Hello steamgifters! I have been surviving with an integrated video card until now, but I think it is time for something better, and I thought you could help me choosing, because you are kind and helpful :)

  • Processor: AMD A8 5600k 3.6GHz (APU HD7560D 512MB) (trinity 100W)
  • Motherboard: Asrock FM2A75 PRO4-M (PCI Express 2.0)
  • Memory: G-Skill 4GBx2 DDR3 1066MHz
  • Power source: Seasonic S12II bronze 520W

I am limited by my power source and my processor. My budget is around $200/200€. My monitor is 1920x1080 and I would like to play games like GTAV, Sleeping Dogs, modded Skyrim (those HD texture packs eat a lot of graphics memory)... with good graphics and a decent framerate (60 :D).

Thanks^^

EDIT: Are you trying to match the poll on purpose? :S

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8 years ago*

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Brand?

View Results
Nvidia
AMD

amd r9 280x its 200 dollars and its pretty solid card.

8 years ago
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thats the one to go atm

8 years ago
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I agree. I'm probably going to upgrade with AMD too next year. Nvidia are good, but the lower prices of AMD and my budged agree with each other.

8 years ago
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Just a bump. I am no expert in GPUs right now :(
Until you get your new card, you can master the hardest puzzle everno GA to win

8 years ago
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yea totally relevant...

8 years ago
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As perrolijo is one of the masters of puzzles, it is relevant.

8 years ago
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I already knew the web, but thanks^^

8 years ago
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How far did you get?

8 years ago
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According with my old txt, I am now in a page that asks me for an user/password. It passed so much time that I have no idea what to do :/

8 years ago
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If it is between stage 10 and 20, I think I was there once. Sadly I only remember that I failed there somewhere, might have been a password page.

8 years ago
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If you can get a 4GB AMD 380 or 380x, that could be a good thing too. Those cards are better for DX12 than the 280x (although they all perform very well in DX12).
The added 1GB of vram as well as the much newer architecture of the 380 compared to the 280x is well worth the extra 50€ or so:

https://www.alternate.es/Hardware-Componentes-Tarjetas-gráficas-Tarjetas-PCIe-ATI-AMD-Radeon-R9/html/listings/18427?listingTitle=Componentes+Tarjetas+gr%C3%A1ficas+Tarjetas+PCIe+ATI%2FAMD+Radeon+R9&tk=7&lk=8785&sort=PRICE&order=ASC&filter_2139=4096.0#listingResult

Not sure if this is a cheap retailer in Spain, but should give an idea of the pricing.

8 years ago
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I found the Sapphire R9 380 4GB for 219€. It requires a 500W power source, don't know if it would be too tight :/

8 years ago
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Don't worry about it. AMD always specify very high wattage, so cheap shitty PSU's that cannot deliver what they promise and has little amperes, won't blow up. I have a 290 that specify 750w and I use a Corsair RM 650 W. Even at full load on my computer, it does not go anywhere near that much.

Seasonic is one of the best PSU manufacturers in the world (makes the best PSU's for Corsair too), so you should have no problem at all.

8 years ago
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Wow, good to know that. It was my main reason to avoid AMD cards :x

8 years ago
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just read reviews that show total system power, or calculated gfx card power, never go by manufacturers

8 years ago
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They require a 500W cheap power source. You should be fine with your Bronze 80 certified power supply!

8 years ago
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I have an A8-5800K cpu and use a r9 270x ,which should cost around 120 euros now?

I think you don't really need a better graphics card than that. better save money to buy a new cpu + mainboard at some point.

And yes you should be able to play all those games mentioned with high settings.

8 years ago*
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I can only find XFX R9 270X Dual Fan 2GB GDDR5 @ 180€ :S
And for 40€ more I would have the Sapphire R9 380 4GB :/

8 years ago
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Hum I've got this one

Well, I think an r7 260x would be okay,too. (that one seems to at 100-120)

I just think that you won't get much out of a high end gpu, when you don't upgrade your cpu in time. But that's just my uneducated opinion.
But it might be something to take into consideration.

