Upgrade option for 1600p

[aphelion02]

I'm looking to upgrade from my current rig of 2600k+6950 for ~$400. Originally I was waiting for AMD's next gen but it seems to be mostly a rebadge, and the low prices of 7950s have me wondering. I'm deciding between waiting, going for 7950 xfire, or just a 7970GE.

Not opposed to Nvidia by any means, but there's at least 2 frostbite 3 games in my future (BF4 and DA:I) so I am thinking AMD makes more sense.

 

[2is]

512bit memory bus, faster than a 780 is a rebadge?

 

[toyota]

512bit memory bus, faster than a 780 is a rebadge?

I was waiting for AMD's next gen but it seems to be mostly a rebadge

what part of "mostly" cofuses you?

 

[Arkaign]

CF 7950 is hugely hugely faster than single 7970GE. Even more so for 2560x1600.

 

[2is]

I was waiting for AMD's next gen but it seems to be mostly a rebadge

what part of "mostly" cofuses you?

How about you define it for me smart guy? Tell me which parts constitute a rebdage and break down the percetanges for me.

 

[Arkaign]

How about you define it for me smart guy? Tell me which parts constitute a rebdage and break down the percetanges for me.

This is a derail but :

AMD 270 is a rebadge 7950
AMD 280 is a rebadge 7970
AMD 290 is a new GPU

IIRC, most of the lower-tier cards are also rebadges. I'd hazard that it qualifies as a 'mostly rebadge' gen, at least for now.

And at current pricing themes, I don't think $400 will buy OP a 290. The 512-bit on that one will make it 780 price or more.

 

[toyota]

How about you define it for me smart guy? Tell me which parts constitute a rebdage and break down the percetanges for me.

this has been discussed to death already in threads right there on the front page. not to mention a simple google search will bring it up. so like he said, the new AMD cards are mostly rebadges. only the top of the line 290 card will be new and and supposedly 512 bit.

 

[raghu78]

This is a derail but :

AMD 270 is a rebadge 7950
AMD 280 is a rebadge 7970
AMD 290 is a new GPU

IIRC, most of the lower-tier cards are also rebadges. I'd hazard that it qualifies as a 'mostly rebadge' gen, at least for now.

And at current pricing themes, I don't think $400 will buy OP a 290. The 512-bit on that one will make it 780 price or more.

R9 270X and R9 270 are based on Pitcairn
R9 280X and R9 280 are based on Tahiti
R9 290X and R9 290 are based on Hawaii.

R9 270X - USD 200, R9 280X - USD 300 . R9 280 will slot in at USD 240 - 250. this puts R9 290 at USD 400 - 450.

OP you should wait and see Hawaii Pro aka R9 290 price, perf, OC headroom and then take a decision. :thumbsup:

 

[Arkaign]

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...cs-and-benchmarks-of-amds-titan-killer-leaked

"Industry sources are pointing towards a $600 price point for the R9-290X"

With a 512-bit memory bus, those are going to be quite expensive to make. Combo that with 4GB, and high pricing from Nvidia, and there's no way that the 290 will be $400. I'd be shocked if it were $499. We're probably looking at $599+.

 

[blackened23]

I'm looking to upgrade from my current rig of 2600k+6950 for ~$400. Originally I was waiting for AMD's next gen but it seems to be mostly a rebadge, and the low prices of 7950s have me wondering. I'm deciding between waiting, going for 7950 xfire, or just a 7970GE.

Not opposed to Nvidia by any means, but there's at least 2 frostbite 3 games in my future (BF4 and DA:I) so I am thinking AMD makes more sense.

How much of a stickler are you for "maxing" games out? If you want to max games out, you'll need some variant of GPUs in SLI or crossfire. Personally, I find maxing games out to be silly because there are always 2-3 settings in AAA games that cause a dramatic framerate loss without a corresponding increase in visual quality. So i'm getting by just fine with a single 780.

