Graphics Cards "Welp!"

[sorin220]

so 1st of all hello to everyone in this community or reading this, this is my 1st topic, and hopefully ill find the answer to my question with YOUR help and knowledge, so you might be wondering what made me come here in 1st place? 

 

This Vid: 

 

so now to the main question and explanation of my reasons & concerns, i am currently building a gaming pc so to say, 

this was my initial goal: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/sorin220/saved/HbY8TW

 

ive ordered the case and motherboard so far, both arrived and ready for the next tools, now my main question is around the GPU i realized that the GTX960 will defenetly not be a good bet for future gaming, all that maxwell stuff and bla bla, wached tons of reviews and stuff, a 970 wuld be too expensive, a 980 even more, thing is the 960 has 2gb ddr5 with a 128 bit bus or w/e it is which is kinda limited, i recently started taking a look at the r9 290 they seem way more powerfull and kinda fit into my price range for now, im not planning on some really demanding games, i mostly play mmorpgs or mobas , some examples of games wuld be, Tera Online, Neverwinter, Smite, EVE Online, stuff like that mostly, so im just looking for the perfect GPU to fit on that MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard that would allow me to play the games above freely and be prepared for the upcoming games like maybe Star Citizen, and i am really confused now, i was all time nVidia fanboy right, but AMD seems to have better budget options like the r9 290 for example, but i am missing one important thing, the 960 G1 Gaming has thous nice "WINDFORCE" side leds, and that wuld really make my PC shine insideout so im looking for a GPU that is as good as a r9 290 (4GB DDR5 ,512 Bit Memory Interface, Etc) but i want the GPU to have Leds on in that can clearely make it look badass! 

 

i am sorry if this all got you confused so far, my english is not the best, not the worst eighter id say, but to resume it all in 1 question wuld be:

 

-I need a good GPU with badass Leds on it like "Windforce" ones, 

 

thats basicly it, (SLI or CrossFire wuld be nice aswell on the GPU)

 

Thank you for your time and attention on reading this, best regards!

[Aniallation]

Oh geez. If you have the power to run it, no Nvidia card for the price range is worth it over an R9 290 just for the LEDs.

 

Although they're not "badass", the Sapphire Vapor-X and XFX DD R9 290s have LEDs.

[AMD Lover]

I would go with a R9 290 or even the 290x is you can stretch the buckos. There're lots of options on Newegg and a lot of them have LED's and don't say it. If you're looking for a BADASS card get the Sapphire ones. They look pretty sweet. If you want more of a subdued thats cool looking GPU then look at XFX. Go look around, I think you'll find something.

 

XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150697&cm_re=r9_290-_-14-150-697-_-Product

 

Sapphire Tri-X: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202080&cm_re=r9_290-_-14-202-080-_-Product

Edited February 18, 2015 by AMD Lover

[TheKDub]

2GB is fine for what you plan to do, if you run into issues of not enough VRAM then just turn down some settings.

 

The 970 is an amazing card, I've got the G1 Gaming and it has given me no problems at all.

[sorin220]

wow i actually did not expect such fast answers, and such detailed ones, i want to thank you all so much for this!

 

-TheKDub thers some 970 fiasco, bout thous 3,5 vram module and the 500mb separated one at lower speed, so im kinda out of that league,

 

-Anyways an r9 290 or r9 290x you guys say? im defenetly looking into that now, how about for the rest of the PC build? is it gonna do fine for gaming? or shuld i better swich some stuff while i can (cant swich the mobo and case tho)

[AMD Lover]

wow i actually did not expect such fast answers, and such detailed ones, i want to thank you all so much for this!

 

-TheKDub thers some 970 fiasco, bout thous 3,5 vram module and the 500mb separated one at lower speed, so im kinda out of that league,

 

-Anyways an r9 290 or r9 290x you guys say? im defenetly looking into that now, how about for the rest of the PC build? is it gonna do fine for gaming? or shuld i better swich some stuff while i can (cant swich the mobo and case tho)

If you haven't bought the processor yet you might as well go with the FX-8350 or the FX-8370

[sorin220]

Okei so below is what im getting then according to everyone suggestions, now a few other questions arise obviously, will that 750W power supply do it? does the GPU fit well in the MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard? is there space for a CrossFire in there? becouse sooner or later i am getting the 2nd one for the lolz...

 

Link for MOBO specs: http://us.msi.com/product/mb/970-GAMING.html#hero-overview

[ComradeHX]

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16814202137

Just buy this if you worry about power and do not care for freesync.

That way you can save money for a decent intel cpu build.（return the mobo, amd gaming build isn't worth it at your budget）.

[AMD Lover]

Okei so below is what im getting then according to everyone suggestions, now a few other questions arise obviously, will that 750W power supply do it? does the GPU fit well in the MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard? is there space for a CrossFire in there? becouse sooner or later i am getting the 2nd one for the lolz...

 

Link for MOBO specs: http://us.msi.com/product/mb/970-GAMING.html#hero-overview

Yeah that PSU will do you fine. If I were you and you WEREN'T going to add another 290 at one point I would drop to maybe 650w and get a 80 Plus Gold PSU. HOWEVER, if you are going to get another 290 at some point stick with the PSU you have... HOWEVER, now I realize I know zero clue what brand that is... IF its a known brand in the EU stick with it however I would go name brand. Corsair is VERY cheap yet they put quality components in their parts. So wattage is just fine, you could drop to 650w or even 550w most likely if you weren't going to add another card and then you could get a PSU with a 80 Plus Gold standard HOWEVER if you plan to add another 290 stick somewhere in the 750w range but choose a different name brand PSU.

