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3440x1440: GTX 970 -> R9 390 "upgrade" worthwhile?

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
19,245
Location
Birmingham
As title really.

I'm running at 3440x1440 on this GTX 970.

I'm getting reasonable FPS on most games (mid 40's) with a few settings turned down, but from reading around, the 390 is a bit better than the 970 at higher resolutions?

I can probably sell my 970 for ~ £180, and the 390 starts at ~£250, so I'm looking at around £70 to upgrade if I go for a new one, or potentially much less if I go 2nd hand.

What sort of performance increase (if any) could I expect from changing? Wondering if it would get me nearer to a solid 60 fps?

Also, I understand the 390 is far more power-hungry, my current PSU is a "OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply" - would that be sufficient?

My current hardware is:

Intel Core i5-2500 (non-k)
Gigabyte H61M-S2 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
16GB (2x8GB) Geil Evo Leggera PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 "Mini-ITX"
Kingston SSDNow V-Series 128GB
2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite 334 Midi Case

Thanks!
 
You'll have to look at reviews to see if the performance is what you want but I reckon it's not going to be noticeable. A Fury or 980ti is more likely to get you 60fps but the price is much higher.

why not wait 5 months and see what the next gen cards performance is like?

edit: upgrading your cpu to an overclockable one might be a better and cheaper option. A 2500K or i7 2600K can be overclocked to 4GHz.
 
If you are desperate for an upgrade, I wouldn't be looking at a 390 personally but more a 980Ti. You will get a couple more frames if you do decide to go the 390 route. No idea in truth for when the big 14nm will come but early signs are showing both Nvidia and AMD will be coming with small first and then later on the bigh chips but that is still only rumour.
 
fs123 said:
You'll have to look at reviews to see if the performance is what you want but I reckon it's not going to be noticeable. A Fury or 980ti is more likely to get you 60fps but the price is much higher.

why not wait 5 months and see what the next gen cards performance is like?
Click to expand...

Oops, I forgot to mention in my OP that I'm most likely going to upgrade to one of the new gen cards when they come out (but based on the rumours I've read, that could be in 5 months, or 15 :p)

fs123 said:
edit: upgrading your cpu to an overclockable one might be a better and cheaper option. A 2500K or i7 2600K can be overclocked to 4GHz.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the bottleneck is the GPU, in which case overclocking my CPU would probably have even less of a noticeable impact!

Gregster said:
If you are desperate for an upgrade, I wouldn't be looking at a 390 personally but more a 980Ti. You will get a couple more frames if you do decide to go the 390 route. No idea in truth for when the big 14nm will come but early signs are showing both Nvidia and AMD will be coming with small first and then later on the bigh chips but that is still only rumour.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say desperate, more just curious as to whether I could get those extra few FPS for not much investment :p
 
JediFragger said:
I'd say it wasn't worth it, esp if you overclock the 970
Click to expand...

I might have to look into this instead then, sounds like a better option (or at least a free one) :)

elrasho said:
Why not get a FreeSync monitor tha way you won't "notice" the low FPS. Then when Polaris comes out, get one of them cards.
Click to expand...

It would cost me a lot more to change my monitor for a freesync one and my GPU for an AMD one than it would to just buy a 980ti!!
 
Ok, well sounds like that plan is a non-starter :p

I'll have a crack at overclocking my 970 tonight, and save the money towards a proper upgrade when the next gen comes out :)

Cheers guys!
 
even is 390 deal better with high resolution, the performance gain wont be that big, the + i see here is if you are planning to crossfire later on, because those 8Go would come in handy, and yes your PSU is fine with the 390, for crossire 850w would do.
bottom line if you wont crossfire ever just stick with your 970, and save the money for polaris/pascal
 
Haggisman said:
Ok, well sounds like that plan is a non-starter :p

I'll have a crack at overclocking my 970 tonight, and save the money towards a proper upgrade when the next gen comes out :)

Cheers guys!
Click to expand...

Just try +100 on the core and +250 on the mem and see if it runs stably. That will give you a decent enough boost :)
 
Haggisman said:
I might have to look into this instead then, sounds like a better option (or at least a free one) :)



It would cost me a lot more to change my monitor for a freesync one and my GPU for an AMD one than it would to just buy a 980ti!!
Click to expand...

Sorry thought you already had an AMD GPU
 
Overclock yer 970 and wait for Pascal/Polaris later in the year. You will get a good FPS boost and it's all for free. You cant get better than free. :)
 
Haggisman said:
As title really.

I'm running at 3440x1440 on this GTX 970.

I'm getting reasonable FPS on most games (mid 40's) with a few settings turned down, but from reading around, the 390 is a bit better than the 970 at higher resolutions?

I can probably sell my 970 for ~ £180, and the 390 starts at ~£250, so I'm looking at around £70 to upgrade if I go for a new one, or potentially much less if I go 2nd hand.

What sort of performance increase (if any) could I expect from changing? Wondering if it would get me nearer to a solid 60 fps?

Also, I understand the 390 is far more power-hungry, my current PSU is a "OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply" - would that be sufficient?

My current hardware is:

Intel Core i5-2500 (non-k)
Gigabyte H61M-S2 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
16GB (2x8GB) Geil Evo Leggera PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 "Mini-ITX"
Kingston SSDNow V-Series 128GB
2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite 334 Midi Case

Thanks!
Click to expand...

fps depends on games you play also.
but no, wait for next generation Polaris the brighter choice
you could also be checking to upgrade your cpu as many games are limited with cpu more than gpu even though at that resolution you be gpu bound primarily. If one want a solid fps experience, have a recent cpu and OC it to 4ghz etc..

The Nano or similar cards would be a worthy upgrade.
 
Know someone who changed from a 970 to a 390X and largely it depends a lot on what games you play - there are some where the 390X is decently ahead but quite a lot where there isn't really anything in it in terms of realworld performance (not to say the framerates are equal just not a significant amount in it when talking in the context of upgrade) and ironically the games they play the most are identical or better on the 970.
 
Haggisman said:
As title really.

I'm running at 3440x1440 on this GTX 970.

I'm getting reasonable FPS on most games (mid 40's) with a few settings turned down, but from reading around, the 390 is a bit better than the 970 at higher resolutions?

I can probably sell my 970 for ~ £180, and the 390 starts at ~£250, so I'm looking at around £70 to upgrade if I go for a new one, or potentially much less if I go 2nd hand.

What sort of performance increase (if any) could I expect from changing? Wondering if it would get me nearer to a solid 60 fps?

Also, I understand the 390 is far more power-hungry, my current PSU is a "OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply" - would that be sufficient?

My current hardware is:

Intel Core i5-2500 (non-k)
Gigabyte H61M-S2 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
16GB (2x8GB) Geil Evo Leggera PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 "Mini-ITX"
Kingston SSDNow V-Series 128GB
2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite 334 Midi Case

Thanks!
Click to expand...

A 390 would be a decent upgrade over a 390. Even better if you get a freesync monitor to go with it.
 
Dave2150 said:
A 390 would be a decent upgrade over a 390. Even better if you get a freesync monitor to go with it.
Click to expand...


As stated above, apart from the fact he doesn't have a 390, It would seem to me that a 390 is not a decent upgrade to a 390, it just seems like a good way to spend £250 on the same thing as you've already got. :D:p:D

I get the feeling that isn't quite what you wanted to post.
 
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