Advice on new card, more i read the more i get confused

[chris285]

I am almost at the point where I am ready to buy a new graphics card for my rig, however the more I read the more I find myself unsure on what I should be looking at buying.

Currently I only have a 1080 resolution single monitor on which I game, I play a variety but more recently titles struggle on my 650 ti boost some because of the limited 2gb of ram but also having to turn things down in games for example star citizen being one and GTA5 the textures are limited by ram.

I would like to be able to play games at near maximum detail at the above resolution, and still be able to play up coming games in the next 2/3 years also at high detail level. I had been leaning towards a 970 as my solution, however I would also like the option to push to a higher resolution(hopefully 4k) in the future and I have read about issues with memory on the card in an SLI setup which makes me doubt my thinking. Ideally i'd go 980TI but I can't really justify the £500+ price tag hence looking at something I can use for now and expand on in the future.

My current rig is a i7 3930k, with 32gb of ram with an SSD for the OS so the rest of my rig is good but the graphics card has been letting it down for a while and is time to resolve this.

Thanks for reading

 

[riversend]

First, welcome to the forums.

Second, what is your budget? Obviously buying in the UK.

 

[happy medium]

Currently I only have a 1080 resolution single monitor on which I game

If your gonna use 1080p for a year or so, grab a gtx970. New cards will be out by then and you'll have more choices. A gtx980 or 390 class card will not push 4k now or next year, so no use in spending the extra cash now for nothing.

You don't want to sli or crossfire anyway. By the time you need a second card there will be single cards out that are much faster

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: If you can't justify the price tag of a 980TI, you should not think of going to 4k.

 

[LTC8K6]

Do you want to stay with Nvidia?

Because an R9-390 would seem to be ideal for you. They have 8gb of ram and should be good in Xfire in the future if you decide to add a second one later.

The earlier, R9-290 version is a steal right now, although it only has 4gb of VRam.

Otherwise, a GTX970 seems to be the best Nv option for you.

 

[happy medium]

Because an R9-390 would seem to be ideal for you. They have 8gb of ram and should be good in Xfire in the future if you decide to add a second one later.

When it comes time for a second card, there will be new cards for 300$ that will best 2 390's. I don't recommend x-fire or sli now or in the future. Single cards are the best options.

 

[AtenRa]

When it comes time for a second card, there will be new cards for 300$ that will best 2 390's. I don't recommend x-fire or sli now or in the future. Single cards are the best options.

Dont expect this to be coming in 2016.

For Star Citizen i would go for the R9 390.

 

[happy medium]

Dont expect this to be coming in 2016.

You don't think that there will be a single card that will = a gtx980ti for ~300$ next year?
I expect 85% more performance from gtx1080ti or whatever they call it, at least, with a node shrink and HBM 2.

Still I never recommend sli/crossfire, I tried it, didn't like it and don't recommend it,yet.

really we need to see the prices for the cards where he lives and what power supply he has.

 

[AtenRa]

You don't think that there will be a single card that will = a gtx980ti for ~300$ next year?
I expect 85% more performance from gtx1080ti or whatever they call it, at least, with a node shrink and HBM 2.

Still I never recommend sli/crossfire, I tried it, didn't like it and don't recommend it,yet.

really we need to see the prices for the cards where he lives and what power supply he has.

First of all GTX980Ti is not 2x 390 and secondly NO I dont expect a $300 card at that performance(GTX980Ti) next year.

 

[happy medium]

I think this guy says it best....

"I do not like SLI/Crossfire simply because of the headaches that will occur from time to time. You would think by now that every developer would plan for SLI and Crossfire from day 1, but many still do not. DirectX 12 in Windows 10 should resolve these problems though. But that is assuming that DirectX 12 works as intended. And we have to wait for the release to be sure.

One other thing to consider. The new GPU's coming out next year will blow away the best cards of today. Hands down. Both AMD and Nvidia have been waiting for a smaller node to create GPU's on for nearly 4 years now. I believe they both have some real monsters ready to be unleashed. "

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2730077/390-crossfire-gtx-980.html

 

[xorbe]

Even the unloved 960 (find a 4gb for $199) will be a big step forward from that 650 Ti, but a 970 will give you a lot more bang and longevity. I don't think you're going to find a card today that's going to push a 4K game 2-3 years from now. Save your bucks, and buy a new $350 card 2 years from now, instead of $650 now.

