12 replies to this topic

[FlipOver]

Hi all,

I was just offered a new "in the box" Radeon R7 265 DirectCU II 2GB GDDR5.

It's not a bad GPU considering I had none on my current computer:
i5 4670 3.4GHz
16 GB DDR3 1.8MHz
SSD 120GB - corrected 240GB

This little thing was giving between 18-35 FPS with low settings just by using the intel HD Graphics 4600.

Now that I placed the R7 265, let's be honest, it's a mid end GPU but I managed to place almost everything on High settings (Particles Medium and no POSTAA) and still be well above the 50 FPS mark (usually between 80-90).

I play this game in windowed mode as a personal preference, and due to that I only play it at 1280x860 (or something like that - since I'm not home I can't say for sure).

But at the end of the day, I managed to see this game with almost all its graphics flavor and I was surprised a small GPU like this (compared to GTX960 and others like that) would make such a difference.

Without this information, I was still waiting for the best time to buy a GTX 970 but it seems I won't need to in the near future.

I'd like to ask the hardware gurus here how is this possible?

How can a 2GB DDR5 GPU make such a difference in this game?

Also, in what kind of scenario I would be better off with a GTX 970 or even an R9 something?

Edit - Correction on the Harddrive size and the kind of GPU thanks to all the people who replied and corrected me about the R7 265.

Edited by FlipOver, 15 June 2015 - 01:13 AM.

[800]

First of all R7 265 isn't a low end card, it's a solid mid-end card which can drag pretty much any latest game on medium, while for older games being able to output high/very high/ultra graphics quality presets.

MWO is generally a CPU bound game which isn't picky about GPUs, to be honest its entirely playable at solid settings with cards like R7 250 or GT 730 (GDDR5) if you have decent enough CPU. Most people don't understand just how essential is a vid card in gaming and often save on them or acquire none at all so upgrading from integrated to R7 265 applied a collossal boost to your gaming experience, while at the same time pulling off some weight from your CPU.

Your low resolution settings also help a lot to reduce load on your GPU,which allows you to crank up your graphics settings.

As for GTX 970 well it's only really necessary if you wanna play latest games on ultra or have secure future to be able to handle next gen games, though I'd advice you against buying it since true powerhouses (AMD Fury) are on their way and by the time your R7 265 will turn too wimpy you can easily purchase one of those.


In short: R7 265 is a damn great card, aint need to overexpend to be a gamer, GTX 970 is just for the bragging rights, I am using passively cooled (with heatsinks, just like in MWO) GTX 750 Ti, game is fully playable, however my wimpy,lamentable piece of **** also known by the name of i3-2100 drags me down,so in CW I sometimes drop below 30 fps.

P.S: Hows it going in China?

Edited by 800, 12 June 2015 - 02:27 AM.

[Flapdrol]

FlipOver, on 12 June 2015 - 01:03 AM, said:

I play this game in windowed mode as a personal preference, and due to that I only play it at 1280x860 (or something like that - since I'm not home I can't say for sure).

Well, that's how.

[FlipOver]

800, on 12 June 2015 - 02:24 AM, said:

P.S: Hows it going in China?

Thanks 800!
I will only go to China on the second and third weeks of the next month, but I will make sure to get the best out of it
About the topic, I do believe I set my goal a bit too high for the current reality of gaming.
Hence why I thought this GPU was mid to low end... Glad you made me understand what I was seeing wrong.

And yes, I will probably use this GPU while it serve me, the low res on the game helps a lot but I may probably bump it up to 1600x900 windowed and see if I can still watch tv at the same time on my desktop
Then I'll see how the game behaves but to be honest I was damn surprised about the boost I got.

The reason why I didn't buy a GPU when I assembled the computer last year was me being too hung up on the idea of getting a GTX970 and they were pricey. So I "forced" my CPU to handle everything but now that I have a dedicated GPU, man... this rocks!

[800]

FlipOver, on 12 June 2015 - 02:32 AM, said:

The reason why I didn't buy a GPU when I assembled the computer last year was me being too hung up on the idea of getting a GTX970 and they were pricey. So I "forced" my CPU to handle everything but now that I have a dedicated GPU, man... this rocks!

