In uber need of a new gpu

tl;dr I have an old 8800 GT and about $200 to spend. What would you suggest for a new gpu? I am strongly pushing for an Nvidia gpu since I will be using the CUDA processing for Blender renders, though an AMD suggestion is not out of the picture. Should I go for something used? Something new? Thanks. Not really experienced when it comes to GPUs.

I'd buy new. Personally, I will never buy a used GPU. A high heat, high stress part than may have been OCed rediculously, in a dusty PC case or used for mining or abused in some other way. I'd rather get a new one. 

Are you using it for gaming and Blender or just Blender? Because if it is just Blender than a WS GPU might be better although they are stupid expensive and the gaming options are usually more powerful but then drivers and stuff aren't as optimized for GPGPU tasks. 

Well $200 is gonna get you a GTX 760 on the nVidia side or for $230 you can get an R9 290 on the AMD side. 

The 760 will be much slower in games and only has 2GB of VRAM which can be an issue in some games and at higher resolutions and possibly in Blender. The 290 will kill in games has 4GB of VRAM which is beneficial.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Blender can use CUDA or OpenCL. OpenCL may be a little slower but because the 290 is so much more powerful than a 760 you may still win in Blender. I don't know much about it though so I couldn't tell you. 

Thanks for your input. I think it would be best to buy rather than getting used as per what you have noted, though I do want to ask where you got the "$230" pricepoint from, since all I'm not having a lot of luck finding any listed for anything near that.

For the most part, I game, but I mess with blender on the side. Blender at the time only has full optimized support for CUDA. I do want to note that I have not even been able to use the CUDA processing in my current GPU anyways (with rendering), so going with the AMD side of things won't make my position any worse, To be perfectly honest, I've been quite confused with the recent installments of AMD's GPUs. I will do my research on the R9 290 though. Thanks.

 

EDIT: I have taken note that the R9 290 uses a bit more power than the 760, so I'll have to upgrade my humble 430 watt psu as well. At least looking at all of this prevents me from getting gung ho on what to choose.

I found myself a GTX 770 for $200 on amazon, but

I will never buy a used GPU

I would also go with an R9 290

If you mostly game then I would go with the R9 290. It will absolutely destroy a 760 as well as the 770 and even beat a 780 if you could find those cards used for around that price point. It is nearly as fast as a 970 at 1080p and about the same at 1440P and up. 

Well the power consumption is more but that isn't just because the 290 is less efficient. The 290 is so much more powerful than a 760 that of course it will use more power. It doesn't use that much more than a 780 which is about as close as you could get to a nVidia equivalent. Even with a 760 I'd upgrade your PSU. Just to give you a little more headroom.

http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=93995&vpn=R9290-DC2OC-4GD5&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1416

R9 290- $240 after rebate. Comes with three games as well. 

 

 

After doing some research, I would say that the r9 290 looks very appealing, and I may consider getting it. With that and a new psu (most likely a 550-600 watt), i'll most likely be spending about 300, which isn't too far-fetched. Thanks for your time and input :)

Thanks for your input. :)