Choosing the Right GPU

[dj1992]

Hello guys, a few days back I built my secondary gaming PC, skipping only the GPU on purpose. Now that the 780Ti has been released, I am even more confused about which one to get . The 780ti is the fastest GPU right now(only downside is 3GB VRAM), but the 290X has 4GB VRAM, which should come into use now that the next gen consoles have arrived. I'll be buying the GPU during the first week of January. So any suggestions are welcome guys. OOps forgot to say that I am using my friend's spare HD 7750 for the GPU on the second rig.

 

[Black C5 Z06]

What resolution will you be gaming at? 1080p? 1440p? 4K? Eyefinity/Surround?

 

[dj1992]

What resolution will you be gaming at? 1080p? 1440p? 4K? Eyefinity/Surround?

I'll be gaming on a 1080p monitor

 

[King107s]

at 1080p most games wont exceed 3GB of video card ram

 

[Black C5 Z06]

At 1080p you don't need to worry about running out of memory any time soon.

However, I'd advise you to wait for a few weeks for the AMD board partners to bring out their custom cards. The 290X has insane potential when you factor in how disgustingly inadequate its cooler is. Once the better/over designed PCBs come out, and the custom coolers come out, I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised at the performance of the 290X. Not to mention that is going to also give AMD time to begin ironing out their drivers.

 

[cyberfish]

MSAA is the feature that needs craploads of memory. As games switch to FXAA, memory requirements will go down for a while.

3 GB will be enough for the life time of the card at 1080p and probably quite a bit higher.

 

[Mjolnir]

I'd grab a GTX 780 and be done with it for a while. After the price drop; it's a solid card. 1080p won't be fully utilising 3GB VRAM just yet (as a whole, there will always be one or two exceptions). I'd say you'd be good for that for a while.

That said; the R9 290 (non-X) has fantastic price/performance ratio; but that stock cooler would drive me up the wall. I'd also wait and see what the aftermarket coolers bring to the table.

Just re-read your post. If you won't be buying til Jan; definitely wait for the aftermarket vendors to get their hands on the R9 290/290X before deciding. Hopefully they'll be in production by then.

 

[EarthDog]

I missed buying in January... little point in this thread really until then as pricing and the landscape will certainly have changed by that point.

 

[dj1992]

I missed buying in January... little point in this thread really until then as pricing and the landscape will certainly have changed by that point.

You're right about that bro...things will certainly change a lot by January. And sorry about this post, my brother's GTX 670(around a year old) is lately causing problems....he has it overclocked to 1000Mhz but during Crysis 3, he notices random lags and stutters and his fps dips like crazy. I went to his house today and noticed that after about 1 hour of gameplay, the GPU downclocks itself to 750Mhz. Temps are around the 72-74C, which I don't think is too hot. My dad's 2 year old GTX 560ti runs around 80C while playing Crysis 3. Is the GPU faulty? I told him to RMA the 670 since it has another year of warranty left in it.

 

[EarthDog]

RMA? Did you try swapping drivers out first? RMA once you have done some due diligence on your end is my take on things.

 

[dj1992]

RMA? Did you try swapping drivers out first?

He did a clean install of Windows 7 last night, updated his BIOS and installed the latest drivers from Nvidia. one thing to note is that his GPU usage remains at 99% all throughout, not 100%. I wish I could have saved some screenshots of GPU Z

 

[EarthDog]

99% is normal.