Hardware & Technical New GFX cards?

If you're strapped for cash, AMD just slashd the price of the radeon. The 280 is unbeatable for Q/P but you won't see a real upgrade.

A single 970 will be a significant upgrade. An SLI is overkill for er...anything unless you also have a 4K monitor or a multiple displays setup.
 
I've just shelled out for the Zotac AMP Extreme GTX980. It'll be replacing my existing 2 x GTX680 SLI.

When SLI works, it may be a downgrade, but I bought this specifically with the OR in mind. A single card option, not having to worry about the hassles of SLI compatibility with either ED or the Rift. I'll probably stick up something next week after I've got it.

Hoping to hit the 75FPS solid required for smooth OR performance (I run my OR supersampled), I can get it in places with just 1 of my 680s running (SLI for the OR is problematic), so I'm quietly optimistic.
 
I've just shelled out for the Zotac AMP Extreme GTX980. It'll be replacing my existing 2 x GTX680 SLI.

When SLI works, it may be a downgrade, but I bought this specifically with the OR in mind. A single card option, not having to worry about the hassles of SLI compatibility with either ED or the Rift. I'll probably stick up something next week after I've got it.

Hoping to hit the 75FPS solid required for smooth OR performance (I run my OR supersampled), I can get it in places with just 1 of my 680s running (SLI for the OR is problematic), so I'm quietly optimistic.

Why do you say sli is problematic for vr? I have noticed no issues
 
R9-290 4gb.

Runs all my games on the max settings:

Arma 2 CO (view distance restricted to 6000, and capped @120fps) (v-sync off)
Arma 3 (view distance as A2, capped @120fps) (v-sync off)
Space Engineers (capped @ 120fps) (v-sync off) best sandbox other than arma series, imho.
This ED (capped @ 120fps) (v-sync off)
Take On Heli's (not fps capped) (v-sync off)
Take On Mars (not fps capped) (v-sync off)
Star Citizen (Arena Com/racing crap, not fps capped) (r_VSync 0.. ie off)
& yes even Euro Truck Sim 2 (I play that too :eek:) (capped @120fps) (v-sync off)

I don't use v-sync in any games. Capping is done via MSI-Afterburner.

Never experienced a performance problem.. yet..;)
 
Why do you say sli is problematic for vr? I have noticed no issues

They say SLI introduces about a frame of latency. They are redoing SLI (and Crossfire) so that it is one GPU per eye's image. Personally I think that once you are in VR your experience is quite subjective. Some people are extremely sensitive to latency or stutter and other aren't. I've seen reports where a dual GPU config reported a high frame rate when in fact it was just duplicating many of the frames. But many people where happy with the result because the frame rate was high. Kind of like a gaming placebo.

To the original poster. If you have a crossfire specific motherboard (x16 and x4 slot I guess) then I'd certainly wait for the next gen AMD cards.
 
Why do you say sli is problematic for vr? I have noticed no issues

Latency, I get a delay between the rendering for each eye in SLI, it makes me nauseous. I appreciate that some people may not be experiencing this, but I do so my solution will hopefully work for me. :)

Nvidia have conjured a solution which makes each card handle 1 eye, which addresses the latency issue, but their fix only addresses OR in Direct mode. As ED is still running in Extended window mode, the fix isn't applicable.

Ultimately I'd expect this to be addressed, either Nvidia will come up with a fix in Extended Mode as well, or FD will make ED run in Direct mode (which I think would be even better).

With this in mind, and that the CR version of the OR is likely to be even more demanding than the current spec (higher resolution), buying 1 980 now, gives me the option to go SLI next year.

There's always the argument that something better will be out next year, I accept this. I usually upgrade every other generation as otherwise you can be chasing the spec forever.
 
I've just shelled out for the Zotac AMP Extreme GTX980. It'll be replacing my existing 2 x GTX680 SLI.

When SLI works, it may be a downgrade, but I bought this specifically with the OR in mind. A single card option, not having to worry about the hassles of SLI compatibility with either ED or the Rift. I'll probably stick up something next week after I've got it.

