Budget £350

[agrestik]

what is the best possible graphic card i could get possibly for £350, is it the AMA R9 290 series? or can i get anything better?

 

[arc@css]

With a maximum budget of £350, I'd be getting this :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

 

[snips86x]

There are also b-grade 290s for £260!

 

[LtMatt]

what is the best possible graphic card i could get possibly for £350, is it the AMA R9 290 series? or can i get anything better?

The absolute fastest card would be this one.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

However for a bit less £ you can get a much cooler and quieter running card with slightly less (5% or less) performance.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI&tool=3

If you don't mind a bit of overclocking yourself then you could get this 290. It has the best cooler of the three listed but also has the lowest clocks. However getting it to up to speed will be very easy.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-348-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

They all come with free games.

 

[agrestik]

is it worth getting the Powercolor Radeon R9 290X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card over Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB? and is there any noise diffrence ? i would prefer it to be more quieter. thanks

 

[arc@css]

The gigabyte will be quieter, and the difference in fps will be neglible.

 

[murah]

2x GTX 670/680s/1x GTX690 2nd hand

or a 780 new eg:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

as alternatives

What resolution do you game at? what games do you mainly play?
what are the rest of your specs?

 

[Geeman1979]

Agreed on the 780 option.

That's a good price!

 

[ghost.florian]

I would choose this as well:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

It runs cooler than a 290, with around the same performance. You might have more overclocking headroom as well.
Gigabyte also has a good, UK-based RMA department, in case something goes wrong.

 

[agrestik]

2x GTX 670/680s/1x GTX690 2nd hand

or a 780 new eg:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

as alternatives

What resolution do you game at? what games do you mainly play?
what are the rest of your specs?

I was thinking about getting this but still not sure about it
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black
Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 ( But i will probably wait for the Z97 to come out)
TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11
Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

 

[PhysicsMan94]

That GB WF 780 that Murah linked to is an excellent price, plus you should get Watch Dogs with it (although it's not on the product page but I'm sure OcUK CS would sort you out with it). Anyway, that would be my choice

 

[breathe3asy]

If you don't mind a bit of overclocking yourself then you could get this 290. It has the best cooler of the three listed but also has the lowest clocks. However getting it to up to speed will be very easy.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-348-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Is it just a case of raising the sliders for Clock speed & VRAM in MSI Afterburner/CCC to increase performance?

Also, I read somewhere that the 780 has better minimum FPS than the 290, can anyone confirm if this is rubbish or?

 

[arc@css]

Is it just a case of raising the sliders for Clock speed & VRAM in MSI Afterburner/CCC to increase performance?

Also, I read somewhere that the 780 has better minimum FPS than the 290, can anyone confirm if this is rubbish or?

To the first question, yes. To the second, it depends on the game, but yes, than can be the case.

 

[murah]

Get the 780 imo do it at that price.

 

[Ian Evey]

Is it just a case of raising the sliders for Clock speed & VRAM in MSI Afterburner/CCC to increase performance?

Also, I read somewhere that the 780 has better minimum FPS than the 290, can anyone confirm if this is rubbish or?

All above are great options at 359 pounds if it was me though I would stay away from the 290x even at that price, I could not be doing with a reference 290x.

 

[LtMatt]

Is it just a case of raising the sliders for Clock speed & VRAM in MSI Afterburner/CCC to increase performance?

Also, I read somewhere that the 780 has better minimum FPS than the 290, can anyone confirm if this is rubbish or?

Yes its very easy and no its not the case that the 780 has better minimums. Cards are evenly matched, 290 maybe a ball hair faster overall.

 

[triss]

780's are faster in some games 290's are faster in others
Overall there about equal
There might be more 780's that do better due to higher overclocks but its hard to say

 

[oweneades]

R9 290 / GTX 780, pick your potato.

Unless you run them side by side with a framerate counter you would be hard pressed to tell the difference in game.

Slight nod to the 290 simply because it can be had for less.

 

[rolypolyman]

Wouldn't go with the ref 290X unless you know you can keep it cool and even then the extra small performance gain is not worth it. We have the usual suspects pushing Amd or Nvidia, truth of the matter is pick the card which suits your needs, games, future games, mantle with amd or PhysX with NVidia, base your decision on needs, warranty, rma base etc, do not base it on people who have one brand or the other recommending it because they have it and a false allegiance as a result. There are lots of well meaning people on here who will offer advice but have red or green tinted glasses.