What GPU Do I Need?

[OneManArmy]

I am in the market for a new GPU (I would use for gaming) and wanted to see all of your suggestions, has to be under $600, 2GB GDDR5 or more, and can be any length. Also if it should be reference or non-reference. I don't plan on doing any liquid cooling, but i do plan on overclocking. 

 

Please no spam or trolling, THANKS!

[Deletive]

Nvidia for sure... just better performance (970/980)

[-MOBIUS-]

Right now I think many would say NVIDIA because of their new cards, but for me AMD, because.............

[typographie]

I am in the market for a new GPU and wanted to see all of your suggestions, has to be under $600, 2GB GDDR5 or more, and can be any length. and if you have no suggestions, tell me which you would choose, AMD cards or NVIDIA cards, and why? THANKS!

 

Better not to think of this as AMD versus Nvidia, but rather what the best product is that meets your needs. And as of right now that is certainly a GTX 980.

[OneManArmy]

Better not to think of this as AMD versus Nvidia, but rather what the best product is that meets your needs. And as of right now that is certainly a GTX 980.

a reference or non-reference, i don't plan on water cooling, but i do plan on overclocking if i get that card.

[JoshM]

At this current point 970/980 are definitely worth it, 

[Clyne]

If you want a toasty room, noisy card, and use more power: R9 290X, If not and you want a better price to performance ratio card, energy efficient card, quieter and cooler card: GTX 970

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355

Benchmarks

[typographie]

a reference or non-reference, i don't plan on water cooling, but i do plan on overclocking if i get that card.

 

Its not urgently necessary, since the 980 is surprisingly efficient and cool enough to do fine with a reference cooler, but I'd still prefer to get one with a non-reference cooler. Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI are my favorites, but of course there's many more that are perfectly fine.

[Cheddle]

Recently I have used: (price when purchased in AUD) (sold second hand for)

GTX770 Windforce ($499) ($300)
R9 290 MSI Twin Frozor ($449) ($300)
crossfire R9 290 ($449+$300) ($600)
GTX980 G1 Gaming ($839) (n/a)

 

obviously the gtx980 is the best of the lot, cooler, quieter and more powerful than all except the crossfire r9 290's - but I had compatibility issues with crossfire, too much heat and too much noise for the difference to be worth it (about 20-30%)

 

in games:

The GTX770 was adequate high/ultra settings @ 1080

The r9 290 was ideal for ultra settings @ 1080

The crossfire setup was ideal for ultra settings @ 4k

The GTX980 is adequate for ultra settings @ 4k and ideal for high/v.high settings @ 4k

 

In all honesty though a $150 GTX750ti will play anything... it depends on how much you are willing to compromise on visuals and resolution / frame rates - achieving very high standards of both will hurt your wallet.

 

If you have the motherboard, PSU and case space and only play games that 100% work with SLI/crossfire then go for SLI GTX970's for the best bang for buck currently (without extreme thermals/noise)

[Siddhesh]

Get the 980