Hoping to hit the 75FPS solid required for smooth OR performance (I run my OR supersampled), I can get it in places with just 1 of my 680s running (SLI for the OR is problematic), so I'm quietly optimistic.

I've got an overclocked 980 and you won't get smooth performance on the rift yet when at stations and ring systems.
It's not bad (certainly not as bad as I had on my 7970) but it's still there.
That's with everything on low (except the quality slider) and 1080p

1440p supersampling works ok when not in stations or rings and you can even play on high settings with maybe a few options turned down.

What you should try at least once on the new card is playing on your monitor at 4K. I play on the DK2 and my 1440p monitor and although the DK2 is the best way to play, at 4K on my monitor it looks fandabbydozy. So much so I'm hoping to get a 4K monitor at the end of the month.
 
I've got an overclocked 980 and you won't get smooth performance on the rift yet when at stations and ring systems.
It's not bad (certainly not as bad as I had on my 7970) but it's still there.
That's with everything on low (except the quality slider) and 1080p

1440p supersampling works ok when not in stations or rings and you can even play on high settings with maybe a few options turned down.

What you should try at least once on the new card is playing on your monitor at 4K. I play on the DK2 and my 1440p monitor and although the DK2 is the best way to play, at 4K on my monitor it looks fandabbydozy. So much so I'm hoping to get a 4K monitor at the end of the month.

Thanks for the info Kingston (even though it's not what I wanted to hear ;)). I can manage about 35-40 FPS with my current settings in a proper station (non-outpost) with my GTX680. I've set my graphics to a custom mix, keeping a few HQ elements but binning things like Shadows and reflections. It's tolerable though far from ideal.

What kind of improvement (FPS wise) can I expect to see with the 980?
 
Nvidia have conjured a solution which makes each card handle 1 eye, which addresses the latency issue, but their fix only addresses OR in Direct mode. As ED is still running in Extended window mode, the fix isn't applicable.

Just wanted to point out that Oculus were at pains to point out that they are working with both Nvidia and AMD on this sort of dual GPU support. Thought it was worth mentioning as the OP is an AMD user.
 
Just wanted to point out that Oculus were at pains to point out that they are working with both Nvidia and AMD on this sort of dual GPU support. Thought it was worth mentioning as the OP is an AMD user.

Yes of course, sorry I was speaking specifically (as I'm using Nvidia cards), AMD have solutions in the works too! :)
 
I've got an overclocked 980 and you won't get smooth performance on the rift yet when at stations and ring systems.
It's not bad (certainly not as bad as I had on my 7970) but it's still there.
That's with everything on low (except the quality slider) and 1080p

1440p supersampling works ok when not in stations or rings and you can even play on high settings with maybe a few options turned down.

What you should try at least once on the new card is playing on your monitor at 4K. I play on the DK2 and my 1440p monitor and although the DK2 is the best way to play, at 4K on my monitor it looks fandabbydozy. So much so I'm hoping to get a 4K monitor at the end of the month.

Could you do me a favour please, King5ton, and do a few FPS tests in the tutorial missions? (The docking ones and ring systems)...and let me know how they compare to your usual fps?

I've found that I get a huge frame rate increase on the tutorials...
 
Just pushed the button on an MSI GTX970 4GB - £267.99 Free Next Day Plus one of; FarCry4, Assassins Creed Unity or The Crew - So I even get a game to keep me occupied until gamma/release :) Currently on a 560Ti so I'm expecting a pretty good increase in performance
 
Note that AMD cards have the low-latency "asynchronous timewarp" rendering as standard in 7-series onwards (GCN) hardware, so they are actually a fair bit ahead of Nvidia in hardware latency terms. If they could pull off some Mantle-goodness on the software side they'd be a mile ahead in VR, but yeah "if" is a word I seem to use a lot with AMD.
 
Surely your CPU socket allows for an upgrade there? There is only one decent AMD CPU for gaming, the FX 9590 with its 4.7Ghz stock clock and it's 5Ghz turbo speed. If you are not already running this chip, and your motherboard can support this CPU then I advise putting this bad boy in.

The 9590 is nothing more than an overclocked 8350.
 
Back
Top Bottom