other solutions.

    I had good experience with this Gigabyte model in one of PCs I upgraded. Cool and quiet. Haven't personally dealt with any AMD 7800s yet so I can't tell first hand.
    Last edited by haloa; 2013-02-24 at 09:39 PM.

  16. #16
    Thank you for the insight. I will go forward with a new GPU purchase after reviewing all the cards noted in this thread

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    Before you say I am the one being ignorant, perhaps you should educate yourself.
    I never said you were ignorant, I said claiming that "660 is really poor" is an ignorant claim, which it is. I never saw any reputable source calling that chip "poor", let alone "really poor".

    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    The 660 is a low membus card with a lower-end chip versus the 660 Ti+ cards. GK106 is worse than the GK104 based 660 Ti, 670, and 680, and of course the GK110 based Titan.
    Did I say otherwise? What exactly is your point here? 660ti, 670 and 680 are of course more powerful than 660, and they are also more expensive.
    Last edited by haloa; 2013-02-24 at 09:41 PM.

  18. #18
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    CPU: If OP were to upgrade CPU, yes it would scale with WoW, actually. However I would then also suggest a Z77 motherboard so he could overclock it and get more fps, but all of that becomes a big task.

    I stand by the 7870 GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202025

    http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...5760x1080.html

    This card trades blows with the 660 Ti and is thus a much better deal than the 660.
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  19. #19
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    CPU: If OP were to upgrade CPU, yes it would scale with WoW, actually. However I would then also suggest a Z77 motherboard so he could overclock it and get more fps, but all of that becomes a big task.

    I stand by the 7870 GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202025

    http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...5760x1080.html

    This card trades blows with the 660 Ti and is thus a much better deal than the 660.
    both perform at the same level pretty much so it just becomes the price/brand that is left to base your choice on OP. (also aftermarket cooler if you are to overclock else standard cooler works fine aswell)
    personally im a fan of nvidia due to driver support and evga being an awesome brand warranty wise. however sapphire is the AMD brand if i were to pick a AMD card again.

  20. #20
    I would pick a 7870 XT (Tahiti LE) whatever they want to call it over a GTX 660 any day of the week.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/C...iti_LE/23.html
    Intel i5-3570K @ 4.7GHz | MSI Z77 Mpower | Noctua NH-D14 | Corsair Vengeance LP White 1.35V 8GB 1600MHz
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