I'm on a tight budget upgrade here...to a system that is about 6 years old. I've been poking around and I can probably grab a used Radeon 7970 for about $150....is there a more current card I'd be happier with for the same price (or less)?
Not really. The 7970 still packs a punch, especially for that price. Poke around a bit online and see if you can find an R9 290 for a couple bills more, I have seen them go as low as $175.
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Yea from the research I've seen it's a nice card....just power hungry compared to some more current hardware
Well yes, but 250W (TDP, you'll average less than that) is still decent for what was a flagship. If you plan to OC (which honestly you should, even just a little) aim for an MSI or ASUS card, they both had great PCB designs and were known to OC exceptionally well.
Just found a 280x for $150....to my knowledge the 280x is basically a 7970...should I pull the trigger on this one?
I'd be happy with that... But I NO U!
well it's been purchased....Today I grabbed an AMD Phenom IIx6, R9 280x, and a Cooler Master 212evo all for about $250.
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It is indeed a 7970. The only major differences are clockrates and operating voltage. You got a good deal.
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there are some R9-380's for not much more.
7970/280X handily outperforms the R9 380.
I dont think the 280x can outperform the 285, thus not outperforming the 380
That is an odd thing to think:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1495?vs=1512
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1495?vs=1591
Handily outperformed.
That shows in 1440 whereas the 380 is a 1080P card. The one shown in the graph is a 2Gb model, not the more common 4Gb model.
Alright well if you're just going to make up excuses and ignore facts than I'm not going to waste time trying to prove anything to you.
This thread is done. Congrats OP on getting a good deal.
P.S. @ProSonicLive If you actually bothered to click the links at the top of the post you would see the 1080p benchmark results.
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I guess the funny thing right now is I'm locked in at 900P until I can swing a new monitor....I'm sure anything is going to outperform my dual 9500GTs
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380 is slightly faster than the 285, And I doubt there was a 4gb 285 handy. But I suppose 2Gb of extra Vram is of no consequence.
285 is slower than a 7970/280x. Just like how a 380 is slower than a 380x.. And 380x is pretty much the same as a 280x/7970...
Completely agree. Still love my 7970, just wish the power draw was less.
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Tahiti GPUs were not (are not) too bad, power wise. I had two of them in crossfire a few years ago. The full system power draw in games topped out at around 550w.
If you can find a 290 it would be really worth it otherwise the 7970 has had great logevity and its a GCN core so its still pretty much close to on par with a lot of AMDs offerings