You suffered entire year barely handing MWO without a dedicated GPU card? holy ****.. man.. what did you smoke? Any and I repeat ANY gamer, including even filthy casuals must use a GPU otherwise their gaming experience basically goes to waste, even high end integrated v-cards such as one in AMD A10-7850K or Intel HD 4600 are only useful for HTPC and barely drags even relatively old titles. When making build you could've saved picking a cheaper case, cheaper i5 (since yours isnt OCed anyway), cheaper mobo, since you can't OC your CPU anyway and 8GB RAM instead of 16, since 16 is pretty much useless unless you're video editor or smth. You should've invested that saved cash into a decent GPU, while what you got now is tiny 120GB SSD without any HDD to back it up,mid end card and most likely cheap PSU which is more crucial than you imagine.

[FlipOver]

Oh but I do have a backup 1TB HDD and now that I think of it I have a 250GB SSD.
My choince on the hardware was made thinking about the future, the mobo is a sabertooth z97 mk2 which can handle most i7 in case I need to upgrade.
But to be honest, I have been playing over 15 FPS which, in my experience is good because I used to play this on a dual-core with a 1GB DDR3 GPU and only 3GB 600MHz Ram... And I played this for almost a year and a half with that computer.
Most matches were played between 7 and 12FPS, seeing 15 was like walking on clouds
I may find some screenies of that time... let me check:

After a while I got motion sickness for playing a kind of stop-motion kind of game so I stopped and got my hands on some cash to upgrade.
(Have to say, playing light mechs with such low fps count is funny if you don't want or expect to do anything particularly useful in the match)

So you see, playing MWO just with the Intel 4600 was a big jump for me, as it is now just by adding the R7 265. I may even get another and SLI both is need be in a year or so (in case other good GPUs aren't cheap enough for me).

[Lord Letto]

Looking Here: http://www.tomshardw...iew,3107-7.html
The R7 265 is on Par with the Radeon HD 7850 & The 6970 (What I have) and does fine for me. I'd call it a Mid-High End Card. on the Nvidia side, it's on par with the GTX 295, 480, 570 & 660

Edited by Lord Letto, 12 June 2015 - 10:12 AM.

[FlipOver]

Lord Letto, on 12 June 2015 - 10:10 AM, said:

Looking Here: http://www.tomshardw...iew,3107-7.html
The R7 265 is on Par with the Radeon HD 7850 & The 6970 (What I have) and does fine for me. I'd call it a Mid-High End Card. on the Nvidia side, it's on par with the GTX 295, 480, 570 & 660

Excellent link, thank you!
Great info there.
I will change the title so people won't be dragged into this topic with the wrong info.

Again, thank you!

[Goose]

I'll just leave this, here …

[Gen0]

FlipOver, on 12 June 2015 - 01:03 AM, said:

I only play it at 1280x860 (or something like that - since I'm not home I can't say for sure).

At that resolution I can completely understand why you were able to play with integrated graphics, but seriously this should be your next upgrade, not a 970. A 970 would be very wasted on a screen at that res anyway because it's simply too small to stress a larger, more powerful GPU.

I'd say that the R7 you have will give you higher framerates on your screen than a 970 will give you at 1440p, but then again, your system probably is CPU limited as it is.

Edited by Gen0, 15 June 2015 - 04:23 PM.

[FlipOver]

Actually my screens res is 1920x1080.
I play MW:O in windowed mode with a lower res so I can use the desktops free space to have other things going at the same time.

Either way I don't see myself playing MW:O at full-screen anytime soon unless I get a second screen

[Oderint dum Metuant]

If you have the budget to go to a 970, AMD's new R9 390 is in your range as well.

[chewie]

im running a GTX 960 with a stock i5 4690K

At 1920 x 1080, on a 40" samsung 400mx3 monitor, with everything on its highest and FXAA antialiasing, but no v-sync, im getting 90+ Fps on all maps.


Just thought I'd add that in there.