Off-Topic Thread

marco_polo wrote: »

I didn't want say anything a few pages ago after you bought it, but now that you are shipping it back I think the Toxic R9 280X was a bit overpriced anyway, so getting to swap it out for the MSI is a small silver lining IMO .

Looking at it now, couldn't agree more! Here's hoping OCUK have no problem with the switch!

EoinHef wrote: »

Yeah its not an easy choice,if it were my money i would get the 280X and the Qnix. Most games will run just fine with the 280X at 1440p,i had 1 7950 with a decent overclock (1100/1500) for awhile before adding a second one and 90% of games got 60fps with ultra settings with AA turned down

I think it depends what your in to,if you like to play all the AAA titles at 60fps (Or above if you get an overclockable Qnix:pac:) Ultra settings and all the eye candy you are going to have to spend near the budget,but if your willing to turn a few settings down you could save a lot of money

You should definitely overclock the fx-6300,you will need a aftermarket cooler and a decent motherboard though and a suitable psu especially if your going to add a one of the cards above

I play a bit of everything, would play most AAA titles when they're on sale on steam, but for the most part it'd be not TOO demanding games. I'll go 280x in that case.
I have hyper 212 evo and a 600w PSU, so that should.be fine? My motherboard doesn't have the best reviews in terms of ocability, but from what ive read you can get a moderate oc. Gigabyte 970a ud3

marco_polo wrote: »

You should be able to get OC an FX-6300 on any semi decent AM3+ board. If the board supports a 125W TDP FX8320/8350 then theres no reason it shouldn't be able to power fairly decent OC on the 95W TDP FX-6300.

I'd be interested to see the poor OCing reviews, as that board has an 8+2 phase power design (not sure if this was there from the get go or added to later revisions) so from an OCing point of view is is practically a 990 board (minus the additional PCIe lanes), and so in theory should comfortably handle very high overclocks of even the FX8320/8350 CPUs no problem.

Alright, have a decent oc guide?

marco_polo wrote: »

OC.net is usually a good place to check out for such things, youtube vids can be decent as well although I don't have a specific reccomendation.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1140459/bulldozer-overclocking-guide-performance-scaling-charts-max-ocs-ln2-results-coming

http://www.overclock.net/t/1140459/bulldozer-overclocking-guide-performance-scaling-charts-max-ocs-ln2-results-coming

Alright, thanks, will look at them after school.

Seaaan wrote: »

I play a bit of everything, would play most AAA titles when they're on sale on steam, but for the most part it'd be not TOO demanding games. I'll go 280x in that case.
I have hyper 212 evo and a 600w PSU, so that should.be fine? My motherboard doesn't have the best reviews in terms of ocability, but from what ive read you can get a moderate oc. Gigabyte 970a ud3

Imo the r9 290 and 780 are one card solutions to 1440p, you should be able to have most of the bells and whistles on at 1440p with either. So if you want a card you dont want to be messing around with settings, either should be suitable

While the 280X is not going to max every game, a few settings like AA being turned down,a mix of medium or high settings have a big affect on framerate in the more demanding games. So if your willing to turn a bit of stuff down and use custom graphical settings the 280X should be fine. And its also cheaper than the 770 which would be its closet competition at that price point, and with more VRAM should perform better than 770 at 1440p. Imo the 280X represents the best value for money

TL; DR
You want max settings and AA etc = r9 290 or 780

You would be happy to turn settings down and AA down/off for the demanding games(And save some money)= r9 280X

Seaaan wrote: »

Right so. Doubt I'd justify spending 400 anyway AA isn't needed as much at 1440 is it?

A lot of people say that (probably said it myself) but unless your eyesight is terrible there's no way you won't notice the jaggies at 1440p when AA is turned off. Especially when you move/turn and the jaggies crawl around like crazy. Usually you can run some low-cost AA like FXAA that smooths it out a bit without much FPS impact.

So a 280x wouldn't be the best option

EoinHef wrote: »

I would say its the budget concious option if you dont want to spend all the €750

Take a look at this

Its a 780ti review but has benchmarks for all the cards your thinking about so you can get an idea of the difference between the cards

Took longer than I'd like to admit to find the little bar at the end. So we're looking at 40-45fps maxed out with a 280x. That seems pretty good for the price point. So I'd actually get pretty high frame rates in less demanding games/lower quality.

Why is there an * beside 280x?

EoinHef wrote: »

Them little bars are sneaky alright:)

Not sure why the * is there but most sites give similar benchmark results,this one for example. It has Battlefield 4 on it aswell if that would interest you.

EDIT: Do be aware though that some of these benchmarks already have some settings turned down. The BF4 one for instance,the AA is already halved at 2xMSAA,everything else is ultra

Don't mind too much, still near maxed out with nice frame rates. Going to get the 280x.

In regards to the monitor, which 1 am I to get? Ive done a bit of research on them but would like first hand experience! Just how nice are they over 1080? (I'm already convinced though)

marco_polo wrote: »

Now I think I should have kept quiet a it longer. In fairness to the Toxic it does go toe to toe with stock a GTX 770 so its still an excellent card. No doubt you'd have gotten a bit more value for money with a DIY OC of another R9 280x but even if they don't switch its certainly not the end of the world, you'll still have something that will serve your gaming need just great for the next few years.

A friend earlier suggested a 770, and to be honest it's looking like the best option!

marco_polo wrote: »

I was looking at the 770 prices earlier and would have picked the msi out. Its close between that and the R9 280x the relative pricing looks about right to me.

Sweet, I liked the MSI purely on how it looked

I requested a full refund and will wait till that comes through to order again!

Thanks again for all the help so far!

One last question, would I be better off saving another 2 or so hundred for a 780?

Excellent, okay I promise last question!

Which one would you sink the cash into?

http://www.dabs.ie/products/evga-geforce-gtx-770-1202mhz-4gb-pci-express-3-0-x16-hdmi-classified-w--acx-cooler-8W9J.html?q=gtx%20770&src=16


orrrr

http://www.dabs.ie/products/msi-geforce-gtx-770-1150mhz-4gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-tf-oc-8Y98.html?refs=4294945034-492960000&src=3