8 years ago
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I take it into account^^ I chose that cpu because of its APU, that resulted being awesome for an integrated card, but I know that is not the most powerful cpu out there and is limiting me now.

8 years ago
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Oh I returned to this through your shadow warrior giftlink.
Well while I'm here I could add - although it may have been mentioned already - that the AMD 300-series is mostly a rebrand of the 200-series, but they are more or less the same cards. So :r9 270x = r9 370x

8 years ago
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If you can somehow get the extra money for the 380, wait that little time and do that. That card could serve you at least 18 months more than a 270X.

8 years ago
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Looking at the power draw. I would suggest go for Nvidia GTX 970 (4GB) it will play all the above mentioned games and it only needs 500W PSU.
Another benefit of doing this would be the free games on offer as of now. You can either have Assassin Creed Syndicate or Rainbow Siege Six or depending upon your location, Some other game might also be on offer.
As you are playing 1080p Resolution, this card can handle all games on max settings on this resolution so you can enjoy all the eye candy while playing as well.

8 years ago
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970 is too expensive (~350€).
For Nvidia I found Gygabyte GTX960 OC DDR5 4GB @218€

8 years ago
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The 380 is much better and should benefit from DX12 more. NVidia has their top end cards like 980ti and Titan X, but they are not really competitive below the highest end, when looking at price to performance.

8 years ago
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Rather then spending on GTX 960 4GB you be better of getting a GTX 960 2GB which would be cheaper as an extra 2GB of RAM doesn't have that much of impact on the overall performance.
However it is not advisable as GTX 970 is class apart from GTX 960, for 1080p playing its a perfect blend of price and performance. I am using a Gainward variant of the card and its working quite nicely.

8 years ago
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I wanted to get the GTX970 when my GTX570 fried over a week ago... but then I discovered it has an unacceptable crippling design flaw :(

Think I'll get a 560 in the end.

8 years ago
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Its just a hype brother, its not that much of an issue, and Nvidia is fixing it as well. Maxing out 4GB of VRAM is not that easy. As I said I am using one myself and I am quite happy with it.
Radeon 390 is a good card with 8GB of VRAM but it has high power draw and its quite expensive. Fury has low power consumption and compact form factor but again its pricey.
At the end of the day any card is good depending upon what kind of games we are going to play on them and how far are we ready to sacrifice the eye candy to get good FPS

8 years ago
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It not just hype, and it's not something they can fix with drivers, since it's an actual hardware limitation.

Also, despite having only a few titles these days that can actually utilize over 3.5GB of GFX memory, newer titles will start emerging making it common practice.
When I bought my current rig, games (except some MMOs) didn't use take over 4-8GB of storage space, so I got myself 16GB of RAM to play off a RAM drive - can't do that now... things change.

8 years ago
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8 years ago*
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+1

8 years ago
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Actually NVidia has had a lot more problems lately with their WHQL drivers than AMD has with their beta drivers. Issues seems to hit NVidia harder these days. Nvidia are a little better at getting game ready drivers out though, but that seems to have more to do with NVidia sponsored games than anything.

8 years ago
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+1

8 years ago
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Yay!! The cutie is back! :D

8 years ago
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I missed this avatar :p

8 years ago
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  1. get 750 ti + a game or 10
  2. get a gtx 960 (under $200 in us)
  3. get a 280/280x/380/380x what ever is available around you
8 years ago
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8 years ago
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An amd 380, be sure to take the 4gb model, it runs a lil better in most games :3 (I prefer sapphire, just avoid asus ones)
Avoid the nvidia 960 2 gb, it's getting discontinued in favor of the 4 gb model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HzWW6mDno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeFXwGfBsI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aEdF3cP84Y

8 years ago
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Thanks for the videos and the recommendation :D
I posted above Gygabyte GTX960 OC DDR5 4GB and Sapphire R9 380 4GB @ 219€ each one, so one more vote for the 380

8 years ago
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I would say get a GTX 960. I don't really trust AMD.

