Ive been wanting a new system since the i5 750 came out but one thing and another meant that i have waited at times for new hardware and havent had the finances at other times. Finally i have purchased - prodigy - asrock z77 - 3570k - crucial ballistix - corsair tx650m - 128 crucial m4 - windows 8 64 Problem i am having is committing to a graphics card. A few weeks back all 7850s had free games and as i havent bought a pc game in ages i would have had good use of them all making £130 2gb card a no brainer. One offer had 5 games with it. Now though these offers seem to have gone and i think prices have risen too. 7950 still has three free games but is a little more than i wanted to spend. 7870's are in budget but then again have no games so they seem no better value when compared to 7950 with games. Have i just missed the sweet spot or are these offers likely to return?
You have missed out, usually these offers come out with the launch of a new card...but they usually do have a expiry period in which companies will sell the card but without the launch offers.
Why are you avoiding Nvidia's options? The Gtx 670 comes with Assassin's creed III at the moment. And do you really need a free game to make a card?
Novatech are still including one game with there 7870's, a decent one too, far cry 3. Personally I'd scrape up the extra cash and get the better 7950 and 3 free games too. If you were to buy from Novatech don't forget to click on the free amd game bundle or you won't get it.
Not avoiding Nvidia i'd happily have one of their cards but my preferred budget is £120, i can spend more but 670 i couldnt run to. Also just a bit gutted that a couple of weeks ago i would have had the same card i can buy today £15 cheaper with 5 free games. Thats about the size of it sadly. The xfx 7950 has 4 free games with it on novo for £220. Thats £80 More than a 2GB 7850 but you get a better card and £100 of free games all of which are good games i havent played. Does seem to be where the value is. I will likely order tommorow as its pay day. Spending £220 on on a graphics card feels a tad frivolous but seems to be the best value per pound for me. Many thanks guys!
I don't think that offer is 4 games it's 3 games (Far cry 3, Hitman Absolution and sleeping dogs) and a 20% discount on the medal of honour war fighter.
Really depends on how long you own the card for. For example I bought a GTX 580 on offer for 300 half a year ago and hopefully will be running games on it for the next 4-5 years. which comes out to less then 100 per year and I got great graphics now and for most of the time to come. I also will not touch SLI or X-Fire as they are very unstable and game specific. Sometimes you even have to disable on card to get a game to work at all! So IMHO always go for the top card you can afford and "wring the blood out of that stone" so to say Back in the day when every one was buying 8800GTX cards I got a 8800GTS OC card that runs faster then most 8800 GTX cards and has a 10 year warranty, guess what my wife is using it now and it still works. (cleaned out dust a few times naturally). ~5-6 years later
I still have a 6600gt lol so yeah if this runs for that long its £35 a year. Though the 6600gt hasnt gamed in a while.
I had an xfx gtx275 and that ran really hot although that isn't a put down on the card your looking at. I have since had a gtx560ti twin frozr and presently I own a gtx670 with a twin forzr and they are very good coolers, the later is a little noisy at start up as it spins backwards at increased rate to clear any dust that may have collected but it's only brief.
About a year and a half ago I built my rig. I went with the MSI 6870 TF2. Was a great card and was easy to OC using afterburner. I recently purchased a MSI GTX 670 TF4 and love it. My MoBo is also MSI. I have nothing but good things to say about them and recommend MSI. My 6870 was able to handle almost everything I played on ultra. BF3 I scaled back to high settings for improved FPS though it could play on ultra. I don't know what nVidia card the 7950 compares to, but if you feel you are pushing your budget too far, you could probably go with a cheaper card and still get great performance. Others might disagree but this is just my thought on it.
Ordered the 7950 msi twin frozr from scan £225 with the amd never settle bundle. Free delivery is nice too. Many thanks everyone, quite excited now. Also ordered skyrim on amazon for £16. Bargain! So my total build on a budget of £500 came to £810. Close (ish)
