Buying new gpu for medium res gaming and application acceleration (UK)

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Karmil08

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Im buying a gpu for my gf's birthday, as she has strong intentions studying art at university, I thought a gpu would help her with render times as she builds her portfolio and also because she wants to start pc gaming.

I have a budget of about £150-£200 and am aware of the cuda acceleration in Nvidia cards but also with the newish performance boost provided by open GL for AMD cards.

So really, what gpu would you recommend (if you post links to websites with prices just remember - UK, im not going to pay for shipping unless its amazingly cheaper)

oh and please say why you recommend it, e.g. at this price cuda or open GL is much faster in card X or for gaming card X is much better, so no fan-boying please :)
 
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nikoli707
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-GPU-Acceleration-161/

though its semi old, and newer driver from both amd/nvidia have likely accelerated performance.... there are some cs6 benchmarks with geforce/radeon cards.

as far as your original question.... the answer seems to still be the same. the gtx660/r9-270(hd7870) are the sweet spot when it comes to opencl performance and very capable 1080p gaming cards while still not breaking the bank at around $160.

one thing you should know is how strong the power supply is in current computer that you/she has. if its just a store bought model... you would likely be much better off going with a gtx750 or gtx750ti as they almost guaranteed to work with any modern store...
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Onus

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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Whether AMD or nVidia makes the most sense is going to depend on the specific software she will be using. I believe that more rendering software is CUDA-aware than OpenGL or AMD Stream, so in the absence of any more information, I'd choose a nVidia card. What you can get depends in part on her PSU (which could also be upgraded, but would eat into your budget). If she already has a good 500W-550W PSU, a GTX760 may just fit into your budget and would provided excellent performance in games as well as rendering.
 
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rhijai

rhijai

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I would suggest Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon R9 270X with Boost OC 2 GB 2 GB DDR5 Graphics Card or ZOTAC NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX660 2GB 2 GB DDR5 GRAPHICS CARD. But I would recommend the previous one as it is the best graphics card in your budget for the following reasons: the gpu clock is better (1020 Mhz), 256-Bit 4 GB DDR5 Memory, Maximum Resolution 4096X2160 (Digital). Only this AMD GPU has this top class features in this price range. If you want a less costly GPU you can also go for the second one which i mentioned since it is also a good GPU . Good Luck :)
 
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Onus

Onus

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You cannot compare GPU clocks between AMD and nVidia because the architectures are completely different.

Since you do only specify "medium res" gaming, you may find that a considerably less expensive GTX660 or GTX750Ti will offer sufficient performance. The GTX660 requires a good 450W-500W PSU, and the GTX750Ti will run even on the small 300W PSUs common to storebought computers.
 
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nikoli707

nikoli707

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Jan 4, 2012
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knowing the exact programs she will be using is the must know here. if she's relegating herself to a dying breed of cuda only accelerated apps, she may want to change and learn a much better more popular program that uses open gl so she can use an amd gpu as amd absolutely murders nvidia as far as performance. you don't see very many new prebuilt workstations now that use nvidia because amd is just far better. she doesn't need a $6000 workstation with a firepro/quadro, but either the r9-270 or gtx660 are great bang for buck options that will give performance in both worlds for a reasonable price.
 
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Karmil08

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she'll probably be using applications from CS 6 atleast but as shes off to uni soon she'll probably get a student discount on adobe CC and will be the bulk of her programs but she may be using other programs that im not sure of.
also most of her applications simply required for her course, with CC/CS6 being the basis, any further applications will be demanded in most cases, which i know is a bit annoying to work around :/
 
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Karmil08

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yes im aware of the misconception of comparing clock speeds and she's currently in the process of building her PC within a few weeks so components are still easily changeable. by medium res i mean 1080p at medium details in say BF4 at 60fps. i understand its a pretty demanding stretch considering the budget so maybe i can stretch to about £250 at max
 
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nikoli707

nikoli707

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http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-GPU-Acceleration-161/

though its semi old, and newer driver from both amd/nvidia have likely accelerated performance.... there are some cs6 benchmarks with geforce/radeon cards.

as far as your original question.... the answer seems to still be the same. the gtx660/r9-270(hd7870) are the sweet spot when it comes to opencl performance and very capable 1080p gaming cards while still not breaking the bank at around $160.

one thing you should know is how strong the power supply is in current computer that you/she has. if its just a store bought model... you would likely be much better off going with a gtx750 or gtx750ti as they almost guaranteed to work with any modern store bought computer, just as long as the model 750 you buy does not require power pins and can get its full power from the pcie16 slot.

otherwise, your going to need a different power supply and that will cost you. also the gtx750, although not nearly as 1080p capable as the gtx660/760 or amd r9-270x, will still game just fine although many settings in modern heavy graphical titles will need to be dropped to medium for smooth game play.
 
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