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AMD: 285 or 290?

Shampoo

Shampoo

Shampoo

Associate
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Posts
785
Hi

A friend of mine is in the market for a new video card. He games at 1080p and has a max budget of £300 (he can get free shipping on my account). He was initially looking at this model.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-334-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

But then he seen this one.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-350-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

He's torn between the fact that the 285 is newer. thus he thinks it might have some newer tech on board that makes it better than the 290. He's worried that if he shells out for the 290 it's suddenly going to plummet in value as it's been out for a while.

Can you guys help clear up what would be the best possible card for this £300 of his? it'll be used for 1080p gaming, video encoding, Blu-ray and he's hoping to make it last 2/3 years.

I appreciate the assistance.:)
 
That Sapphire model is nice. :) I'm not sure about the powercolor in regards to RMA issues. I've never really heard much about them to be honest. I'm guessing a good warranty would also be a must should any trouble arise.

^ CPU-wise he's running a Athlon x4 740 Quad 3.20 Ghz (turbos in the 3.7 region). If you can upgrade his CPU in the same socket within budget I'll fit it for him. :P I think it's solid enough though.
 
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Shampoo said:
Hi

A friend of mine is in the market for a new video card. He games at 1080p and has a max budget of £300 (he can get free shipping on my account). He was initially looking at this model.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-334-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

But then he seen this one.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-350-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

He's torn between the fact that the 285 is newer. thus he thinks it might have some newer tech on board that makes it better than the 290. He's worried that if he shells out for the 290 it's suddenly going to plummet in value as it's been out for a while.

Can you guys help clear up what would be the best possible card for this £300 of his? it'll be used for 1080p gaming, video encoding, Blu-ray and he's hoping to make it last 2/3 years.

I appreciate the assistance.:)
Click to expand...
it doesn't have anything over the 290. it does have true audio and freesync which the 280 which it replaced did not have. the 290 has true audio and freesync support.
 
Hmmm...I'm not too up to date with AMD cpu support, but it looks like the most recent cpu he can add will be the A10 series. Tbh, I don't think it will be worth it. My advice is to get a new mobo and cpu first. Alternatively, he could just buy the graphics card now and then add a new cpu / mobo later.

Psu is fine.
 
Alright, guys. I texted him and he's upped his total budget to £450. For that he wants the 290, Motherboard and new CPU. As powerful as he can go was the instructions given. :)
 
Shampoo said:
That Sapphire model is nice. :) I'm not sure about the powercolor in regards to RMA issues. I've never really heard much about them to be honest. I'm guessing a good warranty would also be a must should any trouble arise.

^ CPU-wise he's running a Athlon x4 740 Quad 3.20 Ghz (turbos in the 3.7 region). If you can upgrade his CPU in the same socket within budget I'll fit it for him. :P I think it's solid enough though.
Click to expand...

as far as it comes to powercolor, ocuk deal with the warranty so you should have nothing to worry about if anything goes wrong, heaven forbid it does.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit £293.99
1 x Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £249.58
Total : £553.16 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Obviously its 80 quid over the budget but yer. I wouldn't really be happy recommending anything less processor wise from Intel for a r9 290.

8 GBs of ram included with the graphics card.


As for AMD? I'm not too clued up on AMD mobos and I am sure some one can recommend a better (cheaper) motherboard but here is my offerings for the AMD camp, probably can get the total price down to closer to the budget limits with a cheaper motherboard.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit £293.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £99.95
Total : £505.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).





If I had the choice I would be going Intel myself, but that depends on what he uses his PC for and what games he plays. As a note both processors are overclockable, the difference (at least for Intel) between the overclockable and non overclockable is around 10 pounds so for the fact of potential gains from OCing and future resale value I chose the Unlocked CPUs and decent motherboards that can "support" it so to say.

Finally there is no aftermarket CPU heat sink included in my specs, I would highly recommend getting him a cheap 14-20 quid heatsink will do a far better job than the stock ones will, but since I was already over budget I didnt put it in.
 
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arc@css said:
The two links below are just an example I quickly referenced, others may find something even better for the money. Anyway, based on that mobo & cpu, it would leave him something around two hundred for a graphics card. What card is he currently using?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-495-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2811
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-540-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567
Click to expand...

He's using a pretty old card circa 2010. Sorry but I can't recall the name. :confused:

Thinking of the video encoding, would Intel be best for that kind of task? how does AMD shape up for those sorts of raw power tasks?
 
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