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Finally upgrading GPU from GTX580 black Friday help

Juggy1985

Juggy1985

Juggy1985

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Joined
5 Nov 2010
Posts
1,192
Hey all,

I want to upgrade my graphics card (GTX580) as its showing its age :(. Its served me well but struggling a bit now.

I was 100% set on a 970 but unsure whether to go to a 390 as it has more than double the vram. Googling just makes things more complicated as it seems to be 50/50. People slate the 390 as its hot and power hungry and people slate the 970 as its only 3.5gig apparently with 500mb being slower vram (I don't even understand).

I don't really want to spend more than £250, which will get either at the moment so black Friday will be easy to find one no doubt.

My rig is older than the GTX580, but should suit a 970 or 390 hopefully. Is a 970 or 390 longer than a GTX580? My 580 is snug at the moment.

I don't want to buy second hand as I want piece of mind with fully warranty and 1st ownership.

I will more than likely only be gaming in 1080 as a monitor upgrade isnt on my list.

My spec is i7 950@4Ghz, 6gb ram, Asus P6X58D board, 850w Corsair PSU

So really 390 or 970?
 
If you got a capable PSU (which you have), there's very little reason for you to go for 970 over 390 I think...unless you want specific Nvidia features.

I would suggest also giving some consideration toward potential future monitor upgrade, on whether you would want to go for Freesync monitors that cost no more extra comparing to standard monitors of the same spec, or Gsync monitors that cost average of £150 extra comparing to standard monitors of the same spec.
 
rtho782 said:
Its not quite that simple, gsync has many other advantages over freesync, freesync only has cost going for it.
Click to expand...

I though free sync had more features enabled than g-sync, like everything Is sill enabled for free sync. G-sync doesn't but as a result can provide a higher refresh rate on some monitors
 
if you got for a 970, as you spotted, they only have a fast 3.5gb ram and commonly coil whine. That's really irritating to some people. The 390 I've read is probably the faster card at that price point for most things. However it runs hotter and apart from the coil whine I had, the 970 was silent. Either way, they are both great cards, really good price performance ratios, and going faster makes this ratio drop significantly.

pros for the nvidia - generally quieter, cooler, less power hungry and better performance under Linux/steamos

Pros for amd - slightly better performance, and the more capable card at 4K from what I could gather.
 
I've just had a measure in my case as its not a full tower. My current GTX580 is 27cm/10.5inch long, I only have a further 1inch/2 1/2 cm left before it hits the hdd rack.

Will this be a problem? Different cards different lengths?
 
Juggy1985 said:
Honestly not interested in upgrading monitor. Just want a card to last 2-3 years lke my 580.
Click to expand...
If you're after longevity then the 970 is a very risky choice due to the limited vram. If it was just a case of aiming for now up until maybe a year later then it'd be easy enough to recommend it (but still be worse than 390 tbh) but for lasting several years the extra vram is going to make that far more likely.
 
I think I'll go for an r9 390 then as I dont want to be buying a new card within the next 2 years!

Length might be an issue but I can always hack away some HDD rack out the case.
 
The deals on 390s and 390Xs are by far the best value to be had atm. Not only now but they should hold value reasonably well for a little while.
 
installed without any major problems really.

Once the card was installed I turned on my computer and it just froze on the windows logo, so I thought ahh great! Restarted and its been fine ever since. I played fallout 4 maxed out for around an hour and the card was around 70c and virtually silent! For some reason the AMD software recorded my entire gameplay, I've turned that crud off now.
 
Heres some pictures!

When I opened the outer box I was a little bit pee'd off that it looks like the actually graphics card box had been dropped so I took pictures before I opened it just incase:

2015-11-27%2016.51.53_zps6misgbhc.jpg


2015-11-27%2016.52.06_zps0ngvt3b5.jpg


But luckily theres loads of foam inside so the card has been undamaged I think.

My poor little case was too small to fit the big beast in so I had to remove the HDD cage!

Before:
2015-11-26%2019.05.05_zpstbgatnqi.jpg


After:
2015-11-26%2019.23.54_zpsrpdgy5sd.jpg

It wasnt too bad, just drilled out the aluminium rivets.

Heres the new R9 390 next to my trusty GTX580 (purchased in Feb 2011)

2015-11-27%2018.00.02_zpsj8xw0ij1.jpg
 
I am very suprised how quiet it is compared to my gtx580. Even after an hour of gaming i cant hear the fans and its at least 10c cooler than my 580.

I was worried because every review out there says the 390 is hot and power hungry, so assumed it would be mega loud to try and cool it.
 
From a review I read recently, the Sapphire card only turns the fans on if needed, one by one, so it should be quiet unless you're really pushing it. Fitting mine in a bit!
 
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