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GPU to replace 5850?

Armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillo

Soldato
Joined
29 Feb 2004
Posts
3,869
I need to upgrade my gpu. Currently I run a 5850.

To give an idea of what I play, most of gaming is indie games really, and most of the stuff I'm looking forward to is the similar sort of stuff (yooka layla, shantae half genie hero), so I've not bothered to change it, but even some indie stuff is starting to strech it (rocket league) and I'd like to get back into some "AAA" games, specifically looking to play mad max, mgs v and tomb raider next year.

I play at 1080p.

Rest of the relavant stuff is

5820K @ stock for now
X99-SLI
16GB
Corsair hx750w
Coolermaster cm690ii.

At 1080p, one of the 4GB r9 380 seem a good fit and good price/performance spot. I "might" be able to strecth the extra for a 970/r9 380.

Not sure if it's worth though based on most of my playing. Benchmarks seem to show most games that the 380 can't get 60 on, neither can the other two (witcher 3 for example) and the benchmarks are normally ultra/max settings anyway. I'm not one that has to have everything enabled.

Other stuff that might be relavant. I don't have a freesync/g-sync monitor, so not tied to a brand. If the die shrink next year brings the gains it suppose to, then I may want to change. I'm not concerned by gpu noise, I game with headphones. Not used, I'm not comfortable with a gpu with no warranty.

Just seems an awful time to buy a gpu and hard choice. So just looking for advice based on the above, as I've not been gpu shopping for a long time :).

Thanks.
 
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970/390.

Reason being, the 380 although a fine card, 2Gb of Vram is very limiting now days. Spend the extra if you think you will get use out of it playing AAA games.
 
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opethdisciple said:
Your better of saying how much cash your happy to splash.
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"At 1080p, one of the 4GB r9 380 seem a good fit and good price/performance spot. I "might" be able to strecth the extra for a 970/r9 380."

So pretty much the above.

I can probably stretch to 970/390 price, so £270ish. I'm just not sure if if it's worth it based on what I'm likely to be playing and it possibly ending up as a stop-gap to the die shrink or if it's best to just go with the 4GB 380 for £170 instead.

I know I can probably pick up a 290 or similar used, for the price of a 380, but would rather stick with new for warranty.
 
Buying a 970 at this stage in the game is beyond stupid. A 390 has better price, better performance, more vram, and isn't gimped in dx12, which let's assume you want to play those games.

Imo go with a 390 if new, else find used 290/x. If you're looking to upgrade next year then a 380 can be okay, but otherwise, stretch for a 390. Go with MSI (for warranty reasons).
 
I just picked up the 390 coming from a 560ti 1gig of vram. Defo the best card for the money at the moment, especially as one of the best versions is on offer this week. Msi edition all the way.

Gta is now maxed out pretty much at 1080p.

Its a fairly big card 11inches and its quite thick also. Just for the heads up if you go with the 390 msi.
 
davewhite04 said:
I'd get this it played everything I threw at it in 1080P. It's quiet and has a good cooling system.
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Too expensive. £270ish is really all I can stretch to.

Poneros said:
Buying a 970 at this stage in the game is beyond stupid. A 390 has better price, better performance, more vram, and isn't gimped in dx12, which let's assume you want to play those games.

Imo go with a 390 if new, else find used 290/x. If you're looking to upgrade next year then a 380 can be okay, but otherwise, stretch for a 390. Go with MSI (for warranty reasons).
Click to expand...

gooseuk said:
I just picked up the 390 coming from a 560ti 1gig of vram. Defo the best card for the money at the moment, especially as one of the best versions is on offer this week. Msi edition all the way.

Gta is now maxed out pretty much at 1080p.

Its a fairly big card 11inches and its quite thick also. Just for the heads up if you go with the 390 msi.
Click to expand...

MSI on this week only is just about in budget.

Size wise, I don't think I should have issue with it. My current 5850 takes 3 slots, so that's fine. It sits in the top slot of the x99-sli and I have no other expansion cards. The lower slots are still clear, so I can use them if I need to.

690ii can take a max of 304. So at 277 it's fine.

I do have two questions on though for those with it.

How much does the backplate add to the back of the card. It looks pretty thin and flat, so should be ok. But I have a big dual tower cooler, so there is only about 10mm clearance between the back of bare pcb of my current card. That clearance is to the fan clips though, not the actual tower. So I guess the clips would be fine resting on a backplate.

Are the power sockets on the back on the side of it like in the pictures. Although the case says 304mm, if the sockets are on the back, it will be a tight fit. My current 5850 has them on the back and it's a bit of squeeze to get it in and it's 10mm shorter than the msi 390.

