Graphics card replacement

N

nelis

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Ok so one of my GTX570 is busy failing. the fan is making a growling noise. the supplier (Pinnacle Africa) decided to exchange my card. I can afford the following. I want either better or same. I can get the following. as they don't have the GTX 570 in stock anymore and will replace both

MSI 7970
MSI GTX670 twin Frozr III Power edition
MSI 7970 Lightning
2x MSI 7950 Crossfire

This is listed from cheap to expensive. Bare in mind the MSI 7950 is just then normal version and not the Twin Frozr III.

I just wished that I didn't have to upgrade Cause really wanted to upgrade to new cards. I wass always with Nvidia but due to the recent AMD reviews they have impressed me much. BTW The suplier doesn't have stock on the GTX 680 so there is a no go
 
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So wait, your GTX570 could be replaced by a Crossfire pair of HD7950s?
 
NAG - Wesley said:
So wait, your GTX570 could be replaced by a Crossfire pair of HD7950s?
Click to expand...


yes actually 2x GTX570 Cause they will refund me the price I payed back in the days. I may have to pay in something like R200 bare in mind that it's not the twin frozr cards. Just the stock ones for the 7950 that is.

I have this motherboard with 2 slots between the cards http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-G45-Thunderbolt.html

Oh and I've spoken to the brand manager at Pinnacle and explained that if I replace only 1 of them with something like a 7950 or so I will get worse performance than 2x GTX570 he told me that I can exchange both of them.

my fans will spin lets say @ 1500RRPM normally with fan speed of 40%. when I ramp up the fan to 100% then my fan spins almost 1000RPM slower than the other card till about 5-10 seconds then it's spinning actually faster than the other card. Then the other issue is that when I switch it back to normal my fans is making the same noise again. I think there is some dust built up inside the fan motor. I was thinking of maybe unscrewing the fan cause there is 3 screws I need to remove and then blowing out with compressed air. I tried to remove them already but the one screw was stripped. Any way of removing a small stripped screw. I really don't want to go to the supplier if I don't have to.
 
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That msi gtx670 is good. Pinnacle aren't the cheapest though. But looks like you are stuck with them..
 
bromster said:
That msi gtx670 is good. Pinnacle aren't the cheapest though. But looks like you are stuck with them..
Click to expand...

yes the only supplier I can buy from. I feel scared to go for Nvidia again. The latest drivers haven't been good to me and will the GTX670 compare to the GTX570 SLI setup. currently I can play BF3 with vsync and get 60 constant FPS on ultra
 
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nelis said:
Ok so one of my GTX570 is busy failing. the fan is making a growling noise. the supplier (Pinnacle Africa) decided to exchange my card. I can afford the following. I want either better or same. I can get the following. as they don't have the GTX 570 in stock anymore and will replace both

MSI 7970
MSI GTX670 twin Frozr III Power edition
MSI 7970 Lightning
2x MSI 7950 Crossfire

This is listed from cheap to expensive. Bare in mind the MSI 7950 is just then normal version and not the Twin Frozr III.

I just wished that I didn't have to upgrade Cause really wanted to upgrade to new cards. I wass always with Nvidia but due to the recent AMD reviews they have impressed me much. BTW The suplier doesn't have stock on the GTX 680 so there is a no go
Click to expand...

If it were me I'd take the 7970 lightning. Will probably come with the awesome never settle bundle as well.
 
Nelis, why don't you consider swapping out for two GTX660 Ti cards in SLI? That'll be an upgrade, a good performance boost and a power consumption drop all in one fell swoop. Two Radeons in Xfire would also work, although Nvidia's SLI support for newly released games is a bit better.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
Nelis, why don't you consider swapping out for two GTX660 Ti cards in SLI? That'll be an upgrade, a good performance boost and a power consumption drop all in one fell swoop. Two Radeons in Xfire would also work, although Nvidia's SLI support for newly released games is a bit better.
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I don't see the GTX 660 on the Pinnacle Pricelist.

I'm scared the 7970 Lightning is not worth the extra money and the 7970 will be just a little slower with the advantage of money for something else. if I go 7970 I will have about R1800 to use on something else later on.

Also another ting is I'm starting to see the AMD evolution logo in more games than ever before. What I've ehard is that game developers works closely with AMD to make sure game runs smooth on them. That maked me wonder maybe AMD is the way to go. Talking about GPU not CPU
 
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I also see the supplier has "to be cnfirmed on the radeon cards except the 7950s and limited on the GTX670. Will phone them on Monday to confirm stock and pricing. At least I have a GTX550Ti cyclone lying around here that I can use for the time being so not in a rush to get a new card. if I have to wait for the right card/cards I will.
 
So the supplier have no stock on the 7970 lightning. I can get the 660ti power edition SLi for a bout the same price as my current setup. only thing looking for is something better for the same price or cheaper than my old setup. I thought the 7950 was cheap enough but I thought wrong. Will I be able to get better overclocking on the power edition cards?
 
nelis said:
So the supplier have no stock on the 7970 lightning. I can get the 660ti power edition SLi for a bout the same price as my current setup. only thing looking for is something better for the same price or cheaper than my old setup. I thought the 7950 was cheap enough but I thought wrong. Will I be able to get better overclocking on the power edition cards?
Click to expand...

I'd then say take the Standard 7970.
 
nelis said:
I don't see the GTX 660 on the Pinnacle Pricelist.

I'm scared the 7970 Lightning is not worth the extra money and the 7970 will be just a little slower with the advantage of money for something else. if I go 7970 I will have about R1800 to use on something else later on.

Also another ting is I'm starting to see the AMD evolution logo in more games than ever before. What I've ehard is that game developers works closely with AMD to make sure game runs smooth on them. That maked me wonder maybe AMD is the way to go. Talking about GPU not CPU
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that the lightning cards usually come with whisper silent coolers.
 
nelis said:
what about 660ti in SLi
Click to expand...

Dual card setups are really more trouble than their worth with microstuttering and all.

Never mind you need to keep your game profiles up to date.

A single big card is what you want.
 
Just phoned the supplier again to confirm and they said there is no stock on the 7970. They have the following in stock.

GTX660 TI power edition
GTX 680 twin frozr
HD7950 twin frozr III

bare in mind I'm planning on overclocking if I go for the power edition.
 
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ok so looks like most people agree 680 is the winner. i even checked linus tech tips and he suggests the 680 and also people at guru3d forums
 
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