Graphic Cards Sub $200 enthusiast range graphic card from US

phunguus

phunguus

Disciple
Hey guys,
Im looking to get a graphics card (most probably AMD radeon 7870) from the US. I have a friend coming here in late november (barely a week before thanksgiving :mad:).
Ill be playing games like Battlefield 3+, GTA 4+, COD and the good old FIFA.
Although i think that the 7870 listed above should be able to handle these games farely well, but if anyone has a better option, please let me know.

Apart from that, one Q that i wanted to ask is - Does the OC version make any difference? I know it should deliver better performance than the non-OC version. I want to know if stock OCing will make any difference to the life of the product?

Another thing that is in the back of my mind is the warranty. If I do need to claim the warranty, would i have to ship it to taiwan or back to US?

EDIT:- My current rig consists of AMD FX 6300, ASUS M5A97 R2.0 mobo, corsair CX 500, Corsair vengeance 4GB RAM & 17"samsung LCD monitor
Will be adding another 4GB RAM and will replace the 17" LCD with a 22" dell monitor shortly.

Any inputs appreciated.

Cheers!
 
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I would say get the 7870 Ghz edition rather than the non-Ghz versions and having to OC it yourself.

If compute performance is important to you, you could also consider the AMD 7950 Boost edition for $209.

As for OC'ing stock version's, IMO it doesn't significantly decrease the life of a CPU/GPU provided you do it sensibly, have a little luck and understand the hardware tolerances involved. The advantage of buying factory OC versions is they tend to have better hardware (memory/better cooling/components etc.) to support higher OC and associated issues.

If done right, its more than likely you will be replacing your CPU/GPU due to obsolescence long before it actually fails on you.

As for warranties, you will be pretty much on your own and will have to ship it back yourself in case something goes wrong...
 
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Thanks for the reply!
I checked out the two cards you mentioned side by side on gpuboss and i think i can live with the 7870's performance.

As for the OCed versions, he better hardware is always a plus. What i want to know is if I don't overclock myself, whether the non OCed versions last longer than their factory OCed counter parts?
Because for me, longetivity is more important than being able to squeeze out maximum performance.
 
The cheapest 7950 card is XFX's 7950 3GB black edition for $210. I won't be going any higher than that. Comparing that with the Sapphire 7870, it does have better specs but im not sure about XFX.
Coming to the age old Q, is there any real difference between the custom card manufacturers(Sapphire, PowerColor, MSI, XFX, ASUS, Gigabyte)? Is there any such thing as the best custom card manufacturer? From what i could gather online, the quality of all the custom card manufacturers is more or less the same. But my sources say that Sapphire is a reliable option which has stood the test of time whereas other manufacturers rise and fall down in popularity.
 
Have a look at the link below, It compares a 7950 Boost vs a 7870 Ghz edition (among other cards).

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/amd-radeon-hd-7950-3gb-with-boost/1

Unfortunately, BF3 is the only game covered in the above article based on your current gaming selection. Even so, I would personally recommend the 7950 Boost any day over the 7870 Ghz considering the marginal (IMO) difference in price between the two cards.

As for branding, well, everyone has their own opinion on which card manufacturer is "best" so there's no definitive answer to that question. IMO, yes, there can and does tend to be a significant difference between the quality of "Custom" cards (much more than for "Stock" cards) from various manufacturers. That's why there can be significant variance in pricing in this segment specifically. Better cooling, quieter fans, higher quality capacitors etc. can all lead to better (or worse) custom cards depending on how you look at it.

As for your "sources" claiming Sapphire GPU's are somehow better in terms of build quality/reliability than the other manufacturers, I will only repeat what I said above, namely that everyone has their own opinion on which manufacturer is "best".

Based on my personal experience, I would rate BFG (sadly no more) EVGA & ASUS higher than Sapphire when it comes to high end custom GPU's. And yes, I am aware of Sapphire Vapor-X series...
 
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So you guys think XFX 3GB 384-bit Black edition @ $210 provides more VFM than Sapphire 7870 2GB 256bit GHz edition @ $185.
Hmm...that actually makes sense. I don't mind stretching $10 if it's really worth it.
Btw, how can i be sure that the XFX card that i'm seeing is the boost edition? The product page doesn't contain the word boost anywhere. But the core clock and GPU clock are at 925Mhz and 5 ghz respectively as mentioned in the bit tech review's test setup page.
 
just a friendly advice : you won't get warranty support here for the gpus purchased from abroad .. anyway, XFX HD7950 3GB is indeed better than HD7870 but still I don't trust on the quality of XFX gpus so if you can try to skip XFX gpus.
 
frankly speaking, i think the new R series is an attempt by AMD to boost sales just by tagging the same stuff with a new tag. there's actually nothing new in the series.
still I'll take a look at it
 
^^ Have a look at the R9 290 :D

@psyph3r - MSI has just too many RMA issues lately so better avoid it and no manufacturers other than EVGA offers international warranty on GPUs AFAIK.

@phunguus - for brands the two best options are Sapphire and Asus. You may also consider HiS/Powercolor.
 
phunguus said:
Hey guys,
Im looking to get a graphics card (most probably AMD radeon 7870) from the US. I have a friend coming here in late november (barely a week before thanksgiving :mad:).
Ill be playing games like Battlefield 3+, GTA 4+, COD and the good old FIFA.
Click to expand...

if you want to buy 7870 buy from India, if you buy from us that card will have no warranty in India.
 
topgear said:
^^ Have a look at the R9 290 :D

@psyph3r - MSI has just too many RMA issues lately so better avoid it and no manufacturers other than EVGA offers international warranty on GPUs AFAIK.

@phunguus - for brands the two best options are Sapphire and Asus. You may also consider HiS/Powercolor.
Click to expand...
Lol. I thought you were suggesting the 290 as a genuine suggestion to me. :p
future said:
if you want to buy 7870 buy from India, if you buy from us that card will have no warranty in India.
Click to expand...
Yup i am aware of that fact. But if i get it from the US, i will save ~40% of the cost :angelic:

Ok i think i will go with the Sapphire 7870 Ghz edition. It should be enough for me for the next two years atleast considering that i am working now and may have to travel after some time.
 
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