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Looking for a new video card

Tags:
  • Bottleneck
  • Graphics Cards
  • Intel i5
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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August 13, 2014 10:11:55 PM

So I'm looking for suggestions for a new video card. I'm stuck looking at mid end items around 200$ and less as my CPU will bottleneck for sure most of the GPUS. I have an i3 2130 and I already have plans of upgrading to an i5 in the next 3 months.
I'm currently looking at three cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Any input is much appreciated!

More about : video card

a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 10:21:35 PM

The 270X probably is your best bet , however there's a deal on the 280X for 239.99 if you can afford it get it !
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August 13, 2014 10:23:22 PM

buy SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 270X 2GB boost OC, this one is the best gpu in your mentioned gpus
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August 13, 2014 10:23:43 PM

TopLuca said:
The 270X probably is your best bet , however there's a deal on the 280X for 239.99 if you can afford it get it !


I'd love to purchase that 280x, now I could actually afford it, problem is...... I only run a cx500 power supply so im limited with my options. And I can't purchase a psu and a 280x, more money than I have to spend right now.
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August 13, 2014 10:29:07 PM

What is your budget?
You could grab a 280/280x and save having a low/mid end card with your i5.
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a c 184 U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 10:31:17 PM

Rybo said:
TopLuca said:
The 270X probably is your best bet , however there's a deal on the 280X for 239.99 if you can afford it get it !


I'd love to purchase that 280x, now I could actually afford it, problem is...... I only run a cx500 power supply so im limited with my options. And I can't purchase a psu and a 280x, more money than I have to spend right now.


That PSU supports graphics cards up to 2x8-pin so it's not an issue. A GTX770 for example uses a 6-pin and 8-pin.

SUMMARY BENCHMARK for card performance:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_270X_Direct_...

The R9-280X is 27% faster than an R9-270X but proportionately more money (about $240 versus $160 for similar coolers). The XFX R9-270X seems a good value:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9270xcdfc

Whereas the Asus R9-270X may cost more but it's got a better cooler and is overclocked about 10% higher in default: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9270xdc2t...

CPU:
I recommend the i5-3570 since it can get 3.8GHz in Turbo. The i5-3570K is a little more but also needs a good cooler if overclocking as well as a motherboard that supports that so keep in mind.
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Best solution

a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 10:33:32 PM

I would up budget $20 for a 280(non x) which is a lot faster than all those cards, perfect for your PSU and also great with your i3 and/or i5 upgrade.
Share
August 13, 2014 10:34:39 PM

^Agreed
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a c 184 U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 10:44:26 PM

JUICEhunter said:
I would up budget $20 for a 280(non x) which is a lot faster than all those cards, perfect for your PSU and also great with your i3 and/or i5 upgrade.


The Gigabyte R9-280 seems a good choice at $200. It sits between the R9-270X and R9-280X:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6573/gigabyte-radeon-r...

It also has 3GB of VRAM for when/if this becomes an issue:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928...

I'm roughly estimating up to 20% better on average than an R9-270X of similar cooler but it's closer to $40 IMO if comparing similar quality cards.

So the VALUE appears to be roughly identical (20% higher cost and 20% better performance).
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August 13, 2014 10:48:12 PM

r9 280x is overkill to your requirements, just grab r9 270x and you will never get disappointed also you can save some cash and it doesn't required bigger and costlier PSu .
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August 13, 2014 10:49:59 PM

Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I'm curious do you know if this monster would fit inside a cooler master n200? I travel with my pc every month so the smaller pc chassis I have is nice, if worse comes to worse I can use my old thermaltake level 10 GTS
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August 13, 2014 10:52:17 PM

If I do decide to go for the 280 it would take me an extra week of saving but oh well. Tbh the 280 would last me far longer than my 7770, I've been using the 770 for about a year and a half and im already in low to medium settings on most games, naturally I run a 1080p res.
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August 13, 2014 11:00:09 PM

yoyodolo said:
r9 280x is overkill to your requirements, just grab r9 270x and you will never get disappointed also you can save some cash and it doesn't required bigger and costlier PSu .

