Best GFX card for Phenom II x4 980

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arnogriffith

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Mar 27, 2011
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Hi Tomshardware!

My current rig runs phenom II x4 980 and I would like to upgrade my graphics card.

I have two 1080p monitors and I would like to game at ultra with 4xAA on. I would like to ask for your opinion about which gfx card to buy. Im looking to future proof the card till i get my hands on new proc and mobo (pref intel)

Im looking towards R9 290, 290x, GTX 780 or 780Ti but i cant predict the bottleneck that my CPU will cause.

I will be able to buy new CPU and mobo maybe by mid 2014 and I want to use the GFX cards that I'll buy and still play at ultra.

Any tips and suggestions are highly appreciated!

Thanks!

 
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I can understand you being against CF/SLI setups. In that case, I'd just go with a GPU well-matched to your current processor (280X / GTX770) and plan on selling it once you've upgraded to your future rig. You'll be better off doing that then blowing $500+ on a video card that you can't make effective use of near-term and that will depreciate rapidly over the next year or two.

If it were me, I'd get the GTX770 and plan on holding off on any future upgrades as long as I reasonably could (2-3 years) before spending money again.
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synge

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Oct 24, 2012
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Of course, the amount of bottlenecking will depend on the games you're playing, and if you're playing multi-player or single player. That said, I think that any of the cards you're looking at will be bottlenecked by your x4 980 in most situations.

I suggest looking at either a R9 280X or a GTX770 for now, then adding a second card once you've upgraded your CPU and motherboard next year, in order to maximize your bang for the buck.
 
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arnogriffith

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Mar 27, 2011
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I totally agree with you on the bottleneck part. The CPU is like 4-5 years old now but i can say it's still kicking.

I am just against CF and SLI setups because of the tiring experience i got with previous 6950CF. It was awesome but Im tired of setting up and tuning the cards for every game. The drivers are horrible but if it working, it is beastly.

I read some reviews about the 280x and Gtx770 and my opinion is they wont be maxing out games in two years time. Im also planning a monitor/HDTV upgrade so I need to futureproof the cards. a few hundred bucks spent bottlenecking will save me the a few years without SLI/CF headache while still maxing out games.

780Ti is really expensive but 780 is old. 290/x is too loud at this time and im afraid of amd driver support atm. I cant decide!
 
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Zero_

Zero_

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Jun 8, 2011
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I used to have a PII 955BE @3.8GHz which was bottlenecking the GTX560 I was using at the time in BF3 multiplayer.

I'll agree with the above. Get a 280X which will max out pretty much everything now (I'm running a 280X Vapor-X myself on a 4670K) and push for that CPU + mobo upgrade ASAP.
 
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synge

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Oct 24, 2012
18
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10,520
I can understand you being against CF/SLI setups. In that case, I'd just go with a GPU well-matched to your current processor (280X / GTX770) and plan on selling it once you've upgraded to your future rig. You'll be better off doing that then blowing $500+ on a video card that you can't make effective use of near-term and that will depreciate rapidly over the next year or two.

If it were me, I'd get the GTX770 and plan on holding off on any future upgrades as long as I reasonably could (2-3 years) before spending money again.
 
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