best graphics card for budget £400

Marine-RX179 · 30 Nov 2013 at 14:45

arnie2013 said:
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

OcUK was selling the pre-flashed 290 to 290x VTX for £360 and HIS with with BF4 £385, but I just had a look and they seem to all have sold out already.

I myself have gotten one of the pre-flashed VTX, and I just fitted a Gelid Icy Vision Rev2 graphic card cooler (only costed £30) last night, and this card is a beast for under £400 in cost in total.

However, since the pre-flashed 290 have now sold out, I'd actually recommend to buy this 780 instead:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-234-MS

It's within your budget, and shouldn't be too much slower than the 290/290x once you overclock it high. It comes with 3 free games as well. If I not already got the pre-flashed 290 last week, I'd be tempted by this card as well.

arnie2013 · 30 Nov 2013 at 14:56

any preference as to which r9 290 manufactoer

Marine-RX179 · 30 Nov 2013 at 15:33

arnie2013 said:
any preference as to which r9 290 manufactoer

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.

arnie2013 · 30 Nov 2013 at 15:40

Marine-RX179 said:
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

Marine-RX179 · 30 Nov 2013 at 15:42

arnie2013 said:
is the pro edition of th r9 290 called the boost edition os is that a different one

No. We call it 290Pro and 290x for being more clear on which card we are talking about. The 290x is the top card of AMD, and the 290Pro is the card one tier lower (cost only 75% of 290x's price, but has 95% of its performance).

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:08

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

humbug · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:12

arnie2013 said:
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

Does the Motherboard have the latest BIOS?

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:16

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

SouthEastBlue · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:16

Update your motherboard BIOS, and try again.

Edit: Too slow!

Avenged7Fold · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:17

arnie2013 said:
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

What do you see when you go into the bios?

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:17

Yes I have just dowmloaded the latest bios update

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:18

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

shatpank81 · 7 Dec 2013 at 00:59

Can defo recommend the msi gtx 780 gaming
I have this, im well happy with it and yet to struggle with anything i have thrown at it

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 02:02

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

humbug · 7 Dec 2013 at 02:04

arnie2013 said:
Just the clock and cursor, once I mpve the cursor more of the screen appears

Les me get this right, is it the Motherboard BIOS that is causing problems while your in it with this GPU?

Is it a UEFI BIOS?

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 02:06

Yes thats correct to both your questions

humbug · 7 Dec 2013 at 02:16

Ok this looks like a BIOS issue with the GPU, I think the BIOS on the Asus GPU is also UEFI, UEFI BIOS on a GPU is not always the best thing, it wouldn't be the first time a UEFI GPU has created problems, but it is unusual. What i would do is try and find a None UEFI BIOS for the GPU and flash it.

I'm not sure anybody here can help as BIOS issues are not really something that can be fixed by messing with it as the BIOS is inaccessible through a normal environment.

(i hope someone proves that wrong and has an answer)

Your best bet is to contact Asus directly, they also have a support forum http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=9&SLanguage=en-us

Not sure how much use they will be, worth a try.

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 03:36

Ok thank you

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 11:37

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

arnie2013 · 7 Dec 2013 at 13:03

Can anybody help at all please