If you can earn a bit more than a GTX 780 by all means but if you're going to be stuck at a 400 dollar spending limit then a 4GB GTX 770 would be nice. For just 10 bucks more you should be able to get a superclocked version of that card.

You can find R9-290x's on ebay for around 320$, then pick up a H50 and a Kraken G10 and your good to go, all for about 400$. That's what I did.
 
Like so: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-AMD-R9-290X-4GB-GDDR5-Graphics-Card-/121356437074?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item1c41684652
 
 

What resolution are you playing at?

This should help you on your decision...
 

 

AMD ='s GARBAGE. DO NOT buy a used AMD card............soooo many of them were beat to hell mining............save the money up and get yourself a GTX 780. Polished and refined performance. Take this from someone who has owned countless AMD graphics cards over the years...........I have NEVER had more problems than I have with AMD. They are built cheaper, their have questionable driver and software support.

What I hate at Nvidia GPU, is their unbearable operation at X4 PCIE Speed, just impossible... Many test showed that, there are only 2fps of loss between X16 and X4. I have maximus V Formula with my 4th PC ,with X3 PCI-Express X8 X4 X4, so I can not run my X3 Titans here, but X3 290X sure ANY problem. All is said.
Also AMD has zero core, and Nvidia? 

I personally love my HD 7950, I got it for $250 brand new and it's performance sits between a 770 and 780 in 3d mark once overclocked. Talk about price/performance. 

cerisettex

ty_ger07
In the image above, that's only the case when SLI is being used (in a game for example). Idle on Windows desktop doesn't 'waste' energy with the extra cards. How often are you in a game idle at a menu screen? I don't know about you, but when I am playing a game, I don't sit there staring at the menu screen.

i think you dont really understood this image. I Will explain you : when I'm in dekstop or playing games with any multi-gpu support or badly optimized for multi-gpu only x1 of my R9 290X is working , all x3 are Off, really off (fans are not spinning, any power), Nvidia dont have it. My x3 Titans are working non stop. Its bad when Its hot in summer ;) When I'm looking internet Or playing old games or other I like to see only x1 of x3 R9 290x working :)

The TITANs use 10w idle. So, 10w are being used legitimately to power your 2d Windows desktop and 2 cards are wasting 20w (10w each). 20w... better turn off your night light because it is heating your house up in the summer. 20w is nothing; you could save more than 20w or heat energy by upgrading your power supply. Or turn off lights you aren't using to really bring down your home's temperature. Lol.

Actually, the two idle TITANs may actually use less than 10w since they aren't even hooked up to a monitor; but I can't find any power consumption numbers online for an idle TITAN not connected to a display. So I will use the worst case scenario. Multi-monitor, the TITAN uses 2w more idle, so with no monitor it might use 2w less or 8w each. But that is just conjecture and I will use the worst case scenario of 10w idle power consumption per card.

The 290x consumes 16w idle. So, the 3 TITANs are wasting 14w more than 3 290x video cards while idle (20w - 6w). 14w. That's less than a night light.

Lastly, I highly doubt that your idle 290x video cards are using no power. I would like to see someone prove that. Hook up a multimeter to the inductor outputs and show me a reading of 0 volts. Lol. Marketing. I am sure that they are still using some power even though they are 'off'; just not enough to need any active cooling (fan spinning).

So two idle TITANS use less energy than one idle and one 'off' 290x. Marketing on AMD's part it seems.

cerisettex

ty_ger07
So two idle TITANS use less energy than one idle and one 'off' 290x. Marketing on AMD's part it seems.

Normally R9 290X use between 2-8W idle when "off" :) I don't agree with you but its your opinion after all ^^

Do the math yourself. The reference TITAN uses 10w idle. The reference 290x uses 16w idle. You say an 'off' 290x uses 2-8w. It's easy math. In the end, does a tiny amount of watt usage either way have a noticeable impact on your home's temperature?

10w + 10w + 10w versus 16w + 6w + 6w

AMD's marketing picture is clearly purposely misleading because it pretends to assume that all cards use the same amount of power when idle.

cerisettex

ty_ger07

cerisettex

ty_ger07
So two idle TITANS use less energy than one idle and one 'off' 290x. Marketing on AMD's part it seems.

