Cant decide on a graphics card. AMD 380 the answer?

chickadee · 2 Jul 2015 at 07:44

Hey guys,

I have been waiting for months now to see what AMD brought to the table. I currently have an old Nvidia GTX280 since my 560ti died in January.

So I was wanting an Nvidia 970 for a while but the more i think about it the more i think it would be overkill.

Im not a hardcore gamer, i don't really play a lot of AAA titles either. The games I play/want to play are:

WoW
Hearthstone
Pillers of Eternity
Book of unwritten tales 1/2
Deponia series
TF2
Dirty Bomb
Grey Goo
Portal 1/2
ARK
Elite: Dangerous

GTA5 + Witcher III would probably be the most demanding games I want to pick up.

I have 2 x 22" 1680x1050 monitors but might change one to a 24" monitor in the future.

So do you think a 380 would suit my needs and last me maybe 2-3 years?

passey89 · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:08

Yes i believe the r7 370 is even meant to max most games at 1080p so a 380 at 1050 will do it easily.

TNA · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:11

I would think so yes.

Mei · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:22

i play a few of them games, ARK and dirtybomb the most
hard to say 2-3 years from now lol

but i for sure would say a 970/290 is NOT overkill at 1080p
ARK i think needs a pretty good cpu too

hope it helps >_<

chickadee · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:25

I forgot to add my specs:

i7 920 @ 3.4ghz currently
6gb DDR3
120gb crucial m4
750watt corsair PSU

Mei · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:42

i think if u stay at ur current res a 380/960 is fine and maybe a good match
and mostly ok at 1080p until u try to max stuff

im pretty picky on fps if i get anything below 60fps i turn stuff down
if you not that way 1080p will be fine too^^

see if there's any good deals i guess!

fs123 · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:54

Even with a GTX 970 /R9 390X you will find it's a struggle in ARK and Witcher 3 to get 60fps in high/ultra settings. ARK is totally unoptimised at the moment and barely runs at 30fps on the higher end cards at 1080P medium settings.

For 1080P you really need to try and get a 970/380X level card for newer games if you want to play at high or ultra settings.

chickadee · 2 Jul 2015 at 08:56

Mei said:
i think if u stay at ur current res a 380/960 is fine and maybe a good match
and mostly ok at 1080p until u try to max stuff

im pretty picky on fps if i get anything below 60fps i turn stuff down
if you not that way 1080p will be fine too^^

see if there's any good deals i guess!

Im the same, FPS > visuals. I dont mind turning things off as long as i get decent frames.

I currently run a damn GTX280 so every game is set to minimum as it is so i would hope a 380 would be a nice improvement.

Mei · 2 Jul 2015 at 09:01

GTX280 is pretty old but i duno what the difference will be in fps
maybe some1 else can answer or some google-fu

@fs123 i got to agree ARK runs like p00p a lot of the time, i hope they work on that lol, still better than reign of kings

chickadee · 3 Jul 2015 at 13:55

How are the AMD drivers recently? I seem to see a lot more posts regarding AMD drivers than Nvidia.

UTmaniac · 3 Jul 2015 at 14:34

chickadee said:
How are the AMD drivers recently? I seem to see a lot more posts regarding AMD drivers than Nvidia.

Improving under Windows 10.

David Bisset · 3 Jul 2015 at 15:00

chickadee said:
How are the AMD drivers recently? I seem to see a lot more posts regarding AMD drivers than Nvidia.

For single card: Solid, better than nVidia right now (I'm sure nVidia will recover their quality, just had a brief bad streak)

For multi-card: Lacking profiles for lots of games, not really sure about if there are many other issues as I don't use multiple. Think they still don't support xfire & adaptive sync which is a shame, unless you're on FuryX's.

chickadee · 3 Jul 2015 at 23:16

David Bisset said:
For single card: Solid, better than nVidia right now (I'm sure nVidia will recover their quality, just had a brief bad streak)

For multi-card: Lacking profiles for lots of games, not really sure about if there are many other issues as I don't use multiple. Think they still don't support xfire & adaptive sync which is a shame, unless you're on FuryX's.

Ok that makes me more happy about buying an AMD card.

Marine-RX179 · 3 Jul 2015 at 23:21

Also if you decide to upgrade your gaming monitor to 1920 res, a 1920 res 144Hz monitor with Freesync will cost around £100-£150 less than one with Gsync.

FoxEye · 4 Jul 2015 at 09:20

passey89 said:
Yes i believe the r7 370 is even meant to max most games at 1080p so a 380 at 1050 will do it easily.

Oh, come on. Does *anyone* believe they will be maxxing current and near future games at 1080p on a 370/380?

Living in cloud cuckoo land, my friend.

Not that I agree with the maxxing obsession in the first place, mind. But let's be realistic - if that's your aim, you need a lot of horsepower.

chickadee · 4 Jul 2015 at 14:10

FoxEye said:
Oh, come on. Does *anyone* believe they will be maxxing current and near future games at 1080p on a 370/380?

Living in cloud cuckoo land, my friend.

Not that I agree with the maxxing obsession in the first place, mind. But let's be realistic - if that's your aim, you need a lot of horsepower.

From what I have seen a 380 @ 1680x1050 would probably run most games at decent settings and a lot near maxed out if you lower anisotropic filtering.

Does that sound correct?

Amatsubu · 4 Jul 2015 at 15:45

passey89 said:
Yes i believe the r7 370 is even meant to max most games at 1080p so a 380 at 1050 will do it easily.

I sometimes have trouble maxing games on a 970 at 1080p so there's no way a 380 is going to cut it;p

FoxEye · 4 Jul 2015 at 15:55

chickadee said:
From what I have seen a 380 @ 1680x1050 would probably run most games at decent settings and a lot near maxed out if you lower anisotropic filtering.

Does that sound correct?

"Decent settings"... yes, absolutely.

Poneros · 4 Jul 2015 at 16:03

A 380 would be a good fit for you, but imo look for a used R9 290. Most of your games will run flawlessly maxed on either but for those 2-3 games that are more performance-intensive, more power would do a world of good.

nashathedog · 4 Jul 2015 at 17:43

FoxEye said:
Oh, come on. Does *anyone* believe they will be maxxing current and near future games at 1080p on a 370/380?

Living in cloud cuckoo land, my friend.

Not that I agree with the maxxing obsession in the first place, mind. But let's be realistic - if that's your aim, you need a lot of horsepower.

Like a Fury x or 980ti and even then they'll struggle with some games.

I watched a 1080p Fury X bench and GTAV brings it too it's knees when maxed with you seeing the frames dropping under 30 way too often.

When you think about it it's tragic.