What's a good r9 380x card? Please help

[rocco518]

I'm leaning toward a xfx r9 380x card as an upgrade. I purchased a 950 gaming2 card at Microcenter in December, but never opened it. The store mgr is willing to take it back if i upgrade to a more expensive card. So, my questions are...

Is xfx the card I want, or is there a better 380x?

What is the difference between the xfx r9-380x and the 380p that Newegg has listed?

Is there a better card at the $220 price point that I should look at?

Thanks.

 

[Elixer]

IMO, XFX & Sapphire are the top 2 choices for AMD.
They both have excellent coolers.

What CPU are you using?
The 950 vs the 380 is no competition at all for the 380.

Is the 380/X a good value, well, look at this thread. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2457783 That should pretty much tell you all you need to know.

380X is the full chip, the 380 is the cut down version of the chip.

 

[Seba]

What CPU are you using?

And how much did you paid for that GTX 950? What will be the cost to upgrade it to a R9 380X?

Also, what power supply do you have?

 

[EXCellR8]

I recently picked up a Sapphire R9 380 NITRO and was quite impressed with the build quality. This was the first Sapphire card I've ever owned and I assume the 380X is of the same quality.

As a side note though, I couldn't get the latest crimson drivers to install under Win 7... but the drivers on the supplied disk worked fine.

 

[grimpr]

Can't go wrong with Sapphire, their Nitro line are quality cards and cheaper than Asus Strix.

 

[rocco518]

Thanks for the response, guys. I was leaning toward the XFX 380x because that is the one that they have in stock on the shelf that I can remember and the website showed no Sapphire in stock.

I paid $170 for the 950 last month, adding another $50 bucks now is not a problem. Without looking i believe the psu is 650 or 750 watts.

Seba, I currently have the 2500k processor but are looking to upgrade to perhaps a 170 type motherboard with a newer processor that fits it in four to six weeks. I hate to get rid of the 2500k. I don't overclock, so I never even reached the cpus potential. I need to get the new card this week as I am already past the return time allowed by Microcenter, but they know me (too well) and are willing to take the 950 back. The 950 was originally purchased hastily to replace my curent HD5670 card. I've slowly been buying components to upgrade, with a Samsung 850 ssd and a WD Black sitting in the closet.

Any other comments are greatly welcomed. Thank you.

 

[grimpr]

You'll love the R9 380x, big upgrade over the 950. :thumbsup:

 

[grimpr]

Here's a nice plugin for watching 60fps video on your 380x using AMDs Fluidmotion tech.

http://bluesky23.yukishigure.com/en/BlueskyFRC.html

 

[kawi6rr]

Can't go wrong with Sapphire, their Nitro line are quality cards and cheaper than Asus Strix.

+1 this here can't go wrong.

 

[Seba]

adding another $50 bucks now is not a problem.

Then how strict is your budget limit? Can't you go up to a R9 390 card? In most games, the performance jump from R9 380X to R9 390 is bigger than that from GTX 950 to R9 380X.

If you are not satisfied with GTX 950 performance, R9 380X may not thrill you either.

 

[Headfoot]

if your budget isnt strict id definitely agree, go up to 390 or 970. That's the sweet spot

 

[rocco518]

Seba, I understand your reasoning. But at what point does one stop upgrading? I only do limited gaming, but do some CAD-type designs. And if I do go to the r9 390, do I definitely need to upgrade from my i5-2500k, or could it be overclocked? That's not something I would be comfortable to tackle, as easy as it may seem to some people use to doing it. I know there are guides out there. The R9 390 may lead me to a "complete" rebuild of my computer. Not sure I'm looking to do that at this time. But it may happen.

 

[Headfoot]

You can definitely overclock your i5-2500k. The slippery slope argument doesnt hold much weight here. The 290/390/970 is the sweet spot. Going above that level gets you diminishing returns. Going below that level gets you diminishing returns (e.g. price only goes down a little but performance goes down a lot). It's the current best point for good performance without getting too spendy.

An overclocked 2500k is perfectly fine for a 390. I just upgraded from a machine like that and you can max everything except very few games at 1080p. All you'd need is a better CPU cooler than the stock CPU cooler. Then google "2500k overclock guide" and follow the steps. Look into the Cryorig H7 or Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo coolers, they are very inexpensive and a huge step up from the stock cooler. Getting to 4.2-4.4ghz is nearly guaranteed those 2500k's overclock so well. A good number of them could do 4.5-4.8 on better coolers, and 5.0 ghz+ on high end cooling. I doubt you'll have any trouble reaching ~4.3-4.4 following a guide with a 212 Evo or equivalent.

