Old dogs or new tricks

[OnceSaved]

HI guys, I'm building a budget gaming pc for a friend of mine and everything is figured out except the graphics card. I only have a $150 us budget for the card. He's fine buying used as $150 new would barely get me a 950 haha.
So I've been looking at the gtx 770 2gb versions and seeing for the price nothing really beats their performance atm. But I have a few questions before I pull the trigger.
1) they say it'll only have partial dx12 support. Will that be better than the full dx11?
2) will cards such as the gtx 960 or r9 380 that will have full dx12 support end up being faster in the long run?
3) is there a card I'm missing that would be a better choice for around the same budget (within $25-30)

This pc will probably never get updated as I do not live close to him and so I want to see it keep up for as long as possible.
Thank you in advance

 

[EarthDog]

1. Yes.
2. No.
3. You may be able to find used R9 290's for $180...Or maybe even a R9 280x/285.

2GB of vRAM and gaming at 1080p may become an issue a lot sooner than later. There are already many AAA titles that break 2GB mark. I would look at 3GB/4GB cards personally.

 

[OnceSaved]

I was thinking about that. The 280x is 3gb and there are 4gb 380s in my budget. But the 4gb 380 is worse than the 2gb 960 and the 960 is worse than the 770 so I feel I'd be taking a step in the wrong direction. The 280x with 3gb, is that better than the 380 being an "x" card?

 

[EarthDog]

An R9 380 is a rebrand of R9 285. I would go that route since an R9 285 is faster than a R9 280x(7970). The 3 series from AMD are all rebrands.

 

[OnceSaved]

Ok I'll look into a 4gb version of the 380 then. Will I see a significant drop in performance from the 770 to the 380? No taking into account the vram difference?

 

[EarthDog]

Just need to check reviews: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_380X_Strix/23.html

(that is a 380x review, but the 380 and 770 are in there)

 

[OnceSaved]

And I could expect the 380 4gb version to be a little better than the 2gb version but not quite as good as the 380x correct? If you look at gpu boss it says the 960 is better than the 380 and the 770 is better than the 960 so it's hard to know who to believe haha

 

[EarthDog]

If a game uses over 2GB, yes, gameplay will be better. A 380x is a 380x and is faster than a 380 no matter what ram. When you run out of vRAM, it really isn't a performance(FPS) thing so much as it is hitching/choppyness when it pages out to system ram.

 

[OnceSaved]

Ok I'll keep looking. I picked up a gigabyte g1 gaming for 200 brand new at microcenter but as far as ebay they seem to be going for almost 200 used haha. But I have time to find a good deal