What Graphics Card Should I Buy ~$300-400

[ricopartyboy]

My current cpu is an AMD fx 8350. I have 3 identical 1080p monitors. I would like to run all my games at smooth frame rates at mostly max settings. I play many current games, such as Crysis 3, BF3, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, etc. My 560 ti was fine until I upgraded to 3x1080p. I've never owned an ati card, but the 7970 seems like it would probably be my best option for my price range. If I do go with ati, will I have to use the displayport for eyefinity? My monitors only have dvi and vga ports, and I already have a dvi to hdmi cable. Please keep a displayport to dvi adapter in mind for price. I would really like to keep the price closer to $300 than 400, but if it really makes a difference, price is flexible. I will probably oc the card, and I will definitely not go sli/xfire in the future.

 

[basch99]

400 Dollars? Get the HD 7970 Ghz. The 384 bit and 3GB will really help you there. Yes, you will need to use the Displayport. Most cards will come with the adaptors prebundled. Alternatively, you could get the HD 7950 for 300 bucks and the same rules before still applies. It still has the 3GB and 384 bit but has less stream processors. (1792 vs 2048) It's still a very relevant card. However, for 5760 x 1080, you need all the horsepower you need. Get the HD 7970 regular (you can overclock to GHz Edition levels)

 

[Neospiral]

For $300, you're not going to get high frame rates on ultra with 3 1080 monitors. But I agree that the 7970GE is probably the best bang for your buck currently, and as long as your screens have hdmi and dvi inputs, you won't need any adapters.

For example, I run 2560x1600, overclock both of my cards, and I drop below 60fps on some games at max settings. Your resolution is 3240x1920 (or 5760x1080), and you're going to use 1 card. Overclocked or not, prepare to lower your settings or be ok with 30-40 fps.

 

[basch99]

My final answer? The HD 7970 regular should win your hard earned Benjamins. The GHz Edition is still 50 dollars more, so it's overbudget for you. However should you ever need more performance, a second card will give you that extra oomph that you want.

 

[lolzorz]

A 300-400$ card will not run smooth on close to max at that resolution. But your best bet would be a hd 7970 or gtx 770 (20$ over your budget). At max settings youre looking at 20 - 50fps i believe.

 

[basch99]

NO. the GTX 770 has 256 bit interface and only 2GB of memory. It is not recommended for 5760 x 1080. I lean towards Nvidia, but sometimes they're specs are just not future proof (256bit and 2GB on a high end card? really?) Especially modded Skyrim with High res texture mods will eat up your VRAM.

 

[theonerm2]

Really you need a crossfire or sli setup and need a budget of $600 or more to do what you want. A single HD 7970 GHz edition would work but you have to forget about running games on mostly max settings... Try mostly high settings. High settings look pretty good still though. I'd be willing to bet that most people couldn't see a difference between high and ultra.

 

[gridironcj]

Get a GTX 770:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8201546&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CNaCtPDTnLgCFQVyQgodPSoA7g

Just barely under the upper bound of your budget (by a penny). It is more powerful than the HD 7970 GHz edition and the cooler here is great for overclocking. The only downside is that you have 2GB of vram vs. 3GB in the 7970, but I argue that shouldn't matter since you're not going to be using all of that vram unless you turn up your antialiasing settings or play on higher resolutions, by which a single 7970 or 770 would not be enough.

Honestly, you should be looking for a more expensive setup if you want to play on three 1920x1080 displays. You'll also want more vram, so then you'd want either 2x HD 7970GHzs, 2x GTX 770s @4GB, a single GTX 780 (I'd recommend 2 to be honest), or an HD 7990. You could go with a GTX Titan, but I doubt you'll want to spend $1k per GPU like I did. I doubt you'd get more than one, by which one Titan is weaker than any of the dual GPU solutions I just mentioned.