R9 280X

Jonnygrunge · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:16

Hi all,

Last January I invested significantly on a PC upgrade. Part of the build, spending at the time around £520 on two shiny new VGA cards, albeit HD7900 series refresh! The ASUS 280X DCUII TOP's were very well reviewed.
Since then I have to say I have been dogged with problems: all new AAA games titles on release require a custom profile to get crossfire working! SMAA does not appear to work at all with dual cards! AMD drivers are quickly becoming as common as a 3Dfx Voodoo 2!
I have waited, like everyone else, for almost 4 months on a driver release, only to get a Beta! and profiles for 6 month old games (FC4).
I still do not have VSR technology for my cards! If I recall AMD promised this on all GCN GPUs. On the plus side I do now have Free Sync monitor support, excuse me while I pull the trigger and blow £500 on a monitor to enable this!
I have to say, I am very fed up, and reading across the web I am not the only one!
I have been very loyal to AMD, my only green card was a BFG 880GTX OC2 which I owned about 7 years back, all other purchases have been high end AMD GPU's (4870x2, HD5870 and 6970 crossfire)
When are AMD going to focus more on customer support and release drivers that we really want? Ones that work properly with AAA games, and with plenty of functionality across all cards, crossfire RAM stacking for instance? We invest in their products, AMD it appears, do not seem to invest in customer satisfaction, and are only concerned it seems with GCN 1.1 and above!
Have they totally given up with GCN 1.0?
What happened also to the CAP's? We used to get these for all major new releases.
NVidia certainly have very good hardware and software at the moment, good customer focus, and honesty regarding the 970 VRAM issues.
Lets see what the 380X and Hybrid Memory Cube brings to the table? As I am due to upgrade in around 8 months time!
I also feel that given the lack of support for my 280X's they could be legacy cards very soon! Which I think is a disgrace.

Just my 2 cents, from an angry middle aged gamer!

thebennyboy · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:31

I understand your frustrations, another 280X Crossfire user here. CAPs have been poor lately but hopefully that'll change now that Freesync is out. I'm sure AMDMatt will check in soon to answer some of your questions.

I asked when we are getting VSR for my 280X's and we are getting it, just that it may take longer. We were meant to get VSR in Jan/Feb, that didn't materialise. Roll on March still no sign of it, we are still meant to be getting it. I'm personally not holding my breath though.

Born_2_Kill_83 · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:41

Nearly word from word the same as my rant yesterday, I've since bought a Nvidia card, had enough of AMD's ****e.

FC4 was the start of it for me, last year I booked the day off for what was going to be my game of the year, I purchased 2 290X's after doing all my homework this was going to be the best bang to play this game, launch day came and I could barely hit 25FPS, next to unplayable, I waited and waited thinking they would fix the crossfire problem and sure enough the drivers came a few days later, NO CROSSFIRE SUPPORT, FC4 6 months later now has CF support. Dying light is still to get CF. Disgusting support.

I gave AMD £800 of my money, they gave me next to nothing in return, might as well of used the CD drivers out the box, won't be revisiting anytime soon.

africanos23 · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:46

Subscribed :cool:

Waiting for huge blocks of random text....

Goose · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:47

Jonnygrunge said:
On the plus side I do now have Free Sync monitor support, excuse me file I pull the trigger and blow £500 on a monitor to enable this!

No you dont, 280x does not support Freesync

Jonnygrunge · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:50

Goose said:
No you dont, 280x does not support Freesync

Wow! It gets better! :eek:

northwestdakota · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:53

I must admit as someone that has decided to wait on the 390x, posts like this worry me. I see way more frustrated AMD users than Nvidia.

J.D · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:08

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles.

Hopefully something happens very soon to start repairing the relationship between AMD and their consumers. I don't know the reasons why there has been such a delay but I do know that AMD (or any company) wants nothing more than customer satisfaction with their products. So I hold high hope that extra steps are being put in place that will prevent situations like this running as long as it has in the future. It's not always been like this with AMD but I really do not understand the reason for the delays. All I know is that AMD will bounce back but for some, it's already too late.

Hopefully soon AMD can put a bandage on these wounds and let the healing commence. It's in their hands now, if they fail to deliver then they will lose custom to Nvidia.

africanos23 said:
Subscribed

Waiting for huge blocks of random text....

