Completely lost choosing a video card and need help

BlackHawk

First off I want something that will last me a while. I'm on the fence between the GTX 780 Ti and the R9 290X but if the non Ti or a 280/280X is suitable enough please let me know. I've googled benchmarks but haven't found anything conclusive (to me). I also don't mine so that has no bearing on the decision.

Here are the points that I'm stuck on:

R9 290X
+Mantle
+4GB of ram (not sure of how much importance this really is)
-Reference cards are loud, hot and sometimes unstable
-Price and availability due to currency mining

GTX 780 Ti
+Seems to bench better
+Shadow play
+Reference cards run cooler
+Lower power usage
-3GB of ram (see above)

Current card I'm thinking about is the Gigabyte GV-N78TOC-3GD GeForce GTX 780 Ti which Newegg has for $679.

Any help is appreciated.

NiGHTS

All I'm hearing about the ATI stuff, at the moment, is the price gounging piggybacking on all the goofy cryptocurrency stuff. There's no value there, anymore, from what it sounds like - you may get more for your money going green, for once.

Doesn't really answer the core of your question, but worth pointing out all the same.

shwaip

What monitor and resolution?

BlackHawk

shwaip said:

What monitor and resolution?

Dell UltraSharp U2412M (1920x1200)

fatcat

GTX 770 is all you'll need at that resolution

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=-1&IsNodeId=1&Description=GTX 770&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=20

pick the 2GB or 4GB, whichever you want and EVGA is awesomesauce

BlackHawk

I know the resolution I currently play at is not that high but I'm also looking for longevity and maybe the possibility of having more/bigger monitors later on.

fatcat

BlackHawk said:

I know the resolution I currently play at is not that high but I'm also looking for longevity and maybe the possibility of having more/bigger monitors later on.

you can never buy now computer hardware for the future.

if you're serious about spending the $ for more monitors then a 780Ti or 290x will last a long time

georgeh

I've been leaning towards Nvidia because AMD prices seem to be driven up from cryptocurrency mining. Nvidia cards aren't as good at mining so there's less of a premium. I my 770.

csimon

georgeh said:

I've been leaning towards Nvidia because AMD prices seem to be driven up from cryptocurrency mining. Nvidia cards aren't as good at mining so there's less of a premium. I my 770.</p>

What he said.

ins4n17y

more memory helps, for sure, if you can get the most memory as future games will surely have more textures. if the prices of amd chips wern't absurdly expensive, i'd be getting a 280x, my card of choice. if you're going green, more memory the better still.