26 replies to this topic

[DarkBazerker]

I'm looking to upgrade my 7950, to something a bit more powerful. The problem is I am torn between two gpus. The 970 and the 390 are both within my price range ($350) but pros and cons seem to be equal on both sides.

Important things to note:
I stream, I mod, I use the same gpu for 3-4 years

My system:
mobo: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
cpu: i7 4790 @ 4.5ghz
gpu: reference 7950 @ 950mhz
psu: xfx pro 850w
ram: 8 gbs
hd: seagate 2tb mechanical drive

[Deathlike]

That's kind of up to you honestly, but I'm an NVidia guy (not really brand loyal though) and that Shadowplay is pretty good reason to go the NVidia route if you are a Streaming type of guy.

I suggest you do research on that though.

[Gumon Choji]

Hello friend. Do not get either. Get a 290x it is close to the 390x for almost $100 less. With that get a SSD to play MWO on. The two cards are almost identical.

If you do not find the old guys: Team green is lower heat. Team red is better at compiling. They are close in performance. If you want 3d in MWO green is the only supported one. Free sync or G sync in your monitor may matter free is a less expensive option. If you want 4k plan on buying a few of those or two of the top end cards.

[Goose]

Gumon Choji, on 17 August 2015 - 03:45 PM, said:

Hello friend. Do not get either. Get a 290x it is close to the 390x for almost $100 less.

This

Also: You're gon'a have to wait a few more years to meet the Three Tier Rule economically …

[Lord Letto]

I'd say go for one of the ones I have in this List: https://pcpartpicker...&sort=a8&page=1

Cheapest is a MSI GTX 980 for $469.60 (Plus a Free Mousepad and a Free Copy of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain): http://www.newegg.co...ID=3938566&SID=

if you must stick to your $350 Budget, then GTX 970 or R9 290X For Single, or X-Fire 7950 with a 7950/7970 or R9 280/280X

Edited by Lord Letto, 17 August 2015 - 08:32 PM.

[Dragoon20005]

I will strongly suggest posting what res you will be playing this game at

the 290X/390/X are build for 1440P and 4K gaming with the true 4GB to 8GB buffer vs the 970 3.5GB VRAM

also to note that the 512bit memory bus is way better when rendering high res pictures.

Crossfire is great for other games but not for this game

so if you play this game more often

then stick to a single powerful GPU

if you can sell off your HD7950

you might be able to afford the R9 390X or Fury

[Tarl Cabot]

Will he see any major MWO gameplay improvement by switching out the 7950?

I guess the question is what is prompting the GPU change?

[DarkBazerker]

For now I'm gaming at only 1080 or sometimes 1050. Crossfire is also not an option as I have tryed that for 2-3 years. I found that crossfire didn't work well with the games I was playing mostly indie games. As far as why I'm upgrading. My 7950 is getting long in the tooth and doesn't scale well as it used to. This card also does not have DX12 support, or Gsync/freesync.

The big thing for me right now is that 8gb of ram on the 390 because as it sits I'm already pulling almost a full 3gbs from my 7950 with modded skyrim. Now what I'm wondering about is if one can overclock the 970 enough to make up for that lack of ram. Idealy I would like a gpu with 6gbs but the only one that has that is the 980ti, which is way beyond my budget.

The only other thing working in the 970s favor is the power draw, which I really like.

These are the pros on cons I'm looking at.

[Goose]

DarkBazerker, on 18 August 2015 - 08:50 AM, said:

Now what I'm wondering about is if one can overclock the 970 enough to make up for that lack of ram.

That's a Fools' Errand: You ether have the RAM, or you don't …

[Oderint dum Metuant]

The 390 won't have enough horsepower to use that 8GB of RAM at a playable expierence but it's there should you grab a second down the line.

If 4GB is enough for the Fury at 4K ( and that in my opinion is very detable) then there isn't much of a conversation.
Any top end card from either side is more than sufficient for 1080P.

And for the record the 970 has 4GB. It can address 4GB.
Now I'd you want to talk about how it's segmented and utilised by all means go for it; I won't disagree with you.

It is however still one of the best cards on the market and more than enough for 1080P

Edited by DV McKenna, 18 August 2015 - 02:01 PM.

[Catamount]

The 970 is meh. I kind of wish Nvidia would update their lineup with a 960TI or a 970TI and try to put something more compelling in that price slot. For now the 290x is still slightly better performing, more reliably performing and cheaper. In complete fairness to Nvidia, the Rx 300 series sucks far worse for value as a 390x is a vastly worse deal than either card.

Keep in mind that a sufficiently modded Skyrim can tax just about any computer to its limit (though some of that might be because it's single-threaded), so that's taking a game way beyond what's intended. I agree with DV that 4GB isn't going to struggle at 1080p for gaming in general, at all.

Edited by Catamount, 18 August 2015 - 03:00 PM.

