New mid-range GPU

[ReCoN1989]

I am looking to purchase a midrange GPU to be used for 1080P gaming and also for additional processing power. It should be able to:

• Run 'most' games at near max settings at 1080p
• Run cool and quiet under load
• Be compatable with adobe photoshop (CUDA/OpenGL I'm not sure anymore)

Open to AMD or Nvidia, I am unlikely to overclock it. I may well purchase second hand so I would mainly be looking at previous generations, GTX670, GTX760/770 and the AMD equivalents.

 

[trickynickyuk]

what is your budget

 

[ReCoN1989]

Looking around the £100 mark second hand, probably translates to £175-225 new?

 

[ShivP]

GTX 670 or stretching slightly an R9 280X. There's also sometimes 770's going for about £120 and 780's for £135-£140, what a bargain!

 

[MoonBoots]

Bit of a left field answer, but if your "cool and quiet" criteria is a big deal to you and you aren't in a massive rush then it might not be a bad idea to wait for the GTX 960 to be released. Its likely to be released early next year.

 

[ReCoN1989]

Yes I had looked at that, I suspect it may be out of budget. Shivy011, are you reffering to the classifieds here? I'm some way off being able to post there! However a 780 for £135 sounds like a great deal!

 

[trickynickyuk]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-40G) £229.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 280X TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
Total : £1,077.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).



these would be my personal preference i know some are above budget but they are superb cards and you would be able to max every game with them Hope this helps a bit

 

[ReCoN1989]

It does thank you, any reason for the brand choices or purely price motivated? How do Nvidia and AMD compare for applications like Photoshop and Premier pro? Nvidia used to be the way to go, I guess that is no longer the case?

Also any particular cooler to avoid or any that work quietly?

 

[trickynickyuk]

it is the price of them at the min i think they work quite similar to each other with Photoshop i have the reference R9 290 from Asus and i find that it performs fantastic with everything i have had no struggles at all.

for quietness i would look at the tri-x it is supposed to be very quiet or if you are able to find the gigabyte R9 290 windforce x3 that one is very quiet as well

 

[ReCoN1989]

Thanks for the advice, Is it the cooler that makes the r9 290 so loud or is loud cooler required due to the heat, I would like around the 47db level or lower under gaming.

 

[trickynickyuk]

looking at this lik it shouldnt hit over 50db http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290X_Tri-X_OC/23.html and that is under load

 

[Marine-RX179]

Thanks for the advice, Is it the cooler that makes the r9 290 so loud or is loud cooler required due to the heat, I would like around the 47db level or lower under gaming.

The reference blower cooler on the 290x is louder than the other custom coolers on the 290 is because it has a smaller fan, and it actully exhaust most of the heat out the rear rather than dumping all the heat into inside the case.

That's why it would need to spin at much high rpm to control the temp. The 290 with the custom cooler should be loud at all, as long as your have good airflow inside your case.