Best card for playing curent games at 1080P

GP40X

GP40X

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Messages
176
Getting ready to upgrade my video card to play current games (BF4, . I currently have a Samsung SyncMaster P2370 but am planning on picking up an ASUS VG248QE within the next 6 months. Also planning on upgrading my motherboard and processor once Devils Canyon and the Z97 chipset is released.

Looking for good mid-range card recommendations. Current card is an Asus HD 6870 DirectCU.

Here is the rest of my current system:
AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE (X4 965 died), MSI 790FX-GD70, 2x 4096kb Patriot DDR-3 1600 memory, 2 WD 6400AAKS hard drives, 1 Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 1TB hard drive, Corsair HX1000W PSU, Intel EXPI9300PT N.I.C., Creative X-Fi Titanium sound card , HP dvd1720 optical drive, CoolerMaster CM 690 II Case, Vista 64 SP2

Doesn't matter if it is Ruby Red or Team Green. Looking for the best bang for the buck and about a 18 month life cycle to the next video card upgrade.
 
When you start talking about a ASUS VG248QE you are of course looking at 120-144 frames per second. There is really no single GPU video card too powerful for 1080p at those frame rates. Buy the biggest thing you can afford, I would suggest 290 or gtx 780 if those are within your max budget. In modern games you will not be hitting your 120-144 fps cap all the time by any means, but you will be a lot closer. For 60 fps you will be a bit overkill for now, but certainly not for a card you mean to keep for 18 months. There are some VERY demanding and awesome looking games coming out that will spank ANY single GPU system. The minor difference when you go up to a 290x or gtx 780 Ti doesn't seem worth the extra cash to me.

Once you do get your Z97 based system, if you still don't have enough graphics horsepower for the latest and greatest games you can stick another 290 or 780 in the system.
 
I guess a budget would help. For under $250 the 280X (7970) is still a great card for the price used these days. If you want a card under $200 the r9 270 is pretty nice once OCd for 1080p.
 
if i were buying a new card now i be looking close at the 290's or 290x's....might get lucky and find one close to the 400 dollar range
 
I have asus 27in 144hz monitor and it takes sli 770gtx to get 144hz with BF4
 
ThunderDan said:
I guess a budget would help. For under $250 the 280X (7970) is still a great card for the price used these days. If you want a card under $200 the r9 270 is pretty nice once OCd for 1080p.
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Whoops, yeah, I guess a budget would help. Budget is $200 to $300 plus shipping and/or tax. Will probably go Crossfire or SLI after I get the VG248QE but a mid range card is fine for now.
 
GP40X said:
Whoops, yeah, I guess a budget would help. Budget is $200 to $300 plus shipping and/or tax. Will probably go Crossfire or SLI after I get the VG248QE but a mid range card is fine for now.
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I've seen sales for the GTX 770 that get you close to the $300 mark ($329 is the cheapest I have seen without rebates)

But if you're looking to save a few bucks you can step into a R9 280x for $299 or less with rebates.

Personally I feel like Nvidia has more features and more stable drivers but the R9's are very compelling from a price to performance point of view.
 
you can get a twin frozr 770 for around $300 if you're patient. during christmas/black friday sales last year, can't remember which exactly, i got mine for $285 after a $15 rebate. you need multiple cards to maintain 120+ fps in higher end games.
 
I have that Asus monitor with the g sync module and SLI 780's @ 1163Mhz. To take advantage of that awesome 144Hz framerate you WILL need 2 of the top end cards. No one single card (sans the 295X or whatever it's called) will be able to max games out AND get you triple digit frame rates.
 
I went from a 6870 to a 280X with my new rig using a AMD FX-8350. Everything I've been playing is as smooth as butter at 1080p at max settings, namely BF4 and Crysis 3. I do have concern for the OP's CPU, could be a bottleneck.
 
A FX 8350 OC'd will not bottleneck any single GPU. Only time you would start to see less performance than you should out of the GPU with that CPU is if you throw two or three GPUs in there.

Best card for the price / performance to me is the R9 270, I've seen them new for $160-180 w/ 2 free games recently, and they handle all the current games @ 1080p fine for 60 FPS gaming.
 
BroHamBone said:
Isn't the x3 720 stock @ 2.8? Did you get it unlocked?
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Yep, it's an unlocked Black Edition but my V-8 cooler's fan died and killed my 965 Blace Edition (the one that Kyle hit me in the face with at the last FX Gamexperience no less) so I am running a stock cooler at 2.8 for now. Unfortunately it is on of the few 720 BEs that the 4th cvore will not unlock (system freezes as soon as I unlick the 4th core and try to reboot). I will be upgrading to an Intel processor as soon as the Z97 chipset motherboards come out anyway so I am not worried about a little bottleneck for a month or so.
 
If you want to take advantage of that monitor you would need to step into at least a GTX 780 or R9 290. You can't "max" everything out in modern games and maintain triple-digit framerates, but these cards will allow a good mix of settings and still offer great image quality. If you're planning on going SLI/Crossfire in the future, I would save the money you would spend on the second card and just go with a single high-end card. It will save you on power consumption and incompatibilities in the long run.
 
IMO I'd get an SSD before the nicer monitor.

For your budget I'd get a R9 280X. I got a used one with non reference cooler off forums for $250 that should last me awhile :).
 
As an alternative, how good would adding a second HD 6870 be? With the proviso that the life-cycle would be ~12 months, not 18.
 
I just played through Metro - Last Light with GTX 770 maxed out (except SSAA disabled, you need SLI for that stuff) and Physx enabled and it ran amazingly well most of the game except couple of situations where there was a shit ton of characters in front of you. Dropped Tesselation from Very High to High and that was taken care of.

If you need 120hz you may have to sacrifice something else too but since the card is basically rebadged and tweaked GTX 680 it still has enough horsepower for close future games. I think it was 230€ well spent on my part.
 
for your budget a r9 280 would probably be your best bet.

if you save a bit more a r9-290 or a gtx 780 will suit you well.
 
Thanks for the recommendations guys. Looks like I will go with a R9 280 as soon as Micro Center gets some in.
 
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