The R9 290x will probably be overkill because it is AMDs most powerful card of the new series and for just a 1080p monitor you won't really need it. Also the difference with the x is just how powerful it is the 290x is more powerful than the 290, also someone correct me if I'm wrong but the R9 290x is supposed to be about $600, which would take up almost all of you budget. A R9 280x, a 7970, or a 7950 would all be good price points depending on if you decide to salvage or start from scratch.
Yeah $600 is quite a bit.
Do you think this is a good card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500307
I don't really know that brand if I were to get one I would look at EVGA, Asus, PNY, or other reputable brands. I know both EVGA and PNY have 760s at the same price point.
http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=85649&vpn=02G%2DP4%2D2765%2DKR&manufacture=eVGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133498&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
OK, already your questions are reaching the limit of my knowledge! The Z77 boards are what Gigabyte considers middle of the range and are likely over-engineered in most respects particularly power, because they are (I'm 90% sure) designed to allow overclocking that is not, you know, liquid nitrogen overclocking.
To the left of the CPU socket is an array of square "power stage" devices or VRMs, and the $64,000 question is the quality of those devices, Gigabyte doesn't often say (Asus often doesn't either) so you have to read between the lines and find out how they position the board and expect it to be used. Part of Gigabyte's "ultra durable" spiel has to do with using IR power stage (PowIRStage) devices that are more efficient. --> That is, on the Z87 boards, on the Z77 I'm not sure. But I glanced at a few Z77 boards and they look pretty good to me.
In summary if a board has overclocking features and uses a Z77 chip set those are good signs that it will work very well, and I think you will be paying about US$120. For reference the board I have is GA-Z87MX-D3H, "M" is for mobile / micro-ATX.
Something like a GA-Z87X-??? would likely be good if I understand your needs.
I'm afraid I can't give a direct answer to how much power is needed, but 1155 is going away and I would bet that any Z77 board will support all today's 1155 CPUs. So anything you could put in there, I would think would work. With newer sockets you never know if a future chip will take more power, for Haswell Intel seems to have set a limit of 85 TDP so that's nice.
TDP is an attempt to characterize sustained power draw in one number, and that impacts thermals and also power requirements. For short periods the device can draw above TDP. Intel says to design based on TDP. If you want you can download the complete datasheet from Intel on the 3770K and see what they say.
Would someone like to post a quick rundown of the Nvidia GPUs that are somewhere around the performance of the Radeon HD 7950? I have a sense of the AMD GPUs, but not Nvidia's, and I bet a quick summary would help a number of us.
I would go with the 280x then for mantle support as its not going to be available to Nvidia apperently, and AMD cards have better price to performance ratio, a 280x is about the same as a 7970 with extra DX features
haswell is the 4th Gen intel cpu, a 3770K will be just fine use it as you already have it, spend the other 200-700 on a nice 2K monitor and nice speaker setup and a cool keyboard
I'd like to see the comparison as well. But with everyone running AMD and this new "mantle" revolutionary technology peaking, I might as well get and AMD 7950 or spend $50 more and get the 280x. Excitable I tell you.
Sorry for asking so many. I'm trying to sponge it all up. I really do appreciate it though.