Which Video Card To Buy?

[Stylo]

EVGA GTX 780: $465

Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290: $380

Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290X: $550

I will be gaming @ 1080p now, but will upgrade very shortly to 1440p or 4K. Which should I buy?

 

[PP Mguire]

I wouldn't bother with 4k until we have the GPU horsepower to push it. That being said, if you have the budget and machine behind it might as well go 290x.

 

[Drogos]

like PP said don't do 4k yet you'll be fine with the 290x at 1440p

 

[_SomeOne_]

I have two sapphire 290x's and a 1440p monitor. Can push almost solid 60 on very intense games. 60+++ on everyother game... All maxed out except for the 16x antialisting.
The more vram the better so I'd wait for 880/ti, 390/x or just go with the 290x.

One thing to note... They push out a lot of heat. Mine got to 94C while running metro last light maxed out. Had to open the case and put my air condition on it lol. Normally they run at like 70C to 80C

 

[PP Mguire]

290 and 290x are designed to run at 95c so that's normal.

 

[iParanormalx]

Im really impressed with the specs of the 290x. Its easy for me to recommend it if its within budget; especially because my experience purchasing graphics cards is that i've always spent a bit more money than I probably should but I take good care of it. Keeping it clean and in good operating condition will future-proof this investment for you and will make it more worth your money in the months and years to come.

Good luck!


Edit: Also i have the general rule-of-thumb of matching Intel processors with nVidia cards and AMD with ATI; I dont really have any data supporting any benefits of this rule but its never done me wrong and makes sense.

 

[PP Mguire]

You don't need to mate brands like that. A 4670k and a 290x paired together will tear games up good. Although I have many reasons to stick with Nvidia, I'm personally probably going to purchase one of the cheap miner 290s locally.

 

[_SomeOne_]

290 and 290x are designed to run at 95c so that's normal.

Yup.. But it was just keep going up so I didn't want to risk it

 

[PP Mguire]

They boost until they hit 95c, then they top out and control the temp at 95c. It wouldn't have kept going up past 95 unless your cards were faulty.

 

[espeed]

4k is manageable with crossfired 290x's or even 280x's. You can switch off AA in the games graphic settings to gain some frames as 4k res compensates for it ive read. If your getting 4k youll need one capable of DP 1.2 to gain access to 60hz, otherwise waste of time for gaming. I expect to reach frame levels between 35-40 on most games at high to ultra type settings. May require v-sync off depending on game....