Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[Sakkura]

R9 270X is generally not worth it compared to R9 270. Same GPU.

 

[vertexx]

R9 270X has 10% better performance on average than the R9 270, which puts it within 10% of the 760. The bulk of 270Xs are available at $200 vs $180 for the 270, which puts it right at about the same price/perf. And the specials are tending to be more aggressive for the 270X (for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131571)

The OP asked why the big gap - IMO the 270X is better positioned than the 270.

 

[damric]

HD 7870 GHz ed $130 AR.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax78702gbd52dhv5eoc

Need I say more?

 

[Sakkura]

R9 270X has 10% better performance on average than the R9 270, which puts it within 10% of the 760. The bulk of 270Xs are available at $200 vs $180 for the 270, which puts it right at about the same price/perf. And the specials are tending to be more aggressive for the 270X (for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131571)

The OP asked why the big gap - IMO the 270X is better positioned than the 270.

You can get basically the same performance from a 270 as a 270X, since it's the same GPU.

 

[Onus]

That's a great deal for that HD7870...if I needed a graphics card...

 

[SessouXFX]

Thinking about the whole Bit mining craze, and how miners are moving away from cards (finally!!! *,..,* ), I imagine that it's going to be a bit tougher to move cards, via retail or used markets.

Retails are still selling these cards at a rather high price in some cases, and bit miners have to deal with gamers animosity towards them and knowing those cards were well used in some cases. This summer could prove to be quite interesting for GPUs.

 

[Onus]

For the few months I was mining, I did not abuse my cards. I probably oc'ed them about 10%-12%, and never added voltage.
I suppose those doing it as a business might have been considerably more aggressive.

 

[Isaiah4110]

For the few months I was mining, I did not abuse my cards. I probably oc'ed them about 10%-12%, and never added voltage.
I suppose those doing it as a business might have been considerably more aggressive.

But are you keeping or selling that card?

My guess/assumption is that anyone who bought a card for gaming but decided to make a little money on the side would have a much less aggressive OC and be keeping the card. On the flip side, anyone who bought a card specifically to mine bitcoins would likely push their card as far as it could go and is intending to sell the card now that mining BC via GPU is no longer as profitable to maximize their profit.

 

[vertexx]

My guess/assumption is that anyone who bought a card for gaming but decided to make a little money on the side would have a much less aggressive OC and be keeping the card. On the flip side, anyone who bought a card specifically to mine bitcoins would likely push their card as far as it could go and is intending to sell the card now that mining BC via GPU is no longer as profitable to maximize their profit.

It's actually a bit more complicated. I ran an R9 280x, R9 270x, and 7850 at full throttle through the winter months when Litecoin mining was profitable. The maximum hash rate was largely dependent on memory clock, so for all of these cards, the memory was clocked as high as possible. Then, based on the memory clock rate, the GPU clock would need to be based on an optimum ratio between the GPU and memory clock. So, in each of those cards, I actually ended up slowing down the GPU clock in order to get the maximum hash rate. We kept two different profiles, one for gaming, and one for mining.

Bottom line though, mining did work the GPUs harder than any gaming situation would. But we were able to keep temps under control, and I don't think you'd be able to tell whether or not the component life was shortened. Many times with electronic components, keeping them at a steady state is actually better for longevity. I guess only time will tell....

 

[logainofhades]

R9 270X has 10% better performance on average than the R9 270, which puts it within 10% of the 760. The bulk of 270Xs are available at $200 vs $180 for the 270, which puts it right at about the same price/perf. And the specials are tending to be more aggressive for the 270X (for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131571)

The OP asked why the big gap - IMO the 270X is better positioned than the 270.

You can get basically the same performance from a 270 as a 270X, since it's the same GPU.

Prices are so close, you may as well go with the 270x, The sapphire 270 and 270x dual x cards are same price right now, for example. I wouldn't go with a 270 unless I really had to due to budget and settling on one like the Club 3d. Even then, I think I could find a way to deal with the $25-35 price difference and get my preferred brand.

 

[Onus]

I bought it to mine, figuring I'd keep it for gaming once mining became unprofitable within six months or so. Nothing I have needs that much power (most of my games run well enough for me on a HD7750), so it's my future-resistance.

