Upgrading From 4870

[Phoenix92]

As the title suggests I'm still running an ATi HD4870 1GB, it has aged supremely and runs BF3 on mostly high settings at 45-50fps, BF2 over 100 (yeah I know old game but I still play it), Arma II at 35-60fps. But after getting into planetside and with some decent games not too far in the future (crysis 3, Arma III - hopefully) it is probably time I upgraded it and this is where the problem lies.

With a budget of £400-£500 I can afford one of the following setups:

• MSI Lightning 7970 Boost Edition - varies anywhere between £350 and £400
  
• EVGA 670 FTW 4GB - roughly £400
  
• 680 2GB - higher end so lightning, DCII TOP, Windforce ~£450
  
• 680 4GB - roughly £480-£500
  

Personally I game at 1920x1080 and that won't be changing soon (just bought new monitor), I have all the games in the AMD bundle already so that doesn't tempt me.

Games I play - ARMA 2, Planetside 2, BF3, BF2, occassionally some skyrim/AC3/Hitman. The most important 2 are Arma 2 and Planeteside as they are where I see the lowest FPS atm.

I might have the option to CF/SLI a 7970 or 670 in the summer but it is not 100% (depends on me getting work) so don't want to base my decision off that. Also would it be prudent to wait for the next gen of cards and get a 8XXX or 7XX series card or just go ahead and upgrade? I mean with new cards comes new drivers that need to be refined (as shown with the AMD cards this cycle), the non reference boards will take a little while to come out, etc.so I could realistically be waiting until august (thats if they stick to the current release schedules).

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Thanks

[XiaoPigs]

If you're impatient and cannot tolerate the FPS lag that you get in those certain games just get the 7970 or the 670 now and they'll probably last you another 3 years maybe 4. But if you choose to go the 670 route just get the 2gb version because you're only using a single monitor and the 2GB of VRAM is more than capable of handling a single 1080p monitor.

Both are more value for money than a 680 and can perform just as well if not even better when overclocked to their fullest potential.

As for going SLI I don't think you should do so as you won't see much or any difference at all if you're using a single 1080p 60hz monitor. Maybe if you're using a 120 hz monitor or multi monitor setups yes but other than that just stick with a single a card and it'll do you fine.

You can just upgrade a few years down the road when the 670 or 7970 gets too slow for games in the future.

[Phoenix92]

Thanks for the quick reply, with FPS it isn't too bad at the moment, but I can definitely tell an upgrade would be a good idea, however, waiting until late summer seems a fairly long time (as there is no real point upgrading to an AMD card until the Nvidia cards ahve come out).

Reference to monitors, I just upgraded to a 27" 1920*1080 Asus display, I run a second screen at 1920*1080 for multi-tasking but not for gaming (have teamspeak, internet or music open in it usually when gaming). Personally although the 4GB isn't needed at the moment it will probably be somewhere between 2-4years before I upgrade again and games will have come on a fair bit by then so its a bit of future proofing (with my 4870 when I got it people said that 1GB was overkill and I wouldn't need more, yet here I am 5 years later...).

[Emkryan]

If your psu can handle it get two 660ti's or two 7870's, al with the 4GB models or higher ive you ever decide to use that other monitor for gaming

[XiaoPigs]

No problem :) The Nvidia cards will most probably come out Q2 of 2013(June)

Well you should go with the 7970 than if you're really worried about VRAM problems, but to be honest you only need the VRAM for high pixel density monitors(2560X1440), multi-monitor gaming or 3D gaming which in that case you should go for an NVIDIA card since they have been doing 3D for much longer than AMD and vice-versa when it comes to multi monitor gaming.

So it all depends on your needs and/or how future proof you want it to be.

[Link]

I went from a 4870 to a 7950 and am very happy

[Phoenix92]

Thanks a lot for all the help, definitely won't be doing multi monitor gaming in the near future, 3D is more likely but still probably not. I'm still deciding whether to wait for Nvidia or not, the new AMD cards spec recently came out and the 8970 is exactly the same as the 7970 so will see if there is any news from Nvidia soonish, if not I'm thinking of going EVGA 670 FTW 4GB, AMD seems to be a sinking ship at the moment and there is no point buying something from a company that is looking so poor (financially as well as figuratively). Worst scenario with a 670 is that I sell it to a friend for a slight loss and get a 7XX card when they come out.

[TechFan@ic]

I'm upgrading from a Sapphire HD 4870 1G too, wait for the next gen , it won't be long (possibly next month).

Even if you don't buy from the next gen, the prices of the current gen will drop significantly.

[TechFan@ic]

Thanks a lot for all the help, definitely won't be doing multi monitor gaming in the near future, 3D is more likely but still probably not. I'm still deciding whether to wait for Nvidia or not, the new AMD cards spec recently came out and the 8970 is exactly the same as the 7970 so will see if there is any news from Nvidia soonish, if not I'm thinking of going EVGA 670 FTW 4GB, AMD seems to be a sinking ship at the moment and there is no point buying something from a company that is looking so poor (financially as well as figuratively). Worst scenario with a 670 is that I sell it to a friend for a slight loss and get a 7XX card when they come out.

Those are OEM specs, the OEM 8970 is just a rebrand of the current HD 7970 Ghz edition.

The full fledged 8000 series sea islands GPUs will be revealed soon.

Also avoid the reference 670 models they run extremely hot (90-95 degrees under load) The EVGA 670 FTW has a reference cooler, so it will run just as hot.

[killerx525]

There is nothing wrong with buying a graphics card from a company who is doing financially poor.

[Jason]

7970 Toxic has 6gb ov vram and should perform better (especially overclocked) than a 680

[TechFan@ic]

There is nothing wrong with buying a graphics card from a company who is doing financially poor.

AMD has gone through financial trouble 2006 years ago, and people started saying the same thing they are saying now, that they won't keep up and that they're at high risk.

Look at us now 7 years later and the company is still here, still competing extraordinarily well in the GPU market and is still releasing great products.

[TechFan@ic]

7970 Toxic has 6gb ov vram and should perform better (especially overclocked) than a 680

Good suggestion kind sir.

[star102]

Thanks a lot for all the help, definitely won't be doing multi monitor gaming in the near future, 3D is more likely but still probably not. I'm still deciding whether to wait for Nvidia or not, the new AMD cards spec recently came out and the 8970 is exactly the same as the 7970 so will see if there is any news from Nvidia soonish, if not I'm thinking of going EVGA 670 FTW 4GB, AMD seems to be a sinking ship at the moment and there is no point buying something from a company that is looking so poor (financially as well as figuratively). Worst scenario with a 670 is that I sell it to a friend for a slight loss and get a 7XX card when they come out.

Hmm what would be wrong buying a gpu from AMD they are a much better deal and the real flagsips from asus and saphire are even better than the 680... On the gpu side they rock the financial problem is the cpu side.

[star102]

That toxic is has a standard clock of 1050mhz and a boost of 1100mhz it easly performs better than most 680s.

[killerx525]

There is nothing wrong with buying a graphics card from a company who is doing financially poor.

They have to be even more competitive in the GPU market and especially the CPU side to really stay in the game.

[Sauber-C10]

Go for the 7970, if you get it from scan.co.uk then you will get £80 worth of free games with it so why not and with the new drivers the 7970 and 680 are trading blows on maybe 3 or 4 fps its not a huge difference and if you dont have the bundled games already then why not?