Other than that. PSU is up to it, as reviews say the 390 is power hungry (not that I'm bothered as long as it can cope).

It's the older hx750 that doesn't have fanless operation. Otherwise specs seem the same as the one of Corsair's site. Four pci-e 8 pin (6+2) and 62A on the 12V.

Thanks.
 
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Armadillo said:
How much does the backplate add to the back of the card. It looks pretty thin and flat, so should be ok. But I have a big dual tower cooler, so there is only about 10mm clearance between the back of bare pcb of my current card. That clearance is to the fan clips though, not the actual tower. So I guess the clips would be fine resting on a backplate.

Are the power sockets on the back on the side of it like in the pictures. Although the case says 304mm, if the sockets are on the back, it will be a tight fit. My current 5850 has them on the back and it's a bit of squeeze to get it in and it's 10mm shorter than the msi 390.
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I don't have the card myself but generally a back plate will add no more than 5mm (on one of my cards the back plate only adds 3mm.) And the power cables come out the top of the card so they will not add to the cards length.
 
I know you said you aren't comfortable with a second hand card so I won't push this, but a 290 can be had for 140 quid 2nd hand and would offer four times the performance of your 5850. That would make it a cheap stop gap on your way to the die shrink next year. Big gains now, gives you room to wait and see what the next gen cards are like, and very low cost per performance. It's basically a 390 for half the price.
 
Devrij said:
I know you said you aren't comfortable with a second hand card so I won't push this, but a 290 can be had for 140 quid 2nd hand and would offer four times the performance of your 5850. That would make it a cheap stop gap on your way to the die shrink next year. Big gains now, gives you room to wait and see what the next gen cards are like, and very low cost per performance. It's basically a 390 for half the price.
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I agree with this.
 
I will try and get some photos up of it later. I have used this on two psu. My 2nd rig when i was having issues with my main rig ( UPDATE BIOS )

2nd rig has a 750 watt i think no major brand on it. And that worked with it.

Main rig has a 850watt corsair and yet again no issues.

Power connectors from the photo are in the correct spot.
 
gooseuk said:


It loaded sideways lol



Some cable management to sort out also.
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Thanks. That looks like it would fit no issue :). 390 is definitely the front runner at new then :).

Devrij said:
I know you said you aren't comfortable with a second hand card so I won't push this, but a 290 can be had for 140 quid 2nd hand and would offer four times the performance of your 5850. That would make it a cheap stop gap on your way to the die shrink next year. Big gains now, gives you room to wait and see what the next gen cards are like, and very low cost per performance. It's basically a 390 for half the price.
Click to expand...

opethdisciple said:
I agree with this.
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Didn't realise they could be had that cheap. Looking around they are regulary going for £140 which is insane.

It's mostly warranty that concerns me with used stuff, but £140 is really cheap for something with that power :eek:.

So on that, a few 290 questions.

1) Any brands to avoid. Bad coolers, running hot, no voltage adjustments etc? Cables on the back instead of the side? Reference designs look like they may run pretty hot. Just in general anything to look out for?

2) Any manafactuers that let anyone claim on it via serial (like intel do). If not, there are no serious problems with the cards? I know any card can have issues at any time, but there are not specific ones that are susceptible to memory dieing or other issues?

3) Best way to test? 3dmark still or somethig else? Given I play a lot of indies, I wouldn't like to it to appear to be fine, leave feedback and then it artifacts playing a AAA/heavy load game. Unlikely, I know, but I still would like to test fully if i go used.

£140 is really cheap though, so probably worth the risk.
 
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I had two sapphire tri x 290s and was very happy with them on all fronts. I think the MSI gaming edition cards ran quite hot (although very quiet) so maybe avoid those if overclocking.
 
Rexton said:
If you don't want secondhand then this is a really good deal

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-362-SP

No brainer really.
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Devrij said:
I had two sapphire tri x 290s and was very happy with them on all fronts. I think the MSI gaming edition cards ran quite hot (although very quiet) so maybe avoid those if overclocking.
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Unfortunately new or used, the Tri-X won't fit. Case has 304mm for the gpu, tri-x is basically that.

Spent the night digging on reviews for the various cards. Seems like stay away from reference otherwise all the two fans seems pretty similar to each other. Same for the handful of the 3 fan cards. MSI one seems to run at about 75C according to most reviews. No hotter than my 5850. Other two fan ones seem much the same.
 
Ah hard luck. Still plenty of decent cards besides the tri x. I think the vapour x is a bit shorter and still very decent
 
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