Okay, so I have been upgrading my PC at every chance I get. I have recently decided that the one I currently have is barely getting by for my purposes. I probably would have skipped upgrading this year , but , alas my skyrim modding appetite has grown. So I have set my sights on a couple of GPU's that would be very good canidates. They are , the GTX 760 , and the R9 280. These cards (as you might know) are in the same price group , for the most part from what I have seen. I am will also be in need of a new PSU, being that the 760 needs a minimum of a 500W , and the AMD card probably needing more than that. I would like to hear every ones thoughts about this. Keep in mind that I would like to stay within the 240-50 dollar price point , so if you are going to recommend a different card , keep it within that group please. If you are wondering what CPU this will be paired with , it will be an Athlon x4 750K OC'd to 4.2GHz (I done research on this being paired with these cards , it should work fine). Thank you all in advance- Cody
I would probably go the R9 280 with the hopes mantel will give you a big gain if you play any games that have it since your cpu is older.
I would also probably go with the 280 in your situation, but i don't think you would be unhappy if you got the GTX 760 either. Both cards should suit your needs.
You will be fine with any PSU from a reputable brand. Corsair CX500 or something similar.
The R9 280.
It is cheaper and faster than the 760. There is an XFX one on sale now at NewEgg for $200.
Don't pay attention to the power requirements on the back. Even with the 280 it won't pull more than 500W but it is good to have a little extra headroom.
A good 500-600W PSU will be fine. I believe the Corsair CX600 can be had for around $30 at the moment.
Don't listen to the guy above either. No need to "hope" for mantle. Your CPU is still perfectly adequate for most games especially with the over clock. Most games are GPU dependent these days and a 280 would completement your set up nicely with a new PSU
R9 280. More VRAM for your Skyrim modding addiction.
I VERY quickly slapped together a build that should emulate how much wattage you'll be pulling. Anyone looking at this thread should probably not buy the components I've picked as many are probably way too expensive.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KvGFbv
Estimated Wattage is around 400 watts. AMD and nvidia both list the recommended power supply wattages on their website due to the fact that there are many crappily made power supplies out there. The R9 280 should take up to 200watts to run. A GTX 760 should take up to 170w. It's a bit close on your CX430, but if you also have the money to upgrade to a higher wattage power supply, go for it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-power-supply-hive550
Agree with everything here
Some more PSU options:
http://pcpartpicker.com/mr/newegg/corsair-power-supply-cx500
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx600m
GTX 750ti has pretty good performance and has a low power consumption! Check out my mid-gaming build on my profile.
Thank you all for your input, I think that I will be shooting for a 280, and maybe a 600w PSU if I can slip one into my budget so that in the future I will not need another one. Now will a 280 pretty much handle skyrim with any mods I use i.e sharpshooters ENB , maybe even Realvision ENB? I have not been able to find anything about how it runs heavily modded skyrim. I run about 48 frames average now , with about 100+ mods. I hope that this card will grant me somewhere between 55-60 , I would be fine with it dipping to 40. do you guys think that the card could do what I stated above? Once again I would like to thank you all for your input-Cody
A 280 is a rebadged 7950 - will be more than fine for your needs. Your current psu will even run it when I was running a 7950 it used f* all.. Although in the longterm I wouldnt recommend using such a low end psu. One like this >> xfx ts550w is worth considering.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/05/19/amd-radeon-r9-280-review-feat-xfx/7
GTX 760 has slightly higher average FPS on this benchmark, they are very close in performance, get the cheapest one of the 2.
Hmm , not sure about the 280 now , I can't really find any information about the 280 running skyrim with lots of mods , only with super resolutions. I think that I should really go with what runs that better , because CS:GO really does not need much to run at all , I mean I already get around 280 fps+ in that game. So it really comes down to what runs skyrim with a heavy ENB. I really don't play many other games that are intensive on the graphics side of things , I mean occasionally I will play BF3 , but even with my setup now I can run that with 40+ fps on ultra (somehow).
the gtx 760 compares well with a r9 280 pretty much only when both are left at stock clocks
the one thing I would add is get a 3 or 4 gig vram card
I have a 770 sc but with only 2 gb of vram. For skyrim and a few other apps im running out of vram at 1080p
Okay , I have been looking at a few 3gb models anyway , good to know I was on the right track! Thanks!
R9 280 all the way. Nvidia has nothing to compete with the R9 280/290 with current pricing so it's a no-brainer IMO