• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

gtx 690 to r9 390, is it a downgrade?

ltron

ltron

ltron

Soldato
Joined
30 Aug 2014
Posts
6,115
Hi I'm thinking of selling my GTX 690 and buying an r9 390 as a stopgap card until late next year when the 16nm stuff comes out. I'm struggling in some recent games with the 2GB VRAM limit even at 1920x1200. On top of this, SLI/Crossfire is in the hands of game developers with DX12/Vulkan and I'm worried that some won't bother implementing it or implement things like SFR(lower latency, lower framerate). If DX12/Vulkan take off and AMD's architecture is suited well and Kepler is very poorly suited then the resale value of the 690 might drop like a rock in 6 months as well.

Also, my 690 gets loud under heavy gaming load and the Sapphire R9 390 Nitro is much cooler and quieter. Is this a silly idea and will I be disappointed with the performance of the R9 390?

By the way my current X58 system is broken, I am in the process of ordering a 5820k, 16GB RAM and an x99 sabertooth motherboard.
 
the single core 390 is a fair match in performance to a 690 in most things

so no not really a downgrade you're getting 8GB vram instead of 2GB per gpu you're losing 500 Gflops which could be sqaushed by overclocking i imagine.

seems like a no-brainer in terms of stability too single gpu is always less hassle than crossfire or sli.
 
They probably perform about the same, although i'd imagine as you said that the 390 would be cooler.

TwsT said:
the single core 390 is a fair match in performance to a 690 in most things

so no not really a downgrade you're getting 8GB vram instead of 2GB per gpu you're losing 500 Gflops which could be sqaushed by overclocking i imagine.

seems like a no-brainer in terms of stability too single gpu is always less hassle than crossfire or sli.
Click to expand...

This ^
 
I think it's worth a shot.

CEX offer £117 for it so i'd expect at least an extra £50 on that
 
To be honest, it seems as if you want to change based on what might happen, if that is the case then I suggest waiting till it does and then see what is best for you. spending that sort of money on a side grade in my opinion is pointless.

Of course if that is not the case then go ahead as the 390 is a good card.
 
bru said:
To be honest, it seems as if you want to change based on what might happen, if that is the case then I suggest waiting till it does and then see what is best for you. spending that sort of money on a side grade in my opinion is pointless.

Of course if that is not the case then go ahead as the 390 is a good card.
Click to expand...

But if I manage to sell my 690 for £200 then I am not spending much money. It depends to an extent on how much I can get for the card.
 
ltron said:
But if I manage to sell my 690 for £200 then I am not spending much money. It depends to an extent on how much I can get for the card.
Click to expand...

Sell the GTX 690 and get a GTX 980 Ti which will last you for a couple of years at least.

16nm is still some way off and the best cards won't be available at launch either so you could be in for a long wait if you choose to go for the waiting option.
 
Kaapstad said:
Sell the GTX 690 and get a GTX 980 Ti which will last you for a couple of years at least.

16nm is still some way off and the best cards won't be available at launch either so you could be in for a long wait if you choose to go for the waiting option.
Click to expand...

Trying to talk a friend in to this at the moment. He is playing ARK at 1440p on a RoG Swift and getting ~20fps. A single 980ti would be a massive upgrade for him and he would get some cash back on the 690.
 
hugin said:
i would buy amd coz the state the company is, they need the money the most :) but who needs competition right?
Click to expand...

They do, but it's a tragedy of the commons scenario. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons )

It might be in all our long term interest for AMD to continue to exist in order to keep prices down. But for each of us individually it's in our immediate personal interest for us to buy whatever is best in terms of price/performance.

When it comes to 980ti vs Fury X that's currently 980ti.

Buying a GPU for me is not a social justice issue and I'll buy whatever I think is best for me and not worry about meta-market concerns such as AMDs long term health.

Hell, even if AMD go bust, other companies will buy their IP. Perhaps Intel will pick up their GPU IP and release GPUs. Perhaps nVidia will pick up their CPU IP and release an x86 CPU. I think I'd consider that a better outcome than AMD continuing to languish.
 
Through most of the range though AMD are the better purchase for me right now (not sure on the 950 / 370 decision, but between that and the 780Ti there are no nVidia cards I'd pick over AMD counterparts at this point in time - when the 970 first came out I'd have had it but not any longer because of prices, nothing to do with the '3.5GB' stuff which really didn't suddenly stop it being a good card) but are not perceived as such which is a shame. Not much individuals can do to stop that though!

Of course new drivers, price changes etc can change this at any time.
 
Last edited:
no they aren't better purchases because it's all relative to the buyer and no one else.

On paper £ for £ they may come out on top but in the real world application they don't.

It's no accident that the 970 is overclockers top selling graphics cards.

Infact 1 specific 970 SKU has more sales attached to it than all of the 390/X's combined.

Not everyone is swayed by the negative press many people just pick the best and newest at the time which the 970 had to itself for 8 months. I agree the 390 is a top card I'd happily use one but it's not an upgrade from a 290 like the 970 was from a 770/670
 
Last edited:
with small differences, i would pick amd thats all, we all sould, i see in different treads here people are kicking a half dead mule
 
When you say in real world application - that's why we compare performance in real world applications. But nevertheless I've edited my post somewhat.

I know the 970 massively outsells the 390/X - that doesn't make it a better card, it means exactly and only that it outsells it, nothing about performance can be inferred.
 
hugin said:
with small differences, i would pick amd thats all, we all sould, i see in different treads here people are kicking a half dead mule
Click to expand...

And we SHOULD all stop driving and abandon our obsession with electronics, reverting to a simpler life, in order to prevent global warming. We SHOULD all go vegan for more sustainability in our food supply. Neither are going to happen any time soon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom