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Help with choosing a graphics card.


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Lets start off with the basics

MSI z97 Gaming 7 motherboard

Intel i-5 4690k cpu

Corsiar 8gb ddr3 dominator memory

psu tbd on card

Ok sorry if this gets lengthy, my main objective is 1440@60 with out a hitch. I read the quick guide above and it brought memory interface to my attention. As im looking on new egg i've noticed that nivida doesnt offer anything above 256 bit in the $200-$350 range, but AMD offers up to 512 bit. As im not a huge fan of AMD would having that much more buffer make a considerable difference? This is the card I'm referring to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127874 the main reasons I'm leaning towards this card even though its AMD is because of the memory interface and the fact it's MSI due to me being able to control CPU and GPU OC with Afterburner for ease. So my questions are 1.Does the memory interface make that much of a difference. 2.Is AMD really as bad as i have read 3.Has anyone had any problems with this card 4.Any recommendations on any cards if you wouldn't use the one above that would have similar performance and price range would be awesome. TIA

Side note: I will mainly be playing GTA 5,Battlefront,and similar games.

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I'd stick w/ nvidia, just for comfort IMO... Haven't stuck my neck out but 2 of my buddies swear by AMD

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Does+the+memory+interface+make+that+much+of+a+difference

Lets start off with the basics

MSI z97 Gaming 7 motherboard

Intel i-5 4690k cpu

Corsiar 8gb ddr3 dominator memory

psu tbd on card

Ok sorry if this gets lengthy, my main objective is 1440@60 with out a hitch. I read the quick guide above and it brought memory interface to my attention. As im looking on new egg i've noticed that nivida doesnt offer anything above 256 bit in the $200-$350 range, but AMD offers up to 512 bit. As im not a huge fan of AMD would having that much more buffer make a considerable difference? This is the card I'm referring to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127874 the main reasons I'm leaning towards this card even though its AMD is because of the memory interface and the fact it's MSI due to me being able to control CPU and GPU OC with Afterburner for ease. So my questions are 1.Does the memory interface make that much of a difference. 2.Is AMD really as bad as i have read 3.Has anyone had any problems with this card 4.Any recommendations on any cards if you wouldn't use the one above that would have similar performance and price range would be awesome. TIA

Side note: I will mainly be playing GTA 5,Battlefront,and similar games.

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Pioneer Premier P880PRS ll Front Stage: US Acoustics 4060 - Random speakers currently ll Sub Stage: Crescendo BC3500D - 15" Xcon sealed @ 3.28 cubes ll Electrical: - Kinetik HC1800(front) NEW***DieHard P-2(rear)

beaker- I know this sounds like a lot of anime bullshit, but it is true.

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256 bit of a 980Ti vs 512 bit of 390 isnt that much of a deal, the 980 has higher memory speeds to make up for the lower bus width (its not a buffer).

The biggest issue is the 970/980 dont fully support DX12 asynchronous compute so upcoming games may incur a performance penalty. I say may, because it will depend on a few things and might end up not an issue.

The 970 is an ok card but has the annoying 3.5gb/0.5gb partitioned memory controller which can cause issues in some circumstances.

As to drivers, I have been using nV/AMD/ATi/3dfx cards since day 1 of this merry-go-round and they all have issues. AMD/ATi had installation issues that was the largest cause of frustrations for a long time, but recently they've been doing much better. The "Crimson" driver set is pretty good other than a few lame-brain issues with the GUI so far. There does seem to be an issue with Crimson and Afterburner conflicting but most people find it is resolved by re-installing Afterburner (newest Afterburner version supposedly fixes this as well). nV's biggest issue is the display driver timing out (windows has a counter that times things to see if they have "crashed") and causing display resets... some systems are more prone to this than others.

I used to have an R9 290x, but it died from an accident, lol. So now i'm using an R9 280X and it was running my games (GTA5, BF4, D3, WoW) fine at 2560x1600 using an i7 2600K @ 4.7 and 16gb ram at 2133mhz before I gave the monitor to a GF. She's using a 7950 and all she plays is WoW, works perfect lol.

