About to buy a new graphics card

[Alyanna]

Greetings everyone,

My current graphics card is a gtx460 v2 and it's almost dead. Artifacts, low resolution only available -even with new drivers-, not recognised by the system etc etc.

So yes, I'm about to replace it with a new one. I wanna spend ~ 250 Euros and I could use some help,because I don't know much about these things.

I searched a bit, I read about the big "fight" between gtx960 vs r9 380. I read about gtx970 and how awesome it is for its money. But I don't really know what I can buy with ~250euros.
Thanks!

 

[Rhezner]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY2_MFEsANg

here is 380 vs 280x vs 960
I don't know what country you live in but if the 280x is a bit more or cheaper then get that, If the r9 380 is the same price as a 960 then get the 380. If the 960 is a decent bit cheaper then get that.

Just make sure you have a tier 1 or 2 PSU from here that is at leat tier 1 or 2 and at least 450 watts for a 960 and 500 for an amd card
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

As far as gtx 970 vs r9 390 i would recommend the r9 390

no matter which card you get you should definitely overclock it.

 

[Alyanna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY2_MFEsANg

here is 380 vs 280x vs 960
I don't know what country you live in but if the 280x is a bit more or cheaper then get that, If the r9 380 is the same price as a 960 then get the 380. If the 960 is a decent bit cheaper then get that.

Just make sure you have a tier 1 or 2 PSU from here that is at leat tier 1 or 2 and at least 450 watts for a 960 and 500 for an amd card
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

As far as gtx 970 vs r9 390 i would recommend the r9 390

no matter which card you get you should definitely overclock it.

Thanks Rhezner!

I couldn't find my PSU at this list. I've got a Coolermaster M850 real power modular. Hope it can support these cards because it was pretty expensive when I bought it.

I live in Greece:
-The 960 and the 380 are exactly the same price.
-The 280x is like 2-10euros cheaper, than the 960 and the 380, depending on the version (royal queen, black edition).

I think that +10euros/-10euros isnt a big deal.

In the video you've linked, I see that both the 280x and the 380 beat the 960 (fps wise). However they're both at higher temperatures than the 960 and that concerns me. Shouldn't it?
Then on the other hand 960 offers only 128memory bus, I don't know if that's a problem but I've heard that this is pretty sad for a new graphics card.

Aren't all those cards overclocked by the factory or I've heard wrong?

 

[Rhezner]

Your PSU is fine for this build, it is a devent cooler master unit that is actually super overkill so you will be fine.

Get the 280x if it is cheaper, Heat should not concern you as cards from AMD are designed to run hotter than nvidia cards, they will run hot but it is completely safe, and you can overclock them fine as well.

Some cards come factory overclocked, but they are never overclocked to their full potential, not even close, the factory plays it safe and has a standard overclock for all of their GPUs.

I would recommend overclocking.

 

[Alyanna]

Your PSU is fine for this build, it is a devent cooler master unit that is actually super overkill so you will be fine.

Get the 280x if it is cheaper, Heat should not concern you as cards from AMD are designed to run hotter than nvidia cards, they will run hot but it is completely safe, and you can overclock them fine as well.

Some cards come factory overclocked, but they are never overclocked to their full potential, not even close, the factory plays it safe and has a standard overclock for all of their GPUs.

I would recommend overclocking.

Currently the 280x is N/A :/
Oh I didn't know that about the AMD cards. So their lifetime won't be less than the nvidia ones cause of the heat, right?

The thing about overclocking is that if I do it, then I wont be covered by the 3 year guarantee (at least that's what I've heard). That's a big problem now isnt it?