11 replies to this topic

[Sephlock]

Any recommendations?

Preferably something that won't go nuclear and melt into slag.

[Summon3r]

budget? sys specs?

[Goose]

Born at the right time: http://www.tomshardw...eview,3107.html

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Going high, go 780/780TI
Going mid 760/770

If you go AMD, make sure to get a non reference design as the standard ones as you say will go nuclear.

[POOTYTANGASAUR]

DV McKenna, on 09 February 2014 - 09:20 AM, said:

Going high, go 780/780TI
Going mid 760/770

If you go AMD, make sure to get a non reference design as the standard ones as you say will go nuclear.

My dual 290s nonwatercooled would disagree with your "going nuclear" comment. Running at 1075 core 1450 ram they run maxed out at 80*C. Which is totally comfortable. I have a define r4 windowed. Which isn't an airflow case and it does fine keeping em cool. Running them with the fans turned down however will raise the temp to 90*C but they are designed to run at 95*C comfortably so i see no issue running mine like this until i get waterblocks. BTW i reccomend the r9 270 as it runs games sexy smooth for my girlfriends rig.

[Catamount]

I might depend somewhat on what you want to play and do. Are you interested in BF4 and/or Star Citizen? Or otherwise gaming in general beyond MWO? Do you have any plans on going GPGPU? If the answer is maybe or yes to any of those, then basically, you've narrowed it down to AMD because of Mantle support and their huge GPGPU edge.

Do you intend to specifically play games with hardware physx support (as in, more than one or two)? Do you intend to use g-sync right this instant (AMD's got a solution in software coming, just not today, tomorrow, or next week)? If so, get an Nvidia GPU.

If not, get whatever happens to be cheapest. With the lightcoin mining craze driving huge demand for AMDGPUs, right now Nvidia cards seem to currently hold a price advantage for gamers because they're just not being bought up as fast. As for what to get, specifically, well that all depends on price range. There are used GPUs in the sub-$100 range that could probably run MWO on high at 1080P, and then there are hardcore $600+ monstrosities that will do the same thing, only, you know, better

I agree with DV. Go with non-reference for newer AMD cards. Sapphire is usually the best out of everyone on cooling by far from what I've seen.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Mantle could be interesting, looking forward to see some actual results i dare say it will take some time to get it refined.

[Catamount]

Oh, it absolutely needs refinement.

So far it's looking to carry things in the same direction we've been seeing with DirectX, which is lower and lower CPU overhead more than any other advantage. That's why it benefits APUs only modestly, while high-end GPU setups see better advantage.

HardOCP and Anand both are looking at 7-10% for the first beta release in completely GPU-bound situations. That's not a bad free gain at all, but it looks like the biggest gains will come from extending CPU life by allowing us to continue packing new generations of GPU in without being bottlenecked, insofar as that matters post Moore's Law (maybe my 3570k will game until 2025 instead of 2020? ). I also suspect the extent of the improvement will depend on game. BF4 is a typical shooter and a console port, which means it's going to be relatively CPU-light, but something like Star Citizen or the upcoming engine the Starswarm demo uses should see much larger benefits.


I wouldn't say it's the game changer a lot hoped for/expected, but it's definitely at least some kind of a step forward it seems.

Edited by Catamount, 09 February 2014 - 01:54 PM.

[Catamount]

Also, yeah, the lightcoin boom has just skyrocketed AMD card prices.

When you can get a GTX 770 for $329 but a more or less equivalent 280x costs $429, it's hard to recommend AMD right now for gaming. So I retract any recommendation there until their prices go down.

[Goose]

This.

There are no bad cards, just bad prices …

[Lord Letto]

Nvidia GTX 6xx Series: 660TI or 670 and up
Nvidia GTX 7xx Series: 760 and up (in other words, any GTX 7xx series)
I use a Single EVGA 560TI 2GB I picked up used for $120 (Canadian), the cards I have listed should be a step up from it, I get 30-40FPS Average (Maxed@1280x1024) with a AMD FX-4100 OCed to 4.4GHz. for brands, I only know EVGA is good, ASUS might be good also, possibly Gigabyte also.

Edited by Lord Letto, 10 February 2014 - 06:59 AM.

[p8ragon]

Depends on your resolution,and other pc specs. If you have a core 2 duo, I would get something like a gtx 760/r9 270x and use the extra money towards upgrading towards an i5 or amd equivalent. If you're already rocking a pretty strong cpu, Gtx 770 or 780. Don' get AMD cards atm. Overpriced as ****.

Otherwise, I would recommend an r9 290/r9 280x (aftermarket)