New Graphics Card Needed

[Iopis]

Greetings AOD Techies!

My old Graphics Card Died last night. I think?

I'm looking for advice on what to get next.

My old card was an AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB. I bought that in 2013 with the release of X Rebirth.

I'm looking to upgrade to NVIDIA, the 900 series is fine for me, though I am open to the 1000 series.

I'm looking to drop about $400 USD, though there is a little wiggle room on the upper end.

Here is what i currently have:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z97A GAMING 6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2933 Memory
Case: DIYPC Skyline-07-R ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-bit
Monitor: Acer XG270HU 27.0" 144Hz Monitor

1: Is there any way to test the graphics card to see if it really died?

2: any suggestions for a new one?

Thank you!

[Velozzity]

never unless it is priced accordingly (which almost never happens due to supply drying up and economic forces keeping old tech higher priced) buy last generation graphics cards. The rate of development on them means that most likely each generation you will see 30+% efficiency gain on each level, meaning for the same power constraints you should see about 30% or so gain in fps on the top end. What would I buy now, well I recently bought a gtx 1070, at the time it was $407 on amazon.com and I got a local microcenter to price match that. My last video card was a r290, so I saw a significant jump (was about the same as If I had run 290 crossfire, maybe faster). I prefer AMD for graphics but unfortunately atm there is nothing polaris based that sits at the same performance category. The r480 atm is like between $200-300 usd and considered to be an excellent 1080p card if you can live with occasionally dialing back settings. It sucks you can't wait till the 1080ti releases, that should push prices down about $50-100 across the board. So yeah the closest video card to what you are asking for in price will be a gtx 1070.

About the card you have now, can you get into windows, see all the 2d stuff fine (your desktop) but not game on it? Does it just crap out when playing games? Are the fans working properly on your video card. Also sometimes the TIM (thermal interface material) that connects the gpu and the heatsink dries up and the heat isn't properly transferred to the heatsink. Try to find some monitoring software (MSI afterburner rings a bell here https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner) and see what type of temps you get. you can set it up so that you have an toggle-able on screen display to show your frames per second and temps, core speed etc. I'd download a benchmark like Valley benchmark https://unigine.com/products/benchmarks/valley/ and see if it runs and monitor temps. What we really need to know before you can do any of what I listed was does it even allow you to get into windows?

[ShadowCube]

A GTX 1070 will work great with your 1440p monitor. With max settings on GTA 5 at 1440p will get on average 90 fps. Max settings at 1440p in Battlefield 1 with a 1070 you get around 90 fps. To maybe fix your old GPU, check out the LinusTechTips video if it is really dead.


Sent from my nuclear fusion reactor

[Dabba]

Go with the 1070, and go EVGA. I have a 570 my girlfriend still uses. Bought it when Starcraft 2 came out.. so.. 6.5 years old and still chuggin. She was able to run fallout 4 and dishonored 2 on it. Not well, but it ran it.

I bought my 970 when the 980 ti came out and it runs BF1 on ultra. If it were me I'd go for the GTX 1070, maybe even a 1080 TI model when it comes out if its not already. But go EVGA, they will not disappoint.

[ShadowCube]

Go with the 1070, and go EVGA.

Maybe not, just to be safe from EVGA 1000 series problems. I go with the great guys over at ASUS.



Sent from my nuclear fusion reactor

[ZED]

. But go EVGA, they will not disappoint.

They disappointed with GTX 1070 FTW. Other models seem to be fine.

I have ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1070 and it runs and overclocks like a charm. Temps stay below 65C with fan speed 45%. Also, it's the best looking of Pascal generation cards, IMHO - all black, no accent colors, only RGB lighting even on the backplate of the card. In other words, it looks stunning and will match any setup. So, if you also care about aesthetics then ASUS is the best choice of 1000 series. They really did improve cooling on these GPU's and many test results show indeed that these GPU's run very cool and can achieve stable overclocking results, such as 2100 Mzh Core and 9000 Mhz Memory Clock.

