What GPU is the best?

Ferrariassassin

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Ok so my budget is $240 and under. Here are two GPU`s i have found so far tell me what you all think. And my motherboard is a ASRock H97M Pro4 LGA 1150 and my CPU is a i5-4590.

MSI N760-2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-Bit


SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 14-202-099 Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit

And here is the link of them. If you guys can find a better one for the price please tell me, thanks.
 
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As far as I am aware the 4590 is not a k model and therefore has a locked multiplier. Additionally I don't believe the H97 chip set allows for overclocking even if a K model cpu was inserted in it, so you can't overclock that cpu.

I believe the post you quoted is referring to the gpu (card=gpu usually) which can...

xTempered

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The R9 280 is the superior of the two. They are near in performance at stock speeds but the 280 pulls ahead when OC'ing but the card also runs hotter than the 760 so keep that in mind if you live in a particularly hot area.
 

Ferrariassassin

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Well i own a XFX 550w psu and i really dont think i could OC it :/
 

Ferrariassassin

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It has 3gb on it haha which i think is rare. Can you expleain to me how video cards ar labeled? Like for example the R9 280 is made by so many company, why? Do 100s of companys make the same thing?
 

xTempered

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I'm not exactly sure how much your system pulls so I cant tell you if you can OC or not but I'll put this benchmark video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qim-asQrT_Y
 

Gaidax

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They are about the same, they are trading blows in benchmarks.

I'd say, however that as a whole, Sapphire has a better deal there, since Dual-X is an amazing cooler (I got 290 Tri-X and the temps are absolutely amazing, so I am sure Dual-X should be as good, since 280 is not as hot to begin with). Also 3GB memory is just a bit more future proof, IMO.

Also, AMD got an edge with their proprietary Mantle API, the games supported list is very small, but there are some heavy hits like Battlefield 4+, upcoming Dragon Age and just about anything that will run on new Frostbite engine. It's a nice nifty advantage, in my opinion.

Also, Crossfire is much easier to setup than SLI if you will want it in the future.


On the other hand:

Nvidia has a superior driver support, AMD is improving, but they are still quite behind on that one.

Another point is that with Nvidia you can use PhysX, which is a very nice eye-candy, but again, it has only handful of games where it is supported.

Also, subjectively, for some reason I associate Nvidia with higher quality. But that is as I said, subjective, especially since out of 3 AMD/ATI GPUs and 3 Nvidia GPUs I owned across these years, I had Nvidia fail twice (8800GTS died after like year and a half and 280GTX deteriorated and eventually died as well) and AMD/ATI 0 times (Radeon 9500 PRO, HD 6990 and now 290 Tri-X). So I guess it is more of a psychological thing, since for me AMD seems to be more reliable.
 

xTempered

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Yep just like this post mentioned. Games are going to start needing 3gbs in the future. Watch dogs isnt going to be the last game to take shits on 2gb cards. And since AMD built the GPUs on the PS4 and the Xbone much more games will be supported by Mantle in the future
 

Ferrariassassin

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Dand so you mean the Sapphire i may get can even ru future games even dragonage?
 

xTempered

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They'll both be able to run the game but again the 280 is the slightly more powerful one at stock, and is much more powerful when OC'd
 

Ferrariassassin

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So do you think the SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 14-202-099 Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit will be the best GPU for under the price of $240? So you have the same one bot tri X? And do you think this will handle Skyrim good? My dream ever since skyrim came out is to be able to play it on ultra with graphics mods :) very well.
 

Gaidax

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Upcoming Dragon Age supports Mantle, so it will definitely run better on Sapphire card.

Of course don't expect miracles from 280, it's a nice little card, but within a generation it will become low-end. But still, I just think that it will last you slightly longer than 760 both due to Mantle and 3GB memory it has.
 

Ferrariassassin

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Here is all of my components.
CPU-Intel Core i5-4590
Motherboard-ASRock H97M Pro4 LGA 1150
Case-Rosewill Challenger
PSU-XFX TS Series 550W
Memory-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
HDD-Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB
OS-Windows 8.1
DVD Drive-ASUS 24X DVD Burner

How much power should i have left for a GPU
 

xTempered

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This build in total including both possible GPUs only pulls around ~380w so you should be able to OC just fine considering your mobo can take the OC. That being said I would completely 100% say go with the 280. Also you have a well reviewed psu so it should handle OC well since its not near its max possible wattage.

The fact that much more future games will support mantle since many are going to be console ports (console gpus being developed by AMD), that it has 3gb of memory making it more future proof, has a reputable cooler, and that you now know you can OC making it pull ahead of the 760 makes it the more desirable GPU
 

Ferrariassassin

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THanksman that is good to know, some people said that the MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G Radeon R9 270X 2GB 256-Bit is better than the SAPPHIRE DUAL-X Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit, is that true?
 


AMD makes the GPU many companies produce cards with specs that are laid out by AMD on the design of the card, therefore you end up with many brands and versions of cards with the same GPU.
Same applies to Nvidia!
 

Ferrariassassin

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The 270x had higher core clock and boost clock speed and i thought that ment it was better than the 280. And do i need to Overclock my CPU to be able to Overclock my CPU or is my CPU good enough already?
 

xTempered

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Not necessarily. Using that logic I could say a Titan at 950mhz (I belive thats the avg clock on titans) is slower than a 770 at 1ghz. What matters is the architecture the cards run off of but again I dont keep track of anything lower than the 760/280 so im not sure if its the same architecture.

And no, you can OC the GPU independently of the CPU if you only want the gpu OC'd and vice-versa. And yes your mobo will OC your card just fine.
 


Yes the card really will OC the same regardless of what board it is in.
 

Ferrariassassin

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Most people tell me that if games is mainly all i am doing than i should not need to OC my i5-4590 and just OC my GPU, what do you you think?
 

stokes1790

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As far as I am aware the 4590 is not a k model and therefore has a locked multiplier. Additionally I don't believe the H97 chip set allows for overclocking even if a K model cpu was inserted in it, so you can't overclock that cpu.

I believe the post you quoted is referring to the gpu (card=gpu usually) which can be overclocked regardless of your mobo and chipset. You overclock using MSI afterburner or a similar program (you don't need an MSI card to use MSI afterburner, some people get confused)

EDIT: that cpu is totally fine for any current and near future release games, so there isn't really a need to overclock it, you just couldn't even if you wanted to with that cpu and mobo
 
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