upgrade phenom PC

[PP Mguire]

His account and profile should be tracked solely on Battlenet, not locally. Just like BF3 stats, and a few other games.

 

[PP Mguire]

Everything besides the 290x and 290 are being released on the 8th.

 

[acerinpa]

OK, very cool - well see on the 8th or a week afterwards if the 7970 or the 280X will be better for the money. I was able to get his system working pretty well- all his drivers updated, windows updated, etc. -( yes, I know that we should re-install) he did play BF4 beta with low-med graphic settings yesterday - so I would say with a upgraded GPU he should be good to go. I assume the PSU is fine as it is pushing a 2-3 year old 5770 which I think requires more power than either the 7970 or the new R9-280x will require.

 

[PP Mguire]

The 7970 and R9 will take over double that of the 5770. The 5770 only consumes about 115w, while only having 1 6pin. The 7970 and R9 280x will be dual 6pin cards and will be around the 250w range.

 

[acerinpa]

hmmm.. well so much for that idea- I will pop off the side panel and check the PSU out asap. Can you recommend any specific 7970 card to compete with the 280x. I think we already talked about either an Asus or Sapphire model.

This one : ASUS HD7970-DC2-3GD5 Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Newegg.com looks fine other than it does not appear to have any HDMI.

This one : SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card OC with Boost - Newegg.com look good - but Sapphire does not have the name that ASUS does and only has a 2 year warranty. NOT a "name guy" - but want the least hassles as possible.

or maybe : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413 which has a 3 year warranty ( same as the ASUS) but also has a HDMI.

 

[PP Mguire]

Sapphire are easily one of the number 1 AMD/ATI sellers and were around before Asus decided to start pumping out cards

Just so you know, the R9 280x is supposed to be a rebranded GHz edition card like this one.
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351VXSR Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Newegg.com

You'll have to see if prices will be driven down and it would be wise to see what benchmarks show before purchasing though. Like I said, the 280x speculated pricing is supposed to be around 250 bucks, which is easily cheaper than the GHz edition cards.

 

[acerinpa]

Very good- that $250 sounds great - will await the benchmarks.

 

[PP Mguire]

The 280x is exactly the 7970GHz with nothing new except price starting at 300. The 270x will be at the 200 dollar price range.

 

[acerinpa]

ok - do you think the prices for the 7970 will come down in the next few weeks?

 

[PP Mguire]

If they follow Nvidia's footsteps, no. It'll take longer.