Looking into a new GPU

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scruff304

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Hey all.

So I will be looking at a new Graphics card soon, and would like a bit on input into it.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Don't wanna go over R1500. Not sure if that is a fair price for a decent card anymore? I paid over 3k for my Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT 512MB back in 2007! Wow.

Current specs are in sig. Later down line will look into a new MoBo and CPU. But that like a year down the line.
 
6790's are very power hungry for their performance, rather avoid them and get the Nvidia equivalent. I dont think AMD has much to compete at that price level. Either get a 6770 or a 6850, if you want AMD. I'm not sure what the Nvidia equivalent is, try for a GTX 460.
 
scruff304 said:
Hey all.

So I will be looking at a new Graphics card soon, and would like a bit on input into it.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Don't wanna go over R1500. Not sure if that is a fair price for a decent card anymore? I paid over 3k for my Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT 512MB back in 2007! Wow.

Current specs are in sig. Later down line will look into a new MoBo and CPU. But that like a year down the line.
Click to expand...

Radeon 6850 is what you want, but try push to get 6870 if you can. Either would be a good upgrade though.
 
Ancalagon said:
6790's are very power hungry for their performance, rather avoid them and get the Nvidia equivalent. I dont think AMD has much to compete at that price level. Either get a 6770 or a 6850, if you want AMD. I'm not sure what the Nvidia equivalent is, try for a GTX 460.
Click to expand...


The HD6790 is NOT power hungry
GTX460 = ±150W
HD6790 TDP = ±100W
FPS difference between the two = ±9%

To me that says the 6790 is more power efficient

To the OP, HD6850 or GTX460 is what you want, you'll need to do some searching to find them inside your budget, but it is possible
 
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Thanks guys.

Anybody have any hands on use with any of the above cards? And will my psu be able to handle the new card? Really not wanting a new psu.
 
Archer said:
The HD6790 is NOT power hungry
GTX460 = ±150W
HD6790 TDP = ±100W
FPS difference between the two = ±9%

To me that says the 6790 is more power efficient

To the OP, HD6850 or GTX460 is what you want, you'll need to do some searching to find them inside your budget, but it is possible
Click to expand...

Dont take my word for it:

Perhaps the biggest problem with the 5830 was that it was a 3rd tier part from a high-end GPU; power, temperature, and noise could approach the levels of a high-end GPU without the matching performance. Barts is not a high-end GPU, and as such even if the 6790 were as hot/loud/power-hungry as the 6870, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Thankfully it looks like power consumption is being kept in check, so partners should be able to develop reasonably cool & quiet cards. In practice the 6790 will probably be a bit worse than the 6850 in this regard, which again is not great given that it achieves only 85% of the performance, but it’s not unreasonable. The 6790 is still a 3rd tier product, but it’s learning from the past.

The problem with the 6790, much like the 5830 before it, is pricing. When you can pick up a GeForce GTX 460 768MB for $150 or a Radeon HD 6850 for $10 more, what sense does a $150 6790 make? It doesn’t make any sense, and there’s the problem. The impression I get is that AMD wanted to make a card to thoroughly trample the GTX 550 Ti, and indeed the 6790 can do that. The problem is that they’re pricing it against the GTX 460 and 6850 right now. The GTX 550 Ti is a good $20 lower (and probably should be cheaper still).
Click to expand...

Have a look at the power draw benchmarks on the previous page - the difference between the two cards is about 20W, not 50W.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4260/amds-radeon-hd-6790-coming-up-short-at-150/15
 
That review was done with the initial cards. The cards that got launched to the general public have a much lower power draw. It was a big reason why the launch was delayed.
 
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Archer said:
That review was done with the initial cards. The cards that got launched to the general public have a much lower power draw. It was a big reason why the launch was delayed.
Click to expand...

And you get this information from where?
 
I distinctly remember people moaning about the power draw before the launch, and then hearing something about lower TDPs on the final cards. Now check reviews, several sites (such as Guru3D and xbitlabs) list the HD6790 as drawing around 40-50W less than the GTX460, while others list them as drawing roughly the same, and others listing them at anywhere inbetween. So I conclude that at worst, there are wildly different cards out there (unlikely), or AMD made some last minute updates (likely given the delay in its launch).
 
Doesnt sound likely to me. Remember what a 6790 actually is - its a stripped down 6870, ie the same die. Now, since AMD has got a lot better at making idle components not draw power, they are better at managing this, but from what I've heard it doesnt sound like they completely beat it. Also how could they solve such an important engineering problem mere weeks before shipping? Remember, this is a MAJOR thing to sell a card - more power means more heat, means better and more expensive cooling needed, means higher prices. Dont you think they would want to sort that out early, before sending review samples, if they could?
 
Ancalagon said:
Doesnt sound likely to me. Remember what a 6790 actually is - its a stripped down 6870, ie the same die. Now, since AMD has got a lot better at making idle components not draw power, they are better at managing this, but from what I've heard it doesnt sound like they completely beat it. Also how could they solve such an important engineering problem mere weeks before shipping? Remember, this is a MAJOR thing to sell a card - more power means more heat, means better and more expensive cooling needed, means higher prices. Dont you think they would want to sort that out early, before sending review samples, if they could?
Click to expand...

So then you must conclude that at least two well known and respected review sites simply made up their power draw numbers, making them differ from the real world result by at least 30%?
 
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Archer said:
So then you must conclude that at least two well known and respected review sites simply made up their power draw numbers, making them differ from the real world result by at least 30%?
Click to expand...

Well post me links to them and I'll have a look.

The other thing to remember is that power draw depends on application. So, if they used different benchmarks, they would get different results, but neither result would be wrong.
 
Ancalagon said:
Well post me links to them and I'll have a look.

The other thing to remember is that power draw depends on application. So, if they used different benchmarks, they would get different results, but neither result would be wrong.
Click to expand...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6790-review/6
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/radeon-hd-6790_12.html#sect0
As you can see it has very little to do with different sites using different programs to benchmark power usage, since both of the sites linked also tested the GTX460 with the exact same programs.

Also, power draw is not limited to the physical card, configurations tweaks can also lower power draw. So its hardly impossible for them to tweak power draw in a week or two. Proof? I can, for example, undervolt my CPU while raising its frequency. Had I not raised its frequency at the same time I'd be seeing substantial drops in power usage (since power usage varies linearly with frequency, but exponentially with voltage)
 
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Well, whenever you two are done ripping each other a couple a new ones, let us know ;)

Thanks people for input. Anybody else got any other suggestions?
 
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