[Iopis]

Responses:

Went with this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you for all the input.

in terms of the dead card, Plugged in to the mobo slot and it doesn't even boot, monitor shows no connection, unplugged and boots normal.

[Velozzity]

Responses:

Went with this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you for all the input.

in terms of the dead card, Plugged in to the mobo slot and it doesn't even boot, monitor shows no connection, unplugged and boots normal.

I see you got the same card I did, if you decide to overclock it try msi afterburner, set the core voltage, power limit, and temp to max (don't worry you won't fry the card, the bios keeps the voltage way below anything harmful even maxxed out and start with +100 on the core and +400 on the memory...run heaven benchmark for a few passes https://unigine.com/products/benchmarks/valley/ if that goes ok then try this http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/...-download.html the second one seems to be more strenous than the first, I could get the first to pass at 2050 core while the second one would crash unless I set it to 2025 core.

this is what my setup looks like overclocked on afterburner.



btw to move the voltage slider I think you have to check voltage control and then Standard or extended MSI from the drop down

[acheter]

Aero - one blower fan, always spins, loudest, highest temperature, not overclocked, little overclocking headroom due to heat. Basically the same as the Founders Edition at a lower price.
Armor - typical MSI two fan design, fans are off when idle and only turn on when gaming, much quieter, lower temperatures, not overclocked.
Armor OC - exactly the same as Armor but factory overclocked.
Gaming - better two fan design, fans are off when idle and only turn on when gaming, quieter still, even lower temperatures, factory overclocked.
Gaming X - exactly the same as Gaming but with higher factory overclock.
In theory, the Gaming X would have the highest possible overclock, followed by the Gaming and Armor. In practice, they'll all overclock to roughly the same place, and the Armor may just run slightly hotter / louder (1-2 degrees, and 1-2 dB respectively).
I would avoid the Aero / Founders Edition and go with whichever of the Armor / Gaming cards comes out to be cheapest.

[JochemWok]

You can always try programs that are made to check of your videocard is oke or not

And buy a 1060, 1070, 1080 try the TI versions too

[Velozzity]

Aero - one blower fan, always spins, loudest, highest temperature, not overclocked, little overclocking headroom due to heat. Basically the same as the Founders Edition at a lower price.
Armor - typical MSI two fan design, fans are off when idle and only turn on when gaming, much quieter, lower temperatures, not overclocked.
Armor OC - exactly the same as Armor but factory overclocked.
Gaming - better two fan design, fans are off when idle and only turn on when gaming, quieter still, even lower temperatures, factory overclocked.
Gaming X - exactly the same as Gaming but with higher factory overclock.
In theory, the Gaming X would have the highest possible overclock, followed by the Gaming and Armor. In practice, they'll all overclock to roughly the same place, and the Armor may just run slightly hotter / louder (1-2 degrees, and 1-2 dB respectively).
I would avoid the Aero / Founders Edition and go with whichever of the Armor / Gaming cards comes out to be cheapest.

One minor point,
the gaming X has a backplate and I believe Led lights on the side which can be changed via a MSI app, both of which I think the normal MSI gaming lacks. The fastest actually should be the gaming Z, at least out of the box it is, but I believe all 3 of the gaming should overclock the same (not binned).

.....And buy a 1060, 1070, 1080 try the TI versions too

unfortunately atm there are no 10 series TI variants, and I think the only one in the works is the 1080ti which may be very much overkill for almost anything besides 4k...plus it will probably release at about double the OP's budget...assuming he would either send back the MSI gaming X he already bought or ride in a time machine to redo the purchase.

[AOD_Anvil]

Go with the 1070, and go EVGA. . But go EVGA, they will not disappoint.

EVGA 1070 have a known issue with setting on fire. Just a heads up I almost bought one.

