R9 270X or wait for mid-range AMD Hawai

[gx_saurav]

My current setup

• AMD FX 6300 CPU.
• Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard.
• Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB OC GPU.
• Asus Xonar DG Sound card
• Cooler Master Hyper 212X CPU Fan.
• Corsair CX500 V3 80+ Bronze PSU.
• Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB
• WD Black 500 GB SATA 2 HDD

I assembled this system in August 2013 with the help of members from this forum only.

Right now, all games I play are fine with my Radeon HD 7850. I sometime have to tone down the settings to High or medium to get good frame rate at 1080p. I would like to play at better graphics quality at 1080p.

I did some research and found that Radeon R9 270X is the fastest GPU my Corsair PSU can handle as it is recommended to use 500W PSU with it.

Upon further research I narrowed down to the following models

1. Asus R9 270X DirectCU 2
2. Sapphire R9 270X VaporX

The only difference between them is the default factory boost clock. Will my PSU be able to handle these overclocked cards? There is a difference of $ 20 only between them.

Second thing I want to ask is whether upgrading to a 270X from HD 7850 worth it or should I wait for Mid-Range equivalent of Radeon R9 290X for features like TrueAudio etc?

 

[96Firebird]

That PSU is capable of running a much better card, if you want to spend more. Unless that CPU pulls a LOT of power, I'm not familiar with AMD CPUs.

 

[3DVagabond]

I would wait. I personally think Trueaudio is a worthwhile feature. Unless that 7850 is just killing you using it.

Thing is, we don't really know how long you will have to wait. 6 to 9 months seems possible.

 

[nwo]

I honestly do not think the upgrade will be worth it. Yes, the 270X is faster than the 7850, but the difference is only about 20%. So if you're getting 30fps now, getting 36 fps isn't going to make a huge difference. At least not one that would be worth the $200 upgrade.

A CX500 can handle any single graphics card (up to 300W TDP), as long as you do not go all out with overvolting and overclocking. I would recommend a GTX 760 if you can find a good deal on it for around $200 since it is significantly and noticeably faster than the 7850.

Here is a nice comparison of the relative performance of some GPUs:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_270X/26.html

I think the reason your fps is struggling at 1080p is the fact that your card has only 1GB of VRAM. I would stay away from Radeons since they are not the best performance/$ gaming GPUs at the moment.

 

[Knowname]

you might be waiting for more than a year for a Hawaii card to drop into the 300 dollarr range (and even THAN it's probably gonna be very hard to find before the miners buy them all out!). I'd say go with an Nvidea card actually. AMD cards are pretty much only good for Xcoin mineing, your already at a disadvantage by using a power hungry AMD proc so I'd save some coin and buy a nice gtx760 card right now, save up for a nice intel/ amd box if you wanna mine or Kaveri, it'll be a little spitfire for that.

 

[3DVagabond]

I honestly do not think the upgrade will be worth it. Yes, the 270X is faster than the 7850, but the difference is only about 20%. So if you're getting 30fps now, getting 36 fps isn't going to make a huge difference. At least not one that would be worth the $200 upgrade.

A CX500 can handle any single graphics card (up to 300W TDP), as long as you do not go all out with overvolting and overclocking. I would recommend a GTX 760 if you can find a good deal on it for around $200 since it is significantly and noticeably faster than the 7850.

Here is a nice comparison of the relative performance of some GPUs:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_270X/26.html

I think the reason your fps is struggling at 1080p is the fact that your card has only 1GB of VRAM. I would stay away from Radeons since they are not the best performance/$ gaming GPUs at the moment.

Where are you finding $200 760's? Is that the pricing in the OP's market?

 

[Knowname]

slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9 I got mine for 210 last month, some got one for 199 in december. Mostly Zotac and Powercoler (bargain bin) junk, but I think there's still an MSI deal for 235 if you look for it.

 

[96Firebird]

760s can be had for ~$200 if you find a deal, and are hovering just above that in normal pricing.

However, the OP needs to let us know what his budget is, and where he'll be buying from.

 

[gx_saurav]

That PSU is capable of running a much better card, if you want to spend more. Unless that CPU pulls a LOT of power, I'm not familiar with AMD CPUs.

My CPU is overclocked to 4.2 GHz with TurboCore disabled. Although when not gaming, I put the PC in "Auto" mode using Asus EPU tool so it then runs the system at only 1.4 GHz at .9volt as I am just browsing or chatting and as soon as the load increases, my CPU clocks back to 4.2 GHz.

I would wait. I personally think Trueaudio is a worthwhile feature. Unless that 7850 is just killing you using it.

Nah, not killing me. Just wanted to see what is possible if I upgrade. I am happy to save my money.

Thing is, we don't really know how long you will have to wait. 6 to 9 months seems possible.

True. There is hardly any info about a R9 270X equivalent of AMD 290X.

I honestly do not think the upgrade will be worth it. Yes, the 270X is faster than the 7850, but the difference is only about 20%. So if you're getting 30fps now, getting 36 fps isn't going to make a huge difference. At least not one that would be worth the $200 upgrade.

Not sure about the 20% performance difference. I can recover some money by selling my current GPU too so it won't be a $ 200 upgrade.

Thanks for the comparison link. I am going through it.

You are right, gaming at 1080p with 1 GB RAM could be a reason for slowdown. Is there a way I can test this?

