I don't have an SSD, if that makes any difference, just a 1TB mechanical drive. I've been looking at the following GPU but didn't know if there was something better for the money.
I'm looking to get a GPU in the next couple months and didn't know if there's something coming down the pipe to hold out for. I have a GPU now, though it was a patch part to get me through. I can't remember what it is for a card, I know it was under $100 though. Thanks for the advice in advnace.
I'm really happy with my Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4gb. It’s small, cool and quiet. If you find a deal on a R9 285, that's basically the same card. They can even be crossfired.
On the crossfire note, is there a real advantage in doing so or would be it be more effective to save for a higher end card when it comes time? I would be more inclined to get R9 380 Nitro if crossfiring is worth it.
EDIT Does anyone know a better GPU match for my system for a little more money, or where I could look? I'm new to the GPU market, does brand matter much?
SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R9 390 might be what you are looking for. AMD vs Nvidia is basically 10FPS for 150$ Sapphire is great with AMD GPUs, can´t tell for Nvidia.
From what I could find, the 390 is not amazingly more powerful. Looking at the numbers it is 985MHz with 1792Stream Processors on th Nitro and 1010MHz with 2560Stream Processors on the 390. Most benchmarks I could find place the 390 10 to 20FPS higher than the 380. The feeling after the upgrade wil be better when you save the extra money.
Well, 380 beats 960 in most games, but is far far away from 970. 390 is basically equal to 970... Beats it in some games, gets beaten in others. But is way cheaper than 970, have 8 gigs of Vram, as far as we know better DX12 support, my guess is better Vulkan support, since Vulkan is based on Mantel, and Nvidia did not support Mantel. And later on down the line, you can get a freesync monitor and be set.
well a 390 will ofc be significantly better then a 380. However the FX6300 will hold back that 390 in certain cpu demending games especialy at 1080p. Ofc it higly depens on the games you play and how you play them. But its definitely something to keep in mind.
Thanks for all the info guys. It's looking like I will get the 380. Just one last question, do any of you know if the FX6300 would hold back the 380 if I crossfired two of them in the future or if it's even worth it w/o getting a stronger CPU.
Depends on a lot of things... Short answer - yes... Long answer - 380 is quite powerful card, and 6300 was a mid range cpu 4 years ago. Now it's more of highest low end... I believe 6300 will hold back a single 380 in CPU demanding games. However, I believe that 6300 will not hold back CF380 in graphics intensive games, where the CPU don't really play huge role. DX12 will help slightly in this situation, since it will offload some tasks from the CPU and calculate them with the GPU. Still, in most games, stock 6300 will slow down CF380...
well that highly depends, on the resolution you want to play on. Basicly how higher the resolution you play on, how less the card will get held back by the cpu. Thats why at 4k the cpu makes barely any significant difrence anymore with a single gpu. But ofc there are allways some exceptions on the rule. It basicly all depends from game to game.
So basicly a single 380 will not get bottlenecked by the FX6300 even not at 1080p in most games. Dual 380´s for 1080p on the otherhand will get bottlenecked at 1080p in certain games again. But it still depends from game to game realy.
The same story basicly counts for a R9-390. @NJM1112 exaly used a R9-290 with a FX6300 or FX6350 (not sure), And in certain games it did perform surpricingly well.
remember, there will allways be a bottleneck at a certain point, no matter which cpu.