8 years ago
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Why not? The driver issues?

8 years ago
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That's one of the reasons I never got an AMD, although lately I heard a lot of good things about it. I would suggest looking at the games you want to play and find out which brand works better for those.

I personally have a GT640 (or something like that, don't know it from the top of my head) and it works well with the newest games. I can't play everything on ultra (I'm usually stuck at medium), so if you're fine with that, it is something to consider, seeing as the price would be lower (although you probably will need to upgrade again sooner).

8 years ago
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On my old dell yeah. The drivers crashed couple times a week.

8 years ago
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Any AMD card or NVidia GTX up to 970. After that you'd be bottlenecked by CPU. I'd say what others did before me, get an AMD R9 280X. AMD is usually better in the lower price ranges in price/performance ratio. (Considering how overpriced NVidia is except for the GTX 970, it's not a remarkable feat though.)

8 years ago
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Have you looked behind the couch?

8 years ago
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the 380X is the best fps for you buck card at the moment, its cheaper that the NVIDIA counterpart the 960

aboubt brands, i only used HIS AMD cards, they are silent and haven had any problem with them.

8 years ago*
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Yo creo que ahora no es buen momento para pillar una gráfica. Yo me esperaría a la siguiente generación, que será en la que soporten DX12 completamente.

Dicho esto si crees que la necesitas ya, pues las dos opciones son la GTX 960 o la R9 380.
En precio andan parejas 200€ las versiones de 2GB y 220€ las de 4GB. Yo me pillaría la de 4GB, la diferencia no es muy grande.

Con respecto a cual pillar (no tengo ninguna de las dos, así que me baso en lo que he leído en otros sitios), las 380 rinde un poco mejor que la 960, pero la 960 permite más overclock. También a tener en cuenta que la 960 consume menos.

Con respecto a la fuente no creo que tengas problema con ninguna de las 2.

Edit: Sorry, for not saying it in english, but i'm a bit lazy and busy at moment and I know the user is from Spain.

8 years ago*
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The Nvidia 960 isn't recommended for Assassin Creed Syndicate Recommended specs: http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-syndicate-pc-specs/
Probably because it only has a 28 bit memory interface. I'd get an AMD R9 380. Also don't get a new GPU with less than 4 GB of memory.
Both manufacturers have driver problems or bugs which are eventually fixed. So that's a non-issue IMO.
If you always want the latest Nvidia drivers you have to sign up to Nvidia's Geforce Experience. If you don't want to sign up with your e-mail it means "Screw You" and wait a few months. That is really bad customer support.
AMD supports free-sync for monitors which is an open standard. Nvidia only has it's own which is closed off to others.

8 years ago
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I don't see a reason to not sign up for Geforce Experience. It basicly keeps your drivers up to date and to me, that is pretty important.

8 years ago
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You're being forced to sign up to get the latest drivers. You can't just go to the website and download it from there.
Also, GFE will overwrite your own individual settings. That's definitely not the way to go if you want to be viewed or talked about positively by "power" users. (maybe 770/970 upwards)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9721/nvidia-geforce-experience-update-4k-gamestream-1080p-twitch-driver-update-changes-to-come

8 years ago
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Didn't know it overwrites your settings. Thanks for the info!

8 years ago
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Nvidia only has it's own which is closed off to others.

That is pretty much NVidia policy in a nutshell.
Oh, and forcing code on developers that purposefully makes engines run bad on competitor cards. That is also their policy.

8 years ago
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"Searching for a video card"

Did you check under the bed? Video Cards tend to hide there, you can also check in the freezer.

8 years ago
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y did u do dis? :_(
Seriously, should I have chosen a better phrasing? It's the second time in 1 hour :S

8 years ago
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perfer Nvidia's
AMD's not really well with all games lol.

8 years ago
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That's just bollocks. Both have their own indidual driver bugs etc.

