Need a little expert help with GPUs

[cowboy44mag]

I have been upgrading my system, and need a little help with choosing the right GPU. First off my system specs:

ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX R2.0 motherboard
AMD FX 8370
16 GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical 1866mhz RAM
1000 watt OCZ 80+ Gold PSU

Now for the tricky part, at least for me, I get bad headaches when I look at a large screen TV or monitor for more than around 40 minutes. I can't even go to a movie theater without leaving with a bad headache. The largest television I can comfortably watch in my living room is only 40". With that said I use my computer at a desk and the largest monitor I can comfortably use for long periods of time was 24". Unfortunately my monitor died a week ago, and my wife trying to be helpful yet frugal picked me up a 19" AOC with max resolution 1366x768 @ 60Hz. Not in love with the monitor but I love my wife, so I will be using this monitor till it dies now. My question is how much GPU do I really need given my current monitor and considering the largest monitor I'm ever going to game on is 24"?

After my main GPU gave out on me I've been using an old GTX 550Ti, and have actually been able to play newer releases like Shadow of Mordor at medium levels, but I want to upgrade to something that will be future proofed. Games are designed for consoles and ported to PC (for the most part) so I've been trying to upgrade my system to be superior to the specs of the PS4. I'm looking at either getting a Sapphire Radeon R9 280X or an Asus Radeon R9 290. I can get a really good deal on either one, they both out spec the PS4 by a healthy margin (and therefore should be future proofed), but is the R9 280X enough? Will the R9 290 be overpowered for my needs?

 

[Raiin]

if you live in the US the r9 280x and 290 are only 10-20$ apart, so getting a r9 290 is the best possible choice that the price point, for 10-20$ more you will be getting about 30% more performance and maxing out every game at 1080p/1440p 60Fps, at 768p you will be getting 120+FPs on everygame at max details, you will also get 4gb of vram with the 290 instead of the 3gb on the 280x, this wont matter until you switch monitors in the future, but some games like Shadow of mordor require 3gb+ to use higher resolution Textures, whats to say more games wont follow its footsteps in the coming years.

 

[cowboy44mag]

Thanks for the quick reply, I've been going back and forth as I game on smaller monitors than most do. To be fair, the only reason I go back and forth on it is because I can get the Sapphire R9 280x for $180 new in the box, and the Asus R9 290 for $265 new in the box. If they were only $20 apart I would have already gone with the 290. They are both really great deals, and I am just trying to figure out which I should go with deal wise and tech wise. Would love to be able to glimpse a few years into the future to see how much vram games will be calling for...

 

[gwapito]

For this resolution 1366x768, r9 280x will be enough. My 280x serves me well in1080p gaming what more a lower resolution. If the price gap is closer i would consider 290 but for $85, id go with 280x

 

[Pc6777]

well if your going to play at that resolution you can put all the detail settings to the max... so don't go to low because i think detail settings helps more than resolution more after you get to a certain point... i would at least get a gtx 960 so you can load ultra textures and high levels of antilasting...

 

[Raiin]

OP since you will be gaming at 768p for a while and are probably going to upgrade to a 23-24inch 1080p monitor i'd say a 280x will be more than enough, at that price i'd personally go 280x. oh yea even if you are gaming at 768p i recommend you use a Tool Called Gedosato which works will most dx9 games, it downsamples from any resolution you want to 768p making the game look better and it will feel just like playing on native 1080p like before, i'd suggest 1440/4k/5k downsample to 768p for the 280x, for dx11 just use AMD catalyst SSAA 4/8x

 

[cowboy44mag]

Just wanted to thank everyone who gave advice. I think I'm probably going to go with the Sapphire R9 280x, at $180 its just too good to pass up. At least its already twice as powerful as the GPU that powers the PS4 so that should take me through the PS4's lifespan and keep me gaming. Looking at the benchmarks the R9 290, althrough being overall better, just isn't $85 better. I'm hoping that when AMD releases the next gen of GPUs they work on the power consumption\ heat production. I can't justify the extra money for a GTX, but the lower power and heat would be nice. With an FX 8370 already installed I'm going to have a powerful, yet power hungry system that should help to heat my home in winter.

 

[Coolboy951]

I have been upgrading my system, and need a little help with choosing the right GPU. First off my system specs:

ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX R2.0 motherboard
AMD FX 8370
16 GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical 1866mhz RAM
1000 watt OCZ 80+ Gold PSU

Now for the tricky part, at least for me, I get bad headaches when I look at a large screen TV or monitor for more than around 40 minutes. I can't even go to a movie theater without leaving with a bad headache. The largest television I can comfortably watch in my living room is only 40". With that said I use my computer at a desk and the largest monitor I can comfortably use for long periods of time was 24". Unfortunately my monitor died a week ago, and my wife trying to be helpful yet frugal picked me up a 19" AOC with max resolution 1366x768 @ 60Hz. Not in love with the monitor but I love my wife, so I will be using this monitor till it dies now. My question is how much GPU do I really need given my current monitor and considering the largest monitor I'm ever going to game on is 24"?

After my main GPU gave out on me I've been using an old GTX 550Ti, and have actually been able to play newer releases like Shadow of Mordor at medium levels, but I want to upgrade to something that will be future proofed. Games are designed for consoles and ported to PC (for the most part) so I've been trying to upgrade my system to be superior to the specs of the PS4. I'm looking at either getting a Sapphire Radeon R9 280X or an Asus Radeon R9 290. I can get a really good deal on either one, they both out spec the PS4 by a healthy margin (and therefore should be future proofed), but is the R9 280X enough? Will the R9 290 be overpowered for my needs?

The 290 is a better choice in overall even for 768P, even if you upgrade to 1080p than the 290 will still work very very well.