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Gtx 970 or R9 390x

xiorell

xiorell

xiorell

Associate
Joined
19 May 2015
Posts
141
Right guys

To be put on a z170 board with an i5 6600k and 16gb ram

I was all set to get the gtx970 but I'm considering (again) the r9 390x (probably MSI's one to match the motherboard)

The motherboard does not support sli but DOES do crossfire so there's that upgrade path in future with the AMD cards however that'd probably require a PSU upgrade too (evga 750w GQ). That being said the power draw on the nVidia stuff is nice, as is physx support even if its not that widely used

Will be gaming at 1080p for now but might well look into 1440p or 4k later, I am interested in running 3x 22-to-24 inch monitors for gaming though (although that's also a future consideration)
 
If you want to keep the card for 4k/vr then AMD

3.5gb of Vram is the main consideration there imo. I'd also say got for a 390 and just overclock it - 1100mhz will make it faster than a 980.
 
I think the MSI one is at 1100mhz
Vr will be of interest to, I think the 970 meets oculus recommended spec, but elite dangerous given reqs for vr seem mental
 
xiorell said:
Think the i5 6600k would struggle to keep up with 2x 390x or we good on that front (if and when the time came)
Click to expand...

Erm yea i would think it would struggle with 2 of any top end cards tbh.
There probably would be a slight bottleneck in quite a few top end games, especially cpu dependant ones.

A decent overclocked i7 would do a much better job. 4.2ghz i7 would be a nice starting point.
The i5 even at 4.5ghz would probably struggle to do a better job than the i7 at 4.2Ghz with SLI or xfire.
 
Ok
That's all future considerations anyway, I have ordered the i5 as its more than man enough for now but also has a place in my plans when I move to the i7 later (going into a mini itx along with the cooler and power, should I need to upgrade that)

What's the scenario with 3x 1080p (free sync) monitors on a single 390x, is that gonna be crawling to unplayable levels?
 
the i5 will cope fine with 2x sli or xfire. Overclocking the 390 does not make it "faster" than a 980 if you mean FPS in games. I know this as i can run our 390 @ 1200 and my 980 is still giving better FPS results. The problem im having is the 390 is so hot it heats the room up so much especially when overclocking.

TBH i would grab a 390, Its cheaper than a 390x and not far off in terms of grunt. the 970 sort of sits in a lonely place at the moment. Technically is a more advanced card as it near matches the 390 but using nearly 50% less electric. now i dont care about this from a cost point of view however it certainly makes a huge difference in the amount of heat it kicks out if that is going to bother you.

the 390 is a sweet spot for FPS per £ at the moment closely followed by the 970. just depends what your after. I got the 390 to give it a whirl and its good now i have got past many driver issues but the heat does my head in personally.

Edit i agree and i7 will do it better but the i5 will not be holding you back much.
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys
Traditionally I've been an AMD fanboy anyway.
If I'm gonna go with 390 cards I might as well pony up for the X version and be done with it.
The MSI one seems a safe bet or the sapphire but their card is a bit gigantic.

What about running one of these super wide monitors (2650x1080) on the 390x, should that be a decent match?
 
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xiorell said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys
Traditionally I've been an AMD fanboy anyway.
If I'm gonna go with 390 cards I might as well pony up for the X version and be done with it.
The MSI one seems a safe bet or the sapphire but their card is a bit gigantic.

What about running one of these super wide monitors on the 390x, should that be a decent match?
Click to expand...
shappire nitro 30cm, MSI 27cm, if i have enough space i would pick the sapphire nitro, as long as the monitor is freesync, the card should be able to do well in QHD, or a crossfire for 4k.
i saw a post on pcper about an Oled wide freesync monitor i dont know if it's out yet, that would be cool :p
 
Any reason for picking the sapphire?
The ultra wide thing (assuming it works how I imagine, researching now) might be a decent compromise between 1 large monitor or 3 smaller ones in triple setup
 
xiorell said:
Ok
That's all future considerations anyway, I have ordered the i5 as its more than man enough for now but also has a place in my plans when I move to the i7 later (going into a mini itx along with the cooler and power, should I need to upgrade that)
Click to expand...

You're not going to be going sli or crossfire on that unless you get a dual chip card.
 
xiorell said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys
Traditionally I've been an AMD fanboy anyway.
If I'm gonna go with 390 cards I might as well pony up for the X version and be done with it.
The MSI one seems a safe bet or the sapphire but their card is a bit gigantic.

What about running one of these super wide monitors (2650x1080) on the 390x, should that be a decent match?
Click to expand...

The MSi 390X is a very very nice card .... all though overpriced ...
 
xiorell said:
Any reason for picking the sapphire?
The ultra wide thing (assuming it works how I imagine, researching now) might be a decent compromise between 1 large monitor or 3 smaller ones in triple setup
Click to expand...

Afaik the sapphire cooler is the best of all AMD cards. Usually gets low temps with a low fan speed of around 60% hence more room for overclocking. I think most cards set fan speed at around 70%- 80% so once you overclock the fans may have to run to near 100% which is not good.
 
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nashathedog said:
You're not going to be going sli or crossfire on that unless you get a dual chip card.
Click to expand...

Why can't I crossfire with i7(or even i5)?
Or was you referring to mini itx? Coz I wasn't saying I wanted to xfire on a mini itx build, I meant that if I upgraded my cpu later, in order to feed a xfire 390x setup, then the i5 I take out would get recycled into a mITX rig
 
My MSI runs 100% fan speed with a temp of 65-70 in COD and in Tomb raider, Oh my god that game works your card. 100% fan speed with 94c if going AMD get the best cooler you can in certain games they get very hot.
 
Randall8686 said:
My MSI runs 100% fan speed with a temp of 65-70 in COD and in Tomb raider, Oh my god that game works your card. 100% fan speed with 94c if going AMD get the best cooler you can in certain games they get very hot.
Click to expand...

I would make a separate thread with this info. That's not right, not by a long way, you have somesort of problem here.
 
humbug said:
I would make a separate thread with this info. That's not right, not by a long way, you have somesort of problem here.
Click to expand...

Yes..Looks like the card needs new thermal paste. No way should a non-reference cooler hit 94C with any game or even Furmark..
 
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