Card upgrade

CSB

CSB

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Hi Guys

Well it has been a while since I last posted anything. I hadn't abandoned the site as I'd still come by without logging in.

Well my Corsair AX850 PSU finally went kaput a month ago after acting funny for a long time. I had it for 3 years and thus contacted Corsair. Not the easiest of things as some of you will know you have to join first and then place a ticket. The site said usually a response within 1 working day.

A week later I was told the return was authorised. Told to return it and strongly recommended to sent it tracked/insured as they don't take any responsability ifnit gets lost and I'd be up shhhhh-t creak. £48 lighter to send it to the Netherlands and I was peeved as Corsair don't refund.

Anyway, more time went past without a reply and a James ansswered my latest contact apologising for the long delay. Offered to upgrade me to a AX860i PSU which I kindly accepted. You'd think that would be it, but then more days went by after it was c9nfirmed they had the old one back and a woman asked me if I needed to confirm my address etc. I had provided all this with the included note on the 850. I guess America and the Netherlands don't communicate well.

well I responded to confirm again and I've yet to hear if the new one has been sent or not. I've only been without a working PC for over a month now so you'd think I was a priority. Good job I don't need it for work or my business would have gone down the plug. Hopefully I'll get it by end of next week.

With that said, I want to upgrade my graphics card sometime. Any of you guys have recomendations on GPU vs cost and any free games bundles you get from websites? Just a note, I won't be buying from OCUK.

I like the 780 ti but is costly. Maybe 2 x 760's in SLI, I don't know.

Thanks

Rob
 
What's a James?

So Corsair seem to be a bit crap when honouring waranties eh?

48 quid for an rma? I'd have bit the bullet after three years and scratched Corsair off my approved list, too much ag.

Some companies are real good on warranties - Western Digital have always delivered in my experience.

About the only game on offer for free with a purchase atm is Assassins Creed IV, the pirate themed one. I just bought a 4Gb 760 (£240) and got the game. It looks gorgeous but it's really not my type of game, too much stealth and frustrating as hell. I've actually almost given up cos I keep dying at only 2% of the way through. Did I say dying? Nope, wrong, AC4 doesn't make you die, it desyncronises you, same thing though. Glad I didn't pay 40 quid for it.

How much you want to spend on a video card?
 
If you want 780Ti performance, there are a few options. The R9 290X by Gigabyte has an aftermarket cooler and performance is almost on par, for about 100 quid less. Example:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...aphics+Card+(GV-R929XOC-4GD)+?productId=59561

Otherwise the 780Ti's that come with free games generally only have one game, such as this:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...GV-N78TOC-3GD)++1+FREE+GAME!+?productId=59160

AMD have a bundle called "Never Settle" which has a wide variety of games that come free with certain cards, but I'm not sure what cards this bundle comes with nowadays. I got 4 pretty decent games when I bought an XFX 7950 a while ago but you might have to shop around to find those deals...
 
Hi FBS, V_R and Naylor. Thank you to all for your replies which are always very much appreciated.

To answer you question FBS, I think a James is a new form of inteligence which Corsair had created haha. Unfortunatley it is very slow and unreliable so I will recommend they go back to the drawing board lol. I think I will go elsewhere in future for my hardware unless I really really realllllyyyyy like one of their products.

I built my brother a new PC recently which consited of a bequiet PSU, Gigabyte board, i5 (Haswell) and 8GB Ripjaws Ram, Corsair Neutron 240GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Noctua nh-d14 COOLER, Antec 1200 case. His graphics card is the one I bought from you Flops if you remember. Was a Geforce 9800 GTX which he'll use until he can upgrade. Also very nice @ the 760 and AC4 and I know where you are coming from as that's not my type of game either.

I'd want to spend as little as possible but I also want it to last for at least another 3 years if I can, so I best probably go for one of the higher cards.

In regards to your questions V_R, I've played very little recently but used to play Crysis 3, Max Payne 3, Warhammer Retribution. Tomb Raider (although I got a little board with it as its more of the puzzel solver and frustrate you to death when you can't figure it out). I love my racing games too, although Gran Turismo 6 isn't on the PC lol. I just want something which is going to kick @ss for a while.

I believe I've been using HD resolution in the past 1080 ect, not sure as it's been a while since I played any of them and it's not been working for a month and can't check at the moment. Corsair updated the ticket again by telling me the new AX860i PSU should be dispatched within a couple of days (slow slow slow) and will then prob take another week if coming from the US as they previously mentioned using a US postal service, not sure as they tell you very little with whats going on etc.

A very nice Gigabyte card there Naylor. Don't think I'd go for the Radeon, probably because I'm so used to Nvidia know that it would feel like leaving home at 12 if I switched now lol. Maybe Radeons have got much better???

I like the Asus cards because they do the Direct Cu heatsink but then Gigabyte are very good too along with a few others.

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX780DC23GD5/

What do you guys think? I guess if I really saved hard, I could possibly justify going for a Ti card. I would have had some cash already if my car didn't need a new starter motor recently along with the service, MOT and a few other new pieces because the previous owner didn't look after it. Even if you buy a new car though, it's no guarantee something won't go wrong with it.

Thanks again for all your help.

Rob
 
Thanks for the links V_R

I'm in work today as I am every Sunday. At least I finish at 6pm.

Think I may go for a 780 and leave the Ti as the performance difference don't seem to justify the price increase. God knows when I will be able to buy one (funny as I'm an Atheist).

I've got an older PC here to sell off so maybe that will get me at least a £100 start. Not sure whether to go for Asus or Gigabyte.

I'm now waiting for the replacement PSU to come from Corsair so I can get my current rig up and running again. Will be nice to play some of my PC games again. What are you all playing right now???
 
Had another go at Assassins Creed 4, it is a good game, looks gorgeous, but I not mad keen on stealth, now up to 3% completed, up from 2% cos I persisted ;)

Others: More Borderlands 2, 511 hours so far, am at last beginning to tire of it; The original Sin from '98 and expansion pack, now available on GOG for $10 (£6.32 when I bought it) and it runs very smoothly; Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning; I'm still playing CoD 4 online; Crysis 3 (only bought it recently online nice and cheap); Skyrim on and off; Lego: batman 2; Complete Star Wars; Lord of the Rings and that's about it atm really, still have a heap of Steam Games I've hardly visited or haven't started at all :o

I'm not going to buy CoD Ghosts or BF 4 until they're cheaper, which probably means I won't ever buy them at all :) Still, no loss the CoD franchise has now been done to death imo and BF4 is EA/Origin and expensive.
 
Thanks V_R. Yes the gain of approx 5fps don't make me stand up and go "OMG I must have it".

I completed GTA V on the PS3 which was good, although it still felt a little short but then look at the size of the land and graphics. Do we know when a PC release is due and if it's going to be a proper job done of it this time rather than the buggy GTA IV?

You've got so many games Flops that you must not know where to start. I've got a fair few myself, although most have either been completed or I'm just like "ughh" at the thought of spening hours at the others if I'm not excited about them.

I loved Mafia 2 but that was only 15 chapters long and felt like it was over too soon. I remember when Final Fantasy VII came out on the PS1. Now that took some time to complete if you wanted to be powerful enough to beat the end villain.
 
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