Upgrading Videocard, Need Advice

[Durron]

Hi all,

The video card in my secondary rig just died, and I'm moving the video card from my current rig over and getting a new one for my main rig. I hope someone can advice me on the questions that I have. I recently play a lot of Battlefield 4 and Diablo 3, and I would prefer to future-proof my rig as much as possible and at the same time not have a bottleneck. These are my rigs:

Main
Intel Core i5-3570K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
G.SKILL RipjawsX F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 2x4GB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 WindForce 3X (To be moved to Secondary rig)
DELL UltraSharp 2408WFP
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 256GB
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB
Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 7200RPM
Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 Cinema
Logitech Z-4
Antec P180
Seasonic X Series 850W

Secondary
Intel Xeon E3110
Gigabyte EX38-DS4
GSkill PC8000 CL5-5-5-15 2x2GB
GeCube 3870x2 1GB GDDR3 X-Turbo Dual (Died)
OCZ 650W

My questions are:

1. Would an R9 290 4GB be bottlenecked by my main rig? What about the R9 280X 3GB or GTX770 2GB?
2. Would it be advisable to wait and see if there'll be any promos at the next IT Show in about 2 weeks' time?
3. Are the next generation of GFX coming out in the near future?
4. Which of these would suit me best? My budget is <$600, though of course less is best.

• Sapphire R9 290 4GB - $565 (Fuwell, Laser)
• MSI GTX770 2GB TWIN FROZR - $524 (Tradepac)
• Powercolor R9 280X 3GB Turbo - $438 (Tradepac)

Thanks for any help!

 

[x3illuminate]

I'd recommend the 290,

Both the 770 and 280x will probably get around 40-50?ish fps on ultra in bf4, whereas the 290x should sit somewhere around 65fps.

Also the 290x should be priced somewhere around $800++, you were probably looking at the 290, which is priced around the $600 range. Should get you around 60fps in bf4 on ultra.

Card might run a little hot though, and this is probably just bias but I myself dislike blower style coolers.. Just feel that they don't cool as well as dual fan solutions, so look out for that as well.

 

[Durron]

x3illuminate, you are right, I was referring to the R9 290 instead of the R9 290X. Would my rig be a bottleneck for that card, or is it alright?

Otherwise, should I get an R9 280X with a good cooler like your Gigabyte WindForce 280X? Do you know how much it is currently selling for and at which shops? The pricelists don't really state the model names fully.

 

[Jian19]

Sapphire 290 tri-x is around $600 and with a very good non ref cooler..but they only offer 2 years warranty.

 

[Durron]

Hi Jian19, is this the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X 4GB that is $598 at Tradepac? Would my rig bottleneck this card?

 

[Durron]

Any other advice or recommendations, guys? Or am I alright for the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X 4GB?

Also, would there be any GFX related promos at the upcoming IT Shows? I don't think so right?

 

[royfrosty]

Any other advice or recommendations, guys? Or am I alright for the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X 4GB?

Also, would there be any GFX related promos at the upcoming IT Shows? I don't think so right?

IT Shows dont sell much hardwares.

Only best bargain go there sell rams and Portable HDD, SSDs and other stuffs.

Some distros are there also.

Its up to you to get the triX. It has a good non ref cooler. But however it only comes with 2 years warranty.

If you willing to top a bit more can get either powercolor or MSI. With 3 years warranty.

 

[Durron]

Hey royfrosty, if that's the case, is the PowerColor PCS+ R9 290 4GB @ $618 good enough?

Are there any other cards with more than 2 years warranty and decent non-reference coolers at around the same price (<$650)?

 

[A2yincor]

Hey royfrosty, if that's the case, is the PowerColor PCS+ R9 290 4GB @ $618 good enough?

Are there any other cards with more than 2 years warranty and decent non-reference coolers at around the same price (<$650)?

Nope, the PowerColor PCS+ R9 290 is the best card for $600. Its $600 at tradepac. And nope again, your cpu will not bottleneck your card. I think it is safe to say that u can almost go to a dual gtx 770 without bottlenecks. Although the card is from powercolor, tomshardware did a review on it and found out the the card is actually comparable, if not better than some of hte cards from other brands. It has a lower temperature than the asus and gigabyte cards.

PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X Review - Tom's Hardware (Temps are on page 7) You should take your time to read the review.

And finally, there's no new generation gpus coming out in the near future.

Hope this helped!

 

[User-name]

Nope, the PowerColor PCS+ R9 290 is the best card for $600. Its $600 at tradepac. And nope again, your cpu will not bottleneck your card. I think it is safe to say that u can almost go to a dual gtx 770 without bottlenecks. Although the card is from powercolor, tomshardware did a review on it and found out the the card is actually comparable, if not better than some of hte cards from other brands. It has a lower temperature than the asus and gigabyte cards.

PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X Review - Tom's Hardware (Temps are on page 7) You should take your time to read the review.

And finally, there's no new generation gpus coming out in the near future.

Hope this helped!

But note that don't buy powercolor r9 290 pcs+ that have serial starts with DG-14 because it has BIOS problem if you bought it either you have to flash new bios yourself or bring it to BL to tell them flash for u
or you could ask the shop if the bios is fixed if its DG-14

 

[A2yincor]

Btw, Powercolor R9-290 PCS+ OR Sapphire R9 290 OC TRI-X GDDR5?
Its your choice. Pick which ur most comfortable with. But the PCS+ runs at a lower temp than the TRI-X.