GFX Card Upgrade - FAO Nerds.

[silverzx]

Obviously the R9 380X has been launched and I wanted the opinion of you GFX card guru's to help me choose an appropriate card for my rig!

I mostly play Fallout 4, Guild Wars 2, BattleField, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, etc. So fairly modern games!

I'm considering the R9 380:

Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 Windforce AMD Graphics Card 4GB - £166.06 Inc VAT



GTX960:

Gigabyte GTX960 Windforce 2X Cooler OC NVIDIA Graphics Card 4GB - £158.35 Inc VAT



R9 380X:

SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 380X DUAL X AMD Graphics Card 4GB - £190.74 Inc VAT



I need help deciding which is best for my requirements. From what I can tell the R9 380X isn't much better then the 380 for the £26 difference and isn't much better then the GTX960 for the extra £34?

I would like to think I might go 1440P in the future but I'm quite happy at 1080P fow now.

I've also just purchased a EVGA 650W G2 PSU so that should handle any of the above.

[Midnightclub]

If you can afford to spend a tiny bit more (there's some pretty decent 'cyber monday' deals about still) I'd go for a GTX 970 instead - will happily cope with basically any current game at 1080p 60Hz on ultra, will do most new games at 1440p on ultra too or 1440p downscaled to 1080p

[silverzx]

If you can afford to spend a tiny bit more (there's some pretty decent 'cyber monday' deals about still) I'd go for a GTX 970 instead - will happily cope with basically any current game at 1080p 60Hz on ultra, will do most new games at 1440p on ultra too or 1440p downscaled to 1080p

Link or GTFO? 

£240 cheapest I can find: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-GeForce-Gr...rds=GTX970

[Midnightclub]

Yeah there were a few for 229, but they've gone back up to 239 by the looks of it - I'd still spend the extra though to be honest. Spend more now and it lasts longer over time, buy cheap buy twice as the saying goes

The difference between the above cards and the 970 and on 'range' is probably about 20 FPS difference at 1080p meaning about 40 FPS at 1080 instead of 60+ (Crysis 3 as a benchmark)

[bashbarnard]

I run a gtx 760 ti. Not the best card in the world but on my rig will max out the graphics on fallout 4 easily and ive never had an issue with any game.

[silverzx]

I run a gtx 760 ti. Not the best card in the world but on my rig will max out the graphics on fallout 4 easily and ive never had an issue with any game.

Exactly why I don't see the point in going for a £240 card which will perform same as a £160 card in 1080P.

[bashbarnard]

Same reason i bought slightly cheaper. You can go balls out but to be fair what i generally do is wait for them to update a new card and buy the one before the update nice and cheap

[Midnightclub]

It just depends whether you want to have to upgrade again in a year or two's time. A cheaper card will be fine for the moment, but give it a year or two and it will start to struggle.

I'm holding out for the moment til they release the next line of cards then I'll upgrade, which tbh is what you should do too because I imagine 970's will be sub 200 quid by that point

[Rippthrough]

Secondhand 7970 will do all those on ultra for half the price....

[WukaChop]

Depends what you're after really. I know you've said above but I'm running an old Radeon HD 3870 and that'll still max any pre 2013 game without any effort and the only real thing stopping it right now is software.

I agree with the above, a second hand 7970 or other second hand GPU will run all of the above for half the price.

[silverzx]

Secondhand 7970 will do all those on ultra for half the price....

I'm currently running a HD7850 2GB.

[insomaniac45]

The very best place i have found to compare gfx cards, is GPU boss.
They have a stupidly vast data base, and tell you straight up which one is better, they compare things like noise, power draw, temp as well as the basics of 3d rendering, and many more.

They also have a league table which covers all the gfx cards they have currently tested, its not just Nvidia or AMD, it is all the inbetween makes too, like Plait, Asus, Evga, Msi, Gygabyte etc etc, so it does cover 99% of the GFX cards out there.

http://gpuboss.com/

[toseland]

That's a fine card, also that is more than enough for what you want...

Will do fine on 1080p for your stuff.. I run dual 980's and they handle all games at 4k

[toseland]

i should have said the GTX960.. the Nvidia software is, in my opinion, better and a little less intrusive than then ATi software (and i have both PCs with both cards before you all say i am biased)

[Midnightclub]

The very best place i have found to compare gfx cards, is GPU boss.
They have a stupidly vast data base, and tell you straight up which one is better, they compare things like noise, power draw, temp as well as the basics of 3d rendering, and many more.

They also have a league table which covers all the gfx cards they have currently tested, its not just Nvidia or AMD, it is all the inbetween makes too, like Plait, Asus, Evga, Msi, Gygabyte etc etc, so it does cover 99% of the GFX cards out there.

http://gpuboss.com/

You realise that the Asus, Evga, MSi, Zotac etc etc.. are still AMD and Nvidia cards? They just generally have different coolers, different amount of overclocking, warranty etc etc.. 

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From a comparison perspective, the GTX 960 and the R9 380 are very similar with the R9 being marginally more powerful, but uses more power and generates more heat, noise (if either of those are a factor for you Trent)

[silverzx]

Went for a 970. /thread

[Midnightclub]

HA! Good lad.

[toseland]

well played... lol, good decision too,

[tigerstyle]

They also have a league table which covers all the gfx cards they have currently tested, its not just Nvidia or AMD, it is all the inbetween makes too, like Plait, Asus, Evga, Msi, Gygabyte etc etc, so it does cover 99% of the GFX cards out there.

http://gpuboss.com/

You realise that the Asus, Evga, MSi, Zotac etc etc.. are still AMD and Nvidia cards? They just generally have different coolers, different amount of overclocking, warranty etc etc.. 

Noise, power draw, heat also tested. +dims, cooler, accessories...

[insomaniac45]

 its not just Nvidia or AMD, it is all the inbetween makes too, like Plait, Asus, Evga, Msi, Gygabyte etc etc, so it does cover 99% of the GFX cards out there.

http://gpuboss.com/

You realise that the Asus, Evga, MSi, Zotac etc etc.. are still AMD and Nvidia cards? They just generally have different coolers, different amount of overclocking, warranty etc etc.. 

hence why i wrote as underlined above

[Midnightclub]

It was just the way it was written, made it seem like they were separate to AMD and NVidia