Hello All,

It's finally time to buy a new PC. I've already chosen the other components and my only concern is the GPU. With so many models, manifacturers, editions and so on it is really hard to compare the cards. Most of the benchmarks I have found compare only the base models and selected other models.

So I will need an advice for a the card. I don't insist to play everything maxed out, I just want to get the best choice for my budget which is about $200-250 for the card.

Below are the cards that I try to choose from.

Currently available at my retailer:

  • Sapphire R9 270X 2GB DDR5 V-X
  • Sapphire R9 280 3GB DDR5 OC
  • Palit Nvidia GTX760 2GB DDR5

Other cards within the same price range that I may be able to order if available:

  • SAPPHIRE R9 270X 4G GD5 OC VER
  • Gigabyte R9 270XOC 4GB GD5
  • Gigabyte N660OC-3GD GTX660 3G GDDR5
  • EVGA GTX 750 Ti FTW ACX 02G-P4-3757-KR

My current choice would be the R9 280. However, would an older generation card with more VRAM(such as the R9 270X 4GB) outperform it? Are there any manifacturers that I should avoid(I have heard some bad opinions about Palit)?

In case somebody would ask, I am building an all purpose PC so I am planning to spend on the other components such as i7-4770, Z87 Extr. 3, Kingston 2x8GB RAM 1600, Corsair 1000HX PSU etc.

And here is something modest.

Thank you all for reading and I would really appriciate your advices.

EDIT: I will sum up my replies here. Thank you all for your opinions.

I will get a smaller PSU for sure, I was just planning for SLI/Crossfire in the beginning, but I dropped these plans.

I would prefer to stick with the processor and RAM(I will actually add up more RAM in future) as I am going to use it for virtualized home lab environment.

9 years ago*

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More VRAM does not mean more performance. Just more memory to load stuff. I'd recommend the 760, although I don't know anything about Palit's reputation. The 280 is a good option as well, and Sapphire has a very good reputation. Oh, and avoid AMDs 200 series cards with stock cooling.

Why a 1000W PSU?

9 years ago
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He should certainly pass up the 1000w PSU, especially if his target is a low or mid range GPU. I personally would say to go for the 760 unless you can get your hands on either a 280X or 770.

9 years ago
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Yeah, I will get a less powerfull PSU. At first, I was planning for SLI/Crossfire setup so I stocked up a big PSU. However, I think I gave up on these plans so I will get a 650-750W PSU.

The 280X and 770 are outside of my current budget :)

9 years ago
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I think the only reason why Palit cards are cheaper is due to the 2 year warranty they offer, as opposed to the standard 3 year offered by others. They are quite a bit cheaper so it might be worth it.

Still the R9 280 is the fastest among the bunch, and 3 GB should be enough for now. Go for it. Not biased or anything, since I use Nvidia. :)

9 years ago
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I liked it better when graphic cards had lifetime warranties. :(

9 years ago
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The 280 is better than the 760, go for that.

9 years ago
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I'd say spending $200-250 on a GPU is way beyond a budget graphic card. I usually aim to spend about $100, for which you can get great performance for a great price. But I also never buy games within the first year of release. I think gaming is a hobby best done cheaply, and its quite easy to do.

9 years ago
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100-150 is the budget bracket. 200-250 is mid-range or slightly higher.

9 years ago
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Sounds about right. And then there are those loonies that spend $500 on a card.

9 years ago
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I'd get a 500 dollar (or Euro) card... if I had that much money to burn (literally).

And even then I'd probably not... :D

9 years ago
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"budget graphic card" twice as good as mine, while i'm playing most games on ultra ;D

9 years ago
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^

9 years ago
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Video cards over $200 are only worth it if you're concerned about playing the hot new releases, and even then, the difference in quality is slight compared to a slightly older and much cheaper card.

9 years ago
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OK, I may throw out the word budget :) Anyway, I usually stick with the same PC for 3-4 years at least. I know that I will be able to play all current games on high/ultra with such card, but I also want to be able to play future games with reasonable FPS on mid settings.

9 years ago
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There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a solid computer for several years, but the cost of RAM and GPUs fall so quickly and they're so easy to swap out that there's no reason to pay twice as much now when you could spend $100 now, and $100 in two years and still come out way ahead (performance- and price-wise).

9 years ago
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Get the R9 280 or even better R9 280x.

i7-4770 and a "budget card" don't mix very well unless you want to upgrade in the future. And if its a non K (i7-4770K vs i7-4770) and you don't want to overclock, don't get a Z87 get H87 mobo unless it has some features you really want/need.
Also a 1000W PSU is overkill, unless you want to upgrade in the future or plant to SLI/crossfire.

9 years ago
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I am not planning for overclock at the moment. I chose Z87 and the big PSU because I was planning for Crossfire/SLI in the future. However, I think that it won't worth it. I may still prefer to keep the Z87 as the price difference is somewhat small($20-30) and it gives me better options if I decide to upgrade in the future. As for the PSU, I will choose a smaller one.

9 years ago
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Vram does not effect you in any way unless you have multiple monitors being set up. You don't need 1000W maybe like 600 or even 550. Try getting r9 280/280x.

