Hardware & Technical The Graphics Cards discussion thread
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Having heard some news from the AMD event today...
Knowing that Star Citizen will have Mantle support eventually...
I'll probably upgrade my current pair of AMD RADEON HD 5870 to one AMD 280/290/290X series OR build a totally new rigg around one or two of those AMD cards. Depends on the exact time I will need to upgrade (eg: will my current rigg run Elite and SC-Dogfight good enough).
Unless NVIDIA comes with something REALLY interesting, that is my plan.
Knowing that Star Citizen will have Mantle support eventually...
I'll probably upgrade my current pair of AMD RADEON HD 5870 to one AMD 280/290/290X series OR build a totally new rigg around one or two of those AMD cards. Depends on the exact time I will need to upgrade (eg: will my current rigg run Elite and SC-Dogfight good enough).
Unless NVIDIA comes with something REALLY interesting, that is my plan.
Well - for the Alpha test - I will be using this :
HP xw4600 Workstation ( purchased in 2008 )
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 6MB/1333 CPU
HP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 ECC RAM
ASUS GeForce GT630 (902MHz), 2GB GDDR3 (1800MHz), PCI-E 2.0,
Why ?
Because I can
But - I plan to upgrade in 2014 to a nice new Rig.
HP xw4600 Workstation ( purchased in 2008 )
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 6MB/1333 CPU
HP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 ECC RAM
ASUS GeForce GT630 (902MHz), 2GB GDDR3 (1800MHz), PCI-E 2.0,
Why ?
Because I can
But - I plan to upgrade in 2014 to a nice new Rig.
Well, since my last desktop expired, I've just been using an i3 laptop with integrated graphics.
It's absolutely fine for everything including undemanding games, but that's about it.
My hope is that it will cope adequately with beta/gamma at low settings, and that I'll build a decent rig next year (decent, but no stupidly priced £1k graphics cards).
It's absolutely fine for everything including undemanding games, but that's about it.
My hope is that it will cope adequately with beta/gamma at low settings, and that I'll build a decent rig next year (decent, but no stupidly priced £1k graphics cards).
Radeon R9 290X
I've not been following graphics cards for ages.
These new Radeon R things - are they really that good? How much of an improvement are they on the HD 7x series?
I'd look up reviews, but I'm looking for the opinions of real owners. Thanks!
I've not been following graphics cards for ages.
These new Radeon R things - are they really that good? How much of an improvement are they on the HD 7x series?
I'd look up reviews, but I'm looking for the opinions of real owners. Thanks!
290X is about as fast as a GTX780/Titan but slightly behind the GTX780 TI.
Runs really hot though but they have designed it to run that way they have changed the overclocking and the way the fan profiles work you can boost the max fan speed but they can get rather noisy but it can help lower the temps.
the 290 is a slightly cut down version almost as fast and not much slower and cheaper.
The 280x is a rebranded 7970ghz edition.
Runs really hot though but they have designed it to run that way they have changed the overclocking and the way the fan profiles work you can boost the max fan speed but they can get rather noisy but it can help lower the temps.
the 290 is a slightly cut down version almost as fast and not much slower and cheaper.
The 280x is a rebranded 7970ghz edition.
Aaarrghh!!
WHY do they do this? Apart to just be scummy? I recall Nvidia doing the same thing years ago, when you thought you were getting a Geforce 4 it turned out to be a 2, or something similar.
I got badly cheesed off with Nvidia and the mess of a 6600GT and Nforce drivers a the time, so I've been using AMD since. I'd like to continue doing so, but if Nvidia have improved and are the best hardware bet - I may give them another try.
Thanks for the info!
I know what you mean they both do this a lot mainly just used to be an NVidia thing but AMD have done this a lot in the last couple of years most of the lower model cards in the 200 series are rebrands as well there are one or 2 new ones as well though
With NVidia anything below the Titan and GTX780 is a rebrand from the 600seriies, so the GTX770 is a rebranded GTX680 and the GTX670 is now the GTX760ect.
Kind of sucks but I guess it makes good business sense means they have to spend less time and cash designing new cards.
With NVidia anything below the Titan and GTX780 is a rebrand from the 600seriies, so the GTX770 is a rebranded GTX680 and the GTX670 is now the GTX760ect.
Kind of sucks but I guess it makes good business sense means they have to spend less time and cash designing new cards.
If you got the dosh, go Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti, an utterly blistering card. Maybe better to wait for the January sales though.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1871352/gtx780ti-290x-bf4.html
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1871352/gtx780ti-290x-bf4.html
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If the Nvidia card really is better, I might splash out on it, although I'm a bit disappointed it has the same 3Gb of GDDR5 as my current card. Was hoping for 4 or 6Gb of RAM on such a thing.
