GPU to drive my new monitor upgrade

edgedemon

edgedemon

edgedemon

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Joined
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Hi all

Im going to upgrade my monitor to a likely LG 21:9 34" Ultrawide model. Im still running an old X79 build, with dual 290's in crossfire as I used to game on the PC back then. Luckily I checked the spec and the max supported resolution for these cards is 2560x1600 :eek: Im guessing that if Im running crossfire, that doesn't increase?

So I need to add a new gfx card as well to my purchase. My PC only gets used for photo editing (a lot) and a bit of Age Of Empires II definitive edition, all my other gaming is via console. I understand that for sheer grunt, whatever I buy will be a downgrade..

What is the cheapest AMD card that would do the job - I was looking at the 580RX series, but would anything else do the job?
 
The 5500XT looks like a good compromise which leads to my next question. I remember that I was able to run a pcie 3 gfx card in a pcie 2 slot, can I run the 5500 XT in a pcie 3 x16 slot?
My mobo is an Asus Rampage 4 extreme
 
I have been digging a bit further and Im getting more confused. According to the spec sheet my card can support resolutions via display port (version 1.2) of upto Max Resolution: 4096x2160 @ 50 Hz
https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-290-GAMING-4G/Specification#top

If I look at the specs for the 290X which was a more powerful card its max resolution is lower @ 2560x1600 - I think this is where my original assumption came from
https://uk.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-290X-GAMING-4G/Specification


As I want a monitor to edit photo's I was looking at 60hz monitors, can i change refresh rate via the OSD or is it fixed? Will display port 1.2 drive a monitor @ 4096x2160 @ 50 Hz

Feel like Im going around in circles a bit...
 
Anyone help me out here? Im looking to see if I can get a new monitor without having to replace my entire machine which is still plenty fast enough for me.

Im looking to be able to drive a 3440 x 1440 screen, there are a few here that have given me the upgrade itch as my Dell is 10 yrs old now and working from home has shown its limitations

Q1
I have a Rampage IV extreme X79 which supports PCI-3 (just). Will the latest Gfx cards work in it, Im talking maybe a 580 or a 5500XT, this mobo would have been PCI-e 3.0. AoE2 is all I play on the PC, so a basic card will do me fine

Q2
Im running dual 290's (bought here in 2013) I believe they support DP v1.2 according to this link, is confusing and the UK site gives me the more modern card, but the .com site has the following spec
https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-290-GAMING-4G/Specification#top - it claims via DP1.2 to have a top resolution of 4096x2160 @ 50 Hz - do I even need a new gfx card?

Will there be any issues with the different display port versions

I want to make sure I have what I need all together to make this work..
 
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Current owner of a ultrawide 1440p 21:9 monitor here. Ran this monitor on all types of gfx cards. R9 Fury, RX 550, R9 7950 and currently running on my RX Vega 64. I'm not sure about crossfire. Never used it
 
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All graphics card will work on PCIe 3.0 fine, with the only exception to the RX 5500XT which I heard runs abit slower on PCIe 3.0 compared to 4.0.

3440 x 1440 is very hard to run games in general. But AoE2 should be easy to run (I hope)
 
edgedemon said:
If I look at the specs for the 290X which was a more powerful card its max resolution is lower @ 2560x1600
Click to expand...

Max resolution can depend upon the output port used. I'm not sure that 3440x1440 monitors were a thing when your GPU was first produced, so I'd just give it a whirl and see if it works.
 
You should be fine to run 3440x1440 with displayport 1.2 (definitely at 60hz anyway)

PCI-e 4.0 cards are backward compatible with PCI-e 3.0 mobos
 
Burnt_Custard said:
All graphics card will work on PCIe 3.0 fine, with the only exception to the RX 5500XT which I heard runs abit slower on PCIe 3.0 compared to 4.0.

3440 x 1440 is very hard to run games in general. But AoE2 should be easy to run (I hope)
Click to expand...

I will look into this as it looks like Im going to have to get a 5500XT as freesync is before my cards time...

edit - thanks for the heads up on this but I will be OK I think - it looks like the earlier versions of the card with 4Gb of VRAM had issues as once the buffer filled it would dump everything to the system RAM across the PCIe bus, this was less of a problem with the 8Gb card version

Burnt_Custard said:
All graphics card will work on PCIe 3.0 fine, with the only exception to the RX 5500XT which I heard runs abit slower on PCIe 3.0 compared to 4.0.

3440 x 1440 is very hard to run games in general. But AoE2 should be easy to run (I hope)
Click to expand...

Thats good to know, but I might have to change the card in any case, my 290's are pre-freesync so they don't support that unless it is a software/driver feature brought in.

I don't mind too much if the 5500XT is slower in PCIe 3, its just has to drive the monitor.

One thing this has taught me though is that it is probably time to upgrade as its looking like I can't leave it much longer, just a simple monitor upgrade means a new gfx card. Shame as this system is plenty fast enough for photo editing, time to start saving for the next Zen refresh..

Will still test and see how I get on..
 
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Looks Like I got lucky - 290 drives the monitor without issue and Im able to play AoE just fine though the mouse does 'stick' for a second or two occasionally. Good old X79, a superb platform and it now means that I can choose to wait for AM5 and start saving. I will start the upgrade process with the new gfx refresh in a couple of months, the advantage of a 60hz IPS panel is that it wont take that much of an upgrade to drive any content at 60fps @ 60hz so I won't need a top end card..
 
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