DangerMouse!!.

JediFragger · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:12

J.D said:
I'm sorry to hear about your troubles.

Hopefully something happens very soon to start repairing the relationship between AMD and their consumers. I don't know the reasons why there has been such a delay but I do know that AMD (or any company) wants nothing more than customer satisfaction with their products. So I hold high hope that extra steps are being put in place that will prevent situations like this running as long as it has in the future. It's not always been like this with AMD but I really do not understand the reason for the delays. All I know is that AMD will bounce back but for some, it's already too late.

Hopefully soon AMD can put a bandage on these wounds and let the healing commence. It's in their hands now, if they fail to deliver then they will lose custom to Nvidia.

DangerMouse!!.

They've created a lot of damage with their grassroots imo, it's going to take a good while to repair (that's IF they can be bothered to try and fix it or make the effort).

Good luck AMD, I hope you do it as we need the competition!!!

P4Clock · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:17

I dont see the problem with them? my second rig is running two OC'ed 7970's and all runs fine.

What games are ppl having problems with?

arc@css · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:22

P4Clock said:
What games are ppl having problems with?

The ones you're not playing.

nashathedog · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:31

The new drivers haven't done anything for issues like the single figure fps water bug in Revelations 2 with my 290x or the 1 to 2 second judders in Tales from the Borderlands which are really annoying.

I was waiting on the 390x, I mean to tread very carefully with my next purchase. We haven't all got money too burn, It takes me 2 - 3 months to save up around 500 quid to blow on a component. And I'm sick of feeling like I got screwed.

Jonnygrunge · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:32

arc@css said:
The ones you're not playing.

Superb!

rolypolyman · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:37

Jonnygrunge said:
Hi all,

Last January I invested significantly on a PC upgrade. Part of the build, spending at the time around £520 on two shiny new VGA cards, albeit HD7900 series refresh! The ASUS 280X DCUII TOP's were very well reviewed.
Since then I have to say I have been dogged with problems: all new AAA games titles on release require a custom profile to get crossfire working! SMAA does not appear to work at all with dual cards! AMD drivers are quickly becoming as common as a 3Dfx Voodoo 2!
I have waited, like everyone else, for almost 4 months on a driver release, only to get a Beta! and profiles for 6 month old games (FC4).
I still do not have VSR technology for my cards! If I recall AMD promised this on all GCN GPUs. On the plus side I do now have Free Sync monitor support, excuse me while I pull the trigger and blow £500 on a monitor to enable this!
I have to say, I am very fed up, and reading across the web I am not the only one!
I have been very loyal to AMD, my only green card was a BFG 880GTX OC2 which I owned about 7 years back, all other purchases have been high end AMD GPU's (4870x2, HD5870 and 6970 crossfire)
When are AMD going to focus more on customer support and release drivers that we really want? Ones that work properly with AAA games, and with plenty of functionality across all cards, crossfire RAM stacking for instance? We invest in their products, AMD it appears, do not seem to invest in customer satisfaction, and are only concerned it seems with GCN 1.1 and above!
Have they totally given up with GCN 1.0?
What happened also to the CAP's? We used to get these for all major new releases.
NVidia certainly have very good hardware and software at the moment, good customer focus, and honesty regarding the 970 VRAM issues.
Lets see what the 380X and Hybrid Memory Cube brings to the table? As I am due to upgrade in around 8 months time!
I also feel that given the lack of support for my 280X's they could be legacy cards very soon! Which I think is a disgrace.

Just my 2 cents, from an angry middle aged gamer!

Agree with a lot of what you say BUT 'NVidia certainly have very good hardware and software at the moment, good customer focus, and honesty regarding the 970 VRAM issues. '

cant agree with 'honesty regarding the 970 Vram issues' Will never buy from Nvidia again after the way they dealt or sorry failed to deal with their very loyal customers, they were pitiful to be honest and unfortunately that leaves me with Amd whom I'm not exactly thrilled with at the moment either after their abysmal efforts with the latest driver. Very difficult at the moment with graphics card prices getting stupid money for very little extra grunt, I feel we are deliberately being drip fed little increases in performance every 9months to a year and expected to fork out wads of money. Not good enough to be honest and we desperately need more players to give both Nvidia and Amd a big kick up the backside. My rant over.

