Which GPU should I go for?

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Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

Hey @all

a few days ago I sold my PS3. And I had some money left from the last month. In total I got a Budget of 250€ now. As I preordered a PS4 early this year which already is completely paid (I admit I couldn't resist after seeing all those Sony presentations) I decided to finally finish my tech upgrading for now and go to the last missing piece of cake. My PC's GPU.

My System:

500W LEPA 80+ Power Supply (might need replacement but from what I read it handles all 3 following cards)
Mainboard Asus M4A88T-V-EVO (upgraded with USB 3.0 PCI-Express Card)
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3,2 Mhz
8 GB DDR-3 RAM @1333 Mhz (some no name brand but ok)
AMD Radeon 5750 or something 1 GB GDDR-5 RAM (4 years old and clearly the system's bottleneck by now, which the Battlefield 4 Beta painfully revealed)
4 TB HDD Space
DVD-RW
BD-RW
Benq G2420HD 24" Screen connected via DVI
connected to my TV via HDMI also

So I started comparing. I'm aware that AMD recently revealed their Next Gen GPU'S Some new named R7 & R9 cards but I am only 3 days away from ordering and as long as you don't tell me that I'm a complete moron and should wait for this next gen I want one of the following three:

Possibility #1: http://www.gigabyte.de/products/product ... id=4154#ov ca. 199 €

I then checked my budget again and discovered I could get one step further:

Possibility #2: http://products.xfxforce.com/de/Graphic ... -795A-TDBC ca. 240€

#2 was my favorite but yesterday I discovered this:

Possibility #3: http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Gra ... 22534.html (sorry couldn't find something in english) 250€

#2 is still slightly in front as it is the fastest one of the three, but that HIS card's 4 GB GDDR-5 RAM sound yummy. And it would be only 10 bucks more expensive than the XDX (with clearly faster 3GB)

Memory size isn't all that's what the past told me. And the last one is an 7850 "only" so what would you recommend? Or is there any killer feature with the new R7/R9 generation that would make me regret my impatience?

Thanks in advance and if you got any more questions just ask.

Greetz!

Edit: I guess I'll go for Possibility #4 an ASUS ROG HD 7970: http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/MATRIXHD79703GD5/ 259€

What do you think?
Last edited by captaindusk on Wed Oct 09, 2013 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by cleverwise »

I would take the faster video memory over more. Games aren't using 3 or 4GB of RAM. Heck many games still rock on with 1GB. That's my advice.

For me I like the Asus video cards in the ROG (Republic of Gaming) series. However you should, obviously, buy what you feel comfortable with as you'll be using it. :-)
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

Thanks for your opinion. I also think that The ASUS ROG HD7970 looks good. Guess I'll stick with it unless someone else has another advice. Still a few days left before order placement has to be done.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by Flocke »

Hey captaindusk,
captaindusk wrote:Or is there any killer feature with the new R7/R9 generation that would make me regret my impatience?
Depends on the games you play. For Battlefield 4 you mentioned, you will want to have a card with GCN architecture - so a R7/R9 one I suppose.
Battlefield 4 is AMD's promotion game for the new Mantle API and so it will be highly optimized for it (by a patch later the year I read).
Also any other game featuring same Frostbite engine probably will benefit.
For all the other games however I'd not care too much on it. It will take time to get adapted and might not lead to the great success they are drawing right now at all.
Just found an interesting article on Mantle's so named "open-source" concept:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/mantle-wi ... or-opengl/
That is exactly what I expected - not that much open at all. :lol:
Specially AMD promoted games will feature it, the others not, just like Nvidia does with PhysX.

I am very happy with the HIS HD7790 I bought. Just 1GB ram and not as powerful as the ones you listed, but for me it has more power than I need and I'll be happy for a long while with it.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

Thx Flocke, interesting article. Do I understand correctly that mantle is AMD's equivalent to NVIDIA's physx engine? Or is it more comparable with DirectX?
Well, even my 5750 is enough to play Battlefield 4 but I guess the last 2 years I got used to High and Ultra level settings with games so I want the highest performance that is possible with my budget. Only Human,eh? :smile:
I read that some R9 (290x) or something if I'm not mistaken comes with 4GB GDDR-5 RAM and costs 499$ or something. Well that would blow up my budget by far. The prices for the "mid-class models" aren't revealed yet, are they?

