Graphic Cards GPU Dead. Need help to buy new one. (10K-15K)

P

pretttt

Skilled
Questions
  1. What is your budget?
    • 10K-15K
  2. What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
    • CPU - Intel i5-750 (No OC)
    • Motherboard - Asus P7P55DE .
    • GPU - Powercolor HD4870 512MB (dead after 5+yrs of use :( ) .
    • RAM - G.skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB
    • Monitor - Dell @ 1920 x 1080p.
    • PSU - Corsair VX450
  3. Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
    • All Except GPU.
  4. Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
    • Please suggest.
  5. Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
    • no upgrades unless something else stops working.
  6. Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
    • Bangalore Or Online (preferable)
  7. Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
    • No
  8. What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
    • Gaming
    • Browsing
    • Desktop Processing
    • Watching movies
  9. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
    • No such Preference. But will go for brands with good warranty/service etc.
  10. If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
    • Mostly older/low demand games like Diablo 3, Dota 2, CK2, Total War, Skyrim, Grid, Dirt2 etc
    • But, I am really waiting for Witcher 3 and GTA 5. So would want something good enough to handle these two at 1080p with mid settings.
    • I don't play shooters (BF, CoD, Crysis, Metro etc). So, I don't mind if performance is not up to par on these titles.
  11. What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
    1. 1920 x 1080 p
  12. Are you looking to overclock?
    • No
  13. Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
    • Windows 7 64 bit
    • Win 10 when it comes.
Some other questions:
  1. Should I get a good card now only or should I get some stop gap card for now and wait for Win10 and DirectX 12 cards by year end?
  2. I had originally planned to wait for GTA5 and Witcher 3 to release and then buy a card based on how those games were optimized. But cant do that anymore. So what cards would be a good bet for these games? Are either of these games having a tie-up with AMD or Nvidia for specific optimizations with them? Like PhysX games generally don't do well in AMD cards etc. Not sure how true this is now.
  3. I am also interested in Sapphire R9 270X 4GB (only because it is 4GB). But it is Rs. 2K over budget. Is it worth it? Will it work on my current PSU? It was running HD4870 for 5 yrs, so I guess the newer cards use less power now. Sorry if this is wrong info :) I am not so informed on these stuff anymore.
 
The r9 270x is a rebadged 7850 and will definitely work on your psu.
However, given that we'll be seeing the 380x/390x gpus from amd in a 2-3 months, i would hold out and save up for one of those.
If you do not want to wait, then given you're system specs, a 270x wouldn't fully utilise your core i5. A 280x or better class gpu would be my suggestion especially if you plan on playing witcher (gtx 770/970 if you want nvidia), however, you might need to factor in a psu upgrade.

I should point out, all of the upgrade options i haven mentioned are over your budget. How flexible is your budget? 20k-25k is where the above mentioned gpus are priced around.
If you're getting a stop-gap card then you could opt for a used one to save money.
 
20-25K is quite a bit over my budget actually. So, I am not looking to spend that much. Actually, I want to stick to around 10K only. I'm only looking at 270x because its the cheapest card I could find with 4GB VRAM. Considering the huge increase in VRAM usage in games over the past year, I feel it might be worth it to go way over budget for that. But, I would definitely not want to spend beyond that.

Regarding 380x/390x, I am guessing these cards, whenever they release would most likely be 20K+. They would be out of my budget anyways. Are there going to be mid-range 3xx series coming out within this year?

Anyway, whats the deal with Directx 12 cards? Any news of them yet? I remember reading somewhere that DX12 would be a huge performance boost over DX11.
 
OK, so you're on a strict budget. In that case, no point waiting for the next gen since even if they release a mid-range version within 6 months it would still be in the 15-20k price bracket.
All things considered, the 270x does seem to be the best card for you right now but i recommend the 2gb version.
The 4gb version is actually aimed at multi-monitor setups so you wouldn't notice much of a difference in performance.
And it wont be future-proof since any game that requires more than 2gb on a single monitor @1080p will max out the gpu before it can utilize all that extra memory.
Here's some additional info:
http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/6815-msi-r9-270x-gaming-4g?showall=&start=6
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-myths,3694-5.html

I'm not too familiar with directx or any api. but i'm guessing any improvements that dx12 has would naturally extend to all gpu's that support dx12. -very iffy about this though.
 