I'm almost tempted to do what you suggested purchase this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
then go ahead and begin savings and when holiday rolls around upgrade to a 4th gen i5 and snag a new lga 1150 mobo.

Would it be worth saving the basically the 40$ so I can get the 4th gen i5(and lga 1150 mobo), or spend the 40$ get the 280, then on holiday get a 3rd gen i5?
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a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 11:02:12 PM

Rybo said:
yoyodolo said:
r9 280x is overkill to your requirements, just grab r9 270x and you will never get disappointed also you can save some cash and it doesn't required bigger and costlier PSu .

I'm almost tempted to do what you suggested purchase this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
then go ahead and begin savings and when holiday rolls around upgrade to a 4th gen i5 and snag a new lga 1150 mobo.

Would it be worth saving the basically the 40$ so I can get the 4th gen i5(and lga 1150 mobo), or spend the 40$ get the 280, then on holiday get a 3rd gen i5?


3rd to 4th gen you wouldn't see much difference however the 280 is a lot faster than the 270X

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August 13, 2014 11:07:09 PM

Well it looks like I have much considering to do! I'll do some looking and see what I decide thanks for the input I'll decide best answer soon!
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a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 11:14:39 PM

Greybeard Croft said:
^Agreed


Rybo said:
Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I'm curious do you know if this monster would fit inside a cooler master n200? I travel with my pc every month so the smaller pc chassis I have is nice, if worse comes to worse I can use my old thermaltake level 10 GTS


Not bad! Did you see this one that has a slightly higher clock for the same price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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August 13, 2014 11:30:39 PM

JUICEhunter said:
Greybeard Croft said:
^Agreed


Rybo said:
Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I'm curious do you know if this monster would fit inside a cooler master n200? I travel with my pc every month so the smaller pc chassis I have is nice, if worse comes to worse I can use my old thermaltake level 10 GTS


Not bad! Did you see this one that has a slightly higher clock for the same price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Yeah, the reason I linked the XFX model is its lifetime warranty, which if i buy the r9 280 I'll probably have it for 4 years before I change it out.
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August 13, 2014 11:38:16 PM

JUICEhunter said:
Greybeard Croft said:
^Agreed


Rybo said:
Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I'm curious do you know if this monster would fit inside a cooler master n200? I travel with my pc every month so the smaller pc chassis I have is nice, if worse comes to worse I can use my old thermaltake level 10 GTS


Not bad! Did you see this one that has a slightly higher clock for the same price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This isn't a bad card either;
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Version-PCI-Express-Grap...
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August 13, 2014 11:47:24 PM

photonboy said:
JUICEhunter said:
I would up budget $20 for a 280(non x) which is a lot faster than all those cards, perfect for your PSU and also great with your i3 and/or i5 upgrade.


The Gigabyte R9-280 seems a good choice at $200. It sits between the R9-270X and R9-280X:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6573/gigabyte-radeon-r...

It also has 3GB of VRAM for when/if this becomes an issue:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928...

I'm roughly estimating up to 20% better on average than an R9-270X of similar cooler but it's closer to $40 IMO if comparing similar quality cards.

So the VALUE appears to be roughly identical (20% higher cost and 20% better performance).


I would like to pick this as well, sadly I can't pick two best answers, sorry!
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a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 11:49:46 PM

Rybo said:
I found this for a pretty great price, though its refurbished, should I even bother with this or spend the extra on the r9 270x or 280?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


A great $150 GPU for sure, I think the 280 is worth the extra $50 but I'm the guy who bought a 780ti OC when it went on sale for $660 because I couldn't max everything with my 670.
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a b U Graphics card
August 13, 2014 11:56:10 PM

JUICEhunter said:
Rybo said:
I found this for a pretty great price, though its refurbished, should I even bother with this or spend the extra on the r9 270x or 280?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


A great $150 GPU for sure, I think the 280 is worth the extra $50 but I'm the guy who bought a 780ti OC when it went on sale for $660 because I couldn't max everything with my 670.


