I currently have a old 7950 is it worth upgrading to an 380x or a gtx 960? I only have a $200-$250 budget thanks for the help.
A 380x or a GTX 960 would be quite the sidegrade. You're better off waiting till you got some more money and get something at the least of an 290x/fury/970/980ti
By sidegrade do you mean it would be the same performance? Because not sure i can wait my card is dying.
The 380x will give you somewhat better performance like maybe 10-15% more. The 960 is a complete sidegrade, its on paper worse than your 7950 and only performs better because of architecture, the performance of this card and turn into a flop (or even be better, who knows) with dx12.
I would suggest custom R9 290's. They can be found at 250$ and far better choice than both 380X and 960.
This would help. If it really is dying, it's worth baking it as you've nothing to lose. A 7950 can easily clock to around 280X (or faster) speeds, which puts it in the upper midrange segment. Even at stock they're still one of the better midrange cards at this point in time. If you desperately must replace it, look for a 290 as a minimum. Although again, we'll need to know what PSU you're using before we can really recommend that.
Here's a decent guide for baking (also explains what it is): http://www.overclockers.com/the-oven-trick-repairing-your-broken-video-card-with-an-oven/ You can get better results with the proper tools (aka a heatgun etc), but since those are an added expense and not cheap, the oven trick isn't a bad option as a last resort. It depends on why your GPU is on the way out, and with that PSU I doubt it's a power related issue. I'd say give it a shot and see how things go, at worst you'll be no worse off. Although before you do, what are your overall specs? Any OC'ing or the like?
Thanks for the replies ive never over clocked it i now have to underclock it just to be stable i will look into baking it. Thanks again
What are your temps? If you have to underclock it just to be stable then I would try replace thermal paste/pads.
your best sticking with 380x with that supply and it should be a 20% upgrade anyway. A 290(x) might work but thats cutting it pretty close IMO
I just last week bought Sapphire R9 380x Love It. Great card for 1080p turn everything up,solid 60fps on 60hz panel.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/606658-THE-OVEN-TRICK-WORKED http://hardforum.com/threads/holy-crap-it-worked-dead-video-card-resurrected.1421792/page-38 I have fixed nvidia cards myself...and i would think it possible to fix the 7950...nothing to loose anyway