Upgrading from intel HD4000, $300 budget.

[Stekker]

Good day dear sirs and madams,

A while ago I bought a new system, to save initial purchase costs I decided to go with an on-board GPU. At this point in time I'm looking to upgrade it, but find myself having an inadequate amount of knowledge on the subject in order to make a well informed decision. Since Santa was unavailable for comments I'm asking Tom and his little helpers for aid (no, I'm not expecting you to GIVE me one 😉 )

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: December 2013 - January 2014
BUDGET RANGE: Around $250 - $350

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: This is a hard one, I live on my PC, so half the answers will be pointless for the subject, but hey, what the hell, in the worst case I'd end up with a date.
Right, here goes: Listen to music, process recordings (Video&audio), watch lectures, movies, series, youtube etc. Game (Minecraft, Company of Heroes, fallout, Bioshock, world of tanks, battlefield, Quake 3 arena, Street rod, dishonored, and tons of others. Browse (obviously) I do also work at home making technical drawings (electrical engineering/drawing, mechanical engineering/drawing) so I occasionally render 3D models. I'm also planning to use said PC through a VPN tunnel to do this since my laptop at work sucks.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
Intel HD graphics 4000 (Core i7- 3770), PSU: Corsair CX750
http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/
http://www.corsair.com/en/power-supply-units/cx-series-psu/cx750-80-plus-bronze-certified-power-supply.html

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
CPU: intel core i7-3770
Mobo: Asrock B75 pro 3-M (supports crossfire)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B75%20Pro3-M/?cat=Specifications
Mem: Kingston Hyper-X Blue 1600, 4x 8gb
Storage: Samsung 840 evo SSD, 2x1TB HD


PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Right, being Dutch: https://azerty.nl/ As I drive past there on a regular basis, Use any site you like, I'll take care of the details.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: The Netherlands

This is where it gets interesting, I know my MoBo supports Crossfire, but would it be wise to use it with my setup and budget? Perhaps I could stretch my budget to $450 if I could spread buying time and purchase the cards seperately. Perhaps Hybrid SLI? As I do have a fairly decent on-board GPU.
OVERCLOCKING: No. I'm not adequately knowledgeable nor proficient on the subject.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe, don't know.

MONITOR RESOLUTION:1920x1080 on Dell Ultrasharp
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?cs=19&c=us&l=en&sku=320-2807

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I like gaming, and I do it quite a lot. Graphics are obviously not the most important quality in gaming, but very few people like to look at a pile of crap now do they? I am one of those people. As far as performance goes, the most important thing is decent graphics that run smooth as butter. I also like to be prepared for the future, hence the slightly above average specs on the system as it stands.

If your advice would be: "with that system, save up and spend more on graphics." or: "you n00b, get a better MoBo first lulz!!!1111" Or any comments along the lines of general improvements/tweaks I'd like to hear that too.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shan172]

https://azerty.nl/8-5829-649098/club-3d-radeon-r9-270x-royalquee.html
I think you should buy this gpu. I have it and it takes care of all harder 3D renderingg,games(bf4,minecraft)
Think you could also use 2 of them or if you want only one I think this is what you should get:
https://azerty.nl/8-5829-653060/sapphire-r9-290-4gb.html

 

[Stekker]

Thanks for your advice.
Seeing as there's only a tiny difference in pricing (€348 vs €340) can I also expect a tiny difference in performance between the two? If so, I'd lean towards getting one Club 3D Radeon R9 270X royalQueen at first, then purchase the 2nd one later as finances permit it.

https://azerty.nl/8-5829-649098/club-3d-radeon-r9-270x-royalquee.html
I think you should buy this gpu. I have it and it takes care of all harder 3D renderingg,games(bf4,minecraft)
Think you could also use 2 of them or if you want only one I think this is what you should get:
https://azerty.nl/8-5829-653060/sapphire-r9-290-4gb.html

 

[hypergon]

Better get a single high end then 2 lower tier... R9 290 or 280x with custom cooler if you want more silence but less performance

 

[Shan172]

Yes there would be a tiny difference in preformance. You would get a bit better preformance if you would buy the single Sapphire R9 290. It is a high end card.

 

[MrAMD]

Get this and when the time is ready get another one 😉 http://www.4launch.nl/shop/#p-4-productid-146901

 

[Stekker]

Thanks for all the suggestions! So far it seems the sapphire R9 290 gets three votes. Hypergon's comment made me think though, this thing IS in my living room, so I may settle for slightly less performance in favor of quiet operation. Right now my Pc produces about 50dB, from what I read that is close to what the Radeon R9 290 will also produce, so there wouldn't be a huge increase, especially if I turn my amplifier on come to think of it.(600W, about 63 dB as a tiny fan needs to cool the pre-amp tube ) Any thoughts on this? Are there good aftermarket coolers for this card? All I can come up with at this point is liquid cooling, and that's expensive 😉 I'll have a good think and get back to you.

*EDIT*
Judging from the article below, it would be a possibility.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-290,review-32828-5.html
Actually, would this do the same, but without the hassle?
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290x-windforce,25351.html

 

[hypergon]

You could wait for the custom r9 290s or get one right now and cool it with the accelero (your site doesn't seam to have it)
The r9 290 can be extremely loud under load and you don't want a turbine in your living room 😀

 

[Stekker]

They do, actually,
http://azerty.nl/0-1091-603810/arctic-cooling-accelero-xtreme-3.html
Combined with the suggested sapphire R9 290
http://azerty.nl/0-5829-653060/sapphire-r9-290-4gb.html
This then brings me to a grand total of € 401,77, which really stretches my budget to it's max.

As luck would have it, an article was released just this morning on a Dutch site which states the MSI will also be making a 290X version with custom cooling. They say it will be released this month even. (link below is to a Dutch website)
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/93203/msi-toont-r9-290x-videokaart-met-aangepaste-koeling.html

(original text, cited) "AMD gaat het plaatsen van een aangepaste koeling op de Radeon R9 290X-videokaart toelaten. "
(my interpreted translation, to bring the point across)"AMD will be allowing the sale of Radeon 290X graphics cards with modified coolers"
From that I conclude that the same thing will be true for the R9 R290, albeit somewhat later. Because of this I think I'll wait for those version to come out since it'll save me the hassle of having to custom fit the fans. It gives me some time to save up as well 😉

Thanks for all the help, the R9 290 it is! Just oooooone more little question; Since the sapphire card was mentioned specifically, is there a real difference between the various brands?

 

[hypergon]

Main difference is the cooler, some use custom (different to reference) PCB designs and components.
Best thing is to put the 290 under water 😀 friend got one in his loop, extreme performance gain!

 

[Stekker]

Allright, thanks again for all the help!

 

[Stekker]

Quick follow up: I've bought the SAPPHIRE TRI-X R9 290 4GB GDDR5 OC(UEFI)
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1227&pid=2091&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

Running smooth, thanks again!