 

[sm625]

Whatever you do, dont waste money on 8GB of RAM. You will not use that much RAM if you stay at 1080p. Dont try gaming beyond 1080p unless you are ready to drop $1000 (between the display and the card, this is a minimum unavoidable price floor). By next summer the floor might be $750. By spring of 2017 the floor will hopefully be $500.

 

[AtenRa]

I think this guy says it best....

"I do not like SLI/Crossfire simply because of the headaches that will occur from time to time. You would think by now that every developer would plan for SLI and Crossfire from day 1, but many still do not. DirectX 12 in Windows 10 should resolve these problems though. But that is assuming that DirectX 12 works as intended. And we have to wait for the release to be sure.

One other thing to consider. The new GPU's coming out next year will blow away the best cards of today. Hands down. Both AMD and Nvidia have been waiting for a smaller node to create GPU's on for nearly 4 years now. I believe they both have some real monsters ready to be unleashed. "

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2730077/390-crossfire-gtx-980.html

1. I havent recomended CF or SLI, i was commending about that performance at $300

2. There is no doubt that next gen will blow away 28nm cards, the problem is that im expecting a 2012 repeat with middle size die GPUs to release first at $700+ that will only be 30% faster than last gen flagships.
If you want to see what the landscape will be next year, go back in early 2012 but this time flagships are at $750 and not $500. So you understand that a 16nm card with GTX980Ti performance at $300 next year is only a dream.

 

[Kenmitch]

You don't think that there will be a single card that will = a gtx980ti for ~300$ next year?
I expect 85% more performance from gtx1080ti or whatever they call it, at least, with a node shrink and HBM 2.

Still I never recommend sli/crossfire, I tried it, didn't like it and don't recommend it,yet.

really we need to see the prices for the cards where he lives and what power supply he has.

Highly unlikely we'll be getting 980ti performance out of a $300 card next year. Could see it in the $450 or so price point....Node will be milked for all its worth most likely. Declining dGPU sales work against us consumers. Full out price war would be nice.

 

[chris285]

Thanks for the welcome guys, I've been using the site for hardware news for years and as i'm still trying to decide in my head what to do I thought it was time to join to community for advice.

As for budget.....I could drop the money on a 980ti(i really want the new corsair/msi joint venture), but like has been said i'd have to drop £300 on a display as well so pushes things well past what I can really afford. Ideally i want to be spending as little as possible obviously, but i'd say a max of £250-300 would be where I would like to be

Last few cards have been nvidia based but I have no real affiliation with either brand, i'd heard issues with AMD software but not sure if this was true and sure the issues have been resolved.

Games I have that I can think of maxing out would be GTA5, Start Citizen, Project Cars, Elite and possibly the new star wars battlefront game so i'd say a good range. Like i say i'd like to be able to run those sort at full detail levels and at good framerates, if a lower card than the 970 for example both in price and performance even better

 

[Headfoot]

bottom line is that 4k requires at the very minimum a 980 Ti or Fiji + FreeSync for it to not suck. To really do 4k right takes 2 Fiji or 2 Aftermarket 980 Ti.

Much more reasonable to stay at a lower res and you wont need as much GPU grunt to power it to an acceptable level. Total cost comes down for both monitor and GPU if you stay below 4k. Next generation will be the first 4k generation that is within reach of the upper-midrange. 4k in this generation is highest end only

As to the "AMD software issues." It depends on what you're talking about. But the old ATI driver issues from 06-07 are non existent now. The drivers from AMD and nVidia are both quite good. The only one that sucks still are the Intel drivers

 

[Paul98]

I would suggest looking at the cheapest after market R9 290 you can find. It's an amazing card for the price, and we should be getting large upgrades next year. Spending more money now just doesn't seem like a good idea. If you want to upgrade next year you can sell your 290 and should be able to get a good bit back for it.

 

[Vampirrella]

I am also kind of stuck wondering if i should buy a 970 / 980 / r9 390(x) or wait and hold out till the next refresh of cards next year? i am still using my old gtx670 ftw edition and its been a really fantastic card since i got it in 2012. It still plays many games on high settings just fine.