Normally R9 290X use between 2-8W idle when "off" :) I don't agree with you but its your opinion after all ^^

Do the math yourself. The reference TITAN uses 10w idle. The reference 290x uses 16w idle. You say an 'off' 290x uses 2-8w. It's easy math. In the end, does a tiny amount of watt usage either way have a noticeable impact on your home's temperature?

AMD's marketing picture is clearly purposely misleading because it pretends to assume that all cards use the same amount of power when idle.

yes of course there is noticeable impact on my home's temperature, because my graphics cards are OFF so they are really cold compare if they are working even in idle ^^ And yes I should by and air conditioning

So 28w versus 30w is a big difference? Does your flashlight heat up your house a lot?

Edit : I can feel my room's heat when all 4 cards are working. When they are off, my room still normal.

Sure, but your 290x cards use 16w each. The TITANs don't use that much.

Logic is lost on you.

ty_ger07

cerisettex

ty_ger07

cerisettex

ty_ger07
So two idle TITANS use less energy than one idle and one 'off' 290x. Marketing on AMD's part it seems.

Normally R9 290X use between 2-8W idle when "off" :) I don't agree with you but its your opinion after all ^^

Do the math yourself. The reference TITAN uses 10w idle. The reference 290x uses 16w idle. You say an 'off' 290x uses 2-8w. It's easy math. In the end, does a tiny amount of watt usage either way have a noticeable impact on your home's temperature?

AMD's marketing picture is clearly purposely misleading because it pretends to assume that all cards use the same amount of power when idle.

yes of course there is noticeable impact on my home's temperature, because my graphics cards are OFF so they are really cold compare if they are working even in idle ^^ And yes I should by and air conditioning

So 28w versus 30w is a big difference? Does your flashlight heat up your house a lot?

Edit : I can feel my room's heat when all 4 cards are working. When they are off, my room still normal.

Sure, but your 290x cards use 16w each. The TITANs don't use that much.

Logic is lost on you.

Lol no, I said before are you blind? 290X = 2-8W, where 8W is max
 
Edit : SOrry If I hurted you, Nvidia's Lover :) I have X3 Titan but still hate Nvidia :) :) :)

Right now the best bang for your buck is definitely a used R9 290X. I bought one, it was used for mining and it is still going strong.
 
I would love to get a GTX 780 or GTX 780Ti, but they are just too expensive... even the used ones.

BF3PRO
Wow did anyone notice the OPs name?

Get a 780 but be sure to get the transaction government approved first...

Yep, and that is why I said No Point I like my freedom just fine.

ty_ger07
Why did you post the same thing twice with one more insulting than the other?

I am a lover of no brands, but I want to show stupid marketing for what it is instead of being a sheep. AMD fooled you by pretending all cards consume the same amount of power idle. They also tried to make you believe that off meant zero power consumption.

I used three cards in my example because you said three TITANs. If you want to compare three TITANs to four 290xes, it will look bad for the 290xes.

Fine, we will pretend you owned four TITANs and 290x uses 5w when off.
TITAN: 10w + 10w + 10w + 10w
290x: 16w + 5w + 5w + 5w
40w versus 31w

Big difference? No. Less than a night light. Buy a higher efficiency power supply for your computer and make even less heat.

You keep saying that having all four 290xes on versus 3 off is a big difference. Yes, of course. 31w versus 64w. What does that have to do with 31w versus 40w?

As I said I count every watt to reduce my electricity bill. Every month I pay around 250€-380€ JUST for electricity bill. Yes my platinium/titanium PSU helps me a lot :). Cause 4 pc at home pulling thousands of watts make my bill very high ^^ especially with 0,272$/1kW :p. So 10w here, 10W there , 20W in another room make my eletricity's bill grow and grow. I don't live in America where electricity is cheap and only 115V with 15A. In France we have 230-250v with 16-30A and even 380V-500V 16A-40A if you want to have it with special subscription and special bill, it's 3 phases outlet