8 years ago
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ya but Nvidia is more stable relatively.
got my new PC on 08/11
it's really hard to choose between em
but I took GTX960 lol

my conclusion is both of em are good (550TI ,my old VGA)
AMD got pretty performance but high power dissipation
Nvidia is average the performance and power dissipation lol

it's about Winter, maybe u can go with AMD and have a warm Winter lol

8 years ago
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I say go for AMD R9...
... but all my AMD cards were glitchy in some way. One had to be flashed with a new bios, on the other the fan just stopped, and the current one, well, can't play youtube video in hardware mode and BSODs after a few seconds.

8 years ago
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ya, that sucks.
that's why I took Nvidia as final decision lol

8 years ago
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R9 380 hands down.
Not only is the card generally just as if not more solid than the 960, but in Win10 the AMD drivers have been better than nvidia lately, plus AMD is doing away with the Catalyst driver suite as of the next update, and preliminary info says the new package is a HUGE improvement over CCC.

And then an additional plus for you since you are running an A8 Fusion APU, you can run Hybrid Crossfire-X which will allow you to pool the graphics resources off your APU to get a bit of a bump in performance as well, which you won't be able to do if you snag an nvidia GPU.

8 years ago
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Skip AMD (was a user of AMD for 3 years). Get a 960 and save some money to sell that CPU and mobo and get at least an i3. You will be blown away by the performance difference.

8 years ago
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I like nvidia, just because on performance both are pretty similar, just people say AMD gets hotter, but new GPUs include 2 huge or 3 fans and also liquid cooling systems on GPUS, really buy the one you like and also check if the lenght is correct for your case. Finally check Tom's hardware recommended GPUs for november, they review GPÛs everymonth.

8 years ago
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I've had more than a dozen different cards over the years between the two companies. I've had problems with some of the ATI/AMD ones, despite giving them "another try" a few times due to usually better prices. I've never had problems with any of the Nvidia ones. I'm done with AMD.

8 years ago
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Sorry, have nothing useful to say, but after your edit I just had to voted to match the poll.... But then I felt ashamed and removed the vote.... So can't help, can't troll - now I'm just completely useless. Ah well, at least I've bumped the thread.

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8 years ago
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I'm not an expert in video cards, so I'll just bump as I want to upgrade mine as well. :P

8 years ago
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I have a long term question

What kind of investment is this going to be? Good for next 2 years or something to keep you going for some little time?

The reason is that next year both AMD and Nvidia will release new cards that will probably beat the current cards and cause the older cards to drop price.

If you want a card that is possibly ok for the next 2 years then I would recommend saving up money for a R9 390 with 8 GB (it should give you 60 fps FHD on those games) . 970 is basically the same and it would be wise choice as well, but my fear would be the limited VRAM which I think will be important.

For the budget you could find used or older generation GPU-s that could give you that performance, but in terms in the long run you will probably have to buy a new card next year if you want to play the new AAA games at normal frame rates.

8 years ago
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There will be always new releases, doesn't matter how much time I wait. Currently I'm thinking about getting a more modest card. I'm not a gamer buying new game releases (I bought Skyrim 3 years after its release, and I think I will do the same with The Witcher 3 :P) so a video card will last me longer. My CPU can't handle future releases anyway. Probably even a 960 is too much for my needs (1080p in high settings with stable 50-55fps). I will look for a bargain :) (no refurbished/second hand cards tho)

8 years ago
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But in this sense going for R9 380 or R9 380x would be a good bet in my opinion.
960 is also a good option, but since you have a AMD cpu then it would be wise to pair it with an AMD GPU.

8 years ago
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An R9 390 should last way more than 2 years, even if fully DX12 compatible ones arrive. I agree on that waiting is the best option, but if one buys a card now, even the NVidia ones should live for two years, and the R9 300 line for 3-4.

8 years ago
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I personally think that it is tad optimistic, but will have to wait and see.

8 years ago
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Well, my HD 6850 can still play games in 720p with 40+ fps… and the 6850 was released over 5 years ago.

8 years ago
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Well let's hope so, because I bought a R9 390 a month ago :)

8 years ago
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