- Jan 22, 2013
- 4
- 0
- 10,510
Hello, fellow tech-enthusiasts! I've a problem I hope you lot can help me solve.
Having become reemployed earlier this year, I purchased a large, 1440p monitor. Unfortunately, my Sapphire 7850 2GB OC, while a respectable GPU, has always struggled with things like ambient occlusion and tesselation, not to mention any advanced particle effects. I've overclocked it past 1000mhz, but it doesn't solve the issue - the thing just chokes at 1440p. 1080p, it can somewhat handle, but I don't feel comfortable gaming at 45 fps, and find 30 fps and below gives me a headache.
My current specs are:
Motherboard: Asrock Z75
CPU: i5 3570K @ 4.0 ghz
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC Edition
PSU: Corsair Builder Series 450W
(I have a Corsair 750W on hand; I just haven't installed it yet.)
My case is pretty well ventilated, though I'm sticking with air cooling for the foreseeable future.
I considered the R9 280x for a time, but I'm concerned it might not have the power to run current and next-gen games at 60fps at 1440p. The R9 290 and 290x are appealing, but have become a great deal less so of late, since their prices have been inflated so horribly by the rash of Litecoin miners we've had the past month. For the 290s, I'm hoping to get an aftermarket card, besides, as the reference coolers are unanimously considered terrible.
I've also given the 770, 780, and 780 Ti some consideration, as they're in about the same price range as the 290s are right now, but not as inflated. I do like Physx and Nvidia's drivers, but don't see why I couldn't just force those effects on by editing .ini files and leave them to my CPU. Besides that, Mantle sounds promising, and all the next-gen consoles appear to be using AMD, and so most AAA games for the PC - not to mention ports - will likely be optimized for AMD hardware.
What are your thoughts? Should I wait a month or so, and await the Litecoin craze's inevitable demise, or just suck it up and endure the cost hikes? Or, perhaps, just switch back to Nvidia? I'm at a loss.
EDIT: I just noticed the stickied thread about questions like this. I'll add a few details accordingly:
Purchase date is probably some time this month; I'd rather not wait too long, but can sit out another month if there's reason enough.
I'm from the US, and while I'm willing to import parts if it will save me money, I'd really rather avoid the hassle of import duty and shipping fees.
I don't really care what retailer sells it; I like Newegg and Amazon rather well, but as long as a vendor is reliable and of good quality, I'll buy from them. The only stipulation is that it must be online; I'm not willing to travel any great distances to pick something up in person.
SLI/Crossfire is not of even slight importance to me. I always prefer single GPU solutions; when this card becomes dated, I'll just sell it and get a new one.
Having become reemployed earlier this year, I purchased a large, 1440p monitor. Unfortunately, my Sapphire 7850 2GB OC, while a respectable GPU, has always struggled with things like ambient occlusion and tesselation, not to mention any advanced particle effects. I've overclocked it past 1000mhz, but it doesn't solve the issue - the thing just chokes at 1440p. 1080p, it can somewhat handle, but I don't feel comfortable gaming at 45 fps, and find 30 fps and below gives me a headache.
My current specs are:
Motherboard: Asrock Z75
CPU: i5 3570K @ 4.0 ghz
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC Edition
PSU: Corsair Builder Series 450W
(I have a Corsair 750W on hand; I just haven't installed it yet.)
My case is pretty well ventilated, though I'm sticking with air cooling for the foreseeable future.
I considered the R9 280x for a time, but I'm concerned it might not have the power to run current and next-gen games at 60fps at 1440p. The R9 290 and 290x are appealing, but have become a great deal less so of late, since their prices have been inflated so horribly by the rash of Litecoin miners we've had the past month. For the 290s, I'm hoping to get an aftermarket card, besides, as the reference coolers are unanimously considered terrible.
I've also given the 770, 780, and 780 Ti some consideration, as they're in about the same price range as the 290s are right now, but not as inflated. I do like Physx and Nvidia's drivers, but don't see why I couldn't just force those effects on by editing .ini files and leave them to my CPU. Besides that, Mantle sounds promising, and all the next-gen consoles appear to be using AMD, and so most AAA games for the PC - not to mention ports - will likely be optimized for AMD hardware.
What are your thoughts? Should I wait a month or so, and await the Litecoin craze's inevitable demise, or just suck it up and endure the cost hikes? Or, perhaps, just switch back to Nvidia? I'm at a loss.
EDIT: I just noticed the stickied thread about questions like this. I'll add a few details accordingly:
Purchase date is probably some time this month; I'd rather not wait too long, but can sit out another month if there's reason enough.
I'm from the US, and while I'm willing to import parts if it will save me money, I'd really rather avoid the hassle of import duty and shipping fees.
I don't really care what retailer sells it; I like Newegg and Amazon rather well, but as long as a vendor is reliable and of good quality, I'll buy from them. The only stipulation is that it must be online; I'm not willing to travel any great distances to pick something up in person.
SLI/Crossfire is not of even slight importance to me. I always prefer single GPU solutions; when this card becomes dated, I'll just sell it and get a new one.
R9 gets better bigger the resolution is. 
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