[Lord Letto]

Well what I'd recommend is Start Saving to increase your Budget for a GTX 980/980Ti and Endure your HD 7950 till then, or maybe try to sell the 7950 to add to the budget, not sure what used 7950s sell for, but if $350 Budget + $150 or more from your 7950= About Enough for a GTX 980.

[Lordred]

Push the 7950 into 1100mhz range, use it for another year while saving up some money.

[DarkBazerker]

Lordred, on 19 August 2015 - 11:13 PM, said:

Push the 7950 into 1100mhz range, use it for another year while saving up some money.

Sadly the max oc I could get with the reference cooler is 950mhz core clock and 1375 on the memory. I just can't push this card anymore without putting money in to better cooling, in which case I'd be better off buying a new card instead.

Lord Letto, on 18 August 2015 - 10:12 PM, said:

Well what I'd recommend is Start Saving to increase your Budget for a GTX 980/980Ti and Endure your HD 7950 till then, or maybe try to sell the 7950 to add to the budget, not sure what used 7950s sell for, but if $350 Budget + $150 or more from your 7950= About Enough for a GTX 980.

Money isn't the problem. If I wanted to, I could buy a 980ti. The problem is the 3-4 year upgrade cycle. $650+ for 4 years just sounds like to much of a wast to me. I did think about the 980 but seemed like if I where to buy it, I might as well go for the 980ti.

[Lordred]

DarkBazerker, on 20 August 2015 - 06:31 PM, said:

Money isn't the problem. If I wanted to, I could buy a 980ti. The problem is the 3-4 year upgrade cycle. $650+ for 4 years just sounds like to much of a wast to me. I did think about the 980 but seemed like if I where to buy it, I might as well go for the 980ti.

As a Titan X owner, always go as big as you can afford, it is most often times worth it.

Edited by Lordred, 20 August 2015 - 06:43 PM.

[Kaptayn Ameryka]

If it hasn't been said - get a 980 Ti. It will last you 3 or 4 years easily, and it's more than 30% more powerful than a 980. It's only right behind a Titan X, for less cost. I have one, paired with a 4790K and some 2400Mhz Mushkin ram, and it's aaaaamazing!!

[cx5]

WoW Sapphire's Fury Tri-X rocks !!! Thanks Goose for link, after reading that I went to tomshardware.com for more reading too .

AMD's HBM idea has great potentials and seems solidify their future positions in anyway they want to up the GPU capability.

Edited by cx5, 21 August 2015 - 01:15 AM.

[Flapdrol]

Yeah, those fury cards are priced similarly to 980's, looks pretty good.

At 1080p under dx11 it performs about equal (unless you have a slow cpu), but at high res or under dx12 the fury should be faster.

There are also a few good freesync screens now, about $100 cheaper than the gsync equivalent. Read reviews though, many freesync screens have annoying quirks. Personally I wouldn't buy any yet, as there are a few freesync/gsync models with VA panels in the works.

Edited by Flapdrol, 21 August 2015 - 02:55 AM.

[xWiredx]

If OP is playing at resolutions beyond 2560x1440, the Fury/Fury X may be worth looking at. If not, then 980/980Ti.

If it is simply between the 390X and 970, the 390X is faster so that shouldn't even be a question. A 290X will perform almost exactly the same, though.

The main rule with GPUs is if you're not upgrading every 2 years, get the best one you can afford. I'd recommend getting the 980Ti at this point if you can afford it.

[DarkBazerker]

xWiredx, on 21 August 2015 - 06:47 AM, said:

If OP is playing at resolutions beyond 2560x1440, the Fury/Fury X may be worth looking at. If not, then 980/980Ti.

If it is simply between the 390X and 970, the 390X is faster so that shouldn't even be a question. A 290X will perform almost exactly the same, though.

The main rule with GPUs is if you're not upgrading every 2 years, get the best one you can afford. I'd recommend getting the 980Ti at this point if you can afford it.

I game at 1080/1050, depending what game I'm playing. To be honest I was leaning towards the 390/390x (msi), more then I was the 970 (zotac). But I wanted to ask around cause I thought there has to be something I'm missing with the 970. After all I've been a ati/amd user for a long time, and I felt like I was being biased.

While I respect your opinion, I do not share it. Its not a matter of price but rather value for me. You see for $330(http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127874) I can get an extra 30-40 fps increase plus all the extra bells and whistles. If I were to add an extra $330 (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814500378) I could gain another 20-30 fps more then the 390. So the question I have to ask myself, is the extra performance worth the extra cost to me. For me personal its not, not for $660. I might have high standards but, for $650+ I expect a lot more performance. I gave Intel crap for the same thing when they release ivy bridge, when Ivy only had 10% performance boost over Sandy.

The other thing to remember is DX12 games are being developed. With Radeon having more to gain from DX12 then Nividia, Nividia needs to pick up there game or drop some prices.

7950vs390 http://gpuboss.com/g...-Radeon-HD-7950
390vs980ti http://gpuboss.com/g...372036823111234

Edited by DarkBazerker, 21 August 2015 - 11:01 AM.