To those who build computers

[Masamunemaster]

I have been working towards building a computer, and the most expensive thing was my graphics card obviously. I had originally planned to use an asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5, but as I got on Facebook I noticed newegg has a promo going on, and I can get the asus R9270X-DC2T-2GD5 but it has tons of bad reviews does anyone know if it's good from experience or not?

[escobert]

I always go NVIDIA over ATI.

[DMKA]

The GTX 760 is the better card by a negligible margin, and is the cheaper of the two from what I've seen. I was an AMD user until I upgraded some months back and I have to say I've had a better overall experience with Nvidia drivers as well. Also, my GTX 980 doesn't run half as hot as my far weaker R9 280x did.

I would definitely go with the GTX 760.

[Masamunemaster]

Ok, I keep seeing feedback about them crashing after just months, and that they are very loud.

[escobert]

Ok, I keep seeing feedback about them crashing after just months, and that they are very loud.

The ATI or the GTX?

[Masamunemaster]

Both, at least on neweggs website.

[Bolivar]

Can you link me which vendor you're getting this card from? The GTX 960 is almost always the better choice, since its the same performance tier and should be roughly the same price. It's cooler, quiter, slightly more powerful and will have better driver support, not to mention DirectX12 integration, going forward. You need to be careful with older Nvidia cards because they typically under support them, in order to showcase their latest series. This just happened with The Witcher 3 and GTX 700 cards. Newer cards also tend to have more rebates and free game promotions. If you can wait a week, Nvidia is rumored to be giving away MGSV The Phantom Pain with GTX 900 series cards.

In my opinion though, Nvidia is not worth it unless you're buying an enthusiast tier card. At every performance tier, AMD offers a cheaper card with a faster GPU and more VRAM. You should be able to find the AMD equivalents, either an R9 380 or 280X, for roughly the same price, which should generally beat the 960 in most benchmarks, let alone a 760. If you're willing to spend a little more, the R9 290 is the reigning king for price-to-performance ratios. It's a high end video card which can frequently be found for under $250 with a rebate.

You will get people who will try to scare you away about AMD's driver support but that's largely an urban legend. The only time you might have problems is with ports of AAA console games, at which point you'd likely have problems with NVIDIA anyway. If you're still hesitant about that, I still recommend you go with the 960. It's a great mid range card that should set you up for quite a while.

[Slothy]

At every performance tier, AMD offers a cheaper card with a faster GPU and more VRAM.

Now that's not exactly true. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

[Bolivar]

Now that's not exactly true. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Not sure if you read the article. The only price point NVIDIA held out on was the budget entry-level, where AMD doesn't even have any cards at retail to compete. Even then, you can still find the GT 730's equivalent on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/XFX-HD-477A-YDFC-ATI-Radeon-HD4770-512MB-GDDR5-PCI-E-Video-Graphics-Card-DVI-/171873308276?hash=item2804728e74) for cheaper.

[escobert]

My 480GTX still does fine with games like DayZ where all the AMD people are yelling and screaming about their $2000 PCs getting lesser frame rates than my i3 and 480

[Bolivar]

That's because you're running a mod of a six year old game on a five year old graphics card - of course you should be fine. I'm talking about driver support for older cards with newer games, such as The Witcher 3, where some people who spent $500 on a GTX 780 only a year earlier were getting less performance than mid range cards from AMD.

For what it's worth, I tried googling for widespread Radeon problems with DayZ and couldn't find anything on the first page.

[escobert]

DayZ Stand Alone is a mod? huh weird :p I wasn't talking about the mod that is horrible laggy and buggy on any sysyem.

yes issues have been better in recent patches of the Stand Alone for ATI but for the most part the game runs significantly better on a Nvidia/intel setup.

[Masamunemaster]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2oc2gd5

Http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9270xdc2t2gd5


Sorry it took so long to reply, having a lot of issues at home right now.

[Bolivar]

Can't see the price on the 760 but I'd definitely recommend it over a 270X if the price difference is nominal. The 270X comes close in some games but it's not quite the solid mid range performer the 760 is. Going back to my earlier post, I'd recommend this much more over both of them:

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=14-487-091

It's an EVGA GTX 960 for $180 after rebate. That's only $20 more than the lowest price for the 270X (which is sold out anyway) and it comes bundled with a sexy backplate and a free code for Metal Gear Solid V when it comes out next month. EVGA also has a reputation for making some of the highest quality computer components today. I used them for my power supply and they're widely considered the premier manufacturer for Nvidia graphics cards. This is a card that will last you the entirety of the console generation and run games considerably better than the PS4.

One last piece of advice, it's good to Google comparisons of two cards and check out what sites like GPU Boss have to say. Just make sure you compare the game benchmarks because those are the only numbers that matter, a lot of the other categories don't have the final say on performance.

[escobert]

EVGA is good. I prefer MSI but, that's me. I've never had any complaints with EVGA components.