Best new/used graphics card for $200 (and quiet)?

mh321

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I need to know what are currently the best/most powerful GPUs I can buy used, and also new, for $200? I don't want a very loud card, is that a big issue with picking out a high end card? What should I get? Thanks.
 

legodude

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If you want a new graphics card, assuming your running 1080p I'd recommend an R9 380, it's an amazing performance for the price, and you can see it on the best graphics cards of June 2015 by Tomshardware. It's not very loud (depending on the version of the card) and it beats a GTX 960. It uses a bit more power, however only needs a 500w power supply.
 

rowdymoody

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ah yes, I always forget about the r9 300 series.
 

legodude

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the r9 380 will outperform the gtx 960, and will tie an r9 285. It is a little bit slower than an r9 280x because it is not overclocked. However it has 4gb vram, unlike the gtx 960's 2gb. The 4gb gtx 960 costs quite a bit more, and at that point you could get a used gtx 970.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202149
That is a factory overclocked r9 380, which will widen the performance gap even more.
How big is your power supply? What brand and model?
 

_EO

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Like the others say save up a couple extra dollars and purchase the Geforce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 380. But if you are on a strict budget I would purchase and EVGA 750ti FTW.
 

mh321

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I am building a new computer with a EVGA Supernova 1300W power supply. If I were to buy used, I would buy off ebay. Can anything wear out on a GPU, other than the fan? Thanks
 

legodude

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The GPU will wear out after enough usage, however I'm not quire sure if the physical GPU normally fail, or if it's generally the cooler. Here's a ebay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-Radeon-R9-290-GAMING-4G-Twin-Frozr-Video-Card-/151752721774?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23552ac56e
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PowerColor-PCS-R9-290-4GB-GDDR5-OC-2DVI-HDMI-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Video-Card-/111721096066?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1a0318a382
Those are R9 290's. They use less power than the R9 290X, and it doesn't matter since you have a nice 1300w power supply. See if you could win an auction for under $200. It's a lot cheaper than the R390, which is just a rebrand. If you could get that MSI one for around $150 I'd consider it a steal to be honest, and you'll always be able to crossfire another one if you wanted to.
 

legodude

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Yes, don't use cards for mining because they are being pushed to the limits for extreme amounts of time, which stresses it. I also don't recommend XFX cards due to cooling and performance issues. MSI makes good cards.
 

mh321

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By the way, is there a nvidia equivalent for a r9 290? If so, should I get the nvidia equivalent, or the r9 290? I just want to see some nvidia options too before I buy one. Thanks.
 

CactusAvenue

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Would you recommend the R9 280 4GB or R9 280 2GB Overclocked? The 4GB one costs $20 more.
 

legodude

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I hope you know that the R9 290X trades blows with the GTX 970, depending on game/benchmark. It also uses 300w of power and produces a ton of heat xD
 

legodude

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Assuming your running 1080p I'd get the overclocked due to better performance. I have a GTX 670 FTW which only has 2gb vram and it runs anything at 1080p, so I doubt you will have an issue with the 4gb vs 2gb vram
 

rowdymoody

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That is what I was saying? The gtx 970 and 290x are pretty close to each other.
 

mh321

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I actually ended up getting a Asus NVIDIA GTX 780 DirectCUII 3GB OC Edition, for around $240. I can still get new Windows XP Pro 64bit drivers for it, at least for now. I can have a dual boot system with it, so that card had a big plus for me.