But im concerned for upcoming games like fallout 4 / starwars battlefront etc, that its gonna choke.

Newegg has a sale right now for a evga gtx970 for $289 after MIR. It has only 4GB vram. Does this really matter for me if i only plan on staying with 1080p? I am tempted to look at the R9 390(x) etc but ive not used ATI/amd cards since 2002.

I am not opposed to spending $450+ for a gtx980 if this means i could potentially skip over the next refresh and be good for 2 more years? (doubtful?)

ARG! I feel right now if like the worst time ever to be in the market for a video card cos we either are stuck with buying into 2yr old tech or waiting till next year for the new stuff!

Ideas? help!

 

[chris285]

Well the 290 seems to be a little tricky to get hold of, and the 970 can be had for a little more than what I have see the prices of the 290 at

I don't think the 970 would choke at those games myself from what I have seen, i keep coming back to that card right now as it is readily available and can be had for £250 upwards for me

 

[tential]

I think this guy says it best....

"I do not like SLI/Crossfire simply because of the headaches that will occur from time to time. You would think by now that every developer would plan for SLI and Crossfire from day 1, but many still do not. DirectX 12 in Windows 10 should resolve these problems though. But that is assuming that DirectX 12 works as intended. And we have to wait for the release to be sure.

One other thing to consider. The new GPU's coming out next year will blow away the best cards of today. Hands down. Both AMD and Nvidia have been waiting for a smaller node to create GPU's on for nearly 4 years now. I believe they both have some real monsters ready to be unleashed. "

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2730077/390-crossfire-gtx-980.html

I've been saying this everyday.... New cards next year will wreck the current cards out. Investing a ton now in your setup is pointless unless money isn't a huge issue. To me for gaming it's not I'm single with 0 obligations. So I'll get crossfire r9 290 then upgrade to whatever performance level I need next gen for 4k gaming on the games I'm playing.

Next gen though I'm willing to spend up to 1000 if the performance is there and it's a massive leap from this 28nm gen.

 

[Sabrewings]

Games I have that I can think of maxing out would be GTA5, Start Citizen, Project Cars, Elite and possibly the new star wars battlefront game so i'd say a good range. Like i say i'd like to be able to run those sort at full detail levels and at good framerates, if a lower card than the 970 for example both in price and performance even better

If you expect to do 4k with Star Citizen, even a single 980Ti won't be enough to get decent frame rates. I ran my 980Ti up to 4k with DSR and it wasn't exactly silky smooth in the hangar. If you want max details in Star Citizen on 1080p now I can only recommend a top tier card like the 980Ti or Fury X.

Granted, the game isn't optimized, but they're continually pushing the graphics further until the late 2016/early 2017 release, so it'll probably be more taxing by the time it comes out.

For Star Citizen i would go for the R9 390.

I can't recommend it. Even at 1080p SC can be a bit demanding on my 980Ti with max details.

You don't think that there will be a single card that will = a gtx980ti for ~300$ next year?
I expect 85% more performance from gtx1080ti or whatever they call it, at least, with a node shrink and HBM 2.

Still I never recommend sli/crossfire, I tried it, didn't like it and don't recommend it,yet.

really we need to see the prices for the cards where he lives and what power supply he has.

Midsize dies will probably come out first, followed by the big die productions later the next year. 1080Ti probably won't be seen until 2017.

 

[happy medium]

Games I have that I can think of maxing out would be GTA5, Start Citizen, Project Cars, Elite and possibly the new star wars battlefront game

GTA, and project cars runs faster on Nvidia cards by far.
I think you should grab a gtx970 if its priced about the same as a 290x as you said.
That's an easy one.

 

[happy medium]

Ideas? help!

I say stick it out another year or sell your card for about 120$ and buy something used with 3 or 4gb of memory. mabe a used gtx970 for 250$.Then your only out 130$.

 

[TemjinGold]

I am also kind of stuck wondering if i should buy a 970 / 980 / r9 390(x) or wait and hold out till the next refresh of cards next year? i am still using my old gtx670 ftw edition and its been a really fantastic card since i got it in 2012. It still plays many games on high settings just fine.

But im concerned for upcoming games like fallout 4 / starwars battlefront etc, that its gonna choke.

