ITT help me pick a new video card

The poor old HD 6870 is chugging on Arma3 and Arena Commander. I knew it would be time to update soon and was really waiting for AC to get better optimization but I think I'll pull the trigger and help my performance in other games. I'd like to stick with AMD since SC will have Mantle support, even though most AMD cards seem to perform a bit slower on Cryengine based games but if the price point holds up I'll go with NVidia. Current processor is an i5 3.3gHz. Ideally I want to spend at or below $300 but if there is a great value I'll go as high as $350.

Doing some layman's research, it seems the best cards at my price point are the AMD R9 280x and R9 290, as well as the GTX 760 and GTX 770. I really don't know enough about the specifications of each to determine which is best for me. What I'm looking for is simply best frame rate at 1900x1020 on high or very high settings. I do not plan to do streaming or live recording.

Aaaaaaand, go!

 

If you are not wanting to wait, then I would look at getting no less then a R9 290 or 290X. I think you may be better off waiting for a bit though to see if prices come down. A 290 would put you around a GTX 780 for less money.

The 280 is only a slight upgrade from a 7970 or GTX 680.. so for what that is worth.


Here are some charts:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/04-Metro-Last-Light-1080p,3596.html

Also, apparently the 280 is basically an overclocked 7970. The 290 is the new chipset, so if I were going to buy a new GPU right now, I would shoot for the 290.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-5.html

 

Just for a reference I run 2 HD7950s in crossfire. That setup will get more performance on Crossfire enabled games then a R9 290X would. So crossfire setups are certainly an option as well. The only issue is support. You will have to turn Crossfire off for older games, and sometimes new games until they get crossfire support in.

I doubt it will be an issue with SC, I have a feeling they will get all that sorted out. Also, Arma 3 works with Crossfire.

 

From what I read a couple months ago when I was building my new comp, the new AMD chipsets are pretty power hungry. The NVidia stuff is more efficient (less power draw/heat generation). I ended up with a GTX770, but that was at least partially because the R280/290's were really price-inflated because of the bitcoin miners. I'm pretty happy with the GTX770, but I haven't tried to run any of the newer games with it yet. I got 70~FPS in MWO with everything maxed, but MWO is more processor limited than GPU limited.

 

If you want to get a good benchmark on cards today, the best thing out there is Metro Last Light. I believe right now it is one of the more demanding games on the GPU. Pretty much everything else is a joke for the higher end GPUs.

 

mm.. my next purchase is going to be a new processor and SSD, SSD probably first since its the cheapest easiest thing I can do for performance boost. Or loading boost.

 

The R9 290/X is what I was really looking at but $400 is too much right now. I did read something about the new chipset in the 290 compared to the 280 and I agree that it would probably be better to wait and let prices come down a bit.

 

I would not spend the money on the 280 unless you were desperate for a new card. Both AMD and nVidia do it, but I hate the rebranding of cards and making a new generation. I am sure the 280 is slightly better then the 7950.. but it is silly to spend that much money on a 2-3 generation old card.

 

Dear god is it ever. I have a gtx 770 4 GB, and it cannot run the PhysX with Last Light. I'm seriously looking at getting a cheap 650 or something to devote an extra GPU to PhysX, so I can run it at good frame rates. If I run everything else maxed out I have great frames and no negative impact on performance.

That being said, I swear by my 770. Last Light is the only thing that's given it any kind of pause, and that's only when I turn on the PhysX.

If you want to spend a little less, then I would say the 760 isn't a bad option at all. A buddy of mine runs that and hasn't had a problem with it.

 

I did consider getting a 760 now and waiting for next year to upgrade but I can't justify spending $250 on a temporary solution knowing I'll be getting something even more expensive down the road.

 

If I understand it correctly, the 760 is not much of an upgrade over the 660, so you may be able to get a 660 cheaper if you are looking at that. The 770 is going to be about equal to a 7950.

 

Just saw this:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/01/mostly-new-amd-gpus-rumoured-for-next-month-mostly/

 

IIIIIIIIIIIIIINTERESTING

 

NVidia & Intel = Clantech.

 

Yep, if it wasn't for the price inflation on the R9's i'd recommend them. Mine may be an R9 270 but it's working very well so far.

 

Ordered!

I should be ready for Arena Commander next week!