Graphics card upgrade?

[Tabletski]

I have a Radeon HD7770 which seems to perform quite well for my everyday tasks and tad of gaming, but tends to slow down when editing video from my Hd 1080 camera. Not initially but only after a few edits, probably because too much in memory. I can add RAM if you think that's an issue.
So I am in the market for a new graphics card, I am looking for thoughts, advice and comments, before and helping me make a choice.
Budget is about £150, I am looking at a R9270x which can be had for £159 however a friend stated that the Nvidia range is superior, any comments?

[Sam]

What CPU do you have?

How much RAM do you have?

What editing suite are you using?

[Tabletski]

16GB 1600 RAM - motherboard allows 32,
CPU is a Intel Core i3 3220 3.30GHz,
Video edit is - MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 2014.

[Sam]

I last upgraded in Feb '13 so I'm not quite as sharp as I used to be, but that i3 is more than likely the bottleneck.

What mobo do you have?

[Tabletski]

Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H Socket 1155
I did think the i3 could be an issue but as upgraded from a core two duo P4 was the best I could afford at the time Oct last year, if I go i5 that is £100 plus then graphics card will have to stay the same for now.

[Sam]

MAXIS recommend at least a quad core CPU for HD/4K video editing and your i3 is 'just' a dual core.

You can see the supported list of CPUs over on Gigabyte's site but if it were me I'd be looking to upgrade the CPU.

An i7 3770 is slightly out of your reach on the budget you've quoted but you might be lucky and find a decent used one.

Failing that an i5 3570 should do.

There are various flavours of the above CPUs too, T, S, K etc - make sure you have a proper read on the qualities of each before you do anything and if you are a member of any nerdy forums - always take their advice over mine ;)

[Tabletski]

Just goes to show you should read the specs on the side of the box, looks like processor upgrade needed, thanks for your input.

[Sam]

Good luck :)

[SammoVWT]

I wouldnt worry about the graphics hard an HD7770 is pretty decent. I am still running an HD6870 and it does most things, including BF4 fine. Your bottleneck will be RAM & CPU, encoding/editing doesnt require any 3D graphics processing it's all raw CPU power for rendering.

If your hard drive is slow I would say just tack on some more RAM. I have an I7 3770 paid for by work. It's marginally better for encoding than my AMD, but my AMD is a 6 core but multithread is much better on my AMD by a long shot and thats slower on raw clock speed.

You should get a pretty decent encoding rate with an i5, but I cant help but think you would get more bang for your buck with and AMD rig. But if you can get an i5 then go for it. How much ram are you sitting on at the moment?

[gupsterg]

My opinion is for budget set by Tabletski I'd go for a i5 3570K and overclock it for extra bang for buck!

There have been times where AMD have been my choice for a rig but for a long time Intel have the crown.

You can see an i5 3750K vs FX 8350 here (couldn't find a FX 9xxx review) Link:- AMD FX-8350 Image Editing and Video Encoding Performance | bit-tech.net (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/11/06/amd-fx-8350-review/4)

[Tabletski]

16GB ram with a 128mb SSD, and 1TB normal drive for stuff. I am almost ready to order an i5 3570 but am at a loss as to the S,K,T variants
I could only find a 3570 S - which seems to mean lower operating temperature. I have not done a part master search yet to see where is the cheapest. I don't get paid till the 15th so waiting till then.
Thanks for input.

[gupsterg]

K = Unlocked multiplier = great overclock ability.

S = Lower power consumption, not great OC ability.

T = Even lower power consumption, not great OC ability.

First view the standard clock speed of variants and the turbo boosted Link:- ARK | Compare Intel® Products (http://ark.intel.com/compare/65520,65701,65521)

Why would you want a S or T vs a K? Link:- Low-Power CPUs: Specific Applications Only - Core i5-3570K, -3550, -3550S, And -3570T: Ivy Bridge Efficiency (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-3570-low-power,3204-15.html)

As you don't need a low power consuming CPU with lower thermal output at the sacrifice of CPU performance in apps the K is your option IMO.

A 4.x GHz overclock on air cooling is easily doable on a K variant CPU.

[Tabletski]

Ahhh, more input, bliss. I can now make an informed decision. Thank you.