Having a hard time finding a graphics card

[Guest]

Hey o/

I'm having kinda a hard time finding myself a new graphics card :/
(I am probably overthinking it for myself, but I figured I'll just ask someone who probably knows more than me)

I'm soon getting myself 3 new monitors (1080x1920, maybe on 1440 and the others 1080) I feel like my 760 needs an upgrade as I think I need more vram and I would like to play some games a bit smoother and with higher settings.

Right now I'm looking at probably a 980. (I might go for a 980ti if I feel like saving up for it ) I know almost nothing about AMDs gpus, but if someone has some recommendations from there, I'll be open for that too.

And I don't really care about price, but I'm not willing to pay like a 1000$ for my gpu

I hope you understand and sorry for my bad english



Specs:
Asus z97-a
Intel i7 4790k at 4,5Ghz
Hyper 212
MSI GeForce gtx 760 2gb
Corsair cx500 (will upgrade soon anyways, 'cause this one is pretty crappy)
Samsung 840 Evo 250GB
Some random Toshiba 2TB HDD

 

[middlemarkal]

for 3 screens you need 3 times the power and the VRAM, especially if you go 1440,

so it a 980ti with 6 gig or a r9 390 with 8 gig

the 980ti is faster and the 390X has more memory.

the fury and 980 only 4 Gig

970 only 3.5 GIG Real memory

I recommand 980ti hybrid of only 1 of your screen is 1440p, but more expensive, you can only find it on teh site of evga

or the 390x for the money

 

[bloc97]

Are you using all three monitors to play games? Three monitor gaming puts a great burden on the Graphics Processor, especially the ROPs, as there will be three times as pixels to process compared to one monitor.

Since the number of pixels is comparable to 4K displays, you can check out the benchmarks of which games work at what performance on different GPUs on 4K monitors. Take it only as a grain of salt though, as not all benchmarks are reliable and reflect what you get in real situations.

Find 4K gaming benchmarks and base your purchase on those. (Whether you need 60 FPS on Ultra settings at 4xMSAA or just playable framerates at High settings for example)

 

[Robert Cook]

well a card you might be interested in is the R9 290X or R9 390X, as the R9 290x in particular is far cheaper and still has 4GB of VRAM and is still flagship grade. the 390X is not much better, but it has 8 GB of VRAM which could help slightly with multiple monitors and 1440p. the 980 is a great choice as well, and should be able to run such a setup as well and do do better than the 390X at a higher price point. the 980ti would be a beast for this setup, as would the R9 FuryX both are around 650, but a higher end 980ti could cost into the $700 range. for your case, I would save up for the Fury X or 980ti. also there is the R9 Fury non X which is about $100 less than the 980ti and Fury X which wills serve your needs very well. these are all things to look into.

 

[Robert Cook]

middlemarkal, the fury only has 4 GB of memory but it is HBM, so it is more effective to being around 8 GB or so.

 

[Guest]

Are you using all three monitors to play games? Three monitor gaming puts a great burden on the Graphics Processor, especially the ROPs, as there will be three times as pixels to process compared to one monitor.

Since the number of pixels is comparable to 4K displays, you can check out the benchmarks of which games work at what performance on different GPUs on 4K monitors. Take it only as a grain of salt though, as not all benchmarks are reliable and reflect what you get in real situations.

Find 4K gaming benchmarks and base your purchase on those. (Whether you need 60 FPS on Ultra settings at 4xMSAA or just playable framerates at High settings for example)

I'll probabably not be playing games on all three, so that's not a problem

 

[Guest]

well a card you might be interested in is the R9 290X or R9 390X, as the R9 290x in particular is far cheaper and still has 4GB of VRAM and is still flagship grade. the 390X is not much better, but it has 8 GB of VRAM which could help slightly with multiple monitors and 1440p. the 980 is a great choice as well, and should be able to run such a setup as well and do do better than the 390X at a higher price point. the 980ti would be a beast for this setup, as would the R9 FuryX both are around 650, but a higher end 980ti could cost into the $700 range. for your case, I would save up for the Fury X or 980ti. also there is the R9 Fury non X which is about $100 less than the 980ti and Fury X which wills serve your needs very well. these are all things to look into.

Hmm.... I'll look into it

 

[Robert Cook]

^ with games only on one or two, the R9 390X and 980 might be all you need, but if you want the neat cards like the Fury Fury X and 980ti, they will be worthy investments, as they are likely to be useful further down the road.

 

[bloc97]

Are you using all three monitors to play games? Three monitor gaming puts a great burden on the Graphics Processor, especially the ROPs, as there will be three times as pixels to process compared to one monitor.

Since the number of pixels is comparable to 4K displays, you can check out the benchmarks of which games work at what performance on different GPUs on 4K monitors. Take it only as a grain of salt though, as not all benchmarks are reliable and reflect what you get in real situations.