@Crapmypants
Hey dude, thanks so much for your replies. Very helpful. So, I have now dropped the idea of the 4GB R9 270x card.

Coming to the 2GB ones, as of now this seems to be preferred option: Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon Dual-X R9 270X with Boost OC 2 GB. This is just inside my budget. Is there any other brand worth looking for?

Also, what would be the Nvidia option here? Anything specific worth looking at?

BTW, how is Sapphire warranty service in India? Are they prompt in general?
 
The corresponding nvidia card you could consider is the 760. might be over budget though. cheapest i can find online is 17-18k.

avoid the 750ti and 960 -better off with the 270x for that kind of money.

almost all reviews of the 270x i've seen recommend msi but i dont know about their warranty service in India. Saphire and asus seem to be popular choices though.

i have a sapphire card myself and will be using their rma service in Bangalore this weekend so i'll keep you posted on how that goes.
 
Yea, I checked the 760 and all are out of my budget. So, it's R9 270x for me then.

As for brands, can you check and tell me what is the duration of warranty on your sapphire card? Flipkart specifies it as 3 years, but Sapphire website says they only give 2 years warranty. As of MSI, I tried looking for it but just got to know that the warranty is handled by Digicare. Not much feedback on how they are.

The other two brands I see are Asus and XFX. I remember reading that the RMA for both are handled by Rashi, which I would like to avoid at all costs.

As of now, Sapphire seems the most decent bet.
 
It's 2 years for sapphire.
Yes, rashi handles asus and xfx.
I had an xfx card before and had to rma the already rma'd card twice so that was annoying.
but on the other hand, their staff were pretty courteous and always accepted the card without issue.

FYI - just read somewhere that msi has changed its warranty policy starting period from the date of purchase to date of manufacture.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the update man! I checked the price for Sapphire card in SP Road. They are quoting 14K. Flipkart has it at 14.8K. So, I am a little surprised that local prices are so competitive. I'll probably head down there during the weekend. But the 2 year warranty is a bummer. Other brands have 3 years I suppose.
 
So, just to update, I bought a Sapphire R9 270x on Saturday. I bought it locally and it came to around 14.7K in the end. So not much saving over online. Meh. Just hope its a good piece like my previous card.

@Crapmypants How did your RMA go? And where exactly in Bangalore did you have to take it to?
 
So update on the RMA process:
First off, the bangalore address given on the aditya infotech website is wrong (i ended up in a park!).
I got the correct address (Elephant Rd, J.P. Nagar 3rd Block, above a raymond showroom) of the justdial website.
Unfortunately justdial lists them as working on saturdays (which they don't)
Lesson learnt - call before leaving the house.
will try again this week if i can get off work early. i think their timings are 9 to 6.
 
Update on sapphire rma:
went to aditya infotech today.
i told them what was wrong with it (artifacts and weird noise from the fans at 40%)
they inspected the card for physical damage (didn't find any) and printed out an acknowledgment after accepting it.
basically, they ship it to delhi for testing and repair/replacement so they said it would take 12-15 working days (they said max. 15).
if it does get replaced then the replacement card would be a refurbished model.
they assured me that it would be an identical model (this was important since my card has a triple fan cooler)
they don't have a system to check if the replacement card works at delivery but said they've never had anyone return an rma replacement.
the service centre is on the second floor and their work timings are 10 to 6.
i only wish they worked on saturday (at least a half day or kept monday a holiday) since picking it up will mean taking more time off work.
p.s. the address in my previous post is slightly wrong - it's in jayanagar not j.p. nagar.
 
Back
Top