I definitely do not have the money for that, not for a couple years, but thanks for the suggestions.
I definitely do not have the money for that, not for a couple years, but thanks for the suggestions.If you have more to spend, get a 980ti.
That's true of most older games now, but due to most games being console ports many games are just becoming heavy on memory. As I said, it's short-sighted to believe this because many things which affect VRAM usage have little to no effect on GPU load, such as textures. It's just safer to spend that extra money based on the direction games appear to be heading in.
My PSU model is the Corsair CX500M, I plan to play modern AAA titles such as The Witcher 3, GTA V, Dying Light etc. And on a scale of 1-10 I would give power consumption importance a 8/9-10, It's very important to me, and if I have to sacrifice 10 fps for it, then so be it. And OC headroom should be considered as well.
The best card around $300 is the after market cooled, brand new, reference EVGA 970
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487136
$289 after 10% discount
That's USD. His budget is $300 CAD. This is way out of that budget.
That is almost exactly my situation, change 3-4 hours to 4-5 though.The 960 makes sense if you game 3-4 hours a day and power is expensive where you live.
That is almost exactly my situation, change 3-4 hours to 4-5 though.
Power over where I live is quite expensive, and I would like to keep my power-bill down whenever possible, with the heater on and such during the winter and whatnot. Speaking of overvolting, does that mean increasing the voltage of the GPU? It seems pretty obvious, but being a first time builder, I don't know much and would like some clarification. I do not feel comfortable increasing the voltage at all on my card, as I am new to this. Also, what do you mean by "In that case, it seems a bit counter-productive to overclock in the first place..." if I plan to play for 4-5 hrs?Then go for the the 960 4GB. That's a good budget PSU though, and would still have headroom for overclocking almost any single GPU. OC headroom isn't a factor at all, really. Since you're concerned about power consumption, I'd guess that you don't want to overvolt so a 960 might be faster overclocked. What is the specific reason that power consumption is a huge concern to you, though?
I wish it was just Graphics Cards...Man, just looked at exchange rates, why are graphics cards so much more in Canada than the U.S.?
Power over where I live is quite expensive, and I would like to keep my power-bill down whenever possible, with the heater on and such during the winter and whatnot. Speaking of overvolting, does that mean increasing the voltage of the GPU? It seems pretty obvious, but being a first time builder, I don't know much and would like some clarification. I do not feel comfortable increasing the voltage at all on my card, as I am new to this. Also, what do you mean by "In that case, it seems a bit counter-productive to overclock in the first place..." if I plan to play for 4-5 hrs?
Power over where I live is quite expensive, and I would like to keep my power-bill down whenever possible, with the heater on and such during the winter and whatnot. Speaking of overvolting, does that mean increasing the voltage of the GPU? It seems pretty obvious, but being a first time builder, I don't know much and would like some clarification. I do not feel comfortable increasing the voltage at all on my card, as I am new to this. Also, what do you mean by "In that case, it seems a bit counter-productive to overclock in the first place..." if I plan to play for 4-5 hrs?
My house does not consist of one room, btw, unless my GPU gets so hot that it generates enough heat to vent to the rest of my house. Although that will cost me even more money, and it seems quite dangerous for my GPU, so I'd rather not, but thanks. Oh, and my family of 6 and I use quite a bit of electricity already, and I'm taking a step towards fixing this issue, starting now.also why need a heater as the gpu if using that many watts will add that to the room and less from the heater. no added cost from the gpu imo
I thought overclocking without overvolting lets the GPU use the same amount of power while delivering better performance, and overvolting increased performance, but with added power consumption, I must have been mistaken, thanks for pointing that out.
So if 15% is the worst without overvolting, how bad will it hit me if I do overvolt. I'd like a best case scenario and a worst, because I'd like to know with what I will be dealing with.If you don't overvolt, the added power consumption is much smaller than if you do. However, nothing is free. That said, we're talking 15% more power consumption at worst so it shouldn't really affect you either way.
You missed the part about the cards being too slow by the time they use more than 2gb of memory. The class of cards 285, 380 gtx960 will be running slow fps when you choose settings over 2gb of memory anyway. You might in some games have to turn down a setting or two but most of the time the cards dont have the raw gpu power to utlize 3 or 4 gb of memory.
The 290 is way overpowered, uses way to much power and runs hot as the sun.
I recommend
1 - 290 if you get one within your price range
2 - 970 if you get one within your price range
3 - 380
4 - 960 4GB
Your i3 is fairly new, has pretty robust cores and performs very well against FX chips and even some i5 due to higher clocks. It will have no problem pushing beasts like the 290 / 970 at all.
Get this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150706
XFX DD 280 with 3GB of RAM - $150 after MIR. Should OC decently and comes with a lifetime warranty. Other option is used 7950 but they run $120-140 you might as well pony up and get a brand new card. Good 290's are so hard to come by and go quick. Normally you can find a power color...but its power color LOL.
I wish it was just Graphics Cards...
Actually, that price is in USD, and as Techhog and I mentioned before, I'm in Canada, and the price of that card (if it's even available in Canada) will be $290 without tax (and $330 CAD with tax) Thanks for the suggestion though!Get this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150706
XFX DD 280 with 3GB of RAM - $150 after MIR. Should OC decently and comes with a lifetime warranty. Other option is used 7950 but they run $120-140 you might as well pony up and get a brand new card. Good 290's are so hard to come by and go quick. Normally you can find a power color...but its power color LOL.
Actually more like everything in Canada! One Canadian dollar is $0.76 USD. It's madness.Very true. It seems like the cost of power supplies has gone through the roof! :'(
Keep an eye on the NCIX sales, some of the Club3D-branded Radeons are VERY well priced - usually the cheapest in Canada!
Actually more like everything in Canada! One Canadian dollar is $0.76 USD. It's madness.
I'm not too sure. It's the lowest it's ever been since 2004. It may be on purpose to get big name companies to move over here (kinda like how Burger King did) and "could lure U.S. tourists to Canada" as the financial post said, but it's not looking good so far, we appear to just be heading downhill. I do hope things change quite soon though, and for the better too.How did the CAD get so weak?