Help me decide between two gfx cards...

D.B.Cooper said:
My CPU is a (don't laugh!) Phenom II 965, and 8 gigs RAM. Oh, and two old-ish 512 gig Seagate hd's. Mobo is an Asus M5A97 EVO.

Edit: Thing is, my budget is already a bit stretched on those two gfx cards I mentioned in the op. It's just that those specials seems too good to pass up. Getting a new (decent) PSU on top of a new gfx card is a bit out of my range.
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Hey! I have a Phenom II 955. Will only upgrade when Zen comes along :)
 
Pitbull said:
My advice:
Get the best card you can afford as that is going to be the bulk of your upgrade. Then after that start exchanging the cheaper things like the Mobo, CPU, RAM and the likes. If your current setup can run a good card get one, then start replacing the parts bit by bit.
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Mobo and CPU and RAM will all have to be upgraded together. No use getting a DDR3 platform now. ZEN and AM4 isn't too long away :love:
 
Chevron said:
Mobo and CPU and RAM will all have to be upgraded together. No use getting a DDR3 platform now. ZEN and AM4 isn't too long away :love:
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Yea I know but I mean he can buy that bit by bit and still have a running PC before he activates the new build.
 
Chevron said:
Mobo and CPU and RAM will all have to be upgraded together. No use getting a DDR3 platform now. ZEN and AM4 isn't too long away :love:
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My mobo is DDR3, so's the RAM (Corsair XMS3)... unless you mean something else?
 
D.B.Cooper said:
My mobo is DDR3, so's the RAM (Corsair XMS3)... unless you mean something else?
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I was replying to pit bull when he said you should upgrade bit by bit now.

You're fine. Get the 380 now and save for mobo, cpu and ram when Zen arrives.
 
Just check the amp ratings on the 12v rails of the psu, that should at least show you how much watts is actually available for the GPU.
All PSU's have stickers with the specs, if you can provide that, should make things easier.
 
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Before you buy, go check the minimum/recommended requirements for the Oculus Rift , that should maybe give you an indication of what to do. It is probably the main reason people would upgrade their GPUs in the next year as the requirements are quite high. I believe it is R9 290. Even if you dont plan to get some VR Goggles now, i still think if you are going to spend R3k on a GPU, you might as well try and cover the possibility of VR next year.

Recommended Spec
https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/t...pc-sdk-0-6-released-and-mobile-vr-jam-voting/
For the full Rift experience, we recommend the following system:

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
2x USB 3.0 ports
Windows 7 SP1 or newer
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So probably will still be able to struggle along with a lower GPU, but why shoot too low if you are in the market now?
 
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HideInLight said:
Just check the amp ratings on the 12v rails of the psu, that should at least show you how much watts is actually available for the GPU.
All PSU's have stickers with the specs, if you can provide that, should make things easier.
Click to expand...

You can see the specs here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2793#sp

diabolus said:
Before you buy, go check the minimum/recommended requirements for the Oculus Rift , that should maybe give you an indication of what to do. It is probably the main reason people would upgrade their GPUs in the next year as the requirements are quite high. I believe it is R9 290. Even if you dont plan to get some VR Goggles now, i still think if you are going to spend R3k on a GPU, you might as well try and cover the possibility of VR next year.

Recommended Spec
https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/t...pc-sdk-0-6-released-and-mobile-vr-jam-voting/


So probably will still be able to struggle along with a lower GPU, but why shoot too low if you are in the market now?
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I have no interest in VR and I'm upgrading because I'm running a well-past-its-prime HD 6850 :)
 
Get the R9380, its 4gb and has 256bit for gaming, also you dont need a big psu, the min is 500w for this and 700w for the R9280x
 
Well, in the end I went for the 380. Seemed like the best choice based on suggestions and my current hardware. Thanks for all the help guys :)
 
I can't help to wonder how the 380 will run on a A10 apu with a good MB and 16GB gaming ram.
 
I have a Coolermaster 600W Silent Pro M that is easily 5+ years old now (used it back in the day with the legendary 512bit GTX280). I still have my faithful 600W and it purrs with the R9 390x, Also running 2 X HDD 1 X SSD, Xonar Xense, i7 2600k, all my peripherals (gaming 7.1 headset, racing steering wheel) etc ... never misses a beat!
 
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