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Quick upgrade for 6870?

Somit like a 670 2nd hand for about 80 quid would do ya at 1080p for awhile yet.

If you want somit better i duno probs a 270 or 280 probably or 776-770 maybe?

Tho if u wana save some money like i said should be somit like a 670 going for 90 quid on members market which u should have access too or a whatever takes ur fancy. Especially if your only at 1080p res monitors and dont plan to upgrade to a higher res for quite awhile. If you do then get somit a bit better than a 670 maybe 3gb min or so i dunno. Wouldnt get a 290 unless ur serious and have the monitor and cpu for it.

Edit - just seen in MM a 7950 for £114 id snap that up tbh.

Thanks for the response. I do see your point and it was how I was originally thinking. However I don't really want to go down the second hand route. For future proofing I think an R9 290 would be good. Especially when it comes to purchasing new components and extra monitors (all of which are quite likely).

If anyone else does agree with perhaps a 780 again then I'm willing to rethink though. Anyway I want to order today and have just been looking at the video card benchmark here:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html#value

When I look at the price performance the GTX780/770 seem to be better. They are also higher on the list. Is this website testing something more specifically that the Nvidias are better at?

I'm still concerned I should be going with Nvidia. If not then it's likely I will be ordering a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC. Any help appreciated again.

Thanks everyone :)
 
A 780 is faster in some games a 290 is faster in others. Both are great cards and roughly equal overall and either will serve your purpose.
290's are cheaper than 780 normally so unless your after a feature/s of Nvidia then that tri-x should be good for you

Thanks, I don't think I'm after any particular features. Although it is always annoying have to disable things like vsync, though I don't know what benefit it gives.

The Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce has a slightly higher core speed and a longer warranty than the Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC. Does anyone have either of these cards?
 
Thanks guys. It sounds like the Gigabyte is a winner then.

In terms of whether or not to go with Nvidia and talking about mantle etc. I realise that its quite hard to know what games will be supported. Really I will be playing DayZ quite a lot and GTA5 when and if it comes out on PC.

If there is a similar performance between the GTX 780 and R9 290 then the cheapest would be best for me. I will take a look at the 780 prices again first.

Thanks again :)

EDIT: I have just read your edit above, this is one of the things that worries me. I have never had an Nvidia card and I always feel that I'm missing out on the quality/better feature set. This may be completely wrong so apologies if this is.
 
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I think for the price the R9 290 is definitely better than the GTX 780. Considering it's already a lot more than I was going to spend I will stick to AMD. The difference between the 280X and the 290 was roughly 30% apparently but the 290 costs about 35% more.

That's a comparison between the Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce and the Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC.

I think if Gigabyte is UK support then that is a big plus. Also I like the fact the core clock speed is higher than the Sapphire equivalent. I just hope the Gigabyte isn't too loud etc.

So if what I have said is correct price performance between these two the 280X would be better? Is that right?

Thanks guys :)
 
Lol thanks guys, so I am going to go with a Gigabyte for sure then. I know some of the issues people have with RMA's in other countries. The extra warranty is also great.

The whole MSI situation I have heard about its absolutely ridiculous. I really would expect better from them, they have been pretty good for me personally before.

I just need to decide 280X or 290 now... :)

Thanks again!
 
Thanks again that's really helpful.

I think I'm sorted then just deciding between 280X or the 290. It's quite a tough decision to be honest as it's pretty much a £100 difference.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for your response.

I would agree, I think I'm going to go for the 290. If I want to change in a few months I think it should hold its value and not disappear off the face of the earth like my 6870.

I'm now looking at the Sapphire R9 290 OC again now instead of the gigabyte. A lot of people seem to say it runs cooler etc which I can only imagine as being a good thing.
 
If you don't overclock the card and just setup a fan profile to your liking ( louder but cool ). (. Quieter but a bit hotter ). Then all the 290's are fine, if you wanted an extra 10% fps wise in the future then get the coolest card you can but in all honesty any non reference 290 will do great.

I hear the sapphire tri x 290 is very cool, The only problem with it is it's orange ;)

Haha no problem, thanks for the advice. I keep saying it but I'm going to order today. I can't wait but it's just a lot of money!
 
£329 is a good price for a sapphire tri x 290 Oc and although it's a lot of money you will have hours of fun at ultra settings on any game currently out.

I had a nvidia 670 which cost £300 20 months ago and recently got a 780 for £380 and have never looked back.

Yeh you are right. Can I ask why a GTX 780? I think Nvidia is still in the back of my mind even after what everyone has explained in this thread. It's partly the dilemma I'm having.

Cheers :)
 
For me I was perfectly happy with my 670, but wanted a faster better card. The 780 was not my first choice but that's another story not really relevant.
After debating it I just like the nvidia control panel better than amd's.

Maybe if I had come from an amd card like yourself instead of my 670 I would have got a 290.

Ok thanks that makes sense. The thing is I am happy to leave AMD providing what I am going to is better. That does not seem the case with the high end cards at the moment. So I think it would be silly to make that switch yet.

I'm not trying to cause any Nvidia/AMD arguments either lol. Just trying to get whats best for the money :)
 
That sounds pretty sweet. I've just been thinking again about the 280X and thinking that the extra £100 I save from the 290 could be spent on a new SSD.

None of my games are on my SSD as its only 60GB. I watched a video that is in one of the new threads in the graphics card section which talked about the difference SSD makes to games. Then I realised that actually as mine is so small none of them are on it!
 
lol... one game and thats it?


lol a 'true' AAA title which hundreds of thousands of people play. What a way to disprove your own point.

Humbug didn't really have a 780 so take what he says with a pinch of salt.

I don't want to be rude/ignorant but I don't actually understand the point you guys are making. Could you explain to me please?

Thanks!
 
So I'm still debating between an R9 290 or a GTX 780 as they are quite similar in price. I keep hearing a lot of mixed views as well, which is expected. Something that you guys have suggested is to base my decision off of the games that I play. I'm trying to sum up the main games I will be playing below:

DayZ standalone
Battlefield 4
Arma 3
GTA 5 (If it comes out?)
Titanfall
Call of Duty (Possibly new ones)
Planetside 2
Watchdogs (Maybe)
The Crew (Maybe)

Can anyone tell me or point me to some benchmarks for how the game two cards perform in these games?

I've found some for battlefield 4 etc but for games like Titanfall I cannot find them. I realise some games aren't out yet as well but if people know already whether AMD or Nvidia wil be better for them then that will be good to know also.

Thanks guys :)
 
I think with those games you've got enough of a split to call the two cards even in performance. Sure the 780 will perform better in some and vice-versa but you're talking a couple of FPS here or there.

So look at the other things such as cost, unique features, reliability etc.

I thought that might be the case, that's a shame lol.

No problem, thanks for your help :)
 
Thanks again guys.

This whole Mantle/DX12 saga definitely makes the decision a bit harder. It's the typical problem when it comes to buying technology.

So DX12 will work on AMD cards as well, plus AMD will have Mantle if it continues? Just to make sure DirectX games are always a lot better on Nvidia? Or is this not true..

Cheers :)
 
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