Upgrade considerations

Darkest · **Upgrade considerations -** 07-22-2012, 03:11 | posts: 5,244

Planning some upgrades, advice welcome.

I was going to upgrade in the next couple of months, but it seems I'll have the cash I need a little earlier. I'm considering multiple things, I thought I'd run some of them by you lot to see what you all think.

Currently I'm considering the following;

ATI 7950 (I can get one for £230)
A decent HSF (Undecided, £50 budget)

The other option of course is a 670 without getting a new CPU cooler. I'm currently using stock. I don't just game, I use photoshop and encode videos regularly. Being why I'm in two minds. The cheapest 670 I can get is around the £280 mark, and from what I've seen the 7950 isn't that much worse considering the fairly large price difference.

Opinions?

Comrade_Jerkov · 07-22-2012, 04:45 | posts: 126 | Location: Boston, MA

go with the 7950 if you have a good deal with it.

for cpu fan, Take a gander at these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103055

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118223

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103057

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

I have a coolermaster V8 in my rig. I like it. Nice and quiet, plus the installation was easy. I have had Zalman's in the past and I just remember they were sometimes a frustrating installation with the damn screws never staying in place.

Pill Monster · 07-22-2012, 05:51 | posts: 20,481 | Location: NZ

Does your encoding software support OpenCL or CUDA?

Darkest · 07-22-2012, 06:35 | posts: 5,244

CUDA support is a plus considering my software use, but not enough of a plus that I'd focus on Nvidia. It's not a major thing for me, I'd say Gaming/Encoding etc were all fairly balanced.

XBEAST · 07-22-2012, 16:11 | posts: 1,444 | Location: Unknown

Well, you could probably buy CPU cooler later, right? 670 is more expensive by almost the same amount it's faster. So for a high-end card it's amazing bang 4 buck. But 7950 price seems nice too. Where I live, 7950 costs from 280 and 670 from 290 pounds. Much easier to choose for me

.

clawhamer · 07-22-2012, 17:47 | posts: 1,545 | Location: eastcoast.ca

Out of curiosity what are your temps when gaming or encoding?

Personally, I’d go with the 670 now and new HSF later.

eclap · 07-22-2012, 18:11 | posts: 18,495 | Location: Hampshire UK

Definitely go with the gtx 670, overclock it and you're laughing. the 7950 isn't worth the money imho, £50 more for the gtx 670 is justified.

Darkest · 07-22-2012, 18:42 | posts: 5,244

I'm touching 65c under load with stock clocks, which is managable as I've not 'needed' to crank my chips speed up, but considering I've a K model I'd like to really make the most of it. A bit more headroom temp-wise would be nice, it'd not be so bad in the winter but it's warm as hell here atm.

So the general consensus is to just get the 670 and grab a new cooler at a slightly later date? To be honest I could slip a £20-30 heatsink in ontop of the 670, but I'm unsure as to what the best options are at the moment in that range. That and finding something that will fit in my Antec 300, some of the better HSF's I've looked at are ridiculously large. Maybe a Alpenföhn Brocken? I had my eye on the Zalman CNPS11X but I'd have to wait a little longer before getting it if I grab the 670 now.

eclap · 07-22-2012, 19:29 | posts: 18,495 | Location: Hampshire UK

if you can spare another £20 after buying the 670k, get CM Hyper 212+, I'm using it, running 4.5ghz @1.2v and my max temps are around 50C iirc (not sure, been ages since I've checked)

Darkest · 07-22-2012, 19:34 | posts: 5,244

I'll take a look at some benchies for the 212, I didn't realise you could get them as cheap. Read nothing but good about them on the forum tbh. Cheers for that.

Neo Cyrus · **Memory**: 6GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24-1T

I wouldn't get the 7950 either, there are too many advantages the 670 has over the 7950. Drivers, 3rd party support and enough things use CUDA these days for it to matter.

Darkest · 07-22-2012, 19:53 | posts: 5,244

Yeah, it seems the 670 is the best option. Cheers guys, I was leaning toward that myself but I figured I'd get a second opinion since the 7950 was as cheap. Think I'll go for the reference EVGA model as it's on sale over at OCUK atm. Now I just need to find myself a nice HSF!

eclap · 07-22-2012, 20:01 | posts: 18,495 | Location: Hampshire UK

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkest

I'll take a look at some benchies for the 212, I didn't realise you could get them as cheap. Read nothing but good about them on the forum tbh. Cheers for that.

it might cost a few quid more but if you're looking for a cheap cooler, it's one of the best for sure, if you want to push that cpu to extreme, I would invest more, but for 4.5-4.8 it'll do nicely.

Darkest · 07-22-2012, 20:04 | posts: 5,244

That's good enough for me, I wasn't planning on aiming for more more than the 4.4 mark anyway. Anything higher would be a nice bonus.