Which GPU For Gaming?

[Cody Odom]

Right, so I'll be upgrading my system soon hopefully and I'm looking to spend around $1000, since I need a CPU, a GPU and a PSU. I currently have an i-3 3250 and a Radeon 7870, so it's definitely time for an upgrade. Anyway, I was looking at a few cards. The 290x-295, 780 and all from the 900 line. I have cash to spend, but it's always better to save a few bucks for Taco Bell or something *Professionalism sucks* so what are your thoughts/experience with the differences between said cards? Obviously the 980 is better than 970, 970 than 780 etc, but I'm not reeaally looking for bleeding edge..But yeah, What do you guys think? It's a gaming rig and I'll probably end up with an i-5--k, some type of mobo *I kinda like the black and red MSI Gaming* and a 700ish watt PSU.

 

[RobCrezz]

gtx 970 or R9 290 is best for performance/price at the moment

 

[Archaic59]

Maybe some parts such as these:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($333.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $756.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-11 09:32 EDT-0400

 

[holyrage]

I would avoid MSI motherboards as they have a tendency to blow UP ( 2 Mpowers blew up on me 1 of them was my friends and it went on fire mine fried one of the VRMS )

IMO i would wait a bit and see when the R9 380X will be out( it will force nvidia to drop the price on the GTX980 so thats a plus)

Broadwell/Skylake will be out by the end of this year / Q1 2016

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

the 7870 is also a good card can run many games on ultra-very high with 0 AA with an Overclock

TL😀R wait a bit your rig is still good for mid/high settings mix once the R9 380X is out u should upgrade shall u wait for the new CPU's it is up to you



skylake might just have a 15% improvement per clock and a huge efficiency update it's been like that sense ivy bridge was out they don't focus on performance per clock anymore it is just lowering the TDB lol

 

[RobCrezz]

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

In my opinion, the 970 3.5gb memory "issue", isnt a issue.

 

[andreii10]

I would avoid MSI motherboards as they have a tendency to blow UP ( 2 Mpowers blew up on me 1 of them was my friends and it went on fire mine fried one of the VRMS )

IMO i would wait a bit and see when the R9 380X will be out( it will force nvidia to drop the price on the GTX980 so thats a plus)

Broadwell/Skylake will be out by the end of this year / Q1 2016

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

the 7870 is also a good card can run many games on ultra-very high with 0 AA with an Overclock

TL😀R wait a bit your rig is still good for mid/high settings mix once the R9 380X is out u should upgrade shall u wait for the new CPU's it is up to you



skylake might just have a 15% improvement per clock and a huge efficiency update it's been like that sense ivy bridge was out they don't focus on performance per clock anymore it is just lowering the TDB lol

Holy **** did the 2 mobos really blow up? What were you doing at that time? I'm asking because I'm also planning on buying the msi z97 gaming 5 mobo

 

[holyrage]

^ z77 Mpower went in smoke im not the only one who had that happen to

i go it replaced with a z77 Sabertooth

my motherboard was in idle NO OC running factory setup VRM shorted it self after i pulled off the heatsink it had a black dot on it (VRM on the left side)

my friend motherboard was OC'ed he was gaming and the motherboard went on fire it even cracked it self

IMO just stick Asus never heard of their stuff going on fire

and i have a very old lGA 755 Gigabyte board running with a Pentium 4 still not dead even when 24/7 lol

 

[Cody Odom]

I would avoid MSI motherboards as they have a tendency to blow UP ( 2 Mpowers blew up on me 1 of them was my friends and it went on fire mine fried one of the VRMS )

IMO i would wait a bit and see when the R9 380X will be out( it will force nvidia to drop the price on the GTX980 so thats a plus)

Broadwell/Skylake will be out by the end of this year / Q1 2016

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

the 7870 is also a good card can run many games on ultra-very high with 0 AA with an Overclock

TL😀R wait a bit your rig is still good for mid/high settings mix once the R9 380X is out u should upgrade shall u wait for the new CPU's it is up to you



skylake might just have a 15% improvement per clock and a huge efficiency update it's been like that sense ivy bridge was out they don't focus on performance per clock anymore it is just lowering the TDB lol

Good ol' mobo explosions... My last one, Gigabyte B75m-something, did the same thing as soon as I layed down to go to sleep...Bad memories. Anyway, I'm not too worried about the 3.5 issue, although it's a good thing you brought it up. Everybody's giving such good answers, I wish it was possible to pick multiple or something. Maybe someone could combine quotes?... It'll be a few months until I'm ready to upgrade any way, but I don't see the point in waiting afterwards since the same point can always be made; Something new is coming out and dropping the price of the old. I'm thinking Archaic gets this one. I'll do some research and let you guys know. I'll probably switch out the mobo though after that bit of knowledge, lol. Again, Thank you guy's for the great answers.

 

[Cody Odom]

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

In my opinion, the 970 3.5gb memory "issue", isnt a issue.

I'm thinking it would cause problems since it's not quite a "standard" VRAM amount, and then there's always the possibility that a game would recognize it as 4Gb and cause crashing...Strictly IMO's but it seems logical.

 

[Cody Odom]

Maybe some parts such as these:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($333.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $756.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-11 09:32 EDT-0400

I swapped out the mobo after hearing the horror stories of msi boards for the AsRock Extreme6. I'm a bit behind on hardware so I'm not sure if the Z97 makes a difference, but anyway

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HNmzsY

Again, Thank's for your help.

 

[RobCrezz]

GTX970 has memory issue when u use more than 3.5GB meanwhile the R9 380X wont have memory issues (hopefully)

In my opinion, the 970 3.5gb memory "issue", isnt a issue.

I'm thinking it would cause problems since it's not quite a "standard" VRAM amount, and then there's always the possibility that a game would recognize it as 4Gb and cause crashing...Strictly IMO's but it seems logical.

No.. It does have 4gb and can use all of it, it wouldnt crash. The final 0.5gb runs slower, but its still accessible and faster than reverting to system ram (which all cards will do if they go over their vram usage).

Its already been proven that even at 4k resolution, the performance impact is very small compared to the gtx 980.