What do you have currently for video card? 7970/280X's are dirt cheap (gpushack.com) and would hold you over for 3-5 months for the next new cards to come out and be a good backup card to keep around. Also GTX780Ti's are great cards, they will keep up with GTX980Ti's if you overclock them a bit ;)

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256 bit of a 980Ti vs 512 bit of 390 isnt that much of a deal, the 980 has higher memory speeds to make up for the lower bus width (its not a buffer).

The biggest issue is the 970/980 dont fully support DX12 asynchronous compute so upcoming games may incur a performance penalty. I say may, because it will depend on a few things and might end up not an issue.

The 970 is an ok card but has the annoying 3.5gb/0.5gb partitioned memory controller which can cause issues in some circumstances.

As to drivers, I have been using nV/AMD/ATi/3dfx cards since day 1 of this merry-go-round and they all have issues. AMD/ATi had installation issues that was the largest cause of frustrations for a long time, but recently they've been doing much better. The "Crimson" driver set is pretty good other than a few lame-brain issues with the GUI so far. There does seem to be an issue with Crimson and Afterburner conflicting but most people find it is resolved by re-installing Afterburner (newest Afterburner version supposedly fixes this as well). nV's biggest issue is the display driver timing out (windows has a counter that times things to see if they have "crashed") and causing display resets... some systems are more prone to this than others.

I used to have an R9 290x, but it died from an accident, lol. So now i'm using an R9 280X and it was running my games (GTA5, BF4, D3, WoW) fine at 2560x1600 using an i7 2600K @ 4.7 and 16gb ram at 2133mhz before I gave the monitor to a GF. She's using a 7950 and all she plays is WoW, works perfect lol.

What do you have currently for video card? 7970/280X's are dirt cheap (gpushack.com) and would hold you over for 3-5 months for the next new cards to come out and be a good backup card to keep around. Also GTX780Ti's are great cards, they will keep up with GTX980Ti's if you overclock them a bit ;)

Ok after reading the above link and doing some more research on newegg I found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127832 . Though the interface is half the size it has 1000 mhz faster memory speed witch if i understand this correctly should compensate for the smaller interface size? Also 100-ish mhz faster speed on the core clock, but this raises another concern for me. Long as im not using it for rendering 4gb of memory should be fine right? Also I currently do not have a card (this is my first build hence all the questions) and I cant justify spending $150 then turn around and spend another $300.

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This is what I have right now, and I can run Black Ops 3 at FULL max on my 144hz monitor and play smoothly. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077

Also with EVGA if you buy the card then register it, you have 90 days from that registration date to upgrade through evga. So if something newer comes out in 90 days and you want it you can use the upgrade program to get it.

I personally haven't touched an AMD card since the days of using OMEGA drivers for them, I hear the newer cards from them are good, but mostly for those on super tight budgets.

Retired from SPL again....

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could save $50 if you buy from the site stevil posted.... gpushack.com .... for the same MSI card... just saying

Pioneer Premier P880PRS ll Front Stage: US Acoustics 4060 - Random speakers currently ll Sub Stage: Crescendo BC3500D - 15" Xcon sealed @ 3.28 cubes ll Electrical: - Kinetik HC1800(front) NEW***DieHard P-2(rear)

beaker- I know this sounds like a lot of anime bullshit, but it is true.

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The GTX 970 is the best card in it's price range. I'd probably opt for the EVGA GTX 970 FTW if I were going that route... One thing though. That card is not going to get you 60FPS @ 1440p on current titles. You need a GTX 980Ti or a R9 Fury X to get that kind of performance.

Here is a review that shows performance of most of the mid to high end cards:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_980_ti_lightning_review,20.html

They are using a i7 5960X @ 4.4GHz on a X99 board with 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 memory in that test, so your system will be a little bit slower with any of those cards.

Also, another thing to mention here is 8GB of RAM is no longer enough for newer video games if you want to start maxing out all of your graphic settings. It's also important to have faster DDR3 RAM as video RAM is often offloaded to the system RAM for overflow. I highly recommend upgrading your RAM to something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231589

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