With my new Sapphire Nitro 390, can I wait on other upgrades?

[arredondo]

So four years ago, I was able to grab a $350 Sapphire Radeon 6970 for about $190 and it was the centerpiece of the rig I built. Now it only gets me a 473 score on the Unigine benchmark, averaging under 19 fps. Of course I can see the impact on games, too.

Fast forward to today and a Sapphire Nitro 390 (with a backplate) is now on its way to me ($295 after rebate). I bought it to get some more headroom at better frame rates @1080P for the next 3-4 years, but I want to keep everything else in my rig. The plan is to move everything over to a new Fractal Design case I got on sale nine months ago since the Antec 300 obviously won't fit the Tri-X monster.

Hopefully the transfer goes well, but before I start the project tomorrow I want to get a bit of advice. The specs are below; I should be fine for a bit knowing that the CPU won't allow me uber-max out abilities for future games, right? I should get by for awhile without having to fully dive into a new mobo+processor before, say, 2019. I like to stretch my purchases when possible, rarely upgrading anything, so if I can do that here it would be great.

 

[Shmee]

I would consider cloning your current SSD to a larger one; fits more games

Look for 500 GB 850 Evo sales, other than that I think you should be fine for a while.

 

[raghu78]

a 2500k at 4.4 Ghz is going to be more than enough to power a R9 390 through the latest games. You are going to be fine.

 

[AshS1n]

I would consider cloning your current SSD to a larger one; fits more games

Look for 500 GB 850 Evo sales, other than that I think you should be fine for a while.

An SSD isn't going to improve performance while playing a game. It's only going to allow you to open your game a little bit faster.

Just make sure your CPU won't bottleneck your GPU (it shouldn't).

 

[arredondo]

Good to hear. I only need 60 fps max because of my big screen display, so I'll hold off on any more purchases.

The crazy coincidence however is that my new 390 will be delivered today which is the same time we learn Crimson is released and AMD support for my old 6970 has ended.

 

[NTMBK]

An SSD isn't going to improve performance while playing a game. It's only going to allow you to open your game a little bit faster.

Just make sure your CPU won't bottleneck your GPU (it shouldn't).

Depends on the game. A modern open-world game will be streaming tons of data from disk as you move around the world- it's not like the old days when you loaded a level into memory. Faster disk means less texture pop-in, and fewer performance hitches and stalls.

 

[Headfoot]

SSD actually does have performance impact these days like NTMBK is saying. In certain games you'll notice less hitching as it goes to a fast disk instead of a slow one, and a lot of games still allow the fastest person to load to start the game first in multiplayer. BF4 let you start early for a solid 2 years until they patched that out. The same happened in BFBC2. I had BF4 on my SSD and I'd be halfway to the first point before people with HDDs would be in the game.

Back in BFBC2 when SSDs were less common there were times where I would be able to get set up with mines in the center point before the others got there due to the loading advantage and id always take out the first wave of vehicles and usually win because we got set up first.

In classic DICE fashion, Battlefront allows the first to load to start the game. I'm sure they'll patch it out in 2 years but for now you can enjoy the advantage.

But to answer OP, that 2500k will be good to go for a while. It's not going to be the fastest thing but its no slouch. You might have to drop CPU intense settings down a little, which is what I do with mine.

 

[tential]

Some games will favor the newer processors more, but you're fine.

There are luxury upgrades you can do afterwards like an SSD. I plan on getting a larger SSD myself for more games! But otherwise, keep what you got OP.

 

[arredondo]

This card is AWESOME!

It took me awhile to move everything over to the new case, but thankfully it all worked out fine. With no tweaks or OC attempts, my Unigine score and frame rates have tripled over the 6970. The Sapphire Nitro also a quieter card than the one I've laid to rest. I am one happy gamer. :awe:

 

[raghu78]

This card is AWESOME!

It took me awhile to move everything over to the new case, but thankfully it all worked out fine. With no tweaks or OC attempts, my Unigine score and frame rates have tripled over the 6970. The Sapphire Nitro also a quieter card than the one I've laid to rest. I am one happy gamer. :awe:

the R9 390 Nitro is a fantastic card with probably one of the best coolers. good choice. have fun. :thumbsup:

 

[Techhog]

You should be fine. Maybe a RAM upgrade (not totally necessary, but it's so cheap now that may be a worthy investment) or if you find a really nice deal on a 3770K, but that's all just not completely necessary futureproofing.

 

[ultima_trev]

I too recently acquired an R9 390 and it is indeed an excellent card. I only game at 1680*1050 but this thing utterly destroys any game I play with ultra settings+ample anti-aliasing. For only being a "mid-range" GPU it sure packs a punch! :thumbsup:

 

[rancherlee]

SSD actually does have performance impact these days like NTMBK is saying. In certain games you'll notice less hitching as it goes to a fast disk instead of a slow one, and a lot of games still allow the fastest person to load to start the game first in multiplayer. BF4 let you start early for a solid 2 years until they patched that out. The same happened in BFBC2. I had BF4 on my SSD and I'd be halfway to the first point before people with HDDs would be in the game.

Back in BFBC2 when SSDs were less common there were times where I would be able to get set up with mines in the center point before the others got there due to the loading advantage and id always take out the first wave of vehicles and usually win because we got set up first.

In classic DICE fashion, Battlefront allows the first to load to start the game. I'm sure they'll patch it out in 2 years but for now you can enjoy the advantage.

But to answer OP, that 2500k will be good to go for a while. It's not going to be the fastest thing but its no slouch. You might have to drop CPU intense settings down a little, which is what I do with mine.

I loved that on BF4, 2 of my good buddies hated the fact I was usually capping a point before they even got in but they didn't want to spend the money on an SSD. Even wehn BF4 came out I was surprised by how few people had SSD drives, usually it only 4-5 people on a 64 player server at the start of most matches.

 

[Techhog]

I too recently acquired an R9 390 and it is indeed an excellent card. I only game at 1680*1050 but this thing utterly destroys any game I play with ultra settings+ample anti-aliasing. For only being a "mid-range" GPU it sure packs a punch! :thumbsup:

At that resolution, it's basically an enthusiast card.