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Good value GPU: which & where to buy?

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Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
I've been thinking about upgrading my PC so I can play prettier games with better speeds.
Currently I have i5-2320, Radeon 6850 and benq xl2411t 144hz monitor.
After some research I stopped at choosing either Radeon R9 380 (4GB version) or gforce gtx 960.
I am planning to spend not more than ~230$
Any other cards that you can suggest? And will my CPU be enough for them?
As for the shops I only know that Amazon and Newegg have best prices, but maybe I'm wrong?
Any other places to buy GPUs? Or maybe I should wait for some kind of holiday sales or something? When do they happen?
I don't mind buying from foreign shops btw.
Upd: Thanks everyone. Bought R9 290 from gpushack. Waiting for arrival
Upd2: Received R9 290 with a broken fan. It's also dusty as hell.
Upd3: gpuShack owner sent me a replacement card R9 290X without additional costs. Waiting for arrival
Upd4: Received replacement R9 290X. Running fine. Cool beans.
Last edited by Kert , edited 3 times in total.
A Medic
460 posts
Joined May 2013
A Medic
Your cpu won't be bottlenecking your gpu if you decide to upgrade.

I personally own a few R9 380 and they are fine cards for the cost that you can find them at.

I would keep your eyes peeled on https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales for any deals going on.
Vuelo Eluko
5,484 posts
Joined October 2013
Vuelo Eluko
iirc right after christmas is a good time to buy gpu's
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Thanks for the info guys, this is really helpful.
I noticed there are some extreme sales sometimes like R9 390 sold for around 230$. I'd totally buy this one instead for such price
Will my CPU bottleneck this one? Or my 700w psu?
abraker
Global Moderator
8,327 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker

Kert wrote:

Thanks for the info guys, this is really helpful.
I noticed there are some extreme sales sometimes like R9 390 sold for around 230$. I'd totally buy this one instead for such price
Will my CPU bottleneck this one? Or my 700w psu?
CPU shouldn't bottleneck the GPU in 99% of the cases especially since you run on an i5. As for the the PSU, usually 700w should be plenty enough.
Vuelo Eluko
5,484 posts
Joined October 2013
Vuelo Eluko
an i5-2320 will bottleneck on an r9 390, just a little bit. Right now your 6850 trash card is holding back your cpu really badly though. Totally worth the buy, you'll get most of the performance the r9 390 has on tap, and it leaves room for an upgrade. Even considering your cpu, I can't think of something that will provide better performance per price than a 230$ r9 390, so go for it.

abraker wrote:

Kert wrote:

Thanks for the info guys, this is really helpful.
I noticed there are some extreme sales sometimes like R9 390 sold for around 230$. I'd totally buy this one instead for such price
Will my CPU bottleneck this one? Or my 700w psu?
CPU shouldn't bottleneck the GPU in 99% of the cases especially since you run on an i5. As for the the PSU, usually 700w should be plenty enough.
you can't just read 'i5' and assume this, the i5-2320 is rather old. Totally a serviceable gaming chip this day and age, but paired with something like an r9 390 it's bound to throttle performance a bit.

imagine if he had an i7-920 for example, sure its an i7 but pair it up with an r9 390 and you're going to have some serious bottlenecks.
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Bought a PowerColor R9 290 (reference) from gpushack for whooping 234$ (-10$ discount and 25$ shipping included)
Let's see how loud and hot it will be : D
(not yet arrived)
Blue-
31 posts
Joined September 2013
Blue-
For $230 I'd say a Evga Gtx 760
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Supe ... B00DHW4HXY

I currently have a 970, and I have had the 760 in the past great card.

But I see that you bought the R9 290, don't know much about those cards so best of luck!
- Milhofo -
683 posts
Joined February 2014
- Milhofo -

Kert wrote:

Bought a PowerColor R9 290 (reference) from gpushack for whooping 234$ (-10$ discount and 25$ shipping included)
Let's see how loud and hot it will be : D
(not yet arrived)
I have no experience with PowerColor but that 290 was a nice pick, I still run my 280x and can run any game I want at max settings, even with 3 monitors connected. Your cpu and psu shouldn't bottleneck anything unless you want to crossfire in the future, for now you should be set!
weihe123
35 posts
Joined September 2014
weihe123
That's the perfect card for that PC (R9 380X or GTX 960). You have a second generation i5 which isn't that old. It only one generation behind my friend's i7-3770 which can use a r9 390 perfectly. Go with what you selected. The best place to buy them is on Neweggs since they have huge discounts on cards. Like what everyone else said, the PowerColor PCS+ 380 is a great grab at only 185 and then if you want to do rebate, 165.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131673&cm_re=r9_380-_-14-131-673-_-Product
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Yeah great

I got it today just to see its broken and dusty cooler
I have no words for now.
FuZ
363 posts
Joined January 2011
FuZ
sadface.jpg
weihe123
35 posts
Joined September 2014
weihe123
me_crying.mp3
- Milhofo -
683 posts
Joined February 2014
- Milhofo -
How does a brand new cooler come like that? That was really unfortunate
BrokenArrow
2,236 posts
Joined June 2010
BrokenArrow
Just another incident that clearly proves that Nvidia > AMD
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert

- Milhofo - wrote:

How does a brand new cooler come like that? That was really unfortunate
It's not supposed to be brand new.
gpuShack sell refurbished cards.
The owner states the cooler broke during shipping, let's see what he can suggest after I check if the card works at all
Yuudachi-kun
5,435 posts
Joined August 2014
Yuudachi-kun

Kert wrote:

Yeah great

I got it today just to see its broken and dusty cooler
I have no words for now.
You should've just gotten a 750 ti 8-)
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
750 ti is 3-4times weaker
Yuudachi-kun
5,435 posts
Joined August 2014
Yuudachi-kun
It's my waifu and I love her
- Milhofo -
683 posts
Joined February 2014
- Milhofo -

BrokenArrow wrote:

Just another incident that clearly proves that Nvidia > AMD
I can't see where that conclusion comes from but it makes no sense lol

OT: Even if it was broken it should have been cleaned, then again I never bought second hand hardware so I wouldn't know
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
The shop owner provided a solution to this problem.
Let's see what I get in a few weeks.
RBRat3
osu!painter
762 posts
Joined April 2010
RBRat3
Just out of curiosity what games have you played on your old 6850 that let you down enough to provoke you to upgrade?

