Upgrading my Video card.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

So I'm planning on upgrading my video card soon as my current one is kinda hurting.

 

I currently have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, I'm looking to upgrade to one of the R9's (the 280X) and was wondering if this is a good card for the money? http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8573334&CatId=7387  keep in mind I am playing BF4 with this thing. lol

[Slammers]

Good card for BF4, if you want to do recording while you play I would recommend a nvidia card because shadowplay is truly awesome. 

Yet to see what difference mantle makes in december. 

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

I've never had any luck with nVidia cards so that will always and forever be a huge no for me lol...

[Jeston Veteran]

The Vapor-X and Toxic line of Sapphire's cards are very good and the only ones I personally get. In fact, I'll probably end up getting 2 Vapor-X 290X's when they come out. (Y)

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

I think i've only ever owned two non-sapphire amd card ... no wait only one... which is an HIS...

[YounGMessiah]

Try a 770 or 780 :shiftyninja:

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

*Throw a tuna phish at YounGMessiah*

No :P

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

I ended up picking up the dual-x version of the card (more affordable for me lol). And boy is it rockin in my system

[MindTrickz]

I ended up picking up the dual-x version of the card (more affordable for me lol). And boy is it rockin in my system

 

And you save money on heating now that it is Winter. Just use that card as a heater :p

[ACTIONpack]

R9 series has heat issues, so I would avoid those cards. What's your price range for your graphic card is the really question.

[chrisj1968]

Q: With these new GPU cards: how is the power consumption?

 

I haven't bought a dektop card since 2005 and the AMD x1800 card. 

 

Q: has the power consumption gone down due to more efficienies?

[threetonesun]

Q: With these new GPU cards: how is the power consumption?

 

I haven't bought a dektop card since 2005 and the AMD x1800 card. 

 

Q: has the power consumption gone down due to more efficienies?

 

Depends on the card. Some low end cards are very efficient. A 290X requires about 300W.

[PGHammer]

I've never had any luck with nVidia cards so that will always and forever be a huge no for me lol...

What luck folks have with nVidia cards seems to depend on what other hardware they have - I switched from AMD to nVidia without issue, for example.  (My current GTX550Ti is the first nV GPU I bought for my own use.)

 

I'm looking at the GTX 660 (either EVGA SC or EVGA Signature 2) as it requires no more in the power department than my 550 Ti, and supports ShadowPlay to boot (better yet, I can then upgrade everything else without nuking my budget, as either GTX660 is under $200USD).

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

And you save money on heating now that it is Winter. Just use that card as a heater :p

Actually oddly enough I find it running cooler than my old card :P

 

and actually my office is an ice box in the winter anyways so it's win-win if it does run kinda hot.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

I've never had any luck with nVidia cards so that will always and forever be a huge no for me lol...

just curious - how have you not had 'luck' w/ nvidia cards?

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

As soon as I put in an nvidia card in any system it always had a BSoD problem (no matter what drivers or hardware config).

[:: Lyon ::]

just curious - how have you not had 'luck' w/ nvidia cards?

I'm wondering the same thing too. I've always been using NVIDIA card for like 15 years (since GeForce MX era) and I've never had problems or complaints

[ViperAFK]

So I'm planning on upgrading my video card soon as my current one is kinda hurting.

 

I currently have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, I'm looking to upgrade to one of the R9's (the 280X) and was wondering if this is a good card for the money? http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8573334&CatId=7387  keep in mind I am playing BF4 with this thing. lol

I have the 280x and bf4 plays great on it on ultra :)

[ViperAFK]

R9 series has heat issues, so I would avoid those cards. What's your price range for your graphic card is the really question.

I have the sapphire dual-x 280x and it runs very cool. I haven't even seen it go much above 60 degrees when playing bf4, and idles around 32 on my machine. Those dual-fan coolers do a great job. it actually runs slightly cooler than my old 6950.

 

I did have one annoying issue with the card though, there was some annoying 2d flickering when it changed 2d clocks, but I was able to fix it with a vbios update from sapphire: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=440&threadid=168806&STARTPAGE=4&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear (there's a link on page 4 of that thread).

 

AMD also said they are looking into fixing it on the driver level, so perhaps a future driver update can fix it without needing to update the vbios. Aside from that the card has been excellent so far.

 

At first I was looking into the nvidia gtx 770, but it has very similar performance, costs more, and has a full gig less of VRAM so I couldn't bring myself to get it over the 280x. Either card should be fine for bf4 though.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

I haven't got the flickering issue *yet*  so dunno :s