New GPU time again..............along with the rest

[su1c1dal]

hi guys, need some advice. been out the loop for a while.......stil running an watercooled msi 6870 - shows how long lol. well now need to upgrade the lot.

gpu wise im sort of tied between two cards. 4gb zotac 960 & 4gb sapphire nitro-x r9 380x. now there is only 20/30 quid between them, now is that extra worth it? looking on comparison the 380x does hold sway but is also power hungry compared to the 960.

it'll be paired with an i5 on an asrock com h110 board, so it's a budget build to a point.....but budget is absolute max of £500. so what would you opt for and why?

[EndlessWaves]

If you're going to be replacing the monitor soon as part of your budget build then you probably want to go for AMD as variable refresh rate monitors for the nVidia specific G-sync technology are much more expensive than ones for the DisplayPort implementation that AMD supports (adaptive sync/freesync).

There's the 380 4GB as well at the same price and performance of the 960.

[c12038]

What PSU have you got

[DanceswithUnix]

Benchmarks generally favour the 380X http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1596?vs=1592

But otherwise R9 380/380X because variable sync is a good thing and I don't think Gsync will survive (and have bet in that direction with my wallet with two monitors so far). The last monitor was 144Hz 24" for £190, which makes the extra £100 it costs to have Gsync already seem way too much. Freesync over HDMI should get FreeSync monitors down near £100.

[EndlessWaves]

Freesync over HDMI should get FreeSync monitors down near £100.

They're already there with DisplayPort. AOC's G2260VWQ6 22" 1920x1080 30-75hz is £99.98, while it's bigger G2460VQ6 24" brother with the same specs and build in speakers is £120.

I'd imagine HDMI Variable Refresh Rate will require new hardware on both sides anyway, the 380/380X doesn't support the latest HDMI 2.0a.

[DanceswithUnix]

They're already there with DisplayPort. AOC's G2260VWQ6 22" 1920x1080 30-75hz is £99.98, while it's bigger G2460VQ6 24" brother with the same specs and build in speakers is £120.

I'd imagine HDMI Variable Refresh Rate will require new hardware on both sides anyway, the 380/380X doesn't support the latest HDMI 2.0a.

Ta, hadn't seen those when I got the 144Hz AOC for my wife's machine the other day. Mind you, 60 to 75Hz isn't much of a range but still for that price it is almost worth it just for the displayport interface!

New hardware on both sides? From http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/...freesync-hdmi/

"On the graphics front any Radeon card outputting over HDMI 1.2, or later, will have the ability to support FreeSync over HDMI, albeit with an updated driver."

That won't do really high rates at high res, but you won't get over 100Hz down at the £100 mark for a while I expect anyway.

If AMD can do this on old hardware, I wonder if that will get Intel on board as well.

[su1c1dal]

x.x.

[su1c1dal]

If you're going to be replacing the monitor soon as part of your budget build then you probably want to go for AMD as variable refresh rate monitors for the nVidia specific G-sync technology are much more expensive than ones for the DisplayPort implementation that AMD supports (adaptive sync/freesync).

There's the 380 4GB as well at the same price and performance of the 960.

still thinking, overall power is not everything......i look at all inc power consumtion.

What PSU have you got

silverstone strider 750

[EndlessWaves]

"On the graphics front any Radeon card outputting over HDMI 1.2, or later, will have the ability to support FreeSync over HDMI, albeit with an updated driver."

I have to admit I haven't really looked into it, I was just going on what happened with DisplayPort. I guess HDMI must have a way built in already and AMD just want the HDMI Standards body to make that use of it explicit, as well as pushing screen electronics manufacturers to support it.

still thinking, overall power is not everything......i look at all inc power consumtion.

All gaming cards are fairly monstrous in their power draw at the moment. Even a GTX 960 system will have the card accounting for 60-70% of total system power and drawing twice as much as a top of the range CPU.

There are some very good coolers available on the 380, so pick the right one and it certainly wouldn't be noisy. There are several 960s that are louder than several 380s. In terms of stuff that's personally noticeable you're looking at maybe a few quid more for the electricity usage over it's life.

And with a new generation of cards that are looking much more power efficient coming out this year, probably in summer, that would be the way to go if it's for environmental responsibility or principle. You could certainly find recent games that would run great on a 6870 to enjoy for six months.

[c12038]

still thinking, overall power is not everything......i look at all inc power consumtion.




silverstone strider 750

More than enough power for any version AMD or Nvidia

[mortispriest]

try Gtx 970 or r9 390x but 3series is reworked to second series have only boost up

but you can try to look this for compare gpu is good for find best hardware

http://gpuboss.com/

[kalniel]

but you can try to look this for compare gpu is good for find best hardware

http://gpuboss.com/

That's a pretty poor comparison site, giving as much weighting to meaningless things like shader/frequency comparisons between entirely different architectures and synthetics as real world benchmarks. Better to stick to reviews really.

[SlayerMatt]

My 2 cents here I have a i5 2500 on a H61 board with an R9 285 2gb and it runs the majority of things at 1080p on max and everything on at least high. If you have a power supply that can handle the 380 and you aren't wanting to use any nVidia features (such as Shadow Play) I'd definitely go for that though. Power consumption over time is negligible and you'll be getting a better card for you pounds.

Either way, both cards would tide you over for the next few years. I only upgraded last year from a single GTX 460 myself

[mortispriest]

bad comparison? lol why? go on youtube and cecked all benchmarks lol