Upgrade for Skyrim

sosolidshoe

New member
Hey chaps, hopefully I can get some advice from you lot on this, as I'm a bit stumped.

I'm building a new rig, and for the first time in a long time it's not a "budget" affair. I have most of the stuff picked out save the mobo and the graphics card. One of the main reasons behind the upgrade is that I quite enjoy Skyrim, but unfortunately my XFX 6850 Dual-fan 1GB card really begins to chug once you throw in some 2048 texture packs, LOD enhancers, and other graphical improvement mods, to the point I had to uninstall most of it; and I can't even -think- about running an ENB.

The issue is, in the past I've always had it fairly easy; my budget was x amount of money, so I bought whatever I could afford. But looking at the top-end single cards, everything seems much of a muchness really. The 7970, 680, and OC'd 670s all seem to bench relatively close, and they all seem to get fairly similar FPS performance in games, but the prices are all over the joint depending on which brand you go for, and while I'm not building a budget rig, I don't want to spend more than I have to.

I mean, is any gain in performance/quietness/temps you would get from an Inno3D GTX670 4GB with Accelero Hybrid cooler really sufficient to justify its £80 price premium over the Gigabyte HD7970 OC 3GB, for example? Any recommendations you can offer to help narrow the focus a bit would be great, bearing in mind the texture-heavy nature of heavily-modded Skyrim, and that I prefer my PC be as quiet as possible without drastically curtailing the performance.

Cheers.
 
Hmm i just purchased the 670 FTW on newegg for under 400$ it has on a 680 PCB. I personally think the 7950 is the best bang for your buck though.
 
Get a 7970 if you can. With the new drivers they're fantastic. If you want to save a bit go for the 7950. Again, the new drivers gave AMD's card a large boost in performance.
 
OK thanks guys; assuming I did go with a 7970, which variant is the quietest overall? Idle would be slightly more important than load I suppose, since I use a headset when gaming/watching HD content on the PC.

Failing that, are reference 7970s still available? I can't find one for love nor money in the UK, but I'd like to see if I could bring in a 7970 with the Accelero Hybrid cooler at around the same price as the prefitted Inno3d 670 I linked in the OP. If I have to order from the US I will, but I despise the Customs Lottery you have to go through(if HMRC decide to hold and inspect your package, you have to fork over 20% of the total cost to them for VAT :/). EDIT: Nevermind I'm daft, the Sapphire card is stock reference, heh.
 
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If skyrim is the topic of debate there are three words...... nvidia nvidia nvidia.

nvidia + skyrim = good

AMD + skyrim = PPFFFFFFRRTT!

Check out my specs bellow, i have all hd mods installed (no enb or injectors, don't like em) and Fps flutter between 60 - 350+ @ 1920x1200.
Nvidia is renowned for great skyrim support, they have released 2 skyrim specific performance drivers for it already.
AMD's skyrim support has been very slow, absolutely abysmal and cant be trusted with regards to skyrim.

I brought a Powercolor hd 6870X2 ready for skyrim's release and was mortified when crossfire was broken and flickered like a mad, i was patent and waited 9 months for a fix which never came all the while nvidia's skyrim performance got better and better, so in the end i sold up and went green, I ve never looked back.

Here's a "lol-vid" i uploaded to show what AMD put others and myself through > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsH_Ei-HYuM
 
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For balance... like anything in the gaming world games more or less favour different hardware. Nvidia is better for Skyrim but a 7950 is still going to be great. I'd recommend a 670.
 
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If skyrim is the topic of debate there are three words...... nvidia nvidia nvidia.

nvidia + skyrim = good

AMD + skyrim = PPFFFFFFRRTT!

Check out my specs bellow, i have all hd mods installed (no enb or injectors, don't like em) and Fps flutter between 60 - 350+ @ 1920x1200.
Nvidia is renowned for great skyrim support, they have released 2 skyrim specific performance drivers for it already.
AMD's skyrim support has been very slow, absolutely abysmal and cant be trusted with regards to skyrim.

