Which Graphics Card?

[markhannelly]

Hey guys,

              I'm trying to decide between two graphics cards,

 

A Radeon R9 285 from Powercolor that costs £139.99

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-175-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

 

and a Radeon R9 280 from MSI that costs £149.99 

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-251-MS

 

 

I'll be using them on one 1080p monitor for playing games like Company of Heroes 2, Cities: Skylines, Gran Theft Auto 5 and Garry's Mod.

 

From what I've been reading up, the 280 has more VRAM so better for large textures like in Skyrim and probably GTA5 when it finally comes out (and potentially more future proof maybe?) but the 285 performs a little bit better in frame rates and is based on newer GCN technology. 

 

To be honest I'm not to bothered about things like Freesync or TrueAudio just yet, I will when the 300 series comes out and I buy my ultra high end graphics card, this is something I'm investing in for a couple of months until the 300 series is released and the prices normalize a bit (as they're always crazy when they just come out!).

 

So looking for your ideas guys on which is better purely for playing games, thanks! 

 

[Goussy]

I would take the 280.

[Th3 Mans1ay3r]

I have a 280x so my my hat is the 280

[incarnate]

Honestly the extra vram would be nice to have. there is no gradual step down in performance if you run out of vram, it drops like a sac of bricks. if you plan on modding skyrim you'll definitely want more than 2gb of ram.

[Suffokation]

The 280 will perform significantly better.

[markhannelly]

I would take the 280.

 

 

I have a 280x so my my hat is the 280

 

 

Honestly the extra vram would be nice to have. there is no gradual step down in performance if you run out of vram, it drops like a sac of bricks. if you plan on modding skyrim you'll definitely want more than 2gb of ram.

 

 

The 280 will perform significantly better.

 

I was looking at the 4K decode and encode on the 285 which looks really useful, but if the 280 is better in games I'd go for that, realistically I'm looking for the card to run Cities Skylines and GTA 5, I know Rockstar are recommending a 2GB VRAM atm but I'd imagine that's being conservative with all the massive textures and draw distances and all that. 3GB could be a good idea there maybe?

 

By the way would anyone go for Sapphire over MSI (or the other way around)? There's a Dual-X model 280 for the same price as the MSI model

 

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-347-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

[incarnate]

I had a sapphire dual-x r9 270, the cooler performance on that card was amazingly good, i never saw the card go hotter than high 60s at almost 1100 mhz core clock. it is quite the cooler. the 280 will likely run hotter than the 270 but should still have really good temps.

[markhannelly]

I had a sapphire dual-x r9 270, the cooler performance on that card was amazingly good, i never saw the card go hotter than high 60s at almost 1100 mhz core clock. it is quite the cooler. the 280 will likely run hotter than the 270 but should still have really good temps.

 

That sapphire looks pretty good, think I might settle on it, overclocking potential seems pretty good with the cooler it has, thanks dude

[Goussy]

I was looking at the 4K decode and encode on the 285 which looks really useful, but if the 280 is better in games I'd go for that, realistically I'm looking for the card to run Cities Skylines and GTA 5, I know Rockstar are recommending a 2GB VRAM atm but I'd imagine that's being conservative with all the massive textures and draw distances and all that. 3GB could be a good idea there maybe?

 

By the way would anyone go for Sapphire over MSI (or the other way around)? There's a Dual-X model 280 for the same price as the MSI model

 

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-347-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

3 Gb's is pretty much the minimum since more games are utilizing it more.