What am I losing going from Tahiti to Tonga?

[Chicken76]

I have an R9 280 (non-X) 3GB in my gaming rig and can't say I'm disappointed with the performance in 1080p, but I need to move it to another rig and so I would like to replace it with something that's not a downgrade.

Hawaii-based cards are out of my budget (I live in Europe), at least the new ones. The second-hand ones are not much cheaper and I'm afraid I'd end up with a card that's been used for mining or folding and will fail on me before it becomes obsolete.

Therefore, I've set my sight on a 380X. It would increase shader count and memory over my current card, but I am worried about the reduction in memory bus, and thus bandwidth. Are my worries in vain? I'd like to avoid a sidegrade (increase shaders, decrease bandwidth).

 

[ultima_trev]

It would be an improvement over all. The delta color compression would negate most of the bandwidth loss and Tonga is more "future proof" with increased triangle throughput and full support for Direct X 12 (Tahiti only supports 11.3).

 

[railven]

Find a daily expense and cut it out for a week or two. I personally would not recommend a side grade unless it's an emergency.

The classic saying "eat ramen for a week," it goes a long way haha. For example, I paper bagged my lunch and coffee for a week, saved about $80!

 

[Chicken76]

So it is a sidegrade? The 1250 MHz 384-bit bus is faster than the 1425 MHz 256-bit with compression?

 

[crisium]

It's a minor enough upgrade to be considered a sidegrade. I wouldn't expect going from a 280 to a 380X to allow you to run higher settings, but you should get a few frames faster at the same settings. On average the 380X and 280X are equal, and of course the 280 is a little slower than the 280X.

It would be in your best interest to save up for the faster 390. Despite the fact that there's no card in between the 380X and 390 there is a massive performance gap, and this gap would be enough to enable higher settings then you are used to.

 

[xthetenth]

It's a sidegrade, my advice is to save up for a 390. For best results budget so you've got the money by around August, and then buy a Polaris card instead.

 

[thesmokingman]

I have an R9 280 (non-X) 3GB in my gaming rig and can't say I'm disappointed with the performance in 1080p, but I need to move it to another rig...

Why move it? Doesn't make sense. Why not by a cheap card and move that to the other whatever? Then save monies until next gen, then hopefully by that time used Hawaii its prices will have come down? Or buy new at that time...

 

[Chicken76]

Why move it? Doesn't make sense. Why not by a cheap card and move that to the other whatever? Then save monies until next gen, then hopefully by that time used Hawaii its prices will have come down? Or buy new at that time...

I'm building a rig for a family member and my 280 is perfect for the job, so I'll pass it down and get a small upgrade in the process.

 

[MongGrel]

I'd still save and spend a few more bucks and get a 390 if you're really going there.

But I still use a DCUII 280X TOP 3Gig myself.

 

[thesmokingman]

I'm building a rig for a family member and my 280 is perfect for the job, so I'll pass it down and get a small upgrade in the process.

If they're paying for it I suppose... but I wouldn't spend money on a sidegrade. And given the time tables, it's six months till next gen and a new series of price adjustments. I'd figure out some way to pass the time till then.

 

[Elixer]

I'm building a rig for a family member and my 280 is perfect for the job, so I'll pass it down and get a small upgrade in the process.

Do they need the 280, or, can they get away with a less powerful card?

If they can get away with something lower than a 280, then it makes more sense to spend a few $$$ on a new/used card for them, and you can then save $$$ and go for a bigger upgrade than what you have now.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

A 390 is 40% more expensive than a 380x, it's worth it.

 

[monstercameron]

tonnes of compute.

 

[Silverforce11]

Try to find a good custom R290 used. Things like Sapphire Tri-X or Vapor-X are top notch.

380X is very good as a 1080p gaming card though. You will see around 20% gains from the 280.