Fx 6300 and r9 280x or i5 4590 and r9 270x?

TheUltimateNoob123

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Jan 18, 2014
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I have an fx6300 and an r9 270x. I'm either planning on buying a new mother board and an i5 4590 or buying an r9 280x or Gtx 960 (whatever's cheapest at the time). Both of these options will cost around £200. I often play games like arma3, dayz and rust and I was wandering which would help to increase performance most.

Any input and other ideas are appreciated.
 
Solution
OC FX 6300 add GTX 960 this give you best fps on lowest cost :)
Or Simply OC CPU + OC R9 270 :) performance gain around up to 40% in heavy CPU games if you go up to 4.8Ghz costing nothing :)
Your current PC specification , mobo, PSU, cpu cooler , rams, ect ?
Arma 3 and DayZ are CPU intensive games so a powerful processor will make a bigger difference.

However there seem to be various tricks in Arma where you can use all of your 6 cores to make the game perform very well. Not sure how this works but there should be a bunch of forum posts explaining how to do that using commands etc.
 
OC FX 6300 add GTX 960 this give you best fps on lowest cost :)
Or Simply OC CPU + OC R9 270 :) performance gain around up to 40% in heavy CPU games if you go up to 4.8Ghz costing nothing :)
Your current PC specification , mobo, PSU, cpu cooler , rams, ect ?
 
Solution
Typically I suggest upgrading the GPU to increase gaming, and this is no different. Going from a 270x to a 280x is like going from High to Ultra. I'd go that route and upgrade the CPU/mobo at a later time.

As DeathRabit said, overclock the 6300 if you haven't already. Can you list your mobo and cpu cooler?
 


Not it does not beat the GTX 960. No one who has an R9 280 or GTX 960 will play at 1200p. Because of the GTX 960's small memory bit bus it performs strictly best at 1080p, close to the GTX 770.

Tired of people comparing at 1200/1440p when these are 1080p graphics cards.
 
Yes, I would add a better cooler. That mobo won't overclock much but you can. Grab a Cooler Master EVO. Even if you upgrade the cpu/mobo one day you can use the cooler on new parts. Expect to hit around 4.2GHz with the EVO on that mobo.

I'd go for the 280x or 960. The 280x is slightly higher performer though. Your games aren't the most GPU intensive ones but a GPU upgrade will help for 1080p.
 

I've realised that it would probably be better to buy a second r9 270x and crossfire them instead of buying a 280x. I'll buy the cooler then and overclock the CPU
 



Before buying second GPU tell as your PSU model and brand ?
 

It's a corsair vs 450w which I know isn't enough and I'll buy a bigger one if I do crossfire
 


Im tired of people who try an misrepresnt facts .

The site tests at 1920 x 1200 instead of 1920 x 1080 . Its a small step up , not a huge leap thats going to max out a graphics cards frame buffer .
There are definitely nVidia optimised games that run better on the GTX 960 , but its a fairly even match in performance with the the Radeon and the Radeon is $60 cheaper
 
R9 280 is 160 dollars right now which is a great deal.

GTX 960 is 192 dollars.

Not quite 60. The GTX 960 does perform better at 1080p, had both GPU's tested myself.

The winning part here is that my GTX 960 runs 27-30 degrees at idle and 45-52 load, fantastic.
 


http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100373l $149
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9602gd5toc $185

Prices shift all the time .
The R9 280 is cheaper though currently not by the $60 it was a week or so ago when it was way overpriced and they were probably not selling too well

The only reason to choose the GTX 960 IMO is that it uses less power and for some people that would mean not having to upgrade a psu
 
When a GPU performs better, is a lot more efficient and a lot more effective features it is better.

I had an R9 290 before this with no complaints at all yet I'm more than happy with my switch to the GTX 960 with priority in efficiency and my acceptance of playing on lower framerates in some games.

However, the GTX 960 is only a couple of frames off compared to the GTX 770 in most games. With all the other things added to that it seems a lot of people prefer the R9 280 without knowing how good the GTX 960 actually is.

I've started using the adaptive V-Sync method more than anything now and it is something that doesn't work anything close to well with AMD's driver right now.

Mind that for example Battlefield 4 is AMD optimised yet the R9 280 can't run Battlefield 4 at Ultra with 2X MSAA + HBAO above 60 fps in all situations, yet a GTX 960 can. It is such an underrated graphics card like.