Time to upgrade the graphics card

**Danny_K_1** · June 05, 2011, 09:27 AM

I feel its time to switch my 9600 GT for something better, atm my price range is about £200 and I've been looking around to see what cards are best. As it stands I've been looking at a GTX 560ti which seems to be the most cost effective card for my price range; something like this possibly: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KFA2-GeForce-G...item415a71ec39

The move comes from The Witcher 2 (and a few games like Crysis 2 and possibly Battlefield 3) where its getting a bit stuttery on high and is kind of ruining it for me as graphics really seem to be one of the games major strong points so I wouldn't mind being able to play it on ultra. As a result I've put off playing through it for now so I can upgrade and was wondering whether or not I can get the boards advice on possibly overlooked cards? Another card I continue to see appearing is a HD 6870 but it seems to be a bit worse than the GTX 560ti.

One more thing: I have a 450W PSU atm (my old one gave out

) so do you think I'll have to upgrade for it?

**IAmNapoleon** · June 05, 2011, 10:16 AM

Get a AMD 6850 or 6870.

If you are going to go with NVIDIA go with the GTX 460 1GB Version.

**Danny_K_1** · June 05, 2011, 10:52 AM

That seems to contradict what I've heard, from alot of the stuff I've researched they say the GTX 560ti is superior.

**karamazovmm** · June 05, 2011, 11:30 AM

the competitor to the gtx 560ti is the 6950, get whichever is cheaper, although the 6950 will be more powerful, but not by much

**Danny_K_1** · June 05, 2011, 11:39 AM

I was just about to mention that as I just looked it up there and its not that much dearer, what one do you think I should go for? Any idea how it would cope with BF3?

**Pantsalot** · June 05, 2011, 12:44 PM

If you can get that card for £169.99 then go for it, just hope that another bid doesn't pop in.
It's condition is supposedly new which is surprising, the others are probably right that the 6950
is slightly better than the GTX 560 Ti, but I'd still support you to get the GTX.

Issues with BF3 wouldn't be too bad at all in my assumption.

**Danny_K_1** · June 05, 2011, 12:47 PM

Well I suppose I could go SLI/Crossfire when the time comes.

But the whole point in upgrading now is so I won't have to upgrade then.

**Maizel** · June 05, 2011, 12:57 PM

Im pretty sure a 560 GT will go a long way to maxing BF3 out in most resolutions. Save for the top end bells and whistles, but those cut your performance by half for only relatively minor differences anyway.

**Freddie** · June 05, 2011, 05:49 PM

What brand of power supply do you have? If it's a good make like Seasonic or Enermax or Antec then it should be enough to handle a 6950 or 560TI (although you are pushing it, the ideal PSU should be x2 you total power load usage, a 560Ti system will draw around 350 to 400 watts at load depending on CPU overclocks, number of fans, hard drives etc). Also what resolution are you using? There's no point in getting one of these cards unless your playing at 1080p.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · June 05, 2011, 06:39 PM

6870 overclocked will get close to a stock 560 in most situations and a 6950 tends to be slightly faster

6870 has the better power consumption of either but its a mid range card

as mentioned a 450w powersupply of a name brand will get the job done but i wouldnt really trust a 560ti or 6950 on say a generic 450w power supply. but if your going stock and not overclocking at all a 450w again of good quality will handle it.

a 6950 system should hit around 300w power draw stock when gaming 560ti uses more power at around 330w.

both cards are decent but in all honesty while the Geforce cards are better at tessellation the extra Vram on the 6950 2gb will come in handy for a Battlefield 3. if you game at 1920x1080 or higher

at 1680x1050 a 1gb 6950 or 560ti will do the job without much issue.

**Danny_K_1** · June 06, 2011, 06:05 AM

As far as HD resolutions go, my measily 15-inch monitors limit is 1440x900 so its not great on that front I intend to scrape together the cash for a better one when the time comes but for now I'm stuck with it. As far as the PSU's brand goes I'm pretty sure its just a random brand (My grandad had it spare of all people when my last one gave out lol) so I suppose I could sink about 20 quid into a 550 or 600W. I'll check my local parts shops and see who has what for what price and make a desicion on whether internet shopping or not is the way to go. As it stands I think I'll go for the 560ti due to it being cheaper but if I see a 2GB 6950 at a reasonable price I think I'll go for that.

**Pantsalot** · June 06, 2011, 06:10 AM

£20? If you find a PSU worth that price it would either be low powered, too inefficient or would die on you.
It would have to be £40 at the very least.