Let me inquire about the cost of GTX 760

 

[nwo]

Yep, slickdeals indeed. Last week, I think there was an MSI GTX 760 2GB for $210, and as knowname mentioned, they were also available at a similar price ~$200) last year just about every month of the fourth quarter.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Gaming at 1280x1024 hits 1gb on my 7770. It is an issue. I'm mildly worried about my 2gb 770, but the 4gb was too much.

 

[nwo]

You are right, gaming at 1080p with 1 GB RAM could be a reason for slowdown. Is there a way I can test this?

Let me inquire about the cost of GTX 760

OCed CPU shouldn't really matter. Let's say the CPU is drawing up to 150W at full load (which it isn't). You can still safely run a 200-250W GPU such as the GTX 760 or 770 without any problems.

You can monitor VRAM usage with GPU-z.

 

[gx_saurav]

I will be buying this GPU in India. Here, I am getting the Sapphire card for $ 270. That is a high price but this is India and prices don't fall quickly here. I can get around $130 for my existing card after selling it.

GTX 760 is costing well over $ 330.

Since my CX500 can handle a 270X easily, let me see if I can find some deals here in retails shops, over the weekend. Ideally, it should cost me a maximum of $ 150 + my current GPU for a new R9 270X

 

[Knowname]

Is the 270x that much stronger than the 270? I mean sure you won't be getting much more than a very incremental upgrade to your 7850 but you will be getting trrue audio and mantle plus the geek cred .

Honestly if your going all out for true audio and mantle doesn't interest you I'd just pick up a cheap Sound Blaster/ Xonar and leave it at that. TA is all just hype as I understand it.

 

[nwo]

Is the 270x that much stronger than the 270?

Not really, the difference is maybe around 10%. A 270x is a 7870 replacement a 270 is a 7850 replacement. So they are very similar in performance. A 270X is just an overclocked 270 with an additional 6 pin power connector. But, you can also find 270 non-X with two 6 pin power connectors.

 

[gx_saurav]

Is the 270x that much stronger than the 270? I mean sure you won't be getting much more than a very incremental upgrade to your 7850 but you will be getting trrue audio and mantle plus the geek cred .

Honestly if your going all out for true audio and mantle doesn't interest you I'd just pick up a cheap Sound Blaster/ Xonar and leave it at that. TA is all just hype as I understand it.

R9 270X doesn't have TrueAudio which is why I asked if I should wait for a Mid Range AMD GPU refresh which hopefully will bring TrueAudio to the masses.

I already have a Xonar DG and since trueaudio is not in much use right, I think it can be skipped for this year. So the only driving factor is the performance difference now.

 

[Attic]

I'd wait. I've done the 7850 to 270 (OC'd to 1100/1500) upgrade and it is an improvement, but not worth the hassle IMO. Certainly if the choice were between a 7850 and 270x you'd get the 270x now, but moving from a 7850 I think you want something faster.

That being said if you get the 270x and you want to shoot for 1200mhz on the core, I think that would be worthwhile upgrade from the 7850. Asus would give you a better shot at that IMO.

 

[SPBHM]

true audio and your sound card are unrelated, you still need a "sound card" for the output, digital to analog and so on, true audio does some advanced processing if the software is made for it (nothing at the moment),

7850 to 270x is not a huge upgrade, better wait I think, or to get something faster like a 770.

 

[Knowname]

cool, thanks for the clarification! My feeling on this is just to wait on it. Keep an eye on what Nvidea does and IF Mantle or True audio really amounts to much in the mean time. Don't buy into any promises from Nvidea or AMD lol so I wouldn't hesitate buying a nice gtx760 if you find one! But that's definitely your bottom line, I would NOT go below that performance point (760/ 280x) for an upgrade.

Your PSU may balk at it but it should be fine for a GF760 or R9 280x. http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

 

[Soulkeeper]

I'd recommend just waiting too.
The next gen cards are going to be very interesting:
die shrink
lower power usage
more performance
possible vp9/H265 hardware support

plus things just seem really expensive right now

 

[Headfoot]

I also think you should wait. There will be a refresh soon enough and the jump in performance isn't huge and there will be no increase in features. In the meantime you could overclock your 7850 to squeeze the last bit of juice out of it

 

[gx_saurav]

All right guys, I am cancelling the plan to upgrade right now and will upgrade when new cards come. In the mean time, I have managed to overclock my GPU to 950 MHz up from factory overclock of 900 Mhz.

Going to stick to it to see how stable and fast it is compared to stock speeds.

 

[3DVagabond]

Is the 270x that much stronger than the 270? I mean sure you won't be getting much more than a very incremental upgrade to your 7850 but you will be getting trrue audio and mantle plus the geek cred .

Honestly if your going all out for true audio and mantle doesn't interest you I'd just pick up a cheap Sound Blaster/ Xonar and leave it at that. TA is all just hype as I understand it.

The 270(X) doesn't support TrueAudio and the OP's 7850 will support Mantle the same as a 270X. I won't go into a discussion on TrueAudio's merits. The OP seems to know already. Suffice it to say it's nothing to do with what you get from a sound card.

 

[ph2000]

yes, i think it would be better off wait for mid range gcn 1.1 card

 

[Headfoot]

All right guys, I am cancelling the plan to upgrade right now and will upgrade when new cards come. In the mean time, I have managed to overclock my GPU to 950 MHz up from factory overclock of 900 Mhz.

Going to stick to it to see how stable and fast it is compared to stock speeds.

I think you have made the right choice. I have heard that the 7850 overclocks well so I wish you luck