I'll need a bigger PSU too of course
I really wanted to stay away from having a system that needs a kilowatt PSU to operate lol - but I suppose such is the price of progress.
I'll see what deals I can find around Turkeyday and go from there I suppose.
I'll need a bigger PSU too of course
I really wanted to stay away from having a system that needs a kilowatt PSU to operate lol - but I suppose such is the price of progress.
I'll see what deals I can find around Turkeyday and go from there I suppose.
If the Nvidia card really is better, I might splash out on it, although I'm a bit disappointed it has the same 3Gb of GDDR5 as my current card. Was hoping for 4 or 6Gb of RAM on such a thing.
I'll need a bigger PSU too of course
I really wanted to stay away from having a system that needs a kilowatt PSU to operate lol - but I suppose such is the price of progress.
I'll see what deals I can find around Turkeyday and go from there I suppose.
The GTX 780ti is faster but not that much and not worth the extra over the 290x and GTX780.
If you want the best and can afford it then go with the 780ti, if you want almost as fast go with the 290x or the 780 and again the 290 if you want to save a few quid.
Any of those cards is more than enough for gaming @1080P up to 1600P again any of those cards will be enough to give you decent performance in most games with out having to turn the settings down.
290 best bang for buck not much slower than the 290x GTX780.
290x GTX780 and Titan not much in it either way performance wise. The 290x and GTX780 price wise, the Titan is stupidly expensive and your mainly paying just for the extra 3gb of Vram over the 780.
GTX780ti slightly faster than the 290x and GTX780 but more expensive if you can afford it then go for it, if not then go for any of the others and you will have a totally kick ass card that gives you amazing performance.
Wouldn't worry to much about the Vram either the 290,290x have 4gb compared to 3gb on the 780,780 ti but unless you are gaming on a multiple monitor setup 3gb Vram will be more than enough for awhile yet
Almost forgot or another option would be to go Crossfire 280x or SLI gtx770's which would be cheaper than a GTX780ti and faster in games that support SLI and Crossfire most games do these days and multi card support is a lot better than it used to be but you do still get the odd game that doesn't though.
I just scraped enough money together to get a Sapphire 7870 ghz edition card.
I've had a Nvidia 9800gt for about 3 years and although it's performed admiralbly I got a bit of a deal so I pulled the trigger.
So fa I'm impressed, not done any serious testing yet but for the money I can't complain.
I've had a Nvidia 9800gt for about 3 years and although it's performed admiralbly I got a bit of a deal so I pulled the trigger.
So fa I'm impressed, not done any serious testing yet but for the money I can't complain.
If the Nvidia card really is better, I might splash out on it, although I'm a bit disappointed it has the same 3Gb of GDDR5 as my current card. Was hoping for 4 or 6Gb of RAM on such a thing.
I'll need a bigger PSU too of course
I really wanted to stay away from having a system that needs a kilowatt PSU to operate lol - but I suppose such is the price of progress.
I'll see what deals I can find around Turkeyday and go from there I suppose.
I have 290 (non X version - and I don't think mine is one of those lucky cards that can be flashed into a 290x).
My take on the card: it is a solid, fast card with high amount of RAM and bandwidth. And it only starts to stretch its legs on 1440p+. The stock cooler , while not awful, it is not great either. As I bought the card already thinking about watercooling the card, it doesn't affect me.
In terms of value is absolutely outstanding value. This card has basically the same performance of cards that, at the time, cost 25-50% more (290X, GTX 780) (ok, about 7% slower than the 290X).
Now, the best card setup when money is no consideration: two watercooled 290x to play @4K
The 780/780Ti are solid well build cards, a bit more expensive but with better coolers.
If I was on the market for a good GPU for a non WC system, at this moment I'd wait for non reference version of the 290 - I wouldn't be surprised that with a DCU II cooler (Asus) or Windforce (Gigabyte) the 290 would be faster than the stock 290X.
Oh they are already obsolete!
PS4 which arrived last week is now dead. No lights, no action.
Xbox One which arrived this morning has a dead Bluray drive. It just grinds and won't fully accept a disc.
I'm rather annoyed with consoles at the moment
Sorry to beat a dead horse, but which card is the absolute fastest at the moment, and most likely to still be fastest at ED launch?
I'm looking for a dual socket motherboard and another 32Gb of RAM too. Kilowatt PSU already ordered, but I can't make my mind up on motherboards or graphics cards or indeed processors. Dual Xeons or dual i7s? I have no idea.
It was all so simple back in the days of quad 200MHz Pentium Pro's
I'm looking for a dual socket motherboard and another 32Gb of RAM too. Kilowatt PSU already ordered, but I can't make my mind up on motherboards or graphics cards or indeed processors. Dual Xeons or dual i7s? I have no idea.
It was all so simple back in the days of quad 200MHz Pentium Pro's