I brought a Powercolor hd 6870X2 ready for skyrim's release and was mortified when crossfire was broken and flickered like a mad, i was patent and waited 9 months for a fix which never came all the while nvidia's skyrim performance got better and better, so in the end i sold up and went green, I ve never looked back.

Here's a "lol-vid" i uploaded to show what AMD put others and myself through > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsH_Ei-HYuM

uh huh yeah sure :rolleyes:

I'm on a HD 7870 playing at 1080p 60FPS using Radeon Pro's FXAA+SMAA injector also using the HD Texture pack. Catalyst 12.11 Beta 4

Why are you guys recommending 400 dollar cards thats wayyy OTT
upgrade more and spend less is the way to go imo.
 
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uh huh yeah sure :rolleyes:

I'm on a HD 7870 playing at 1080p 60FPS using Radeon Pro's FXAA+SMAA injector also using the HD Texture pack. Catalyst 12.11 Beta 4

Why are you guys recommending 400 dollar cards thats wayyy OTT
upgrade more and spend less is the way to go imo.

Ok then money aside, Skyrim ? easy, nvidia.
 
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I haven't had any issues with Skyrim on about 5 different machines all running different spec ATI cards. Yeah nVidia has good drivers for skryim but this would not be the deal breaker for any ATI card.

You cannot put money aside. It is relevant to the situation that someone is in. THe HD7950 would run Skyrim just fine even on the reference card. That is retailing around the £220 mark and comes with some great games to boot so the card is really only sitting at the £150ish mark with what is included.

I have just ordered from overclockers for the watercooled version of the HD7950 for £290. Seems spot on and if you want air cooled I would look at the MSI TFIII (£260 inc. games). That would have been my only option if air cooling.

The GTX670 reference is coming in at £280 so it really is up to you which you. You need to decide if the games are worth it for you or sell them on. If you are really only ever going to play Skyrim or you need a little more versatility.

Either one is up to you but they are your two main options for up to the £300 mark.

Kind Regards,

Adam
 
I haven't had any issues with Skyrim on about 5 different machines all running different spec ATI cards. Yeah nVidia has good drivers for skryim but this would not be the deal breaker for any ATI card.

You cannot put money aside. It is relevant to the situation that someone is in. THe HD7950 would run Skyrim just fine even on the reference card. That is retailing around the £220 mark and comes with some great games to boot so the card is really only sitting at the £150ish mark with what is included.

I have just ordered from overclockers for the watercooled version of the HD7950 for £290. Seems spot on and if you want air cooled I would look at the MSI TFIII (£260 inc. games). That would have been my only option if air cooling.

The GTX670 reference is coming in at £280 so it really is up to you which you. You need to decide if the games are worth it for you or sell them on. If you are really only ever going to play Skyrim or you need a little more versatility.

Either one is up to you but they are your two main options for up to the £300 mark.

Kind Regards,

Adam
Yeah I had a AMD reference 7870 sold it and got a Sapphire HD 7870 OC for the price I sold my reference card haven't noticed a bloody thing performance wise :lol: Only positive about getting a non reference is the fan isn't so bloody loud. My old AMD Reference 7870 sounded like a vacuum when the fan was set to 100% :lol:
 
I am not no chief, my venerable old BENQ 24" monitor isn't anything special :P

Thanks for the advice chaps, that and a little more research has led me to settle on a 7970(Powercolour reference PCB card is £299), on which I will be doing "The Red Mod"(Using a custom bracket from Dwood to install an Antec Kuhler 620 on the GPU plus aftermarket VRM/VRAM heatsinks and a 92mm silent fan to cool them). With all the extra bitz it comes in at £15 cheaper than the Inno3d GTX670 with Accelero Hybrid, and should provide better performance with slightly better temps and even less noise.

As for AMD and Skyrim, my current card is a 6850, and I've never had any driver issues - indeed I've been very pleased with the card overall, it just doesn't have the grunt to deal with texture-intensive games on really high settings.

Now, off to the relevant forum for some mobo and PSU advice I think :)
 
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