Upgrading my GPU,,

Hello there hope someone can help me,

I've had my 6850 HD for about 3 years now and am defo thinking of an upgrade due too low frame rates in certain games like DayZ and the fact I cant even run Dead Rising 3.
So I've had a browse and seen the R9 290 which looks like a beast of an upgrade but found out the power increase will mean I need a new PSU.
So to avoid that which would be rather costly I set my attention to the R9 280, But want to know if its a good choice of an upgrade compared to my original.
I feel the 290 is too out of my league for the money difference, its about £100 more than the 280 and not that much different if I'm right in saying.

Would be very grateful for any advice on the matter

Thanks
Luke.

Most Specs
AMD Phenom II X4 960T 3.3GHz
Corsair Force GS SSD 240GB
AMD Radeon HD Asus 6850
8GB Corsair RAM 1600Hz
Corsair CX 600w PSU

I used 2 different calculators and they both say you're OK with your 600W PSU. You know your specs better so run them through here. Of course you'll eventually want to upgrade your CPU and can up your PSU then. But I think you'll be fine with the R9 290.


EDIT: Also the difference between the 280 and 290 is only 25W.

Thanks for replying Blaylock,

I've used the calculator and its told me I will only use 491w on full load. Which is crazy considering I was convinced I would need to upgrade my PSU, so thanks for helping me with that issue.
Now all I want to know is, do you think the 290 is worth the extra £100?
I'm also stuck between the MSI or the Gigabyte models. I'm not sure the difference but do you or anyone have there own preferences towards any of them.
Would be a great help once again.

Many Thanks
Luke

Your close to the upper end of that PSU. I like to have some extra "wiggle" room just in case, but for now you should be fine.

Since this is a gaming rig, what resolution do you game at? That makes a huge difference. If your still gaming at 1080p on a single monitor like me than the R9 280 will be more than enough. If you're pushing say 3 monitors at 1080p or 2 monitors at 1440 then you may need the extra vRam. I'm no expert on this subject mind you as I've not had to research this much. So you may want to wait for some others to chime in and get some other opinions.

As far as MSI vs. Gigabyte, they both have a 3 year warranty. I know MSI has a fairly good return policy, but I'm not sure about Gigabyte. I would assume they'd be good too, but I've never owned a Gigabyte GPU.

I own a 280X which really is just a revised 7970 and the 290 is an improved upon 7990, either one should suit your needs just fine.

You asked if the 290 was worth more money, I should note that looking at amazon while writing this there is only a $50 price difference between the two right now.

If you go here you can compare specs:
http://www.hwcompare.com/17657/radeon-r9-280-vs-radeon-r9-290/

Keep in mind this is only a comparison of the manufacturer stock specs on the packaging for the cards and not actual application benchmarks. Real world results will vary depending upon the other hardware you're using with the gpu. However, this should be enough for you to make an informed decision in accordance to your budget and preference so you can get the most bang for your buck.

If you look at AMD's stock specs for both cards the 280 should perform admirably in comparison against the 290 since the difference between the two is 33% in memory bandwidth and 22% in texel rate with the 290 being the leader, but where the 290 really excels over it's predecessor is in the pixel rate for running games in higher resolutions will fullscreen anti-aliasing. The 280 falls behind the 290 by 71% in this respect.

However, lets say you want something closer to the 290, but still want something a little more affordable. If you can find a good deal on a 280X 3GB then I say go for it. When stacked up against the 290 and looking at manufacturer specs the difference in both memory bandwidth and texel rate is 11% and 18% respectively, so the 280X is a little bit better at keeping pace with the 290 as opposed to the 280. The only real downside is the gap in pixel rate is inexplicably higher with the 280X falling behind the 290 at 88%.