 

[Sakkura]

Prices are so close, you may as well go with the 270x, The sapphire 270 and 270x dual x cards are same price right now, for example. I wouldn't go with a 270 unless I really had to due to budget and settling on one like the Club 3d. Even then, I think I could find a way to deal with the $25-35 price difference and get my preferred brand.

Well, right now the gap has shrunk to $10 or less. Then yeah, might as well go 270X. But once it goes back up to $30-40, it's another story.

 

[ingtar33]

might as well go for the r9-290 over the 770 right now. they cost the same... insane deal right there.

 

[OWEN10578]

The GTX 750 Ti is a lot faster than the R7 260X, it's closer to the R7 265.

 

[ingtar33]

well considering the 260x is just 15% slower then the 265/7850 i wouldn't say the 750ti is "a lot faster"; and while the 750ti is close to a stock 265, it isn't all that close to the performance of an overclocked one (the 265/7850 was well loved for a long time because of the stupid crazy performance gains you got from overclocking it)

 

[OWEN10578]

well considering the 260x is just 15% slower then the 265/7850 i wouldn't say the 750ti is "a lot faster"; and while the 750ti is close to a stock 265, it isn't all that close to the performance of an overclocked one (the 265/7850 was well loved for a long time because of the stupid crazy performance gains you got from overclocking it)

Well, yea ofcourse the R7265/7850 is faster. But it is still faster than the R7 260X by a noticable difference and tomshardware just put it like they're performance are nearly the same. So...I think the GTX 750 Ti should get more credit for it's higher performance. Right? Yes, I do own a GTX 750 Ti but I'm not biased and I'm not a fanboy. I got the GTX 750 Ti purely because it used so little power (hence lower temps) for the performance it gives which I think was pretty cool.

 

[ingtar33]

oh i agree... the 750ti is an amazing peice of engineering. but it's performance envelope isn't that far away from a 260x to get too concerned about it. either way i'm glad you like your new card. it certainly would kick my card around

 

[Bullzi]

Im going up 7 tiers. WORTH IT!

 

[OWEN10578]

oh i agree... the 750ti is an amazing peice of engineering. but it's performance envelope isn't that far away from a 260x to get too concerned about it. either way i'm glad you like your new card. it certainly would kick my card around

I guess you're right. Yea, the thing's been awesome. hahaha, what's your card?

 

[wtfxxxgp]

It would really be awesome if they fixed this comments thread to read from the latest and greatest comments to the older comments. It would also be great if they could finally stick the newer Intel chip-based GPU's in at the corresponding level to the discreet competition. HD4000 is "apparently" significantly slower than HD4600 for example...but by how much? Please THW, let's see an update?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

It would really be awesome if they fixed this comments thread to read from the latest and greatest comments to the older comments.

Have you noticed the "Sort by: Most recent | Oldest first" bit?

 

[ingtar33]

oh i agree... the 750ti is an amazing peice of engineering. but it's performance envelope isn't that far away from a 260x to get too concerned about it. either way i'm glad you like your new card. it certainly would kick my card around

I guess you're right. Yea, the thing's been awesome. hahaha, what's your card?

hd 7770, still a stupid great bargain... got it last summer (for $78) as a placeholder, still got it though it's getting replaced shortly with a r9-290 or gtx 780

 

[babernet_1]

oh i agree... the 750ti is an amazing peice of engineering. but it's performance envelope isn't that far away from a 260x to get too concerned about it. either way i'm glad you like your new card. it certainly would kick my card around

I guess you're right. Yea, the thing's been awesome. hahaha, what's your card?

hd 7770, still a stupid great bargain... got it last summer (for $78) as a placeholder, still got it though it's getting replaced shortly with a r9-290 or gtx 780

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202103&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
The perfect card. Runs cool and silent. Can be overclocked to R9 290X speeds.

 

[vertexx]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202103&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
The perfect card. Runs cool and silent. Can be overclocked to R9 290X speeds.

I've had my eye on the Powercolor PCS+ R9 290x. It can be had right now for $498 right now with a promo code plus another $30 off with the rebate....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131548

Problem is I need to upgrade my CPU more, so I'm waiting for DC to come out. It's going to be really tough to not pull the trigger on both.

 

[ingtar33]

yeah.. i know the prices on the r9-290s have got silly low. two months ago i was going to get a gtx780, but now it's looking like a lock i'll go with an r9-290. probably a tri-x... i'll have to check the room in my case before i do it.