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Gpu buying options...

theaterix

theaterix

theaterix

Associate
Joined
3 Nov 2014
Posts
1,541
Location
Newcastle, England
So im looking at now buying a new GPU as i was advised by a nice gentleman that a sick watercooling loop was, in fairness a bit of a waste as my money would be better spent on a new GPU and a monitor, which i see a lot of point in.
I have about £1200 in total but would much prefer not to spend it all if you gentlemen (I know yous wont) can save me some money hehe.
What card(s) should i be looking at..?

My current system is:
AMD 8320 CPU
Corsair H100 Cpu cooler
MSI 990FXA-GD65 MOBO
Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600Mhz RAM
Sapphire Reference R9 290 GPU
Corsair CX750M PSU
LG 29UB65-P Monitor

What should i be looking out for? Also, what specific brand if there is any to avoid? I am aware of EVGA being one of the very best, but is there any massive Nono's?
 
fx63007850 said:
Do you want 1 card or 2 cards, and you get to choose from amd or nvidia (fury or 980ti)
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Oooo i like you i get choices :D And i would like performance per pound really, I personally love AMD and would like to put my money into their pocket, but if they are going off the one thing i loved, then its pointless isnt it!
1 or 2, i dont really mind too much if i am honest :)
 
At the moment, at the top end the Nvidia 980Ti is simply a better all-rounder card than the AMD Fury X...but regardless of which of these two cards you are getting, your AMD CPU will be dragging their legs somewhat for dx11/dx9 games, if you are still at 1080p.

Taking that into consideration, you could may be just get a Freesync 2560x1440 144Hz monitor and stick with your 290 for now, and save the rest of the money and do a full system upgrade next year, when graphic cards finally moved-on from the 28nm boat. You might also not even need to upgrade from the AMD platform by then, if dx12 works as well as we all hoping it to be for new game titles that CPU performance become less important, and you'd have more money to spend on graphic card(s).
 
Just get a free-sync monitor and wait until next year for a system upgrade. If you want more oomph and are considering crossfire you can crossfire the 390 with the 290 so just buy one 390 as well.

Personally I'd go for free-sync on 3440x1440 with a 390 for your 290. That'll keep you going until the die shrink provides you with a true single card option for that screen.
 
fx63007850 said:
What case have you got now and @nashathedog i wouldn't xfire a 390 eith a 290 unless its the 8gb model.
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Grabbing a 2nd hand 290 for around £130 is an option, but he OP would need to upgrade his PSU to at least at decent 850W...and then also if he's not upgrading his monitor to higher than 1080p res, the FX8320 will bottleneck the crossfire setup quite heavily (at least until dx12 properly takes off).

So to crossfire or not would be depending on if OP will be moving on from 1080p I guess.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Grabbing a 2nd hand 290 for around £130 is an option, but he OP would need to upgrade his PSU to at least at decent 850W...and then also if he's not upgrading his monitor to higher than 1080p res, the FX8320 will bottleneck the crossfire setup quite heavily (at least until dx12 properly takes off).

So to crossfire or not would be depending on if OP will be moving on from 1080p I guess.
Click to expand...

I am currently on 2560x1080, yes 1080p, but i like to describe it as the half way point between 1080 and 1440? I would be looking to upgrade to probably 2560x1440 if one at 144hz comes out, and is a decent price!
 
yes I do. I have the BenQ 1440p Freesync monitor which is an incredible screen. Freesync/Gsync is a total game changer, definitely recommend getting one of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-113-BQ&groupid=17&catid=948

Regarding your path, you're in quite a tricky position I'd say. While that 290 is still a pretty decent card, you have quite a few options right now which is a little tricky. Throwing a Freesync screen to that 290 as it is will feel like your frames have taken a jump anyway. Freesync has a brilliant way of making the motion and frame feel so smooth, at times it feels like you're actually playing at 30% more fps when you're obviously not.

With Pascal and the next round of cards less than a year away, adding the Freesync might be a good start, but that cpu/ram and card will need to be upgraded at some point as it'll be a bottleneck. You could always get a 2nd 290 with a Freesync screen which would be a lovely boost, quite a powerful setup for less that £500, but you would need to upgrade your CPU, mobo and RAM to really push both those cards.

Or you could upgrade your motherboard, RAM and CPU along with the Freesync monitor and keep plugging away with the one 290 for the time being until the big cards come out next year. That way you'll have the base of your rig there, you wont get a bottleneck etc.

I myself am running MSI 390 crossfire setup on a I7 3770k, it absolutely tears games to pieces at 1440p. Most of my games sit at a 120fps cap that I have enabled, only few exceptions like Witcher 3, GTAV where I can't keep it at 120fps with ultra settings. I still believe, not just because I have that kind of setup, that for your money you get one hell of a bang for your buck on crossfire 290/390 (no need for X models). It'll quite easily match the fastest 980ti/Titan setup out there, in some cases beat it, to me it's a bit of a no brainer as I've had very little issues with crossfire in all the years I've been running various setups.

I have just watercooled my cards, just recently done my first custom loop, it's a wonderful route IMO, incredibly cool and insanely fast.

21780729820_46575ba027_c.jpg


this is how the BenQ looks and size

21967767055_1189fdd819_c.jpg



You definitely want to get a Freesync screen though, like I said it's a game changer.
 
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