GT 740 vs R7 250 (for an older machine) - which do you prefer?

[Sylvester5976]

My first post here asking for advice so here goes.

I'm looking to replace the ASUS EAH HD4850 in my PC which I built in 2009. I use it for occasional moderate gaming and have been very happy with its performance.

Recently the fan on it has started to make an unusual noise like the bearing has failed and I've noticed it stops spinning.

I want to replace it with something similar to last me until my next build, which will not be until my current PC is no longer up to the task (ie. maybe 3-5 years). I don't really want to spend more than I have to, just enough to "keep me going".

For around $120 (Australian) I'm looking at the GT 740, or maybe R7 250. I believe they are similar in performance.

What do you think?

Here are links to specific models:

Gigabyte n740d5oc-2gi $118

ASUS GT740-OC-2GD5 $117

ASUS R7250-OC-2GD3 $105

Gigabyte GV-R725OC-2GI $94

Which one would you buy? Are there other models in the price range that are better value for money? Also I've noticed some variants of the cards use DDR3 and some use DDR5, what difference in performance would there be between them, if any?

My system specs, btw:
Core 2 Duo (sorry I can't remember which one but around 3.0Ghz)
ASUS P5Q-Pro Motherboard
4Gb RAM
550 watt PSU (recently replaced)
3Tb Hard drive seagate (also recently replaced) I always seem to have bad luck with HDD 🙁

I use my system for work as a programmer, general web browsing, moderate gaming. By moderate I mean the last game I played was Resident Evil 5, not interested in the big new releases eg. COD, Far Cry, etc. I should also probably mention I converted to linux the last time my hard drive crashed (haven't yet had the chance to try any actual "gaming" on linux) for this reason I'm leaning towards nVidia (better supported drivers).

Anyway, if you've read this far, thank you, if you have any advice or tips I should consider I'm all ears

 

[zink1701]

One of these if you can find one, its currently out of stock on your site 🙁 http://www.msy.com.au/nsw/auburn/pc-components/12507-gigabyte-r726xwf2-2gd-2gb-r7-260x-pci-e-vga-card.html

 

[Sylvester5976]

One of these if you can find one, its currently out of stock on your site 🙁 http://www.msy.com.au/nsw/auburn/pc-components/12507-gigabyte-r726xwf2-2gd-2gb-r7-260x-pci-e-vga-card.html

That would be a good deal, haven't even looked at 260X as I thought it would be out of my price range.

BTW, What does the X designate? And how do you tell performance of one series vs another? I've never been able to get the naming conventions, for example, HD 4850 is superior to HD 5450, even though it is an older card and lower number.

I saw this thread which helped a lot, but there are so many models on the market, and very few actually available in local stores.

Also, when comparing specs, what has most bearing on the card's performance? Memory clock, floating point OPS, texture rate, pixel rate, shading units? A combination of all? Or does it depend on the actual game?

Sorry about my ignorance but graphics is one area of computers where I have so little experience.

 

[Sylvester5976]

Update: I found this on new egg: GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 (price including delivery is $143). GPU Boss is showing roughly 50% better performance specs compared to 740: GTX 650 Ti vs GT 740. If this correct I think spending extra $45 is worth it?