Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

HELP SELECT A GRAPHIC CARD FOR MY SYSTEM

Jan 29, 2015 1:58PM PST

I plan to purchase a graphic card to play latest games including COD AW. I've selected R9 270X cards (available in India and within my budget) and 4 GB to make it future proof at least for some time and also to keep the option of adding another card in a crossfire setup later. Help me make the right choice.

1. MSI R9 270X GAMING 4G 4 GB at Rs.17250
2. Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon R9 270X with Boost OC 4 GB DDR5 at Rs.16898
3. Sapphire AMD/ATI Dual-X R9 270X 4GB at Rs.15794

My system specs:
CPU: i3 3225
Motherboard: Biostar TZ77XE3
PSU: Seasonic Bronze 850W
Memory: GSKILL 12 GB 1600 MHZ hyperthreaded
HDD: Two 1TB and one 500GB
Monitor: Acer 23" LED
Cabinet: Lancool PC-K57

Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
1. ALL of those
Jan 30, 2015 12:08AM PST

Are not future proof. Don't fool yourself as this card is already being over run by games today.

Since all benchmark about the same I'd just pick the cheapest and accept that I'm chasing the wave.
Bob

- Collapse -
HELP SELECT A GRAPHIC CARD FOR MY SYSTEM
Jan 30, 2015 3:00AM PST

Thanks for your response.

I know 270X by itself isn't future proof. I was thinking of adding another card in crossfire later. OR Would you suggest a better card near my budget. Also, my main worry is whether the i3 would be a bottleneck.

- Collapse -
About the bottleneck.
Jan 30, 2015 4:00AM PST

Tom's wrote this before:
"Our tests demonstrate fairly little difference between a $225 LGA 1155 Core i5-2500K and a $1000 LGA 2011 Core i7-3960X, even when three-way graphics card configurations are involved. It turns out that memory bandwidth and PCIe throughput don't hold back the performance of existing Sandy Bridge-based machines. "
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-4.html

But some games demand more CPU so we are again chasing the wave. You started with a less than current gamer setup and would be chasing that wave for ever. I'd get what you noted, make sure your memory sticks are in PAIRS so to avoid a well discussed issue and wait till you see then next round of cards.
Bob

- Collapse -
Answer
Reviews
Jan 30, 2015 3:34AM PST

Read the user reviews on those cards.
I would not expect much of a perf diff between those cards.
Unless the reviews show one of those cards to be a 'stinker' get the cheapest one.

- Collapse -
Answer
Ram
Jan 30, 2015 3:54AM PST

You might want to do some reading about dual channel.
Then review your ram setup.

- Collapse -
HELP SELECT A GRAPHIC CARD FOR MY SYSTEM
Jan 30, 2015 4:42PM PST

Thanks for your response.

Yes the GSKILL Ripjaws X memory cards are dual channel pairs ... 2 x 2GB (slot 2 & 4) < 2 years ago and 2 x 4GB (slot 1 & 3) < 6 mths. System performance confirms that Hyperthreading is working ok.