Find 4K gaming benchmarks and base your purchase on those. (Whether you need 60 FPS on Ultra settings at 4xMSAA or just playable framerates at High settings for example)

I'll probabably not be playing games on all three, so that's not a problem

Then anything better the 970 or the R9 290 should be fine for 1-2 years (All new AAA games at High-VeryHigh 1080p). If you're targeting Ultra at above 60FPS for more than 2 years in the future, choose between the 980Ti, Titan, Fury or R9 390X so you can crossfire/SLI them later. Old setups such as the HD 7970 crossfire still beats some new cards today.

 

[Guest]

^ with games only on one or two, the R9 390X and 980 might be all you need, but if you want the neat cards like the Fury Fury X and 980ti, they will be worthy investments, as they are likely to be useful further down the road.

Let's say I now pick the 980ti, wich version do you recommend? I'm looking at the Gigabyte g1 gaming

 

[Guest]

Are you using all three monitors to play games? Three monitor gaming puts a great burden on the Graphics Processor, especially the ROPs, as there will be three times as pixels to process compared to one monitor.

Since the number of pixels is comparable to 4K displays, you can check out the benchmarks of which games work at what performance on different GPUs on 4K monitors. Take it only as a grain of salt though, as not all benchmarks are reliable and reflect what you get in real situations.

Find 4K gaming benchmarks and base your purchase on those. (Whether you need 60 FPS on Ultra settings at 4xMSAA or just playable framerates at High settings for example)

I'll probabably not be playing games on all three, so that's not a problem

Then anything better the 970 or the R9 290 should be fine for 1-2 years (All new AAA games at High-VeryHigh 1080p). If you're targeting Ultra at above 60FPS for more than 2 years in the future, choose between the 980Ti, Titan, Fury or R9 390X

I feel like the titan x is a bit pricier than I wan't to, but the fury (non x) looks like an option too

 

[geofelt]

I expect you will be gaming on the center 1440P monitor, and be using the side monitors for other more static displays such as email or performance monitors.
The side monitors will add little to the gaming load.
I might suggest you upgrade your monitors first and see how you do.
You will get a better idea of what you actually need.
You are probably correct that a GTX980 will suffice.
But, since you have the budget for gtx980TI, I suggest buying one, or you will forever wonder if you should have.
Yes, you want about a 620w psu; I suggest Seasonic.
As to vram:

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, so there may be differences in effectiveness between amd and nvidia cards.
Here is an older performance test comparing 2gb with 4gb vram.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Spoiler... not a significant difference.

 

[Robert Cook]

the G1 Gaming is a great card I would get that if you want one.

 

[Robert Cook]

that or some EVGA card would be a great idea.

 

[Guest]

I expect you will be gaming on the center 1440P monitor, and be using the side monitors for other more static displays such as email or performance monitors.
The side monitors will add little to the gaming load.
I might suggest you upgrade your monitors first and see how you do.
You will get a better idea of what you actually need.
You are probably correct that a GTX980 will suffice.
But, since you have the budget for gtx980TI, I suggest buying one, or you will forever wonder if you should have.
Yes, you want about a 620w psu; I suggest Seasonic.
As to vram:

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, so there may be differences in effectiveness between amd and nvidia cards.
Here is an older performance test comparing 2gb with 4gb vram.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Spoiler... not a significant difference.

Thanks for the reply The psu I'm going to buy is the EVGA Supernova 850 thingy, (http://tinyurl.com/pfsvbel) I'm buying 850w because then I have a bit of headroom if I figure I'll just go overkill and buy another 980ti or something like that. THe 980ti is as of right now the one I'll be going for

 

[Guest]

Oh, and does anyone have some recommendations for a 1440p monitor? I don't really find one that I like :/

 

[Robert Cook]

that PSU looks great, for the monitor do you want G-sync?

 

[Derza10]

I went with the MSI gaming GTX 980 Ti, Reason i picked this card over all the others was because it in the quietest while still being cool and a good overclocker. From the reviews i found pretty much all the after market cooled cards got up to 41db at full load while the MSI gaming was at 39db - with very similar clocks and temps.

It also has the best reviews on newegg/amazon... with like 80%+ 5 stars while the other cards are around 50-70% 5 stars.

As for monitors i'd get one of these two, if you can budget it:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor ($669.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Acer XB270HU bprz 144Hz 27.0" Monitor ($719.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1389.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-24 12:04 EDT-0400

Personally i'd get the Asus ROG Swift.

 

[Guest]

that PSU looks great, for the monitor do you want G-sync?

I don't really care about g-sync As long as it's atleast 60hz I'm okay

 

[Robert Cook]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160253
this one is very cheap right now and has a great response time.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236453
this one seems all around good.
these are not 144Hz or G-sync monitors, they are normal monitors which will do quite well for gaming,