Best 1440p gaming GPU for £300?

TwinCalliber · 7 Feb 2015 at 15:17

jwilliamson47 said:
Unknown, but early indications suggest around June.

Ahhh too impatient to wait 4 months! Im back to where I started now then in terms of what card to get! Haha

jwilliamson47 · 7 Feb 2015 at 15:19

TwinCalliber said:
Ahhh too impatient to wait 4 months! Im back to where I started now then in terms of what card to get! Haha

Yeah! I'm without a GPU at the moment, 2 days is too much

I think getting a 980 is pretty pointless, either go for a 970, hope that the vram issue doesn't become a factor in new games or get a 290x 8gb. I honestly see no point in getting a 290x 4GB, since the 970 is cooler, quieter and uses less power. 290X 8GB though, might only be beneficial in crossfire.

TwinCalliber · 7 Feb 2015 at 16:26

jwilliamson47 said:
Yeah! I'm without a GPU at the moment, 2 days is too much

I think getting a 980 is pretty pointless, either go for a 970, hope that the vram issue doesn't become a factor in new games or get a 290x 8gb. I honestly see no point in getting a 290x 4GB, since the 970 is cooler, quieter and uses less power. 290X 8GB though, might only be beneficial in crossfire.

Crossfire has no appeal for me, I guess if I got the 970 and has issues, I could always RMA it, when I come closer to getting a card, ill make a proper decision lol. Still unsure!

Im not looking for the card to run latest games with everything on high, I know that's not possible with my budget, don't mind turning a few things down. Always been used to doing that tbh!

jwilliamson47 · 7 Feb 2015 at 16:29

TwinCalliber said:
Crossfire has no appeal for me, I guess if I got the 970 and has issues, I could always RMA it, when I come closer to getting a card, ill make a proper decision lol. Still unsure!

The thing with the 970s is they are very efficient in terms of overall power draw. For a crossfire 290/290x, you're looking at a 800watt PSU requirement

Boomstick777 · 7 Feb 2015 at 16:46

jwilliamson47 said:
I wouldn't recommend the 8GB variant for single card usage. For crossfire it's probably the best option on the market though.

More vram the merrier for single and dual GPU, the more vram the less likely you are to get FPS drops / stutters.

So the 8GB version makes more sense whether you're planning 1, 2, or 3 or 4 GPU's.

When the price for the 8GB (Twice the vram) is so competitive it's a no-brainer..

Just read what the man himself has said..

Gibbo said:
If your gaming at 1080P then a single card should be more than future proof for years to come even on the poorest console ports which could be using around 6GB of memory:

Gibbo said:
980 is faster until you exceed its 4GB VRAM limit.

Gibbo said:
Games are using more than 4GB in current games, even at 1080P, 1440P upto 6GB usage is possible and 4k it is nearly possible to use upto 8GB.

This is today, who know what the case will be in 2-3yrs.

queamin · 7 Feb 2015 at 16:55

Boomstick777 said:
More vram the merrier for single and dual GPU, the more vram the less likely you are to get FPS drops / stutters.

So the 8GB version makes more sense whether you're planning 1, 2, or 3 or 4 GPU's.

When the price for the 8GB (Twice the vram) is so competitive it's a no-brainer..

Just read what the man himself has said..

I agree with this, if you doing to get a card when they they are so cheap.

But as you got a 7950 i would see what the 3Xx brings maybe by next month when you buy we might have a date for release if not buy a card if you cannot wait.

Ian Evey · 7 Feb 2015 at 17:05

nitram100 said:
290x if you have to right now, but you'll likely get the Nvidia nutters in here yapping on about 970's.

So are you an amd nutter then?

africanos23 · 7 Feb 2015 at 17:11

GTX970 for 1080p

R9-290 or R9-290X for 1440p - 4K

If you really have an urge to update now, or just wait it out for the next AMD cards. The rumoured benchmarks sound like they are going to be beastly.

Note : I have both GTX970s and R9-290s

jwilliamson47 · 7 Feb 2015 at 17:13

Boomstick777 said:
More vram the merrier for single and dual GPU, the more vram the less likely you are to get FPS drops / stutters.

So the 8GB version makes more sense whether you're planning 1, 2, or 3 or 4 GPU's.

When the price for the 8GB (Twice the vram) is so competitive it's a no-brainer..

Just read what the man himself has said..

I think that's a fair point. In the future, 4GB just isn't going to cut it, so yeh, go for a 290x 8GB

The issue I had with 970 sli wasn't the fps, it was microstutter.

RanxZy · 7 Feb 2015 at 17:23

The 290X 8GB will really shine in crossfire with high resolutions but nothing wrong with getting one instead of a 3.5GB 970 for the same price.

fs123 · 7 Feb 2015 at 18:41

jwilliamson47 said:
The thing with the 970s is they are very efficient in terms of overall power draw. For a crossfire 290/290x, you're looking at a 800watt PSU requirement

Well have a look at the following link.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-970-sli-review,4.html

For cards only, a 290X crossfire setup uses 493W while a 970 SLI uses 326W, a difference of 167W. Not a huge difference as many would have you believe.
Assuming the rest of the system uses about 150W we would get total usage :

970SLI: 326 + 150 = 475W
290X crossfire : 493 + 150 = 643W

Generally I would say 650-700W would be fine for 970SLI and 750-800W for 290X crossfire. Allowing for some overclocking headroom.

wellibob · 7 Feb 2015 at 19:06

I'd wait for the next range of nvidia cards. Waiting several months for AMD is rushing into things

jwilliamson47 · 7 Feb 2015 at 19:10

fs123 said:
Well have a look at the following link.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-970-sli-review,4.html

For cards only, a 290X crossfire setup uses 493W while a 970 SLI uses 326W, a difference of 167W. Not a huge difference as many would have you believe.
Assuming the rest of the system uses about 150W we would get total usage :

970SLI: 326 + 150 = 475W
290X crossfire : 493 + 150 = 643W

Generally I would say 650-700W would be fine for 970SLI and 750-800W for 290X crossfire. Allowing for some overclocking headroom.

Ah, interesting information. Thanks

theMilitant · 7 Feb 2015 at 20:00

My advice would also be for you to wait till AMD release their 300 series, then get whichever of those cards is most powerful for under £300.

Snodge · 8 Feb 2015 at 00:29

I'm currently running a 780ti at 1440p and its absolutely fantastic AA isnt really needed due to the superior resolution however if you're looking for a new card instead I'd say the 980

TwinCalliber · 8 Feb 2015 at 10:50

Soooo what people are saying then is to either get the 290x 8gb card, or wait for the new cards to be released?

Bonjour · 8 Feb 2015 at 10:55

I don't think we'll be seeing another 8GB graphics card for £299 for a while.

Jamielicious · 8 Feb 2015 at 10:57

One of those 290X cards is about as good as you can get for under £300, assuming 8GB cards and the 780Ti will stay over that price.

TwinCalliber · 8 Feb 2015 at 11:22

Jamielicious said:
One of those 290X cards is about as good as you can get for under £300, assuming 8GB cards and the 780Ti will stay over that price.

Have my eye on this atm, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-269-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

I dont mind going £30 over if by the time I come round to getting one the price has gone up!

chroniclard · 8 Feb 2015 at 11:30

Looks like a bargain! sorely tempted myself.......noooo....must.....wait....!!