i was going to wait for polaris/pascal, but now my gpu is dead - help me upgrade

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Flapdrol1337

Golden Member
May 21, 2014
1,677
93
91
Sheninat0r said:
well shoot. i just measured my case and i have only about 10" of video card clearance; my pump and reservoir are in the way of any long cards. i guess i forgot how (relatively) short the 670 was... from what i can tell the 970 is 10.5" and the 390 is 11", which means they both won't fit. do i have any option now besides jumping down to 960 or 380x or something?

i could also re-do the loop if it's really necessary, but i just did a rebuild two months ago :(
Click to expand...
There are short 970's available too.

Or you could shell out some more and get a fury nano.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
He doesn't upgrade every year. I'd be worried about driver support after Pascal comes out. Especially with a 970 that requires special memory allocation.
 
M

Madpacket

Platinum Member
Nov 15, 2005
2,068
326
126
This is my 970. I bought it for a custom ITX case as it uses much less power than the Nano and makes almost no coil whine noise. Uses around 70W less under load than the Nano while stress testing. Probably the best small 970 due to the cooler. The Zotacs and Gigabyte's are junk in comparison IMO.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3RH4903&cm_re=Asus_970-_-14-121-912-_-Product

Single 8 pin connector, vapour chamber cooler like the Nano but runs cooler and quieter and performs amazingly well at around 70-75% of a Nano up to 1440P before overclocking.

Only 6.7" long so a tad larger than the Nano but if you look at where the power plug is located it's a wash size wise (Nano has power adapter horizontally where this card has it vertical).

Also Compared to my MSI 390 both at stock clocks it uses around 120W less under load in Crysis.

Do it!
 
Last edited:
littleg

littleg

Senior member
Jul 9, 2015
355
38
91
Perfect use case for the Nano imo. Better performance which will likely continue to hold longer than the 970 and a nice compact size for the case.
 
T

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,348
642
121
3DVagabond said:
He doesn't upgrade every year. I'd be worried about driver support after Pascal comes out. Especially with a 970 that requires special memory allocation.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming he's still upgrading to pascal/polaris and will sill the 970 and isn't buying a GPU now for long term use....
 
AtenRa

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
Madpacket said:
This is my 970. I bought it for a custom ITX case as it uses much less power than the Nano and makes almost no coil whine noise. Uses around 70W less under load than the Nano while stress testing. Probably the best small 970 due to the cooler. The Zotacs and Gigabyte's are junk in comparison IMO.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3RH4903&cm_re=Asus_970-_-14-121-912-_-Product

Single 8 pin connector, vapour chamber cooler like the Nano but runs cooler and quieter and performs amazingly well at around 70-75% of a Nano up to 1440P before overclocking.

Only 6.7" long so a tad larger than the Nano but if you look at where the power plug is located it's a wash size wise (Nano has power adapter horizontally where this card has it vertical).

Also Compared to my MSI 390 both at stock clocks it uses around 120W less under load in Crysis.

Do it!
Click to expand...

For only $70 more than this I would get the Fury Nano
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131679

There is also this Sapphire R9 380 iTX for $175 AR, more than half the price of the GTX970 for a stopgap solution until the new 14/16nm GPUs arrive in 6-8 months. It will also be faster than his GTX670.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202151
 
S

Sheninat0r

Senior member
Jun 8, 2007
515
1
81
tential said:
I'm assuming he's still upgrading to pascal/polaris and will sill the 970 and isn't buying a GPU now for long term use....
Click to expand...

yep. pulled the trigger on a msi r9 390 since i heard twin frozr is the best cooler, gonna pick it up from b&h tomorrow. i've accepted the fact that i'll have to re-do my loop, i'd rather do that than accept the limitations of a small card when i don't have to.

i chose it over the 970 because it seems like the better performer overall, and i realized that i don't really ever use/care for gameworks on my 670; i can probably live without it. also i have a rift dk2, and i've never had an amd card before so i want to try it out.
 