Edited February 18, 2015 by AMD Lover

[sorin220]

Yeah that PSU will do you fine. If I were you and you WEREN'T going to add another 290 at one point I would drop to maybe 650w and get a 80 Plus Gold PSU. HOWEVER, if you are going to get another 290 at some point stick with the PSU you have... HOWEVER, now I realize I know zero clue what brand that is... IF its a known brand in the EU stick with it however I would go name brand. Corsair is VERY cheap yet they put quality components in their parts. So wattage is just fine, you could drop to 650w or even 550w most likely if you weren't going to add another card and then you could get a PSU with a 80 Plus Gold standard HOWEVER if you plan to add another 290 stick somewhere in the 750w range but choose a different name brand PSU.

Well yeah i can get a Corsair Modulated PSU ill still get it at about 750W since for optimized power consumption it is recomended to have x2 as much, i mean, if youre GPU requires like 400w for optimal energy consumption youd need a 800W PSU, atleast thats what ive read around, but damn that r9 is so huge, im looking at some reviews now , and im just starting to fear it can be incompatible with my mobo, or it can just be too big at some point, or will it fit just fine?

[AMD Lover]

Well yeah i can get a Corsair Modulated PSU ill still get it at about 750W since for optimized power consumption it is recomended to have x2 as much, i mean, if youre GPU requires like 400w for optimal energy consumption youd need a 800W PSU, atleast thats what ive read around, but damn that r9 is so huge, im looking at some reviews now , and im just starting to fear it can be incompatible with my mobo, or it can just be too big at some point, or will it fit just fine?

It will be fine, if your case is long enough it will work. I have a 780 Lightning which is bigger than the Sapphire and its just fine. Yeah you're sorta right, a PSU is most efficient at about 70-80% capacity, so really about a 100w above recommended is about right.

[SteveGrabowski]

I don't think that H55 is a very good CPU cooler. I'd either look at a Hyper 212 EVO if you're looking to save a few bucks or a Noctua NH-D15 if you want a really high quality air cooler that'll likely outperform that watercooler. Though I have heard MMOs typically favor strong per-core performance over having a lot of cores, so you might be better off with a locked i5-4590 and H97 board using the stock cooler for about $260 instead of an FX-8350 + MSI Gaming 970 board + CPU cooler for almost $300.

[D2ultima]

If you want to learn about vRAM bro, read my vRAM guide and be enlightened.

 

As for what you seem to want; a $300 R9 290X should be fine, or a $250 R9 290 would be great.

[sorin220]

I don't think that H55 is a very good CPU cooler. I'd either look at a Hyper 212 EVO if you're looking to save a few bucks or a Noctua NH-D15 if you want a really high quality air cooler that'll likely outperform that watercooler. Though I have heard MMOs typically favor strong per-core performance over having a lot of cores, so you might be better off with a locked i5-4590 and H97 board using the stock cooler for about $260 instead of an FX-8350 + MSI Gaming 970 board + CPU cooler for almost $300.

I am not even interested in Intell CPU´s untill Broadwell comes out, ratherwise i dont want to change the mobo eighter, i just want to build on top of it and have some amazing blast playing my mmorpgs with no fps drops!

[sorin220]

If you want to learn about vRAM bro, read my vRAM guide and be enlightened.

 

As for what you seem to want; a $300 R9 290X should be fine, or a $250 R9 290 would be great.

Yeah, ill defenetly read your vRam guide, gonna take a look at it right now, and i am thankfull for everyones assistance, by this time ive chosen to stick with

 

- Sapphire Radeon VAPOR-X R9 290 OC 4GB DDR5 PCI-E

 

im having some smaller thought like does the card works well with the 970 gaming mobo, if the slots are compatible and stuff, but so far everyone sayd it shuld work so im trusting it!

[D2ultima]

Yeah, ill defenetly read your vRam guide, gonna take a look at it right now, and i am thankfull for everyones assistance, by this time ive chosen to stick with

 

- Sapphire Radeon VAPOR-X R9 290 OC 4GB DDR5 PCI-E

 

im having some smaller thought like does the card works well with the 970 gaming mobo, if the slots are compatible and stuff, but so far everyone sayd it shuld work so im trusting it!

It'll work just fine. Don't worry.

[sorin220]

It'll work just fine. Don't worry.

how about the RAM, the mobo says : 

• DDR3 Memory
  DDR3 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133*(*OC)

 

can i put 2133Mhz memory right away, or do i need to OC it 1st to be able to support such frequencies?

[D2ultima]

how about the RAM, the mobo says : 

• DDR3 Memory
  DDR3 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133*(*OC)

 

can i put 2133Mhz memory right away, or do i need to OC it 1st to be able to support such frequencies?

it'll likely default to 1600MHz and you'd need to use XMP profiles for it; but it will work. If it doesn't, that's RMA-able.

[sorin220]

it'll likely default to 1600MHz and you'd need to use XMP profiles for it; but it will work. If it doesn't, that's RMA-able.

explain me that as if id be a 5y old kid please.

[D2ultima]

explain me that as if id be a 5y old kid please.

Your motherboard should have a function called "XMP profile" for RAM sticks. If your stick does not run at the desired speed, simply create a profile with the speeds and timings listed on the memory you purchased (aka, 2133MHz 11-11-11-27 for example).

 

RMA means "I am returning this hardware because it does not function as intended and as such is faulty; I wish for a non-faulty product".