Advice on the R9 295x2

[sketchus]

Hi all,

Currently in a situation where I have two 7970's. A place near me is going to do a HUGE cut on the prices of 295x2's (about £400 off). I am extremely interested and considering getting one. I'm worried about Nvidia and what they have in store though, is it still worth waiting to see there 800/900 series cards or is it unlucky they'd be anything like that sort of price/performance? I'd be selling on my 7970's so I don't think I'd be taking a MASSIVE bank hit, maybe £500?

Thanks!

 

[96Firebird]

Is there currently a game that you play where you'd need the extra performance this minute? It would be best to wait, but if you are struggling with your 7970s (I'm not sure if that is possible since they are very solid performers, even now) go ahead and get the 295x2. I'm guessing the £400 off is not a limited-time sale, since the MSRP just went down to $999USD. So it should last a while.

 

[jackstar7]

Are you playing at 1080? 1440? Other?

Selling those 7970s will not yield a lot of return to offset the expense. There are simply a lot of them out there these days.

If your games are playing well right now, I'd say let this go for a while and see how things shake out in the rest of the month.

 

[sketchus]

Well I play a ton of Skyrim, and I can't mod any more without slowing down my PC due to 3GB limits. That's the only issue.

I'm so torn. They're speculated to be about £600 which is obviously a great price. However, I'm not DESPERATE for the performance and would have probably picked an 980, but I'm just curious over whether the value of this is much better.

Consider I'm in the UK where 780 TIs are £480.

 

[Attic]

If Skyrim is slowing down and you are sure it's not CPU, HD or other, then the 295x2 is going to resolve.

Much faster than 7970 xfire. But i've heard that due to the engine in skyrim that stutter and other issues with multi gpu is hard/impossible to avoid.

 

[sketchus]

Well my CPU is a 4790K so I hope ti's not that.

To be honest it's not just Skyrim, I'm sort of concerned about the Witcher 3 and also playing with the Oculus Rift. Rumour has it you need to push 90fps at dual 1080p screens so I think I'll need powerful hardware. Which is fine, I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

 

[AntonioHG]

Well my CPU is a 4790K so I hope ti's not that.

To be honest it's not just Skyrim, I'm sort of concerned about the Witcher 3 and also playing with the Oculus Rift. Rumour has it you need to push 90fps at dual 1080p screens so I think I'll need powerful hardware. Which is fine, I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

You've got 6 months til the Witcher 3 comes out.

If I were you, I would wait at least a few weeks to see what NVIDIA's got. Preferably wait a few more months til the Witcher 3 is launching...

 

[sketchus]

Ideally I'd just wait but this is a limited time offer. Hmm. I hate the upgrade bug.

 

[Techhog]

Is there currently a game that you play where you'd need the extra performance this minute? It would be best to wait, but if you are struggling with your 7970s (I'm not sure if that is possible since they are very solid performers, even now) go ahead and get the 295x2. I'm guessing the £400 off is not a limited-time sale, since the MSRP just went down to $999USD. So it should last a while.

The $999 discount is temporary.

 

[el etro]

Go 295x2 only if you play at 1600p and above. Under it is not recommended to get a 295x2.

 

[96Firebird]

The $999 discount is temporary.

I have a feeling it will stick...

 

[AntonioHG]

Ideally I'd just wait but this is a limited time offer. Hmm. I hate the upgrade bug.

Yeah, you're not the only one that that deal has tempted, but do I really need it? Nah. Also, in 6 months there will probably be something that does more at the same price.

 

[Face2Face]

So whats the resolution you're currently playing Skyrim at? If's it's 1080p, 3GB of vram should not be a limiting factor with all of the 4K and 2K mods available. You might be experiencing stutter? With my 7950's in CFX, I would frequently experience stutter playing Skyrim. If you are thinking about upgrading, I would wait a couple weeks..

 

[Techhog]

I have a feeling it will stick...

I doubt that it's profitable at that price point. I can maybe see it settling at $1199

 

[RussianSensation]

The resale value on 7970s is really bad right now despite the fact that they = $250 R9 280X. If you look at the performance increase, since SLI/CF doesn't produce 100% scaling, the delta between various dual GPU setups is less than between single cards. So moving from 7970Ghz CF/280Xs to 295X2/780Ti SLI will only net you 30-35% increase, about 50% if you overclock.
http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/18944-nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-z/17#pagehead

I personally feel that this is NOT enough given the pricing of those upgrade cards and how long it's been now since 7970 launched (i.e., almost 3 year wait, I would want a 75-100% increase in performance after waiting that long).

I say overclock your cards to 1175mhz+ and keep waiting for GM210/390X for a real increase in performance of 75%+. of course it is my opinion but having upgraded over the course of nearly 15 years I refuse to upgrade the GPU for a 30-35% gain if I have to spend $700-1000 to get there. If you have the upgrade itch, at least wait for 970/980 announcement before buying current gen tech.

 

[monstercameron]

Be weary of crossfire's lack of dx9 frame pacing, might make Skyrim play with tones of fps but with stutter and/or judder. For everything else it is an ungodly beast.

 

[Elfear]

FYI - Crossfire currently doesn't work all that well with Skyrim and ENB mods. This mod may provide a solution although I haven't been able to verify because it doesn't work with Mod Organizer.

 

[sketchus]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I should have clarified my resolution too - I play at 1440p usually, although with certain games I'm downsampling from 2160p.

I own Watch Dogs, but I haven't played it yet. It runs awfully for me, Crossfired or not. I want to experience it properly.

I am very torn. I would like to see the new Titan, but I doubt it'll be anywhere near reasonably priced.

 

[3DVagabond]

Ideally I'd just wait but this is a limited time offer. Hmm. I hate the upgrade bug.

I remember when the 7990 went on sale for ~$500. The people who jumped in that got themselves a very good deal. I would think hard and long before skipping the 295x2 deal, because the 7990 deal never came back.

 

[3DVagabond]

Be weary of crossfire's lack of dx9 frame pacing, might make Skyrim play with tones of fps but with stutter and/or judder. For everything else it is an ungodly beast.

FYI - Crossfire currently doesn't work all that well with Skyrim and ENB mods. This mod may provide a solution although I haven't been able to verify because it doesn't work with Mod Organizer.

He's already running crossfire.

 

[sketchus]

The world of hardware is a cruel mistress haha.

I'm actually selling my Oculus Rift DK2 (motion sickness), that should cut into a reasonable chunk of this. Whether it's worth it or not is the question!

 

[jackstar7]

The world of hardware is a cruel mistress haha.

I'm actually selling my Oculus Rift DK2 (motion sickness), that should cut into a reasonable chunk of this. Whether it's worth it or not is the question!

What else do you play?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Wait as said. Skyrim for its own reason with multi GPU. And Witcher 3 is first in feb. Its simply silly to buy a new GPU for that game now.

 

[sketchus]

What else do you play?

I usually buy the usual sort of games, just picked up Metro Redux, never played any of the others.

One other thing to add in is I have 2 monitors atm, and would probably add in a third if I can make room on my desk.

 

[DooKey]

Not worth the money with new tech coming out soon. Save your bucks since you have 7970s. This ISN'T the same situation as the 7990 so don't be swayed by company partisans. Your cards are good and current gen from either company at this point is a waste of money. in your situation