I'm only concerned that the 7970 might be too big for my case (Triple slot card) and too power consuming for my PSU. Guess I'll have to take a look inside my case before ordering.

Thanks for your explanation.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

ugh, where to start...

perhaps with this great article:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/ra ... marks.html


tough decision. A lot of people are in the same boat atm (me 2). 280x or a sweet 7970 ROG? ;)

cleverwise wrote:I would take the faster video memory over more. Games aren't using 3 or 4GB of RAM. Heck many games still rock on with 1GB. That's my advice.
bad advice. At first, pretty much everything is GDDR5 right now. So I don't see a difference there.
And second, hf trying Crysis or Farcry, BF or whatever with 1GB on higher settings. Much fun with 5fps since not enough VRAM is available... You need at least 1.5 GB for BF3.

1GB won't ever be enough in the next couple of ̶y̶̶e̶̶a̶̶r̶̶s̶ months. So many games even use the full 1 GB right now. It is considered the absolute minimum.

Even 2GB isn't much to be a little bit future proof. Think about all the mods... heck, there are even games coming out which are going to use 50GB of hard drive space (and this isn't going to be used for Story-arcs for sure :lol:)! You won't get far with 1 or 2 GB vram... 3GB to be on the safe side. 2GB if you're on a tight budget. But with 250 bucks I'd definitely opt for 3GB.




The 7970 ROG is a great card. Thought about getting one myself. And now is definitely the right time to buy it. Considering the launching price of 500 bucks 2 years ago, there's not much to think about.

Your biggest problem is indeed the PSU. Recommended for this kind of card is a 550W PSU and they mean power saving intel systems with that.

This card has better transistors but is OCed as well and will draw up to 300W under load.

You've got a lot of stuff installed in your PC - DVD, BD, prolly 3 or even more HDDs, also lots of USB stuff. 500W won't be enough. I'd even be careful with 600W here and get a 750W to be really on the safe side and have a little room for future OC.

Another thing to consider:
̶Th̶̶e̶̶ ̶̶n̶̶e̶̶w̶̶ ̶̶g̶̶e̶̶n̶̶ ̶̶c̶̶a̶̶r̶̶d̶̶s̶̶ ̶̶h̶̶a̶̶v̶̶e̶̶ ̶̶d̶̶i̶̶f̶̶f̶̶e̶̶r̶̶e̶̶n̶̶t̶̶ ̶̶p̶̶o̶̶w̶̶e̶̶r̶̶ ̶̶p̶̶r̶̶o̶̶f̶̶i̶̶l̶̶e̶̶s̶̶ ̶̶a̶̶n̶̶d̶̶ ̶̶c̶̶o̶̶n̶̶s̶̶u̶̶m̶̶e̶̶ ̶̶l̶̶e̶̶s̶̶s̶̶ ̶̶p̶̶o̶̶w̶̶e̶̶r̶̶ ̶̶i̶̶n̶̶ ̶̶i̶̶d̶̶l̶̶e̶/̶2̶̶d̶̶ ̶̶m̶̶o̶̶d̶̶e̶̶.̶ And it's always good to save a little power here and there, isn't it? ;)

The 7970 is a really great deal right now. But AMD doesn't start a new label for nothing.

I remember as the 7000series started. Almost no driver updates for the 6000series anymore in terms of performance. They just care about their latest stuff. They always did. (Remember the 3000 series and what happened with the drivers there?)

^This I fear most.


But this just may be a subjective thing. The 7970 is a great card and should be enough for the next 2 years. Considering the fact that it's already out there for 2 years, one has to get a new card by that time anyway.

So why not buying one now? As long as they're available.


I'll wait for the 15th when the 290/290x will come out. If the 290 positions over the 780 and the 290x over the Titan, we could expect a price war. A lot will happen right before christmas with BF4 on the doorsteps.