AtenRa

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
Sheninat0r said:
yep. pulled the trigger on a msi r9 390 since i heard twin frozr is the best cooler, gonna pick it up from b&h tomorrow. i've accepted the fact that i'll have to re-do my loop, i'd rather do that than accept the limitations of a small card when i don't have to.

i chose it over the 970 because it seems like the better performer overall, and i realized that i don't really ever use/care for gameworks on my 670; i can probably live without it. also i have a rift dk2, and i've never had an amd card before so i want to try it out.
Click to expand...

Nice GPU choice, that MSI is a very good card. enjoy
 
M

Madpacket

Platinum Member
Nov 15, 2005
2,068
326
126
Sheninat0r said:
yep. pulled the trigger on a msi r9 390 since i heard twin frozr is the best cooler, gonna pick it up from b&h tomorrow. i've accepted the fact that i'll have to re-do my loop, i'd rather do that than accept the limitations of a small card when i don't have to.

i chose it over the 970 because it seems like the better performer overall, and i realized that i don't really ever use/care for gameworks on my 670; i can probably live without it. also i have a rift dk2, and i've never had an amd card before so i want to try it out.
Click to expand...

Nice choice, I'm pretty happy with mine. Overclocks decent as well (1175 with sane voltages). Wait till you get this card in your hand, it feels like a mini tank :) Regardless of what comes out later this year this 390 should last you a long time.
 
Last edited:
AtenRa

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
9

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,743
340
126
M

Madpacket

Platinum Member
Nov 15, 2005
2,068
326
126
96Firebird said:
The Nano is not included in the Battlefront promo.



Pick the one sold by Newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3RH4903&cm_re=Asus_970-_-14-121-912-_-Product
Click to expand...

Thanks for fixing the link. Sell off Tomb Raider and the price changes to roughly $140.00 - $150.00 difference (or even more when you factor in taxes). I love the idea of the Nano (I bought three of them at the original price but ended up returning them all) as in my case they all suffered from unacceptable amounts of coil whine. IMO the Asus 970 is a better value if you need a small cool quiet card and are gaming at 1440P or less. Also the performance gap closes significantly when you overclock as the Asus cooler can handle the extra speed where the Nano quickly is overwhelmed due to heat.

That being said I did end up grabbing a pair of Fury X's to take care of my 4K needs. Awesome cards especially if you can get them under $500.00 (l got lucky and got them around $460 USD each).
 
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I

Innokentij

Senior member
Jan 14, 2014
237
7
81
Sheninat0r said:
well shoot. i just measured my case and i have only about 10" of video card clearance; my pump and reservoir are in the way of any long cards. i guess i forgot how (relatively) short the 670 was... from what i can tell the 970 is 10.5" and the 390 is 11", which means they both won't fit. do i have any option now besides jumping down to 960 or 380x or something?

i could also re-do the loop if it's really necessary, but i just did a rebuild two months ago :(
Click to expand...

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_970_oc_mini_itx_review,29.html

Buy short version 970?
 
M

MeldarthX

Golden Member
May 8, 2010
1,026
0
76
He's already got 390 MSI which is a great card :) he's redoing his loop which is the smart thing to do and gotten a great card :)

If patterns continue; 390 is smarter choice as it will out last 970 as we've seen AMD cards see to be getting faster over time compared to Nvidia; specially since AMD won't gimp their cards like Nvidia will.....
 
9

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,743
340
126
AtenRa said:
Hmm ok i see, its further down the page but you need a Premium account to get the card at $355 with the Tomb Raider game bundle.
Click to expand...

You don't need Premium for the game bundle; Premium only gets you free 3-day shipping and free returns in this case. Otherwise, shipping is $4. Shipping is $5 for the Nano, but what's a dollar when we're talking $300+ parts.
 
AtenRa

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
96Firebird said:
You don't need Premium for the game bundle; Premium only gets you free 3-day shipping and free returns in this case. Otherwise, shipping is $4. Shipping is $5 for the Nano, but what's a dollar when we're talking $300+ parts.
Click to expand...

Hell i got confused with all that, thanks for the clarification. I show the Premium and thought you need to have a Premium account to get that price and the game code.
 
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