Open box 7770 or Refurb'd GTX 280?

Open Box 7770 or Refurb GTX280

  • Open Box 7770

    Votes: 26 83.9%
  • Refurb GTX280

    Votes: 5 16.1%

  • Total voters
    31

Snappshoota

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
2,018
Well Tossing a rig together friday, I was planning on just getting a mobo/CPU/ram and calling it a day..

But I know Ill be itching to fire up a few games while I wait for funds to replenish and grab a 7850.

So since im buying from the local Micro center, I was searching for a card ~100.00 bucks.

Came across an Open Box Gigabyte 7770 for right at 108.00. Figured Id just get that, but then just now I came across, a refurb'd GTX 280 SC for 88.00.

I know the 7770 will be a bit faster and has DX 11, and what not.. But,

Two reasons why im debating this;
Roughly save 20 bucks, getting the 280.
And Open box vs refurb'd

Now I plan on (if everything works out right with funds, for maybe a a few weeks) using one of said cards, then just either selling, or tossing in spare basement PC. Plan on playing some COD's and maybe a little bit of BF3. (will be using a super tiny 17" 1024x768 monitor in said time frame)

Rest of system is this:
Asrock Z77 Pro 3
i3 3225
8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600
OCZ StealthXstream 2 600W

Any insight?
 
I think there is someone in the FS thread selling a 280 for either that price or cheaper. And refurb'd cards seem to have a crap load of issues if the reviews from the 'egg are any inclination. Just my 2 cents
 
7770 is an awesome card, but the 280 allows for physX stuff, and can be used as a PhysX processor if you upgrade to an Nvidia card later on, though it would most likely use more power than necessary doing so.
 
I got a GTX 295 for $100 off here before and it's faster than both, so 88 for a refurbished 280 is ehhh.. no. I wouldn't get a 7770, even if it uses less power.

Look here
 
7770. That PSU won't handle the GTX 280 if you upgrade anything else at any point in timee
 
you need an "other" option because buying returns/refurbs are a crapshoot, and you might be having a headache for a lot longer than if you just bought new. get that 7770 linked above that's $100 after rebate.
 
Id love to order all the parts offline, But Im very impatient..

Thats why I figured Id just grab something half way cheap, but still able to play the games I want. Then with my next week, or 2 weeks pay, Im going to just order a better card..
 
Id love to order all the parts offline, But Im very impatient..

Thats why I figured Id just grab something half way cheap, but still able to play the games I want. Then with my next week, or 2 weeks pay, Im going to just order a better card..

Why not just play off the IGP? I believe the 3225 has a HD4000, which is still capable of playing quite a few games, and at 1024x768 it shouldn't be too bad.
 
It did cross my mind to just use IGP, and toss the 3225 off for a 3570.

I do have a xfx 4850 but the past 2 rigs I've built I couldn't get it to stop GSOD'ing..

Anyone have any experience using the 4000 igp?
 
It did cross my mind to just use IGP, and toss the 3225 off for a 3570.

I do have a xfx 4850 but the past 2 rigs I've built I couldn't get it to stop GSOD'ing..

Anyone have any experience using the 4000 igp?

What do you want to know? It's fairly capable, it can play almost any source game at 1080p. If you're only gaming at 1024x768, you should be able to get by. My experience was that while it will generate really high frame rates, there's a bit of a lag to it (it may have to do with the turbo overclock cycling up and down, since the IGP is tied to it). I think you can remove that lag if you remove the downclocking feature on the CPU.

Still, if you tweak it a bit, it'll be a fairly capable system:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5771/45907.png

And it even plays crysis:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5771/45854.png

As long as you don't live off competitive mutliplayer, you'll get by. Fix the lag and it should be extremely capable at 768.
 
As long as you don't live off competitive mutliplayer, you'll get by. Fix the lag and it should be extremely capable at 768.

lol.. Thats all i play besides a few hours of fallout..

Hmm..

Maybe Ill try taking a little more money with me, see if I can do it with out the woman knowing.. ;)

Thanks everyone!
 
lol.. Thats all i play besides a few hours of fallout..

Hmm..

Maybe Ill try taking a little more money with me, see if I can do it with out the woman knowing.. ;)

Thanks everyone!

Well, try it out first. I never played with it long enough to figure out where the lag came from. Tweak the overclock settings so that it never downclocks.

That was the only problem when I ran IGP... it would play CS:GO at really high frame rates, but I had a couple of ms of lag which ruined the experience. This was while waiting for my 670 so I didn't take the time to figure out where it came from.
 
Take the Radeon and run.. Nvidia is having all sorts of issues and now their in hot water with AMD for stealing "trade secrets" as if AMD ever had any...
 
I'd just get the 7770 since it's newer and runs cooler, but I suggest looking for a used 560 ti or something in that range, they hover around $100.
 
Just got back, said hell with it and bought a Gigabyte 7850 2gb, I3 3225, Asrock Pro 3, 8gb Vengeance ram, and PSU. Spent about 100 more than wanted to but eh, its only money right?!
 
I still use my 280 in my Tiberium system (I am actually not using the 460, it just lingers in a box). It's a very quiet card and quite capable still.
 
Just got back, said hell with it and bought a Gigabyte 7850 2gb, I3 3225, Asrock Pro 3, 8gb Vengeance ram, and PSU. Spent about 100 more than wanted to but eh, its only money right?!

Smart choice, Gigabyte has a 3 year warranty and if you got a WindForce it should be very cool and quiet.

Congrats!
 
Everything so far is good, boots to bios and love the new bios, everything is seen, and ready just waiting to copy my windows to USB. Forgot about DVd drive.. lol..

Only thing isthe damn stock fan on the intel HSF is loud, sounds like its rubbing... So guess imma have to order a new hsf.

And I did grab the Windforce version..
 
Cool, nice choice on the card. I pretty much remove all stock heat sinks and their fans, I can't take the noise/poor cooling.
 
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