I'm going to wait a bit. GPUs drop in price the most and the hype is really getting strong atm.

at the end you'll get a 280x for under 250 bucks, too. The ROG is sweet and shit but I'd rather go for a smaller 280x with future driver support.

captaindusk wrote:Do I understand correctly that mantle is AMD's equivalent to NVIDIA's physx engine? Or is it more comparable with DirectX?
More with DirectX as it's Mircrosoft's overhead to create compatibiliy between a lot of different manufacturers and brands of hardware. And this causes a couple of difficulties.

#1 is that programmers for console games have to re-write their shit for it completely, which eats up a lot of time and money.
#2 it eats up a lot of performance. And you need better hardware on PC to compensate where consoler game programmers can write their stuff more directly to the hardware, since it's all and the same. This is way more efficient. And this is why you can get the latest GTA running on eight year old consoles atm.

You really made a well decision, selling your PS3 imo.

edited: wrong info
Last edited by KrazeeXXL on Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

Thanks for the advice. To be honest I didn't think about the driver side but now that the decision is made I guess I gotta live with it. I ordered the ROG 7970 today for 259€. Should arrive at Tuesday or Wednesday. I thought the same way concerning the PSU. Mine doesn't even have the required 2x 8pin power connectors, although it costed nearly 60 bucks 2 years ago when I retired Metusathlon. Is there a PSU you'd recommend? Budget for that is max. 75€ as I still am not able to work atm...my health status decreased again but the card was long planned and I can afford it. I didn't want to sell the PS3 for nothing. And as mentioned the PS4 is paid already. I thought about buying it a long time. I did use the PS3 much less than my PC but a close friend and I went through all Playstation generations together and so I started saving money for it right after the reveal on Feb 20th 2013. Looking forward to both, card & console.

Do I have to worry much about the electricity bill with 750W?
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

captaindusk wrote:my health status decreased again
makes me sad to hear mate. :( I hope things'll get better again.


I don't know if there'll be any problems with drivers in the future. It's more a subjective thing, depending on experiences. And since AMD started a new line and with all the mantle stuff going on atm...

The 7970 is the top of the line card and there shouldn't be any problems. Who can tell what's going to happen in the next years anyways ;)

Good time to buy and you did nothing wrong there imo.


About the PSU.

I'd get this one here:



good price and partly modular. You should get at least a bronce one.

And just because it's a 750w PSU, doesn't mean that it draws 750W all the time out of the wall ;)

It just draws what it needs. Really important here is the efficiency. The 750W gold one from Corsair costs almost 50 bucks more. This may come cheaper in the long term (after 2-3 years). 750w bronce should be sufficient however.

just checked quickly on amazon. There may be better ones out there. Whatever you do, don't buy Thermaltake.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

I went for an OCZ 80+ PSU with 700w after seeing a PC Games Hardware Test Video where they used that PSU with the ROG Matrix HD 7970 Ghz Edition. I also bought a new case. And after 2 days of wiring and pulling plugs out and back in everything is finally up and running like a charm.


That card is friggin' impressive! Hope it'll be enough for at least 2 years. Thanks for all your advice folks. :smile:
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

glad you got it all working. just read that you can flash most 7970s to 280x ;)

according to some people this may help with OC, as you can use lower memory clock which would help with artifacts.

So, there actually seems to be no reason to buy a r280x. I'm going to look into this a bit more. r290x has been delayed. NDA should've been liftet yesterday. The new date is going to be October 25th.

Looking forward to this.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

A Flash option? That would be cool. Keep me informed about the new cards mate.

Impressions:

The Reason:


The case is now closed and the PC is under the table. All cables are connected. I took this shot during the first running test after the refit

I was very impressed that the card fitted inside the new case although it's not as high as my old one. The card is REALLY massive. I'm still impressed. Anyway there is slightly more space inside so the card fitted without problems. Temps are all ok and I'm very satisfied. Excuse my carpet but I hate vacuum cleaning :mrgreen: Have a great weekend everyone. :smile:
Last edited by captaindusk on Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

I just read that the 7970 ROG has a Safe Mode button which resets the BIOS to default frequencies and settings. Now that's a neat feature! And should come in very handy when flashing this card.