Marine-RX179 · 23 Mar 2015 at 22:43

rolypolyman said:
Agree with a lot of what you say BUT 'NVidia certainly have very good hardware and software at the moment, good customer focus, and honesty regarding the 970 VRAM issues. '

cant agree with 'honesty regarding the 970 Vram issues' Will never buy from Nvidia again after the way they dealt or sorry failed to deal with their very loyal customers, they were pitiful to be honest

Nvidia's "honesty" regarding the 970 memory scandal is as honest as a guy admitted to his wife he's been having an affair, AFTER being caught with another woman in bed by his wife

Jonnygrunge · 23 Mar 2015 at 23:54

rolypolyman said:
Agree with a lot of what you say BUT 'NVidia certainly have very good hardware and software at the moment, good customer focus, and honesty regarding the 970 VRAM issues. '

cant agree with 'honesty regarding the 970 Vram issues' Will never buy from Nvidia again after the way they dealt or sorry failed to deal with their very loyal customers, they were pitiful to be honest and unfortunately that leaves me with Amd whom I'm not exactly thrilled with at the moment either after their abysmal efforts with the latest driver. Very difficult at the moment with graphics card prices getting stupid money for very little extra grunt, I feel we are deliberately being drip fed little increases in performance every 9months to a year and expected to fork out wads of money. Not good enough to be honest and we desperately need more players to give both Nvidia and Amd a big kick up the backside. My rant over.

Marine-RX179 said:
Nvidia's "honesty" regarding the 970 memory scandal is as honest as a guy admitted to his wife he's been having an affair, AFTER being caught with another woman in bed by his wife

LOL

The point I was trying to make by saying "honesty" (not the best choice of word!) was that NVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at least went public and released a statement regarding the VRAM issue, yes I know it was well after the issue was discovered! On the flipside all we seem to get from AMD, is there will be a fix for this in the near future! Kind of body swerving the issue! VSR, crossfire profiles, the list goes on....

Phixsator · 24 Mar 2015 at 00:08

Born_2_Kill_83 said:
Nearly word from word the same as my rant yesterday, I've since bought a Nvidia card, had enough of AMD's ****e.

FC4 was the start of it for me, last year I booked the day off for what was going to be my game of the year, I purchased 2 290X's after doing all my homework this was going to be the best bang to play this game, launch day came and I could barely hit 25FPS, next to unplayable, I waited and waited thinking they would fix the crossfire problem and sure enough the drivers came a few days later, NO CROSSFIRE SUPPORT, FC4 6 months later now has CF support. Dying light is still to get CF. Disgusting support.

I gave AMD £800 of my money, they gave me next to nothing in return, might as well of used the CD drivers out the box, won't be revisiting anytime soon.

Its a bit silly to blame AMD for your poor FarCry 4 performance considering 2 titans was cr*p performance as well. Dont forget it is a UBIsoft title and it shipped rather poorly.

Marine-RX179 · 24 Mar 2015 at 00:37

Phixsator said:
Its a bit silly to blame AMD for your poor FarCry 4 performance considering 2 titans was cr*p performance as well. Dont forget it is a UBIsoft title and it shipped rather poorly.

More like the recent releases of Ubisoft that hit the shelves have not even left beta, and they have been left in such a state and the developer/publisher already moved on to working on their next annual release more of the same

tommybhoy · 24 Mar 2015 at 00:53

Jonnygrunge said:
The point I was trying to make by saying "honesty" (not the best choice of word!) was that NVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at least went public and released a statement regarding the VRAM issue, yes I know it was well after the issue was discovered!

In his 'honest' statement, he misdirected again but obviously it worked.

We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer

Kepler Jen-Hsun?

660ti had partitioned memory management too(1.5Gb@144GB/sec and .5Gb@48GB/sec).

Bottom line though, AMD mgpu profile support went awol after Omega, AMD mgpu driver support was great, then it fell off a cliff, I will wait and see what comes next be it more of the same or back to normal-that will ultimately sway what my next purchase will be.

Jonnygrunge · 24 Mar 2015 at 09:55

Let's hope that Matt can answer some of these very relevant questions. Looks like AMD are loosing custom over this!