Really can't choose between Nvidia or AMD for next upgrade.

nitram100 · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:33

Hi guys,

I have just sold my 7950 for a great price on Ebay thanks to the whole bitcoin thing and have about £400 in total for my next upgrade.

The main game I play is Planetside 2, which I believe is better with Nvidia and am looking forward to playing Star Citizen which will use Mantle, also the new EA games such as Battlefront will use Mantle. I did buy Battlefield 4 but thought it was rubbish.

AMD have the whole mantle thing.

Nvidia have shadow play, gysnc (which I am very interested in) and Physx.

So basically it boils down to either a 290 with custom cooler or a 780.

Are AMD likely to get a gsync/shadow play equivalent? Are Nvidia likely to get access to mantle?

Damn, choosing a card used to be so easy! :rolleyes:

Just to add, I am not interested in bitcoin stuff at al and I play at 1080.

Thanks for any info guys.

random_matt · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:38

Either good, however, AMD is way better value.

arc@css · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:40

ICDP · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:42

I went from a HD7950 to GTX780 (MSI Gaming) and overall the GTX780 was around 25% faster. I have since purchased an R9 290 and flashed it to R9 290X and at stock it is another ~15% faster than on average than the GTX780.

For info Star Citizen is getting GPU PhysX so that may sway your decision in favour of Nvidia.

Geeman1979 · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:44

Fulax · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:45

random_matt said:
Either good, however, AMD is way better value.

At £400? Non-reference 290s will cost around that, as will 780s. Similar cards, similar price. And a 780 will come with 3 free games. At best you'll get BF4 with a 290 these days, and that is, to quote the OP, rubbish.

alex_123_fra · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:48

I just did something similar after selling my 7990 for a good price. Was very torn between R290s and 780s. The R290s are superb value especially if buying reference cards.

In the end went for a 780 Classified. I think at the sort of clocks I expect from it (1300-1400 MHz core), it will actually perform at 290X+ territory (if not reference 780 ti levels).

Marine-RX179 · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:51

For Star Citizen, I got a strong feeling that it would be very CPU demanding. If strictly talking about this game, I think between the GTX780 and the 290 it would be down to if you want:
a) PhysX effect- (not sure how good or bad would it be, but hope it ain't like how it was added to AC4 like an afterthought) go GTX780. G-sync will only work if you are getting a new monitor that support it (which would cost another £300-£400)
b) Better performance- 290 with Mantle has very good potential in reducing stress placed on the CPU, thus you will have less CPU bottleneck and much more likely to consistantly maintain 100% GPU usage comparing to the GTX780, plus further increase the performance of the graphic card itself as well and pull even further away from the GTX780.

As for PS2, while Nvidia card does performance better than AMD card, but for cards of GTX780 and 290 level it would probably make very little difference, as both cards performance would be around the same with the game being so heavily CPU limited.

MofoKilla · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:51

nitram100 · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:52

Thanks for the input guys, are we likely to see big fps difference between Nvidia and AMD when mantle is fully supported in Frostbite 3 games? That's probably my biggest concern, that mantle will enable AMD cards like the 290 to pull away and spank 780's.

Rroff · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:52

Your pretty much in silicon lottery getting ~1300+ out of a 780 (without lots of volts and possibly slightly higher end cooler than even the non-reference coolers). Mine will just about hit it with a bit of extra voltage on the WF3 cooler but thats its limit without going crazy.

Was a decision I went back and forth over a lot - not that I'd have bought a 290 personally - but I was also considering that first round of Maxwell cards possibly aren't that long off now - but then saw the 780 GHZ on a "today only" deal at a price I couldn't turn down heh and so far have absolutely no regrets.

arc@css · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:53

Bearing in mind the cpu he has, I doubt he has to worry much at all about bottlenecks at the moment.

TheRealDeal · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:57

ICDP said:
I went from a HD7950 to GTX780 (MSI Gaming) and overall the GTX780 was around 25% faster. I have since purchased an R9 290 and flashed it to R9 290X and at stock it is another ~15% faster than on average than the GTX780.

For info Star Citizen is getting GPU PhysX so that may sway your decision in favour of Nvidia.

It's also getting mantle. I reckon mantle will help in star citizen more than a couple of physx effects will make you go that looks nice. The more i see of star citizen the more i think it's gonna be demanding. In an mmo that you play a lot effects go down the drain as you see them constantly. Performance is more a must imo opinion.

Fulax · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:59

nitram100 said:
Thanks for the input guys, are we likely to see big fps difference between Nvidia and AMD when mantle is fully supported in Frostbite 3 games?

Nobody knows

nitram100 · 22 Dec 2013 at 17:59

I would choose A 290 in a heartbeat if I knew that AMD would be getting some form of gsync equivalent.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Dec 2013 at 18:02

arc@css said:
Bearing in mind the cpu he has, I doubt he has to worry much at all about bottlenecks at the moment.

For MMOs I'm not so sure about that. Take other mmos such as Guild Wars 2 for example...my i5 2500K at 4.80GHz was still getting dips down to around 30fps due to CPU bottleneck.

I got a strong feeling that Star Citizen would be even tougher on the CPU than Guild Wars 2 does...

arc@css · 22 Dec 2013 at 18:05

Marine-RX179 said:
For MMOs I'm not so sure about that. Take other mmos such as Guild Wars 2 for example...my i5 2500K at 4.80GHz was still getting dips down to around 30fps due to CPU bottleneck.

I got a strong feeling that Star Citizen would be even tougher on the CPU than Guild Wars 2 does...

I guess time will tell. Although it will still only be early days when Mantle is first upon us, it will be interesting nonetheless to see just how much difference it makes.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Dec 2013 at 18:13

arc@css said:
I guess time will tell. Although it will still only be early days when Mantle is first upon us, it will be interesting nonetheless to see just how much difference it makes.

IMHO, Star Citizen is still quite a long way away from release.

Considering his main game now is just PS2- which is heavily CPU limited...which the chance are the GTX780 or the 290 would barely be any faster than the GTX770 and 280x where it counts the most (the heavy battle scenes). I think he should probably just grab either a GTX770 or 280x to use till the release of Star Citizen and then upgrade again once how the PhysX (and G-Sync if he's getting a support monitor as well) and Mantle perform in it become known? That way he would be able to make a much more informed decision than just basing on guessing right now?

MichaelM · 22 Dec 2013 at 18:22

If I wanted plug and play at this very second I would go with - Gigabyte 780 WF on special

If I had the time for something to play around with for maximum overclockers antics - R290 and a water block.

two00lbwaster · 22 Dec 2013 at 18:23

Well, it looks like, save for Physx, you may just be able to have your cake and eat it with AMD.
Also, if you think that you can hold out until the end of the month, only nine days from now (and you'll have to wait anyway for AMD AiB R9 290s), some of your questions may be answered regarding Mantle. From what I've read, 20% improvement is easy (likely in part due to reduced driver CPU overhead and contention) and up to 50% is possible.

There's a thread further down this board about AMD's shadow play equivalent that should be coming, here.
And a few pages over there's this forum post about AMD who may be coming up with a gsync alternative in the future (and it'll probably work with either manufacturers cards in the future.)