Best GPU for around £400?

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

I'm most of the way through finishing my new PC build and I've decided to run SLI instead of a single card (I can purchase one card then get another at some point instead of waiting longer and saving to get a better single card).

I want a GPU that I can SLI and will give me the most FPS when gaming and I've been looking at new and used cards for around £400, the GTX 690, 980 and GTX 780ti are three that I have seen which are possibilities, can anyone suggest what I should buy? (Will probably be doing 3D video editing as well at some point but not loads of it) Thanks in advance!

M0j0jojo · Jan 14, 2015

I would recommend a GTX Titan Black for 3D effects. But at this price point a GTX 980 or 780Ti are your best options.

filippi · Jan 14, 2015

This is a great option for dual gpu setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X Video Card (£287.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £287.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-14 23:09 GMT+0000

anti-duck · Jan 14, 2015

The GTX 690 is a dual GPU video card so it is running SLI already, or there's also the ASUS Mars which is a dual GTX 760 video card, a dual GPU video card doesn't really appeal to me but it might to you depending on the prices and they are very powerful although a single GTX 980 beats them both. The cheapest 780 ti I could find over here was £299 compared to £399 for a 980, I honestly think I'd go with the 780 ti with that kind of saving but the 980 is the most powerful out of the lot.

modernwar99 · Jan 14, 2015

780ti for price/performance.

980 for best of the best performance (if you don't really care about price value), and overclocking ability.

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

filippi :

Thanks for the suggestion I've looked at that card before! How would two of these stack up against 2x GTX 980 or 2x 780ti?

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

anti-duck :

Ah i see, so I couldn't run 2X 690?

Would 2x 780ti be better than 2x 980 or the other way around? Thanks

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

M0j0jojo :

I would love a Titan but they are so expensive, I think the cheapest I've seen is about £650 used

M0j0jojo · Jan 14, 2015

likedxm :

I think a 780Ti would be better for the 3D effects because it has almost the same specs as the Titans. I think the GTX 980 is more Gaming based, while the 780Ti more workstation/Gaming.

filippi · Jan 14, 2015

likedxm :

Its a good option for high res:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1837126&page=3

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

M0j0jojo :

likedxm :

I think a 780Ti would be better for the 3D effects because it has almost the same specs as the Titans. I think the GTX 980 is more Gaming based, while the 780Ti more workstation/Gaming.

Yeah I agree, fair enough.

Would 2X 690 be any good?

I'm thinking 780Ti at the moment purely because it seems to be the best all round suited card.

likedxm · Jan 14, 2015

filippi :

likedxm :

Its a good option for high res:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1837126&page=3

The maximum I would play in would be 1440p, but for the next year or so probably only 1080p. Hm

anti-duck · Jan 14, 2015

likedxm :

Yeah sure, you'd essentially be running quad SLI with 2 690's or 2 ASUS Mars cards, I haven't seen the price of either of them in the UK though so I'm not sure if either would offer better value than a 780 ti, neither will match the performance and both only have 2GB effective memory. 2 980's are more powerful than 2 780 ti's, but not by a lot and as Mojo said, the 780 ti is better when it comes to applications that use Cuda processing.

filippi · Jan 14, 2015

likedxm :

filippi :

The maximum I would play in would be 1440p, but for the next year or so probably only 1080p. Hm

GTX970/GTX980 are the best choice for 1080p. R9 290x xfire is an excelent choice for 1440p/1600p.

filippi · Jan 14, 2015

And for 4k gaming this is my favourite setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 8GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£319.98 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 8GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£319.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £639.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-15 00:16 GMT+0000

sora · Jan 14, 2015

OP, two 780Tis or R9 280xs would be pretty strong.

likedxm · Jan 15, 2015

filippi :

8GB?! Am I reading that correctly?

I take it these handle 4K very well?

likedxm · Jan 15, 2015

anti-duck :

likedxm :

Yeah sure, you'd essentially be running quad SLI with 2 690's or 2 ASUS Mars cards, I haven't seen the price of either of them in the UK though so I'm not sure if either would offer better value than a 780 ti, neither will match the performance and both only have 2GB effective memory. 2 980's are more powerful than 2 780 ti's, but not by a lot and as Mojo said, the 780 ti is better when it comes to applications that use Cuda processing.

That's true, would you recommend I got for 690s? Or do you think they are too old?

I can't decide between the 980, 780ti, R9 290X or 690.

anti-duck · Jan 15, 2015

likedxm :

Personally, I'd rule out a 690 right away unless you can get one for ~£150 and then it might be a good option, but remember that you're always going to have 2gb of effective VRAM even if you were using quad SLI with dual 690's for a total of 8gb of physical VRAM; you could maybe max out most games at 300+fps at 1080p with dual 690's, but performance will decrease significantly when you saturate that 2gb of effective memory with higher resolutions.

The new R9 300 series is just around the corner though if you can wait.

likedxm · Jan 15, 2015

anti-duck :

likedxm :

Personally, I'd rule out a 690 right away unless you can get one for ~£150 and then it might be a good option, but remember that you're always going to have 2gb of effective VRAM even if you were using quad SLI with dual 690's for a total of 8gb of physical VRAM; you could maybe max out most games at 300+fps at 1080p with dual 690's, but performance will decrease significantly when you saturate that 2gb of effective memory with higher resolutions.

The new R9 300 series is just around the corner though if you can wait.

Ah yes i was thinking about the VRAM issue as well. That's the 690 ruled out then.

What are the R9 300 series supposed to be like compared to the 290X?

Also would you suggest a 980 or an R9 290X 8GB like one of the others on this thread?

anti-duck · Jan 15, 2015

Well the R9 390X is being designed to compete with the upcoming Nvidia flagship (980 ti/Titan 2) and it will blow the 290X away (and the 980 if the leaked benchmarks are true), with the R9 380X competing with the GTX 980, though nothing has been leaked about that yet.

It's strange, I would expect an R9 290X to be ahead of both the 780 ti and the 980 at high resolutions because of the wider memory bus (especially the 980 with the 256-bit bus, but then it does have better memory compression), but according to this it's not -

http://www.eteknix.com/4k-gaming-showdown-amd-r9-290x-crossfire-vs-nvidia-gtx-780-ti-sli/

likedxm · Jan 15, 2015

anti-duck :

Ooooh okay I see, that makes sense. To be honest the 390X will probably be really expensive when it gets released (as all cards are) so I'm looking at the 290X or the 780ti for now.

What would you personally buy if given the opportunity - 980 or 780ti?

anti-duck · Jan 15, 2015

I have a feeling that the 390X isn't going to be that expensive for some reason lol, every flagship single GPU video card that AMD have released has been ~£450 at launch, around the price of a big brand GTX 980. Personally, I'd go for a GTX 980, I probably am going to replace my 970 with one actually and add one of those lovely ColdZero backplates

Best GPU for around £400?

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