Graphics Recommend me a GPU

[Poag]

So my old 560TI is getting a bit long in the tooth and its 1GB of VRAM is causing issues.

The rest of my PC is fair:-

i5 3570K @ 4.1GHz (watercooled)
16GB 1866Mhz ram
SSDs for OS and games
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H mobo
700W PSU (Thermaltake Cable Management jobby)

and my Asus 560Ti


Its been doing fairly well until recently when texture sizes start meaning i can't run things on high anymore


So, i've been pondering a 970, my budget is ~£250 so it would be a fairly low end one by EVGA/Palit/Zotec one, £270 is about as far as i'm willing to go really.

But i'm wondering if with my lack of upgrades in recent times, a ATI would be an option. So i'm wondering if people can convince me to switch over, or if i'm wasting money going for a 970 when a 770 is an equal etc.

 

[Raven]

I have an AMD R290 and it is pretty damn impressive

http://www.ebuyer.com/614483-msi-r9...i-displayport-pci-e-graphics-r9-290-gaming-4g

Not my model (which is no longer available) but pretty much the same spec for spec.

Personally I think AMD are the best in the mid range atm, (£200-300) Nvidia best top end (£300-600)

 

[Gwadien]

I don't know the figures, but wouldn't your CPU be too small for a 970, but then again, I suppose that gives you room to update your CPU in the future without touching your GPU, but I would only get a 970 if I had that intent to be honest.

 

[ECA]

For £250, best thing you can get is a 970, by along way.
970 is not low end in the slightest. It's a monster.

 

[Athan]

Rendering to what resolution(s) ?

 

[Poag]

1080, i've tried 4k and can't see the cost/benefit of it tbh.

 

[BloodOmen]

Defo the 970 like @ECA said, wish i'd waited with my 780 tbh, i'd have got a 970 instead, didn't realise the 970's were coming out so shortly after buying it.

 

[Litmus]

You can get a 290 for 220 quid brand new now which has pretty much exactly performance as a 970, only difference being it uses alot less power if that's anything you care about (although the price difference will compensate for this anyway)


I was going to get a 970 for my brothers Christmas present pc build. . But now I'm leaning more towards the 290 because of the 50 quid price difference.

 

[MYstIC G]

By the numbers go 970.

 

[Overdriven]

MG is right.

970 is a basic win now. Considering the entry price too.

 

[Litmus]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-PC good deal, only downside its a ref card but still a very good price

 

[Poag]

So in the end i bought a £259 Zotec 970. It arrived last night.

Was a bit of an arse installing it. My BIOS wouldn't take it, after various resets i got the onboard working again, flashed an updated bios and its all hunky dory now.


However it appears most models and manufactures are affected by coil noise. When under load the coils make a sort of buzzing noise, its not overly loud, my headphones block it out, and apparently its super wide spread a google for "970 coil whine" gives alot of results.
Apparently a couple of weeks use will make it go away, but its a bit annoying

 

[BloodOmen]

sure its not just faulty?

 

[Poag]

Going by the number of posts for every brand it seems to be a quality of components problem. People picking the cheaper components to bring down the total cost of the card.

TBH the volume of the whine has already decreased ~10-15% in 2 hours of use. I'll give it till after the weekend and then decide about RMAing it.

 

[Litmus]

Going by the number of posts for every brand it seems to be a quality of components problem. People picking the cheaper components to bring down the total cost of the card.

TBH the volume of the whine has already decreased ~10-15% in 2 hours of use. I'll give it till after the weekend and then decide about RMAing it.

Where did you buy it from? Places like ocuk won't take cards back for coil wine as it's not actually defect.