We're all that guy :D 
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a b U Graphics card
August 14, 2014 12:30:21 AM

Rybo said:
photonboy said:
JUICEhunter said:
I would up budget $20 for a 280(non x) which is a lot faster than all those cards, perfect for your PSU and also great with your i3 and/or i5 upgrade.


The Gigabyte R9-280 seems a good choice at $200. It sits between the R9-270X and R9-280X:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6573/gigabyte-radeon-r...

It also has 3GB of VRAM for when/if this becomes an issue:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928...

I'm roughly estimating up to 20% better on average than an R9-270X of similar cooler but it's closer to $40 IMO if comparing similar quality cards.

So the VALUE appears to be roughly identical (20% higher cost and 20% better performance).


I would like to pick this as well, sadly I can't pick two best answers, sorry!


TopLuca said:
JUICEhunter said:
Rybo said:
I found this for a pretty great price, though its refurbished, should I even bother with this or spend the extra on the r9 270x or 280?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


A great $150 GPU for sure, I think the 280 is worth the extra $50 but I'm the guy who bought a 780ti OC when it went on sale for $660 because I couldn't max everything with my 670.


We're all that guy :D 


photonboy is always spot on and has the best breakdowns!

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a c 184 U Graphics card
August 16, 2014 7:57:45 PM

Refurbished?

1) 1-Year vs 3-Year WARRANTY
(the new Gigabyte is probably a 3-year Warranty)

*Also you can get a BRAND NEW version with 3-year Warranty for only $10 more (after MIR):
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42662k...

2) Possibly louder card (blower style)

3) Lower performance. I estimate the GTX660 at about 77% of the R9-280:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/R9_280X_OC/... (hard to find info on single chart. You can look back at the TweakTown link I found showing the R9-280 roughly 20% at times faster than an R9-270X, and the fact that the GTX660 sits BELOW the R9-270X. Anyway, I'm pretty close.)

4) 2GB vs 3GB

NVida advantages:
- PhysX, TXAA, Shadowplay (desktop/game recording with minimal impact), G-Sync (needs a new monitor)

Summary:
Absolutely do NOT get a refurbished card that saves you $10, has been used, and reduces your Warranty to a third of what it was.

Anyway, you should have everything you need by now to make a decision.
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August 16, 2014 11:14:21 PM

photonboy said:
Refurbished?

1) 1-Year vs 3-Year WARRANTY
(the new Gigabyte is probably a 3-year Warranty)

*Also you can get a BRAND NEW version with 3-year Warranty for only $10 more (after MIR):
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42662k...

2) Possibly louder card (blower style)

3) Lower performance. I estimate the GTX660 at about 77% of the R9-280:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/R9_280X_OC/... (hard to find info on single chart. You can look back at the TweakTown link I found showing the R9-280 roughly 20% at times faster than an R9-270X, and the fact that the GTX660 sits BELOW the R9-270X. Anyway, I'm pretty close.)

4) 2GB vs 3GB

NVida advantages:
- PhysX, TXAA, Shadowplay (desktop/game recording with minimal impact), G-Sync (needs a new monitor)

Summary:
Absolutely do NOT get a refurbished card that saves you $10, has been used, and reduces your Warranty to a third of what it was.

Anyway, you should have everything you need by now to make a decision.

I actually ordered a 7870 for 130$ after rebate brand new by XFX
Was such a good deal, did my research and it was only a few frames slower than the pricier rebranded r9 270x.
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a b U Graphics card
August 17, 2014 1:15:48 PM

Sounds like you got a new GPU at a great price. I would get a faster CPU next as you said to get the max performance but you will still have great gaming either way, congrats!
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August 17, 2014 1:58:19 PM

JUICEhunter said:
Sounds like you got a new GPU at a great price. I would get a faster CPU next as you said to get the max performance but you will still have great gaming either way, congrats!

Yep thats the next thing on the list of upgrades! Thanks for all the help everyone!
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