Your Rig looks really nice. I love that red/black style a lot.

What are you going to play now?

One game I recently started and which is really fun: Shadow Warrior. Don't know if you remember the original one from 1997. A really nice Shooter. It doesn't try too much and is kept simple but fun. :D

And the graphics look great. Although I have to disable a couple of options to run it smoothly. (esp. mirror effects which don't seem to be optimized all that well)
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by captaindusk »

As usual: A bit of everything I guess. Currently I'm into Metro - Last Light but stuck there. Lots of FIFA 14, NBA 2K14, Far Cry 3 and so on. I am really looking forward to Watch Dogs and hate that Ubisoft delayed it into Spring 2014. Preordered it with my PS4 but canceled again due to delay. Guess with the new card I'll go for the PC Version anyway. Really a pity. But I'm sure they'll use the time to polish it a bit. I liked a lot what I saw to this point about that game. Hacking nearly everything and saving people from various situations. Really like it.

I read various articles about Shadow Warrior but never played it myself. Probably gonna check it out.
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

yea, the concept of Watch Dogs looks really neat. Add a cool story to it, polish it and you may have true GOTY material here.

I'm not even mad about the delay. I'd rather have bugs fixed than playing another god forsaken beta.

#

I've played Dishonoured last week. It's a really cool and fun stealth game like Thief or Deus Ex. I managed a pacifist playthrough ;)

It was annoying sometimes but there's always more than one way to reach your goal. After sneaking, stun darts and strangling your opponents, Shadow Warrior is exactly what I needed right now. Blow stuff up, kill and slay monsters with nice special moves and shit in a nice gory style :D

You missed something with the original, tho. I often played it via LAN with my friends. Fun times.

What I love about the game: you don't just run through there. There are (often hard to find) secret areas, so it's actually worth looking a bit around. Which isn't bad as the graphics are pretty well imo.

I deactivated that mirror stuff and get a good 40-60 fps (vsync enabled) now. Unfortunately, the game doesn't work with RadeonPro or I'd set the fps border to 40 something.

Haven't tried Farcry 3 yet but hear good things about it. Sport games are something I liked to play on console in 2p mode. Get a couple of beers and steaks and have a cool evening with a friend. That's not really PC material for me tbh. But to each their own.

I played Bioshock Infinite a bit but not for long. I got a bit of a headache from all the God-Stuff in the beginning. The Mouse Sensitivity was kinda broken, too. Or just too different from Dishonoured. Took me quite some time to set it up but my hand still hurt, even after adjusting. Never had this in a game and I played a lot of FPS.

Ah well, back to Lo Wang. I like that shallow humor in the game. Voices are cool, too. They kept it completely in english while the GUI and subs are multilingual.

If you want to have some fun w/o thinking so much, I just can recommend it. It's been for too long since I played such an awesome old-school shooter.

well, now I babbled enough :lol:

hf with your new GPU pal! :D
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Re: Which GPU should I go for?

Post by Flocke »

KrazeeXXL wrote:I played Bioshock Infinite a bit but not for long. I got a bit of a headache from all the God-Stuff in the beginning. The Mouse Sensitivity was kinda broken, too. Or just too different from Dishonoured. Took me quite some time to set it up but my hand still hurt, even after adjusting. Never had this in a game and I played a lot of FPS.
Yes it hurts, it is meant to hurt, and it's getting even more sick. The story I mean.
Usually stories, specially with shooters are just flat. This is not and that's what I liked it for - though I hated this weird church-brainwashing just like you do, but at least these are the guys you're shooting at. All psychopaths. :lol:

Had no problem with mouse sensitivity. In fact I must say, not having played shooters for years, even hardest difficulty was quite easy, like it's reported in several game tests too. So sensitivity should not be a problem.
Give it another try and make it through when you have it already. To me it is the most freaked out story in games I remember having played. ;)
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