Solved Buying a graphics card - R9280 or R9 280X? Help me decide, please.

[Mellon Head]

First, let me start off by saying that I'm not the biggest gamer in the world...

I currently have an XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB and it's just not up to the task anymore. I don't play a lot of games, but I do play the odd one and I would like to take advantage of my monitor's resolution when I do. I also do a lot of 3D CAD work and rendering, so speed there is important too.

I'm looking at an AMD R9 series card, and I've narrowed it down to the 280 and the 280X. The 280X is about $60 more expensive than the 280, but I'm wondering if it's really worth it to go for the 280X. I'm not sure that I'll need all of that power for modest gaming and rendering. On the other hand, it's only 60 bucks.

Opinions? Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[blackroseMD1]

If the extra $60 isn't an issue, I'd go with the 280X.

What games do you play when you game? If it's stuff that's not too demanding, then you'd be just fine with the 280. If it's stuff like FarCry 4, Assassin's Creed Unity or Dying Light, then you should get the 280X.

 

[Mellon Head]

I play things like Bioshock Infinite, GTA 4, DIRT Showdown. Nothing extremely graphics intensive. That's not to say that I wouldn't like to play more graphically intensive games if I could.

The $60 is nothing really, but I'm concerned about power, as well. Most of the 280X cards that I've been looking at specify a minimum 750 Watt PSU, which I have. But I also have an FX-8350 (which is power hungry), four drives and a water cooling system and eight case fans. I'm concerned that I may not have enough power left to run a 280X, whereas the 280 would hum along just fine on a 500 Watt supply. I'd have plenty of headroom.

I dunno. The 280X seems like a no brainer at this point, but the power requirements are giving me second thoughts.

 

[Mellon Head]

I picked up a R9 280 because I found one $100 cheaper than the 280X I was looking at. We'll see if it pans out.

XFX Radeon R9 Black DD 280 3GB 5.2GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card R9-280A-TDBD - R9-280A-TDBD