Reason I ask is because I have a 6950 and never felt like I needed any more, my only complaint is that I cant compile large OpenCL kernals but that's unrelated.
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
It's not like I can't live without better graphics but I always wanted to play with those and higher FPS.
So basically any game that runs below atleast 60fps (on my 144hz monitor I'd love 144fps though) is pretty bad for me: Divinity Original Sin, Watch Dogs, GTA 5, and other AAA titles I don't play yet because of bad FPS/can't choose High/Ultra graphics.
The owner of gpushack sent me a replacement card which is R9 290X (notice the X) without additional payment for the upgrade. He didn't even ask me to send back this 290 with this broken fan that I received from him initially.
It didn't arrive yet, but we'll see how it goes.
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Alright.
I received my precious replacement R9 290X. It's clean, looks pretty new, no scratches e.t.c.
I've tested a few games and the results are like this (everything on Ultra 1920x1080):
Divinity Original Sin - 95-120fps
Alan Wake - 80+ fps
Dishonored - 120 fps
Watch_Dogs - 35-50fps (blame ubisoft)

Btw it's not even exactly that loud as most people say. I can't hear it behind 5 case coolers I have.
Idle temperature is around 63C and under load it goes upto 90-95C depending on the game.

ohohohohoho kertwaii's gonna play graphic-oriented games at last
deletemyaccount
730 posts
Joined May 2013
deletemyaccount

Kert wrote:

Alright.
I received my precious replacement R9 290X. It's clean, looks pretty new, no scratches e.t.c.
I've tested a few games and the results are like this (everything on Ultra 1920x1080):
Divinity Original Sin - 95-120fps
Alan Wake - 80+ fps
Dishonored - 120 fps
Watch_Dogs - 35-50fps (blame ubisoft)

Btw it's not even exactly that loud as most people say. I can't hear it behind 5 case coolers I have.
Idle temperature is around 63C and under load it goes upto 90-95C depending on the game.

ohohohohoho kertwaii's gonna play graphic-oriented games at last
Happy for you!

AMD cards are like fine wine; they get better the older they are (i.e driver support).
A Medic
460 posts
Joined May 2013
A Medic

Kert wrote:

Alright.
I received my precious replacement R9 290X. It's clean, looks pretty new, no scratches e.t.c.
I've tested a few games and the results are like this (everything on Ultra 1920x1080):
Divinity Original Sin - 95-120fps
Alan Wake - 80+ fps
Dishonored - 120 fps
Watch_Dogs - 35-50fps (blame ubisoft)

Btw it's not even exactly that loud as most people say. I can't hear it behind 5 case coolers I have.
Idle temperature is around 63C and under load it goes upto 90-95C depending on the game.

ohohohohoho kertwaii's gonna play graphic-oriented games at last

Glad you like your new card. Always feels good to get a nice upgrade. :)
FuZ
363 posts
Joined January 2011
FuZ

Kert wrote:

Idle temperature is around 63C and under load it goes upto 90-95C depending on the game.
both idle and charge temps looks pretty high, especially idle

90-95 in charge is "ok" if it's the absolute max r9 290x are known to be hot, but 63C is kinda high for idle, check for dust

your card should be idling at around 45-50C, mine is at 39C with fans at 21%..
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Do you have a reference one too?
What's your idle gpu fan speed? Mine is ~1000rpm (20%) (I'm blind sorry)
I have a lot of case fans, not sure why this happens:
front, bottom, side, rear, top - all 120mm fans. Bottom, front and top fans (Arctic F12) always work@12v and that is around 1400rpm (using molex -> 3pin converters)
Idle CPU (i5-2320) temp is around 39C.
FuZ
363 posts
Joined January 2011
FuZ
i don't have your card so it's best to not compare with me, that's why i said 45-50 because seeing the reviews of your card that's what you should get in idle, for example here

for cpu i don't know, i have a i5 2500k and it's staying at 34C idle but 39C should be fine too, though it's weird that you get high temps with that much fans, i only have 2 fans, front and rear, or maybe it's just your cpu fan set to a slower rpm

Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
Luckily I noticed that my CPU goes up to 74C when playing GTA V (60+ fps on everything Ultra btw)
I checked that thermal paste dried up, maybe that's the reason here...
I also don't have a lot of fan speed control options in Speedfan for some reason:
Kert
2,079 posts
Joined June 2009
Topic Starter
Kert
OK nice
I've changed thermal paste on the CPU and temperatures are 10+ C degrees lower
Only reaches around 62-64C under max load.
I also made a custom fan speed curve profile that looks like this:

And this makes the R9 290X in my PC never reach 95C (a bit of downclocking happens at this temp) - only around 88-93C at max load.
And I still can't hear the GPU behind case coolers : D
2FuZ: Idle temp is that high because memory clock is maxed out even on desktop (driver bug because of 144hz monitor)
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