But if you are really hellbent on maxing everything and anything out, 2x 7950s at 400$ should do pretty well, if not 760 SLIs should also work. (though the 760 will obviously cost more..)

 

[aphelion02]

512bit memory bus, faster than a 780 is a rebadge?

Its a rebadge for my purposes since the R9 R290 cards fall outside my budget.

How much of a stickler are you for "maxing" games out? If you want to max games out, you'll need some variant of GPUs in SLI or crossfire. Personally, I find maxing games out to be silly because there are always 2-3 settings in AAA games that cause a dramatic framerate loss without a corresponding increase in visual quality. So i'm getting by just fine with a single 780.

But if you are really hellbent on maxing everything and anything out, 2x 7950s at 400$ should do pretty well, if not 760 SLIs should also work. (though the 760 will obviously cost more..)

Not a big stickler on "maxing" games out, but for me its looking at price / perf, of the $180ish 7950s, and weighing it against potential CF/framepacing. As some one who had never tried multi-GPU, I'm looking for opinions on the possibilities for the roughly same price (I upgrade roughly once every 1.5 years):

1. 7950 CF
2. 7970 GHz
3. gtx 770
4. R9 280x?

 

[Roland00Address]

Its a rebadge for my purposes since the R9 R290 cards fall outside my budget.



Not a big stickler on "maxing" games out, but for me its looking at price / perf, of the $180ish 7950s, and weighing it against potential CF/framepacing. As some one who had never tried multi-GPU, I'm looking for opinions on the possibilities for the roughly same price (I upgrade roughly once every 1.5 years):

1. 7950 CF
2. 7970 GHz
3. gtx 770
4. R9 280x?

Of those 4 choices get the 7950 crossfire.

 

[Roland00Address]

This is from ryan smith review of the AMD Catalyst 13.8 Drivers (The Driver that changed how frame pacing is done.) This is comparing the 7990 which is not the same as crossfire 7950, but they are close, same thing with the gtx680 which is close to the gtx 770 (a gtx 770 is a 680 with a 40 mhz overclock and thus less than 4% in the best case scenario).

Lower Numbers are Better
The Millisecond delay between 1 frame and the next (95th Percentile). This is measured with FCAT so we know these are completed frames.

Shogun 2-2560x1440 Ultra Quality
Radeon 7990 21.5
Geforce GTX 680 30.8

Hitman Absolution 2560x1440 Ultra Quality
Radeon 7990 15.7
Geforce GTX680 24.1

Sleeping Dogs 2560x1440 Ultra Quality + High AA
Radeon 7990 11.2
Geforce GTX680 21

Battlefield 3 2560x1440 Ultra Quality + 4X MSAA
Radeon 7990 12.8
Geforce GTX680 20.5

Bioshock Infinite 2560x1440 Ultra Quality + DDOF
Radeon 7990 15.1
Geforce GTX680 25.5

Crysis 3 2560x1440 High Quality + FXAA
Radeon 7990 20.7
Geforce GTX680 31

 

[aphelion02]

Picked up 2 of these :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...K?tag=at055-20

Am excited to see the upgrade from my singel 6950

 

[Arkaign]

R9 270X and R9 270 are based on Pitcairn
R9 280X and R9 280 are based on Tahiti
R9 290X and R9 290 are based on Hawaii.

R9 270X - USD 200, R9 280X - USD 300 . R9 280 will slot in at USD 240 - 250. this puts R9 290 at USD 400 - 450.

OP you should wait and see Hawaii Pro aka R9 290 price, perf, OC headroom and then take a decision. :thumbsup:

Just thought this deserved an update, now that we know that 290X is $700+.

7970GE looks like the bargain of the century right now.

 

[Skott]

Just thought this deserved an update, now that we know that 290X is $700+.

7970GE looks like the bargain of the century right now.

We don't even know if that is a real price since its not even in stock where that pre order price came from although most people are guessing $699.99. AMD hasnt even said what msrp is yet.