Newegg has a sale right now for a evga gtx970 for $289 after MIR. It has only 4GB vram. Does this really matter for me if i only plan on staying with 1080p? I am tempted to look at the R9 390(x) etc but ive not used ATI/amd cards since 2002.

I am not opposed to spending $450+ for a gtx980 if this means i could potentially skip over the next refresh and be good for 2 more years? (doubtful?)

ARG! I feel right now if like the worst time ever to be in the market for a video card cos we either are stuck with buying into 2yr old tech or waiting till next year for the new stuff!

Ideas? help!

Never buy a card now just because your card might not handle a game that releases later. Always wait for the game to come out and then upgrade if your card isn't up to par.

 

[RussianSensation]

Currently I only have a 1080 resolution single monitor on which I game, I play a variety but more recently titles struggle on my 650 ti boost some because of the limited 2gb of ram but also having to turn things down in games for example star citizen being one and GTA5 the textures are limited by ram.

Either the 390 or the 970 are too slow for 4K, in fact any single-GPU card is. That's a goal for next generation. Between 390 or 970, you can't go wrong with either. 390 has more raw GPU horsepower and more VRAM and thus far it's showing 15-17% more performance under DX12 over 970. In the UK, 390 comes with a free Civilization game too.

MSI Gaming 390 is about 260 pounds.

OTOH, 970 uses less power and you can get a factory pre-overclocked one like the Gainward Phoenix for slightly more than 270 pounds.

At those prices, you really can't go wrong with either card.

I would personally go with the 390 overall because it beats 970 in all 3 key performance metrics:

1) If two cards perform very similarly, it's safer to pick one with more VRAM. 390 wins here.
2) 390 wins in the first 2 benchmarks where we have DX12. Again, safer to go with the 390.
3) 390 has a lot of grunt power at 1440P which means once next generation games become even more demanding, today's 1440P will become tomorrow's 1080P. It also means 390 has slightly more horsepower to crank higher levels of MSAA at 1080P given how well it handles 1440p relative to the 970. Check out this review.

Having said that a 1500mhz overclock 970 is no slouch, but it overall 390 still wins. You also said you play Project CARS. If you play Project CARS heavily, go with the 970.

I am not opposed to spending $450+ for a gtx980 if this means i could potentially skip over the next refresh and be good for 2 more years? (doubtful?)

ARG! I feel right now if like the worst time ever to be in the market for a video card cos we either are stuck with buying into 2yr old tech or waiting till next year for the new stuff!

Ideas? help!

Well the best time to buy a 970 was 12 months ago as it hardly dropped in price. 12 months ago it was going for $330-350 and now it's still $290. In other words, there was almost no point in waiting to grab one as its retail market price has barely fallen. From that point of view, buying a 970 now doesn't sound that great as you have alluded to earlier. 390 is also in the same spot actually because 290/290X were available for $250-300 for the last 12 months. Again, there was almost no point in waiting for 390 level cards. Having said that, not everyone follows the GPU market closely to be able to time their purchase well.

Skip 980 for sure unless you can score a deal on an eVGA B-stock 980. 980 has been a horrible buy since inception and it's only gotten worse since that time.

In the US, you still have R9 290X options. PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X for $275 has the full blown 2816 SPs and Dirty Rally as a free game. I would pick that over the 390 in the US at current prices.

Pretty much similar points as above:

290X has more raw horsepower, superior 1440P and DX12 performance suggests it's slightly more futureproof for next generation games than the 970 is and you get real 4GB of GDDR5 as a bonus. 970 is also a solid card and has its own bonus features like TXAA or PhysX if you like that sort of thing.

Still though, R9 390/290X are clearly beating 970 in the only 2 DX12 games tested so far which would make me lean towards 390/290X at similar prices.

13% faster in Fable legends at 1080P

16% faster in Ashes of Singularity at 1080P with MSAA:
http://www.computerbase.de/2015-08/...-nvidia/2/#abschnitt_benchmarks_in_1920__1080

So again, 390/290X wins in the key performance characteristics:
1) more VRAM (bonus)
2) thus far superior DX12 performance
3) By far superior 1440P performance which implies more raw GPU horsepower for VSR/MSAA at 1080P

However, if you specifically play games that favour NV highly like WOW or Project CARs, go 970.