In Need of Some Serious GPU Advice

[TeskR]

Hey People,

 

I am in serious need of some help, I have been wrestling for the last 2 months almost with choosing a new GPU for my system. Now that non-reference 780TI's are hitting the market in Aus its making me want to make a decision even more.

 

The 4 main offenders are the 780, 780Ti, 290 and 290X.

 

Now the reason why I am struggling so hard with this choice is because the card will have to last me the next 2ish (hopefully more) years and I am more or less trying to decide which technology to hedge my bets with.

 

Of course I am referring to the infamous Mantle vs Gsync debate, I know they arent directly comparable, but I can only have one.. and that makes the choice difficult.

 

What technology do you guys anticipate will most likely go multivendor?

 

Mantle seems to potentially be the more immediately accesible technology and is potentially going to be supported by many games I am eagerly anticipating. However Gsync is getting much praise from people in the know.

 

Im upgrading from crossfired 6870's and havent had a fantastic dual card experience, are things any better with any of these cards?

 

Sorry for subjecting you guys to another of these threads, but I have honestly not been able to decide on one over the other, whenever i think i have decided the next day I change my mind. Sometimes I wish I had a brand alleigance.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide,

 

Cheers,

[Titanicium]

The best card in all terms expect from VRAM: 780 ti.

 

The best Nvidia value: 780.

 

The best value: 290.

 

The best card for higher resolutions: 290X

 

I would personally go for the 780ti ASUS version, but that might just be my personal preference.

[Kobz360]

Woah this is a tough choice for you to make. 290 is the best bang for your buck but you'll have to wait a bit for the aftermarket coolers. 780Ti is obviously the best but costs the most. 

 

Do you have some type of budget or any kind of limitations or you can go balls to the walls? 

 

If I was personally in your situation, I'd wait for the Aftermarket 290's, get a good one, save the $300 from getting a 780Ti so you can XFire again in the future, all without having spent more than $1k in graphics cards. Mantle has lots of promise and will likely get you even more performance, though it won't be present in quite a few games. G-Sync is also proven (Based on Linus) to be awesome, though I personally question the price tag of the monitors just to get less screen tear. However G-Sync will always work. 

 

GTX 780 is also in a good position right now, though at stock, 290 is faster. 

 

You probably won't find a definitive answer here because people will agree and disagree but my recommendation? R9 290. Is there anything you haven't pointed out that may be important? Are you running multi monitors, do advanced video editing, etc?

[masarup11]

I'll go for 780 TI if you have the budget, but seriously its just a waste of money. 780 would do great if your talking about performance.

 

I dont own any AMD products. but 290x would also be a great deal. though its up to you if you're willing to wait for aftermarket coolers or just water cool them. cheap yet powerful.

[needmorewood]

well the 780ti is the best card here but the 290 performs close to it and its $300 cheaper so take that for what its worth. buying a 290x doesnt really make sense since a 290 performs just as well or sometimes better. that being said 2 290's isnt that much more than  a nice 780ti (ok its about $150-200 more but still!)

[TeskR]

Well my budget is stretching to reach a 780 Ti thats for sure but it will make it.

 

I kind of know where everything stands from a performance point of view in gaming, just hard to decide which tech to back with Mantle, Gsync and Shadowplay all being cool features.

 

Other potentially useful info:

 

Im currently heading into my 3rd year of Uni, majoring in Physics so I MAY use the computer for light simulations and/or numerical integration using programs like MatLab, Mathematica etc.

 

Also I have a bit of a soft spot for Linux and will most likely be dual booting SteamOS when that hits the public.

 

Do either of these bits of information change peoples recommendations?

 

Thanks again guys for the help so far.