9 years ago
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The R9 270X is enough for a budget computer.

9 years ago
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Go with the Sapphire R9 280 3GB DDR5 OC , that Palit brand is total poop...

And wait what? 1000 W PSU? extreme waste of money and completely unnecessary...!

9 years ago
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750TI can be had incredibly cheaply (120 bucks from newegg at times) and due to its insanely low power usage you can also skimp on the PSU's wattage.

1k PSU is def overkill. Same for the i7 unless you actually have need for it like video encoding or got a great deal on it. You say an "everything" PC, but if you are going for a gamer focused PC, an i5-4690 or equivalent would certainly work well enough.

9 years ago
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Gtx 750 Ti FTW

9 years ago
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Yes, I will change the PSU. The PC is not strongly focused on gaming. In fact, I would use it quite a lot for virtualization so I would prefer to stick with the i7.

9 years ago
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Sapphire R9 280 3GB DDR5 OC > GTX 760 > R9 270X, with 3Gb is more than enough, I would say the ideal, minimum should be 2Gb, you won't get more performance with an R9 270X with 4 vRAM, it's not the way it works, more vRAM doesn't increase performance, you will practically never use more than 2Gb anyways.

Also for what you're planning to buy, "budget", is not the correct word because your computer is not cheap xd, your computer will end in mid-high range, also you don't need and i7, get the best i5 without the "K" if you won't Overclock you don't need the one with the "K", you won't get more performance from an i7 so it's useless spending more money on it, and you don't need a 1000W PSU, just get one from 650-750W from Corsair, also you don't need more than 8Gb of RAM unless you are making videos, for gaming 8Gb is enough.

9 years ago
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Yes, I will change the PSU and I do not plan on overclocking. However, I would prefer to stick with the i7 and in fact I'm going to pump up to 32GB RAM in the future. The reason for this is that I am going to use this PC for a lot for virtualziation. I'm planning for home lab environment with several virtual servers and workstations so I will need both the powerful CPU and the loads of RAM.

9 years ago
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I suggest getting an i5 instead if you're just gaming on it, and stick with just 8gb of ram. With that, you have a bit more cash to spend on a better GPU.

9 years ago
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Th gtx 750 ti is so awesome and you don't need to connect to the psu so it does not consume too much power and it stays cool and you will probably be able to play most games on high- ultra on full hd on most recent games

Edit: and i believe it's the cheapest from all around 150-160$ and i found how much it consumes 60 W

9 years ago
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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The higher on the table, the better. If they are on the same tier then they are roughly equivalent.

9 years ago
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Thats far beyond budget chategory card, budget is around $100,

9 years ago
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Note taken :) Already changed the title :)

9 years ago
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I already pummeled that point home. :)

9 years ago
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So, I am in the same position right now wanting to upgrade my old GTX 560 TI.

The AMD 280 is probably the slightly better performance choice, while the NVIDIA is pretty much the same (a little bit (!) slower), but is from NVIDIA. This means better performance in some scaling processes.

I would probably take AMD, because of 3gb RAM

Also: http://versus.com/en/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-vs-amd-radeon-r9-280

9 years ago
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760 is way slower than 280... and is slower than 270x too.
I can't really understand why so people don't research in a proper forum like overclockersnet or linus tech tips, toms hardware's, the tek, tech of tomorrow, pcper, etc etc etc more than a thousand great reviewers that really do review and overview...and most of them try to cover it for gamers. So why would anyone seek for advice about hardware on a gaming forum. it don' make sense to me. almost always a nonsene PSU , with a nonsense amout of ram, with a too good cpu for a crap gpu, or too crap cpu for a great gpu... why people NEVER want to read about it in a proper place ... and read pages and pages in a forum like this...

The worst is most of people never tried what they say and probably never read about ... or have read once and can't remember numbers so ... well
I know I'm too upset about it.. but I see this kind of thing on facebook, on twitter, here everywhere... D: I needed to put it all out of my chest. sorry;

9 years ago
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SAPPHIRE R9 270X 4G GD5 OC VER is better

9 years ago
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280 vs 760 benchmark 7950 boost = r9 280

9 years ago
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I suggest the Sapphire R9 280 3GB DDR5 OC available to your retailer, it's way better than the others and you don't have to pay shipping.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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1 initially, I will add one more in the future. However, I will be using one of them for the gaming anyway.

9 years ago
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I saw you chose i7-4770 instead of 4770K so I guess you won't OC anytime soon. Then I'll choose the Shappire R9 280. IMHO Shappire is the best brand for R9 graphics cards.
Gigabyte is awesome for GTX cards. I've got a Gigabite GTX 760 and it's an awesome beast, a Gigabyte motherboard (very good) and a Gigabyte mouse/keyboard combo wireless pack (pretty shitty, the box says 10m range but it can't even reach 5m u.u)
But for graphics card from the R9 series I heard bad things about Gigabyte so I won't choose the Gigabyte R9 270X, even if it has got more VRAM.
I never ever heard about Palit.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Closed 9 years ago by ZaknazaaR.