Overclocking the 2500k is literally this simple for the lower-end overclocks: Set VCore to 1.25, set CPU Multiplier to 41. Does it work? If yes, set to 42. Does it work? If yes, set to 43. Etc. until you get one that doesn't work. All you need to do is load up a program called OCCT and run it for 10 minutes at each multiplier, then play some games and use it at that multiplier for a while and see if it craps out. Once you get one that craps out, go back 1 and test that multiplier setting more thoroughly by using it for a few days as you normally would. If you still get crapping out or errors, go back 1 more and you're done.

A 390 on a non overclocked 2500k wouldnt be as good as overclocked obviously, but you'd still get a decent amount more FPS than a 380x, and a lot more when you're GPU limited (e.g. max settings, anti aliasing, high resolution, etc.).

But if this is a work computer, I wouldn't overclock

 

[rocco518]

Thanks, Headfoot, all you guys. So, if I go to a 390, is there one out there that is better than the others? Or dare I consider a 970 which might use less wattage? I need to do a little more research. It also depends on what is available at my local Microcenter, as they are willing to take back the 950card, unopened.
I get nothing but great results every time I peruse this forum. I can probably, no, I could afford the 390, just trying to tell myself I can't.

The hard part is trying to convince the wife she can do without another new pair of shoes or purse!!

 

[tweakboy]

Just dont buy cheap brands.. Instead buy, ASUS, EVGA nvidia only,,, gl

 

[EXCellR8]

i typically buy the cards with a backplate but some will argue that not having one is better for heat dissipation. there are a ton of models to choose from and all of them will offer basically the same performance +/-

i've owned nearly every brand of card out there and for the most part they were all fine. some have a few extra bells and whistles that you might like, others are more of a reference design. just make sure you get one that has the outputs you need, which most will.

 

[Seba]

For some reason I did not relate that "unopened" part with the other things. So the reality is that the GTX 950 may be good enough for your current needs. Why do you want to upgrade it if you did not even tested it? If you are sure that you need more performance now, then this is a valid reason (and a card like R9 390 would be a good choice now - but it may look like a poor one relatively soon). But if for now you can manage with what that GTX 950 (that you got for $170) can do, it is better to wait for the new generation of graphics cards, which are expected to provide a big jump in performance.

 

[MrTeal]

Really, I think one of the $220 (with no rebate) 380X would be a big step over the 950. $170 is pretty pricey for a 950 anyway. You won't be able to spend the $50 later and get as big a step in performance, at least not for quite awhile.

The 390 would be a little harder to move up to. It will give you a good performance boost (~30% or so) over the 380X, but you're also looking at spending $320 so an extra $150 instead of $50. It (or a 970) are still a good value, but it's a tripling of money out of pocket. As Seba said, in a half a year there will be a new generation of GPUs coming out. Saving that $100 and adding it to an upgrade in a year or so might make more sense.

 

[Elixer]

I wouldn't bother with the gimped 970, or the 390, with the next generation of cards coming this year, unless you are a really heavy gamer, and you have something that needs all the extra horsepower.

Then just save the extra $150 or so, sell the current card you get, and spend it on the best card that comes out at that time.
Heck, it might well be possible to have a 2x (or more) jump in speed for the same amount of $$$ as today's cards.

 

[rocco518]

Thanks, guys! I won't feel any pain dropping another $50 on the 380x. I may give some thought to "overclocking" my i5-2500k and adding a cooler. I was leaning toward the Sapphire Nitro, but if it's out of stock I will purchase the XFX 380x. The only reason I picked up the 950 was I happened to be in Microcenter at the time and had some money to burn. Felt I owed it to myself. Those big boy toy stores do it to me all the time!

 

[Headfoot]

Thanks, Headfoot, all you guys. So, if I go to a 390, is there one out there that is better than the others? Or dare I consider a 970 which might use less wattage? I need to do a little more research. It also depends on what is available at my local Microcenter, as they are willing to take back the 950card, unopened.
I get nothing but great results every time I peruse this forum. I can probably, no, I could afford the 390, just trying to tell myself I can't.

The hard part is trying to convince the wife she can do without another new pair of shoes or purse!!

Either 290, 390 or 970 are all going to be solid buys. I would get whichever out of those 3 is the cheapest at Microcenter having a decent (2x fan open cooler) fan design. Basically anything but the reference version (blower with only one fan shooting out the back). 380x isn't bad either, I hadn't noticed how much more expensive 390 and 970 have gotten recently compared to black friday.

I got a 390 on black friday for $235. At that price, I'd never buy a $220 380x.

 

[tphss]

I was going for a XFX Double Dissipation 390X for my next build, which is a great card.
After reading the reviews on the XFX R9 Fury Nano, I decided to spend about $100 more and purchase it instead.