new PSU opinions wanted

[carnageX]

Sooooo glad I am not in a hurry as my 560ti ( 448 core) is still hanging in there and I am playing at 1080P and med to high settings. As I continue to read/research and "shop" I am wondering if I should just wait until the Sapphire 3 fan cards ( vaporX or Toxic) go on sale to around $300 or wait until the Evga 770's come down in price to $300. My 2 teenagers are in a bit of a hurry as they are running with 5770's (in crossfire ) in the one PC and a 6850 in the other- they are both AMD fanboys.

Do you laugh at them and call them noobs? Cuz that's what you should do .

 

[acerinpa]

Well, coming from their father- I would not mean all that much. I cant figure how 770 keeps up with the 280x with less memory, etc.

 

[PP Mguire]

Well for starters Nvidia has a better driver set bar none. VRAM doesn't really mean squat at 1080p as for practically all games 2GB is plenty unless you're playing Skyrim with mods in which you need 4GB which you can get with a 770.

But like I said before they pretty much trade blows depending on the title in question but TPU puts the 680 and 770 slightly ahead of the stock iterations of the 280x and 7970.
Gigabyte R9 280X OC 3 GB Review | techPowerUp

Personally when it comes down to the pipe I think at a hardware level they are pretty even matched but driver optimizations make the Nvidia cards shine ahead. Now when it comes to the 290/290x vs GK110 there is no competition really.

Edit:
Looks like driver improvements makes the 770 actually be a "better" card than the 680. TDP/temp threshold increase.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_290X_PCS_Plus/23.html

 

[acerinpa]

got a coupon email from newegg - so now putting the HIS 280x at about $290. So told my boy to go for it. Been playing BF4 and the lag is still present at times - do you think that is due to my 560ti ( 448 core) not being able to keep up? I cant hit anything with a sniper rifle as the screen is always jumping/bumping all over the place, if I lie down my player continues to crawl making me a target -not stealthy. Also only have the 8x scope which seems to be to much or too little and does not have the increments for bullet drop. Wondering if I should update my GPU - if that is the reason for the lag and for the "jumpyness". Or if it is just a poorly optimized game- end of story and they just don't have it right.

 

[PP Mguire]

The rubber banding is a netcode issue with the game. People play with 570s and 660s which is around where your card sits so playing on all low shouldn't be an issue.

 

[acerinpa]

ya, well playing on medium/high settings - so that may be a problem - I will try on low settings. Also .....seeing the miners are selling out there stuff on Ebay- between $200 to $250 for several of the 280x models. That is very temping.....

 

[acerinpa]

Well- the lower settings helped some , then origin updated last night in a middle of a match and Crashed me.

Currently looking at a Visiontek 290x for $350 on ebay- never registered and bought from PC connection. Not a great name for GPU's but that is a great GPU for $350. It is not a reference card and has dual fans.

 

[PP Mguire]

Visiontek has been around forever and that's a SWEET price on a 290x.

 

[acerinpa]

lost to 290x - it went for $405. so, i did a buy it now offer on a 2 month old Gigabyte 290 for $325.

 

[PP Mguire]

Is it reference? Can probably be flashed to 290x.