**Danny_K_1** · June 06, 2011, 06:20 AM

Check Ebay mate, theres 550W PSU's for that price. Not saying I'm going to go for the cheapest one there but they definitely aren't as dear as they are in retail.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · June 06, 2011, 06:33 AM

corsair, enermax, seasonic, xfx or dont bother

best low watt psu you can get is the Corsair CX 430 v2. and nothing else. its cheap and will power any of the above gpus.

dont be a fool and look at wattage and think your fine and dandy

ive seen a buddy fry a gtx 580 cause he thought his pos sumivision 600w psu was enough it blew up and took the entire PC with it the first time he loaded a game, now this same powersupply powered that same rig but with a 8800gs just fine for 6months.

quality matters not wattage

a corsair 430w is better then say a diablotek 1050w unit. as proven by Johnnyguru the diablotek blew up at 500w load. not even half its rated power.

The powersupply is the 1 part of your PC you should NEVER go cheap on, as the cheaper units are more likely to fail and far more likely to take more parts with them when they die.
Below Toms tests 3 low cost PSUs
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pply,2862.html
Below is the review where the Diablotek unit died without even delievering the power its rated for, it was a 550w psu that they slapped a 1050w sticker onto.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=187

always buy a quality unit or be prepared for a shiny new pc to run like

and potentially die.

had another friend using 2x 6950s on a XION 1100w psu the psu couldnt provide proper power to the GPUs so his crossfire setup didnt perform right often giving lower frame rates in every game he had he swapped out to an Antec True Power 1200w and performance went back to where it should be.

quality unit is mandatory.

**Danny_K_1** · June 06, 2011, 06:46 AM

I'll keep those brands in mind then, I have went through 5 PSUs on this computer in 4 years and I just assumed thats how the cookie crumbles with PSUs you have made me realise its all just been cheap shite.

So what wattage do you think I should go for?

**Crazyeyesreaper** · June 06, 2011, 07:36 AM

cheapest unit i would use personally
500cx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...ingle-rail-atx

best unit for the price on scan.co.uk
Seasonic 520w S12II 80+ Bronze certified
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-...fc-fan-atx-v23

best unit for the price on Ebuyer
XFX Core Edition PRO550w
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/264380

good units for the average user arent that expensive compared to the cheap

. just need to know what to look for

in all honesty if you can get it Get the Seasonic unit.

most of the better Corsair powersupplies aka TX series etc are Seasonic units and the same goes for XFX, just the Seasonic S12II out of the above is the better unit out of the 3 and is still extremely reasonable since its $60 with vat included. just your taxes over there hamstring everyone in the UK.

the 520w Seasonic and 550w XFX can easily handle up to a SINGLE 6970 or GTX 580 it is however incapable of running sli or xfire of the higher end gpus. its a basic powersupply of good quality. so you get what you pay for always research and read review on products before you buy and i dont mean user review

for powersupplies look at hardware secrets or Johnny guru
for gpus i prefer andantech and techpowerup since techpowerup actually shows the % a card is faster then others at every resolution and across the all resolutions so you can compare performance to cost.
for cpu coolers tweaktown is where i usually stop first.

PC tech is something that doing a little research first pays off big with little effort

**GasMask** · June 06, 2011, 08:31 PM

Danny if your after maxing games like metro or crysis you will need a 2 gig card simple as that.

Like most have said the 6850 is a great card pal but its up to you as you are the one buying what you want nvidia have a good range but not as good as AMD 2 gig cards !

Have fun son all the best + Rep.

**The Black Reaper** · June 06, 2011, 08:42 PM

antec is a great quality PSU as well.. Running a TP-650 in my system and it was enough to run my entire system when i had crossfire and overclocked. Max Draw of my system at load was probably around 620W. Gonna be more then enough for my GTX 580. However I have not seen any better modular power supplies other then corsair which I'm planning up upgrading to an HX850 or an AX850. AX is completely modular so it has great cable management possibilities which I'm looking for in my upgrades coming at the end of the year.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · June 06, 2011, 08:53 PM

Antec is okay same with the other makers thermaltake coolermaster its just some of there units are well truly just complete garbage

where as for the most part

all Corsair Enermax Seasonic and XFX units tend to be of good enough quality not to worry.

Corsair has the cx line thats mainstream but there still single rail so they handle things well but yea. Antec isnt bad if you know what your looking for.

but in general if you see at LEAST 80+ bronze you can expect the unit to do decently

Corsairs HX line is actually GOLD rated but they dropped it to silver because testing is done at 25c and corsair tests at higher temps higher temps mean lower efficiency so yea Corsairs units are pretty damn good for what they are and the nice warranty and there rma process is painless.