[ZED]

One minor point,
the gaming X has a backplate and I believe Led lights on the side which can be changed via a MSI app, both of which I think the normal MSI gaming lacks. The fastest actually should be the gaming Z, at least out of the box it is, but I believe all 3 of the gaming should overclock the same (not binned).



unfortunately atm there are no 10 series TI variants, and I think the only one in the works is the 1080ti which may be very much overkill for almost anything besides 4k...plus it will probably release at about double the OP's budget...assuming he would either send back the MSI gaming X he already bought or ride in a time machine to redo the purchase.

There is 1050Ti already in stores.

[Dabba]

I havent checked here in a bit but wow really? Rare miss from EVGA! Asus and MSI are good too so you did well.

[Velozzity]

There is 1050Ti already in stores.

. Sorry I misspoke what I really meant to say was that none of the versions which he listed had a current Ti variant (1060, 1070, 1080)

[ZED]

. Sorry I misspoke what I really meant to say was that none of the versions which he listed had a current Ti variant (1060, 1070, 1080)

Ah, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood. Yeah, none of those versions currently have Ti and only 1080 will have one in January.

[AOD_pyle986]

I'm looking to upgrade my r9 290x. Was also looking at the 1070. Is it worth the $30 dollar difference between these 2? I won't be over looking or anything like that. Thanks for any help.

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GTX 1070 GAMING X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX-GTX1070-O8G-GAMING
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...09&ignorebbr=1

[ZED]

I'm looking to upgrade my r9 290x. Was also looking at the 1070. Is it worth the $30 dollar difference between these 2? I won't be over looking or anything like that. Thanks for any help.

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GTX 1070 GAMING X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX-GTX1070-O8G-GAMING
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...09&ignorebbr=1

In terms of performance all Pascal generation GPU's overclock pretty much the same and deliver same performance.
I'd say go with ASUS, it has a better cooling. I have mine overclocked to 2070 Mhz Core Clock and 8400 Mhz Memory Clock and temperature never goes above 65C with 45% fan speed. On top of that it's the most sexiest looking GPU out of all 1000 series.

[Velozzity]

In terms of performance all Pascal generation GPU's overclock pretty much the same and deliver same performance.
I'd say go with ASUS, it has a better cooling. I have mine overclocked to 2070 Mhz Core Clock and 8400 Mhz Memory Clock and temperature never goes above 65C with 45% fan speed. On top of that it's the most sexiest looking GPU out of all 1000 series.

First and foremost cooling has almost nothing to do with overclocking on pascal as they are voltage limited by the bios and reach instability due to not being able to raise voltage enough long before temperatures become a factor, my suggestion, since both have the same warranty and if you google reviews of both they both are highly recommended, buy the cheaper one. Why pay almost 10% more for equal performance? If you do however have a brand preference buy whichever you prefer, I think they are both equivalent products.

[ZED]

First and foremost cooling has almost nothing to do with overclocking on pascal as they are voltage limited by the bios and reach instability due to not being able to raise voltage enough long before temperatures become a factor, my suggestion, since both have the same warranty and if you google reviews of both they both are highly recommended, buy the cheaper one. Why pay almost 10% more for equal performance? If you do however have a brand preference buy whichever you prefer, I think they are both equivalent products.

Did I say anything about that overclocking depends on cooling?
I just pointed out that ASUS has great cooling even when GPU is overclocked.
This GPU overclocks the same as MSI. Both can reach 2100 Core and 9000 Memory clocks but once they both reach that ASUS has lower temps. If you like your card to be running hotter then it is fine. But I personally prefer to keep my system as cool as possible. Also, I do care for the looks and this card is the only card that looks the best because it does not have accent colors and has only RGB lighting with a cool ROG logo on the backplate, Republic of Gamers on the side and some lights on the fan side.

Just remember that Pascal generation GPUs do not require much power. Therefore it is very easy to overclock and it is eneough with just one 8 pin connector.