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Quick upgrade for 6870?

I had the Gigabyte GTX670 which had a very similar cooler, and that was nice and quiet and ran cool as well, granted the 290 is more powerful and runs hotter but it should still be a decent buy :)
 
If nvidia then you can have gsync and if like you say you might get a new monitor then you could get a gsync compatible monitor and well ill let u google gsync incase you wana read about it incase you dont know about it yet. But worth thinking about as its quite nice by all accounts to have. But you need a gsync mon for it to work as well as a nvidia card. Which should i think make vsync a thing of the past, no more tearing and smoother visuals with less input lag. I think...

The new nvidia drivers also have helped push performance on nvidia cards but most notably i think on the 770-780 series. So if your lookin at benchmarks make sure they are running with the latest 337.50 beta drivers for that performance.

Also to consider, do you like bf4 to death if so amd has mantle which helps performance for that game and another title or two, tho not more than that yet but possibly more in the future but thats if you like them games that mantle will be used on. If your more of a cod player then mantle isnt as important for you as i dont think that will be using it but who knows it might down the line. :/

Just somit to consider.

Also i dunno if its still valid but nvidia had usually better AA and AF on their cards compared to AMDs cards of similar range. Might have changed with the newer cards i dunno but like i said generally nvidia was better in performance/quality that way. Someone feel free to correct me if im wrong here of course.
 
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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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wildest_jjk said:
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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When people tell you Nvidia are better quality you need to ask them what they mean by that.

A lot of time people are clutching at straws to find a way to justify Nvidia's overpriced cards.

The Fact is AMD's cards are of exactly the same quality, they are made in the same factory by the same people.
 
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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 :)
 
wildest_jjk said:
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 :)
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Yes its right, The Gigabyte is not at all loud, none of the Custom 290's are. its a good card with UK RMA. :)
 
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!
 
wildest_jjk said:
Just to make sure as well, my CPU isn't a bottleneck if I choose to go for the Gigabyte R9 290 is it?

I have an i5 2500K, not currently overclocked.

Thanks :)
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I would overclock it, but if your going for the 290 then Mantle will make whatever lack of CPU performance you may have null in Games that support it.

I run a 4 year old AMD CPU in BF4, in normal DirectX the CPU is a problem, In Mantle its not.



 
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!
 
wildest_jjk said:
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!
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For all games currently get the 290, If playing bf4 and other future mantle games then get the 280, you have to ask yourself if the 100 pounds is worth it for "maybe" turning some settings down in some games or not as I think the actual gaming image quality between ultra and high settings is not Huge and fps from 60 for the 280 to 80 for the 290 won't really be noticed.

For £100 you might want to consider that if gta5 does come around on PC then the extra power might be worth it to you.
 
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.
 
wildest_jjk said:
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.
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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 ;)
 
Ian Evey said:
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 ;)
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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.
 
Ian Evey said:
£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.
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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.

The cost is another 20 to 70 pounds for a 780, and game wise there really is only a difference in certain games.

You will be perfectly happy with your card.
 
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Ian Evey said:
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.
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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 :)
 
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