Best Graphics Card ($300-350)

RabidRaptor · May 28, 2014

I'm looking to upgrade my GPU since i'm starting to feel the choppy/slowness in my GTX 660, and I was wondering what GPU is the best on the market for the $300-350 price range.

Keep in mind that I do want a STABLE 60FPS or higher (if possible, lol) while playing games such as BF4, Titanfall, Watch Dogs and Arma 3 on max or close to max settings. I plan on just sticking to a 1920x1080 resolution, and I have a FX-6350 CPU. I do not want to SLI or Crossfire by the way.

With my GTX 660, I was able to maintain high FPS in these games, but i'm one of those people that hate FPS drops or stuttering of any kind. I would usually have 50FPS, but drop to around 30FPS in high action situations, and it completely ruined the experience.

So if you guys know of any GPU in that budget that can provide a high frame-rate without massive drops, and can run those games at a stable 60FPS or higher, please let me know!

Also, please tell me if my CPU needs an upgrade, or do you guys think its good enough for these games? I just think it's my GPU causing FPS drops and stuttering though since it's out-dated now.

JackNaylorPE · May 28, 2014

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

As ya can see here:

I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not even notice any worthwhile difference in performance.

So if ya wanna see a difference in performance, ya wanna jump 3 tiers.

With the 660 in Tier 7, you wanna be in Tier 4

GTX 780, Titan, R9 290, 290X

Given the numbers, I'd highly recommend holding off till ya have another $100 and getting the 780

bah....scratch that.....yesterday it was $450....today it's $470

RabidRaptor · May 28, 2014

JackNaylorPE :

Would the 780 get bottle-necked by my CPU or would it run fine? And how long do you think the 780 would last? I've also heard that people recommend the AMD cards since they're cheaper and the fact that BF4 partnered with AMD.

thanks for your reply!

aarnav · May 28, 2014

If you are raising you budget for the gtx 780 better go for the r9 290x.. As they have higher bus
R9 290x is 512 bit
Gtx 780 is 384 bit

The reason it matters is that if gaming on high resolutions the bus helps... But if you are gaming on 1080p I recommend the gtx 770 as the gtx 780 and the r9 are high end 1600p cards.... The gtx 770 is what I would vouch for and it fits your budget and there will be no bottle neck...

JackNaylorPE · May 28, 2014

The the 780 will be just fine with your CPU. as for which way to go, 290x or 780 that would depend on what ya goals are and how you use the card. The 290x is the better card outta the box ..... on its ultra setting, it's very aggressively overclocked where the 780 has only a modest OC from the factory. Manually overclocked "ballz to the wall", the 780 exceeds 780 Ti performance ....typically can get 25% on a 780 where best I have been able to do on a 290x is a about 12%.

Other factors include:

NVidia has PhysX, Shadowplay, G-Sync / AMD has Mantle
The R9 series does better at 2560 resolution

As to the 770 choice.... I just don't see it as having the effect you are looking for:

GTX 660 gets 55.9 fps in Crysis 2

Are you gonna be wowed by an increase to 79.8 fps with a 770 versus 97.2 fps with a 780 ?

With a 770 I see ya back here in 12-18 months asking the same question ..... 780 should keep ya going 3+ years.

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Best Graphics Card ($300-350)

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