GPU for 1080p gaming?

[SEEKER1054]

Cant decide whether to get a r9280x or something else. I am from south africa so gpu prices are quite ridiculous.

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

I am currently running 8 gigs ddr3 ram and an i5 4460 on a gigabyte -ga-h81m-s2ph board. Power supply is no problem and I plan on upgrading the board at the end of the year. 

 

 

[ZetZet]

r9 280 has good price and is enough.

[Deletive]

r9 280/r9 285. 

[Hieb]

R9 280, 285, 280X are all great. GTX 770 is also fantastic.

Might be worth waiting a bit to see how the GTX 960 is when it releases, hopefully in a couple weeks. It should hopefully cost around the same as a GTX 760.

[SEEKER1054]

r9 280 has good price and is enough.

To run most anything? its about 400 USD in south africa 

[Faceman]

Don't consider anything with less than 3GB of VRAM for a new GPU.

 

The lowest end GPU you should be considering is the R9 280, it is an excellent GPU for 1080p gaming and will last another couple years.

[SEEKER1054]

R9 280, 285, 280X are all great. GTX 770 is also fantastic.

Might be worth waiting a bit to see how the GTX 960 is when it releases, hopefully in a couple weeks. It should hopefully cost around the same as a GTX 760.

Thats a pretty neat idea. I am only planning on getting the card around june as well. I am scared of getting the 770 because it only has 2 gigs vram so I am not sure how long it would take before it gets dated. I have had a bad pc my whole life (pentium dual core 2.2, 4 gig ddr2 ram, gt610) so I am very new to this hardware and want to make the best decision possible first time around 

[SEEKER1054]

Don't consider anything with less than 3GB of VRAM for a new GPU.

 

The lowest end GPU you should be considering is the R9 280, it is an excellent GPU for 1080p gaming and will last another couple years.

I assume that the scaling would be good if i plan to get another in future for crossfire 

[Faceman]

I assume that the scaling would be good if i plan to get another in future for crossfire 

When doing Xfire or SLI, you don't gain VRAM, it doesn't become 3 + 3, you are still only going to have 3GB of VRAM even if you have two R9 280s.  Does it scale well in terms of performance?  Yes, in most games you can expect about 80% improvement in fps.

[SEEKER1054]

When doing Xfire or SLI, you don't gain VRAM, it doesn't become 3 + 3, you are still only going to have 3GB of VRAM even if you have two R9 280s.  Does it scale well in terms of performance?  Yes, in most games you can expect about 80% improvement in fps.

waitwut. I didnt know that the vram didnt increase! That sucks so bad. but i guess its fine so long as it improves performance by that much running at high-ultra details.

[Faceman]

waitwut. I didnt know that the vram didnt increase! That sucks so bad. but i guess its fine so long as it improves performance by that much running at high-ultra details.

Well, if you're on a 60Hz monitor, anything over 60fps is a waste and the R9 280 already provides that in most titles... In all titles if you are willing to lower graphics details.  Anyways, the R9 280 is an amazing GPU, and I personally think it is the best entry level 1080p gaming GPU on the market right now and for the future.

[SEEKER1054]

Well, if you're on a 60Hz monitor, anything over 60fps is a waste and the R9 280 already provides that in most titles... In all titles if you are willing to lower graphics details.  Anyways, the R9 280 is an amazing GPU, and I personally think it is the best entry level 1080p gaming GPU on the market right now and for the future.

i am on a 60hz monitor (i am assuming the refresh rate is directly proportional to the maximium possible frame rate without screen tearing) and i have never seen 60 fps on my pc in game. on a side note, is the performance diff between the 280 and the 280x really big enough for the price change? 

[Faceman]

i am on a 60hz monitor (i am assuming the refresh rate is directly proportional to the maximium possible frame rate without screen tearing) and i have never seen 60 fps on my pc in game. on a side note, is the performance diff between the 280 and the 280x really big enough for the price change?

Not at all, get the 280, non-x

[SEEKER1054]

Not at all, get the 280, non-x

Thank you very much for your advice. I will be getting it soon then. Hope you have a great 2015

[Mush Brain]

r9 280 has good price and is enough.

[zappian]

r9 290 if you can push it .

[SteveGrabowski]

Thats a pretty neat idea. I am only planning on getting the card around june as well. I am scared of getting the 770 because it only has 2 gigs vram so I am not sure how long it would take before it gets dated. I have had a bad pc my whole life (pentium dual core 2.2, 4 gig ddr2 ram, gt610) so I am very new to this hardware and want to make the best decision possible first time around 

 

The 2GB cards like the GTX 770 and R9 285 are already dated. I wouldn't touch them for 1080p gaming now.

[SteveGrabowski]

Thank you very much for your advice. I will be getting it soon then. Hope you have a great 2015

 

No way, the R9 280x is significantly more powerful than the R9 280.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1332

 

For great 1080p performance I'd recommend either

 

1. R9 280x

2. R9 290

3. GTX 970

 

In the US the R9 290 is priced obscenely low for the value it provides; just $40-$50 or so more than the R9 280x for a lot better performance. Then the 970 is a little better performance than the 290 for $80 or so more. I don't know the situation in South Africa though. Check the relative performance between the cards in that anandtech bench I linked above. Also, their numbers for the R9 290 are a little low: for non-reference designs (e.g., non-blowers) the performance will be somewhere between that of the R9 290 and R9 290x.

[SEEKER1054]

No way, the R9 280x is significantly more powerful than the R9 280.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1332

 

For great 1080p performance I'd recommend either

 

1. R9 280x

2. R9 290

3. GTX 970

 

In the US the R9 290 is priced obscenely low for the value it provides; just $40-$50 or so more than the R9 280x for a lot better performance. Then the 970 is a little better performance than the 290 for $80 or so more. I don't know the situation in South Africa though. Check the relative performance between the cards in that anandtech bench I linked above. Also, their numbers for the R9 290 are a little low: for non-reference designs (e.g., non-blowers) the performance will be somewhere between that of the R9 290 and R9 290x.

in my country the gtx 970 is equivalent to 600 dollars so yeah... 

I am only getting the card in june about so im in no rush at all to completly look over each card and its performance. I will check out each card you mentioned that i havent done extensive research on already

to get south african gpu prices it is a good rule of thumb to just add 180% to the price 

[SEEKER1054]

The 2GB cards like the GTX 770 and R9 285 are already dated. I wouldn't touch them for 1080p gaming now.

thank you for telling me! was wondering about that 

[SEEKER1054]

in my country the gtx 970 is equivalent to 600 dollars so yeah... 

I am only getting the card in june about so im in no rush at all to completly look over each card and its performance. I will check out each card you mentioned that i havent done extensive research on already

to get south african gpu prices it is a good rule of thumb to just add 180% to the price 

I am also just using a measly 60hz 1080p monitor so I just want stability as I am used to frame drops from 40fps down to 5fps on most anything 

[SteveGrabowski]

in my country the gtx 970 is equivalent to 600 dollars so yeah... 

I am only getting the card in june about so im in no rush at all to completly look over each card and its performance. I will check out each card you mentioned that i havent done extensive research on already

to get south african gpu prices it is a good rule of thumb to just add 180% to the price 

 

By June the graphics card market is likely to be completely different with AMD's release of the R9 300 series and Nvidia's likely counter with GM200. Maybe you'll be able to find some great clearance deals on R9 290's once the R9 300 series launches to replace it.