So I'm getting a new graphics card for christmas..

[fintallrik]

What's up everybody, when I bought my PC I expected greatness beyond high quality but unfortunately I was not very experienced with graphics cards so I got a PC with a GTX 650, I was greatly disappointed!

So for Christmas I'm getting a new graphics card but I need your help:
I want a card within the 300-500$ range and that will also bring me high to ultra quality on most FPS games( i.e Battlefield 4 x3).
I've come up with three cards and I want you to review them and perhaps recommend different versions, you can even come with some suggestions of other cards not on my list so I'm hoping you could help:

Gigabyte R9 280X GDDR5-3GB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 OC
Gigabyte AMD Radeon 7970

 

[rolandzhang3]

Go with the 280x, it's essentially a 7970 GHz edition which would be better than the other two cards

You shouldn't have any problems playing games on ultra with that card, with the exception of Crysis 3 maybe

 

[iam2thecrowe]

7970 or 280x, same card, both better than the 670. just make sure you have an adequate power supply to run it. a good quality 500w unit would be the minimum.

 

[fintallrik]

Go with the 280x, it's essentially a 7970 GHz edition which would be better than the other two cards

You shouldn't have any problems playing games on ultra with that card, with the exception of Crysis 3 maybe

Thank you for your answer. I apologise for not being very keen on the different models, but would you say that the Gigabyte version is better or maybe some other one?

 

[rolandzhang3]

The Gigabyte Windforce coolers are pretty decent, not to mention their cards usually have a decent factory overclock out of the box

That card is fairly long so if you have limited spacing in your case you could also take a look at the Asus and Sapphire versions

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9280xdc2t3gd5v2

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9280xdc2t3gd5

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363l

One of the better cards between $300-500 would be the r9 290 which is very powerful, I'd wait for the aftermarket versions if you'd consider the 290 though

 

[fintallrik]

The Gigabyte Windforce coolers are pretty decent, not to mention their cards usually have a decent factory overclock out of the box

That card is fairly long so if you have limited spacing in your case you could also take a look at the Asus and Sapphire versions

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9280xdc2t3gd5v2

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9280xdc2t3gd5

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363l

One of the better cards between $300-500 would be the r9 290 which is very powerful, I'd wait for the aftermarket versions if you'd consider the 290 though

Could you tell me the differences between these cards?

 

[rolandzhang3]

They're just the same card with different clocks and coolers

As long as your PSU is sufficient any of these cards should be fine