AAAGGGHH... which one now??!!

humbug · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:33

ttaskmaster said:
I meant bigger numbers as in clock speed and so on.
Price is not a factor, below £430-odd so I'm happy around that mark.

I've kinda been an AMD fanboy generally, but have no problem going Nvidia if they can do better. The CPU and board weren't down to me, though, but a very thoughtful gift. I'll obviously upgrade when they get too old to really cope, but should be fine in the meantime.

Neither one is better than the other, the cooler on the Tri-X is very good, So is the one on the 780 Classified Gregster posted.
Some Differences between Nvidia and AMD, Nvidia have GPU PhysX for games that have it, AMD have Mantle for games that have that, Nvidia GPU's use CUDA for supported app acceleration, AMD use OpenCL.......

Outside of professional Image editing, video Encoding and a select few games the only difference is price.

(Edit) If you feel like a change then there is nothing wrong with that, its entirely your choice. But do make it your choice.

Gregster · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:41

Exciting times ahead for nVidia users. DX11 drivers that will help with CPU bottlenecks in DX11 games and give a performance boost (coming in April). PhysX (something I personally enjoy and is something I would not want to miss out on). GameWorks effects like GodRays/FlameWorks/FaceWorks/Flex. G-Sync is here and now and not some far and away fairly tale.

All these things start to make that £100 look worth it IMO.

jh30uk · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:44

+ Less driver issues/blackscreens etc.

sieze2 · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:50

I have a gigabyte Windforce 780. After selling the games it came with its owes me £360. Normally I would recommend it but seeing as they are now £420, I would say pay the extra £10 and get the classified. Good luck with your decision.

arc@css · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:51

You won't go wrong with any of them. Out of the ones you've listed, I'd probably go for the Gigabyte.

whyscotty · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:53

humbug said:
An overclocked 280X would keep up with a 780, a stock 290 is faster than that 780.

arc@css · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:53

^^

+1

Diddums · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:56

You'd be nuts to buy a high end GPU now. With Maxwell 20nm coming up in the next year, and with mining taking a massive hit lately which will force prices down, spending £400+ on a card which is going to be last gen within a year is insanity.

Martini1991 · 4 Apr 2014 at 17:27

Can't honestly imagine there being any difference between any of the GPU's with the CPU tbh.
Mantle withstanding.

humbug · 4 Apr 2014 at 17:28

Here's an idea. If your desperate to spend over £400 then why not use the £100 you could save against the 780 to get yourself an SSD Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic or Crucial M550 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

I switched from Mechanical a couple of years ago, i have a Samsung 830 128gb, going from Mechanical to SSD is like night and day, i would never touch a mechanical boot driver ever again.

Martini1991 said:
Can't honestly imagine there being any difference between any of the GPU's with the CPU tbh.
Mantle withstanding.

+1

They will get a lot of bottlenecking, except the 290 in Mantle enabled BF4 and Thief.

4737Joker · 4 Apr 2014 at 17:38

If your budget is £430 for a gpu and you want to spend that much and not save any of it for anything else then i'd get a 780 if that's what you want.

If your looking to save some of it buy a 290, in all fairness unless your only use for this card is to run benchmarks you will not be able to tell the difference between either. The only plus point for the 780 would be the games you have listed according to someone who posted above are nvidia titles that support physx.

I don't see the justification in price difference but if i was out to spend that sort of money i'd just spend it

(probably buy a second hand ti though not a 780).

spankingtexan · 4 Apr 2014 at 17:41

Another vote here for the EVGA 780 classy + wonder drivers = win

PhysicsMan94 · 4 Apr 2014 at 17:45

Gregster said:
PhysX (something I personally enjoy and is something I would not want to miss out on)...

Been playing AC: Black Flag recently (which I got free with my second 780

) and the PhysX is amazing - the ship battles just aren't the same with it turned off. So, OP, if you are a sucker for very nice graphics and effects (like I am) then I'd say a 780 is definitely the way to go; and I can definitely recommend an EVGA 780 (any of them to be honest).

Plus, as Greg outlined, it's a great time to be an Nvidia user - lots of exciting stuff coming in the next few months.

gazzaa · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:07

just get the Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X great card and cheap
heres the review http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/63953-sapphire-radeon-r9-290-tri-x/
unless you want to game in 3d vision then go 780

pgi947 · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:32

Lex1970 said:
The quietest and coolest 780 for under four hundred pounds without question is the f
Gainward glh phantom gtx780

This.

Got both of mine on water now and I haven't found the max oc yet, but 1359/7ghz is easily doable despite one of them being elpida. Probably the quietest cooler in the market too.

MrMoonX · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:51

Don't go AMD I've had nothing but problems with a 290x when they came out, black screens crashes etc. returned it got a 780 classy which has been rock solid from day 1

Make of that what you will, but I'm never going to dabble in AMD again

humbug · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:58

MrMoonX said:
Don't go AMD I've had nothing but problems with a 290x when they came out, black screens crashes etc. returned it got a 780 classy which has been rock solid from day 1

Make of that what you will, but I'm never going to dabble in AMD again

You had a duff card, one card does not = all duff.

A quick Google pulls up pages of Black Screen GTX 780's. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=G...screen&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&spell=1

Black Screens are usually related to Memory, both AMD and Nvidia use the same Memory IC's which is why the both suffer from the same Black Screen issue.
Not all cards are going to be 100%, that's why we have RMA and DSR.

RetrogamerX · 4 Apr 2014 at 19:05

MrMoonX said:
Don't go AMD I've had nothing but problems with a 290x when they came out, black screens crashes etc. returned it got a 780 classy which has been rock solid from day 1

Make of that what you will, but I'm never going to dabble in AMD again

That's what made me go Green Team. I went through 4 7950's and 1 7970. AMD was nothing but headaches. I had enough.....went green and I've never looked back.

Green for life!!!

spankingtexan · 4 Apr 2014 at 19:20

RetrogamerX said:
That's what made me go Green Team. I went through 4 7950's and 1 7970. AMD was nothing but headaches. I had enough.....went green and I've never looked back.

Green for life!!!

Appears Op has already chosen Nvidia with the choices he listed, personally I think it would be crazy to choose AMD at this very moment as if the so called wonder drivers really are non game specific and boost if not all most of DX11 games then Nvidia would have a huge advantage over AMD as DX11 games dominate at the moment, until DX12 arrives that is.

chaparral · 4 Apr 2014 at 19:22

The Best value for money GTX 780 is easily this one

OcUK Geforce GTX 780 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-200-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

There no need to pay out extra for fancy coolers on a GTX 780 unless you only want it for benching..