best graphics card for budget £400

[arnie2013]

hi all im in the middle of a new build for a gaming pc,

my hardware upto now is as follow:

motherboard: asus sabertooth z77
case: zalman z9 plus
PSU - xfx 750w
CPU: intel i5 3570k
cooler: corsair h80i

now I need to buy a graphics card, now my budget is £400 can anybody advice me on the best card I can get for ths budget.
I wish to play games such as:

battlefield 4
arma 3
watchdogs ( when its released)
FSX

at max settings or as near to max as possible. as im looking for it to last at lest a while

the cards iv seen that interest me are:

MSI GTX 780 3gb
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 780 AMP Edition

 

[arnie2013]

Its an hard choice. Now

Well I defo will nit be overclocking the GPU, for now at least il only be using one in my system

U just want to have realistic details in my games.

which is cheaper,
290
7990
7800

 

[arnie2013]

with the r9 290, which manufactuer is best to go for, and what is the unlocked versions called.

not too bothered how much it costs as I have a £400 budget what would you guys say is the ultimate best card I could get for that price rang,e would you still say the r9 290

as I am thinking abit about the future, I don't want a card that will just last 1 year. I want it last a few lol

somebody has just told me get a 680 gxt im confused now

 

[arnie2013]

ok I can see a lot of people saying the r9 290 or the r9 290x

so my question is now but it ll probably be eveyones own preference, which is the best out of these cards

MSI GTX 780 3gb
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 780 AMP Edition
7990
r9 290
r9 290x

out of the five cards about, which would give me the best performance, regardless of noise or heat. also which ,manufactoer

 

[arnie2013]

easy 7990, it is 30% than the rest

ok thank you, do you have a preference on which manaufactoer, or will they all pretty much be the same

 

[arnie2013]

dam iv just checked the spec and the 7990 is 12.1inches long which is 307.34mm

it is too long for my case which can have upto 290mm

any suggestions on the next best card down the list

 

[arnie2013]

7990s are the same, so it varies on warranty only.

Gigabyte 7990 wins out there. See if you can get the price back down to £400, it's been at that a few times lately.

edit:

Ok, too big. The 290X is the best then, but the 290 is almost as fast.

ye iv found the 7990 for £395 but its too big for my case so I carnt buy it, o so your saying thr 290x il have alook at prices for that one now

 

[arnie2013]

I cannot find the 290x for a budget of £400,

but Iv heard you can make a 290 into a 290x if this is true I culd just get one of them

overwise its between the 290 and
MSI GTX 780 3gb
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 780 AMP Edition

 

[arnie2013]

any preference as to which r9 290 manufactoer

 

[arnie2013]

All the 290s at the moment are reference card made by Sapphire regardless of brand, so it's down to warranty and support.

If you buy a XFX/HIS/VTX/PowerColour 290 Pro, there are "chance" which if you flash the bios to the 290x bios, it might unlock to become a full 290x. But the issue is still that the reference cooler would still be a bit loud for most people and GPU temp can be quite high if not turning up the fanspeed (which equal more noise).

Buying MSI and Sapphire card from OcUK the warranty would cover cooler removal (so long as you don't leave evidence of physically damage the card). However, if you are not planning on installing a 3rd party cooler for the 290, you'd either wait for them to be released with custom cooler (should be around early January), or if you want to just get a card right now and forget about it, just go for the MSI GTX780 LE Lightning I mentioned about- and this is coming from a 290 user.

is the pro edition of th r9 290 called the boost edition os is that a different one

 

[arnie2013]

My asus r9 290 will not display the bios properly on my asus sabertooth z77 motherboad anybody know why

But when we remove the card and use onboard graphics rhe bios displays correctly

 

[arnie2013]

Yes downloaded the latest bios for motherboard,
Tested with gtx 560 and also with 7850 and 4850 and no errors with them
It boots into windows perfectly fine its just the bios

 

[arnie2013]

Yes I have just dowmloaded the latest bios update

 

[arnie2013]

Just the clock and cursor, once I mpve the cursor more of the screen appears

 

[arnie2013]

Well I dont really want to be swapping cards iv waited so long ofr this to arrive. Their must be a fix to thiz

 

[arnie2013]

Yes thats correct to both your questions

 

[arnie2013]

Ok thank you

 

[arnie2013]

Is their any settings I could change in the bios while im using theconboard graphics

 

[arnie2013]

Can anybody help at all please

 

[arnie2013]

just wanted to know what can i do to help cool down my r9 290 as iv noticed iv started getting temp notifications on my desktop from the areas surrounding my card

from ( the asus suite i think)