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Do I need a 290/780?

GiraffePencils

GiraffePencils

GiraffePencils

Soldato
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Posts
3,089
Location
Edinburgh
Hi,
I'm putting together a new pc build and my gut said "Get a 290" then prices moved around a bit and i though "maybe a 780"
Now I'm not sure on either.

I Have one 1080p monitor and unless it blows up I'm not getting a new one (even then I'd probably stick around the same size). I was also planning on getting an Oculas Rift in the future.

So I was wondering if I even need the power of a 290/780 to drive such a low res?
Or am I just better off in the long run getting one of these cards?
 
Plenty of games will bring a 290/780 to low framerates at 1080p with high settings and presumably you want the GPU to last some time into the future so in no way is it overpowered.
 
290 or a 780 can still be raped at 1080 in the right games . its about the right card for that res. play crysis 3 on max or skyrim even bf4 will dip under 60 fps in places.
 
I'm in a similar situation to you mate, although I'm not so sure about getting the Oculus Rift!

As mentioned above it's not over the top for 1080p, but obviously it'll depend on the games you'll be playing. Personally I'm edging towards a 780, but that's just my preference.
 
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GiraffePencils said:
Hi,
I'm putting together a new pc build and my gut said "Get a 290" then prices moved around a bit and i though "maybe a 780"
Now I'm not sure on either.

I Have one 1080p monitor and unless it blows up I'm not getting a new one (even then I'd probably stick around the same size). I was also planning on getting an Oculas Rift in the future.

So I was wondering if I even need the power of a 290/780 to drive such a low res?
Or am I just better off in the long run getting one of these cards?
Click to expand...

What CPU do you have, that can also hold you back on getting the most from a 780/290.
 
Well I don't have any set CPU, as I said I'm putting a new PC together, so it'll probably be the biggest that money allows at the time.
Edging towards a i7-4770K but I'll see how prices are closer to buy-day and I might go a bit bigger
 
780 all the way. AMD are bigging up Mantle as an Open Standard, so if this is true, you will be able to enjoy all of the nVidia benefits as well as the AMD benefits (except True Audio of course).
 
Gregster said:
780 all the way. AMD are bigging up Mantle as an Open Standard, so if this is true, you will be able to enjoy all of the nVidia benefits as well as the AMD benefits (except True Audio of course).
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that Nvidea would support mantle on the 780, it's an api in it's infancy now and is too far off from their maxwell architecture.
Down the line it might be implemented on Nvidea cards, but I would put money on that being further down the line than most people's upgrades, closer to the 9XX series cards.
 
I would go for the 290 i play on a 40" 1080p with no problems at all games are flawless also with amd now being involved with a lot of game devs the mantle tech is also being implemented into them as well.

the first beta is out with the tech attached and is proving successful with BF4 apart from a few minor tweaks in game
 
Well between the 290 and the 780 i'd go 290 every time
I started the thread with regards to whether I'd need that power.

I mentioned the 780 as an option mainly to stop it turning into a 'choose the 780' argument
 
Well your in the best place to say if you need the power of an expensive card. Aka how long do you want this build to last, do you mind dropping settings to get stable high fps? I know plenty of people who run much weaker cards and are happy with them because they don't mind compromising.
 
GiraffePencils said:
Well between the 290 and the 780 i'd go 290 every time
I started the thread with regards to whether I'd need that power.

I mentioned the 780 as an option mainly to stop it turning into a 'choose the 780' argument
Click to expand...

Sorry, I thought you was asking for advice on getting a 290 or a 780. Maybe you should have put "Do I need a 290's power" or similar. As for Mantle, it is closed to AMD presently but if it is an Open Standard, nVidia would jump on it, especially as it will allow older/lesser CPU's to stop bottlenecking GPU's.

Good luck with your 290 and enjoy :)
 
Confused @ OP, Do I need a 290 /780, thought 780 but would go 290 every time :confused:

Enjoy your 290, can never have too much GPU grunt especially where 3D is concerned, 780 SLI all the way for 3D vision @ 1080p, Oculus rift who knows? Pointless thread.
 
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Would tend to go 780 over 290 for the majority of games out there, unless of course you intend to venture into mining cryptocurrency...but that'd be a waste imo.

nVidia just plain seem to have everything better than AMD at this point - drivers, dual card scaling, downsampling...
 
Both fantastic cards at great prices at the moment.

My money would go on a 290 though, I guess it all comes down to what features you want.

In regards to crossfire scaling and drivers, scaling is fantastic and just as good as team green, there's been a few issues with the latest mantle drivers for users, myself included, previous drivers have been great though.
 
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