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What GPU if you had to pick ONE and why?

djack77
Honored Guest
Hey all,

Im just speccing up a new GPU for my system. I have narrowed it down to about 4 units im interested in. And I would value some of your input in my selections.

They are all within a similar price range, the Gigabyte being the cheapest by about £30 and the new Radeon the most expensive by about £40.

KFA2 Geforce GTX 780Ti HOF 3072MB GDDR5 - £559

Inno3D GeForce GTX 780Ti iChill OC 3072MB GDDR5 - £559

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780Ti WindForce 3x OC 3072MB GDDR5 - £529

Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X OC 8192MB GDDR5 - £599

Many thanks
i5 Haswell @ 4.4Ghz Twin Frozr 780Ti RoG Maximus Vii Avexir Blitz C9 2133MHz
127 REPLIES 127

Flyinpiranha
Explorer
"danknugz" wrote:
That's interesting, so is the cooling/operating temps what accounts for the price discrepancies between the manufacturers? On newegg for example, the Sapphire Tri-X (runs 70-72 degrees C) is 550$, while the Gigabyte card (runs 81 degrees C) is 500$. Are the cheaper cards using cheaper components or something? Or is it just that those manufacturers are able to sell for less?

Why does it seem like only the geforce 780Ti suffer from the price gouging due to bit coin miners? Or do they all and I just havent noticed.


They all do to an extent. It's starting to get a little better (I think they dropped the MSRP $50 for a few cards a bit ago, IIRC).

As for the price discrepancy ... I'm unsure. It's mostly the same card with a different cooler, I don't think temps play a direct role in pricing more-so than the hardware but at the same time that's kind of chicken/egg there since temps are related directly to the cooler attached.

Most of the time prices will reflect any 'stable' OC the hardware manufacturer puts on the card, but with bitcoin mining it's really thrown my knowledge of pricing out the window, honestly.

Between the two, there is very little difference:

http://media.bestofmicro.com/I/P/415393/original/Sapphire-R9-290X-Tri-X-GPU-Z-Screen.jpg
http://media.bestofmicro.com/T/8/415772/original/Gigabyte-R9-290X-Windforce-OC.jpg

Only thing I can see is the memory speed is 50hz faster and the Bandwidth is a bit better on the Tri-X, plus the temps are better. BUT, those (seemingly) minuscule jumps are usually where the price increase comes from ... along with paying for warranty coverage, well-known hardware, etc ..

I'd say with a $50 buffer between two cards, choose the best warranty and cooling option.
i5-3570k | R9 290 Windforce OC | 16GB 1600 RAM | SSD | Windows 8.1 64bit

Asane
Honored Guest
What would you guys pick? The R9 290X or the GTX 780 Ti?

Since the DK2 is coming next month, I'm pretty much forced to replace my videocard since I currently have an aging HD 5970. The 5970 for those not in the know is two 5870's on one PCB. I really don't want to deal with latency concerning crossfire and well, it is aging.
CPU: Intel i7 2600k 3.4Ghz GPU: EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified Memory:16 GB RAM OS:Windows 7 64-bit Wheel:Logitech G27 HOTAS: X55 Rhino

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am soon ready to build a new pc for the DK2, already have a Corsair RM850 Gold - 850W PSU and
Corsair Obsidian 550D case.
I am set on a I5 CPU 3400mhz stock cooler, and some kind of ASUS Z97 motherboard with 2x4 GB ram.
Just I am really much at lost regarding the graphic card, so many choices..

ASUS GeForce GTX 780 OC US$476,25
Base clock 889 MHz, Boost Clock 941 MHz

ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti OC US$671,80
Base clock 954 MHz, Boost Clock 1020 MHz

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Dual Clas US$776,93
Base clock 1020 MHz, Boost Clock 1085 MHz

Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X edition US$481,70
Base clock, 1030 MHz

ASUS R9290X-DC2OC US$522,73
Base clock, 1050 MHz

Those are what I am considering and able to find, the prices are converted to US$

all of these cards blows air out inside the case, not sure about my case construction for that, or I should just stick with a stock card that blows out the back, problem is they are not any cheaper..

Any thought's on that would be appreciated, just don't tell me to get the most expensive I can afford, if the performance difference are negligible :?: 😄

Crespo80
Explorer
"Mikzip" wrote:

all of these cards blows air out inside the case, not sure about my case construction for that

Your case is fully capable of supplying the right amount of fresh air for any kind of fan positioning on the graphics card: the rear blowing cards are primarily suggested for tiny or flow-restricted cases.
In your case I'd suggest a dual/triple fan card, it will run cooler, and your case's internal temps will not suffer.


just don't tell me to get the most expensive I can afford, if the performance difference are negligible :?: 😄

If you want the best bang for the buck, you can't go higher than a GTX770; beyond that, performance increases linearly while price increases exponentially, so a GTX780Ti is double the price but absolutely not double the performance :mrgreen:

ThreeEyes
Explorer
Wouldn't it be nice if nvidia would come out with a driver that would let us run SLI without image stuttering/tearing issues?

Then people could just get another like card to what they already have and get almost twice the performance for a lot less than having to buy some high-end price-inflated card.

Ahhh, dreams...
But... but... but... I just NEED to know about the Baba! The Baba has me hypmotized! :shock:

KydDynoMyte
Honored Guest
I love reading crespo80's hardware advice. Always clear, concise and logical. He really seems to know his stuff, and saves me a lot of research. I was going to get a Crucial M500 240GB SSD from one of his recommendations I read, but saw the newer MX100 256GB for $10 cheaper and almost hesitated buying it because I wanted his opinion on it 1st.

cybereality
Grand Champion
A GTX 770 or R9 280x would probably be enough. If you have a little more to spend a 780 or 290 would be more than good. I doubt you would need more than that, but there is always room to future-proof a rig. In honesty, even lesser rigs would probably suffice provided the content scales down, or you lower settings.
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV

Crespo80
Explorer
Eheh thanks for the appreciation @KydDynoMyte but there are far better advisors than me on this board 🙂
Regarding SSDs, I usually tell to buy any well-priced mid-range model from one of the top makers (Intel, Samsung, Crucial, Corsair, etc.), and don't even bother to read any review, they will only confuse you with useless graphs: you won't see any real-world difference AT ALL (unlike CPUs or GPUs), so you better just choose a brand you trust with a good support 😉