spec me a Graphics card

ShiWarrior · 14 Aug 2016 at 19:29

Hey all

I am currently toying with the idea of upgrading my graphics card

I've been out of the loop for many years, and I have absolutely no idea what is best bang for buck anymore...

Spec in sig

I was thinking about buying second hand, selling my card and having say, £100 towards another one

or is that a bad idea these days and spend a little more ?

any help much appreciated

thanks

Aretak · 14 Aug 2016 at 19:41

For, say, £150 after selling the 7850, you could pick up an R9 290 or probably an R9 290X, which can't be beat for the money. I got the 290X I'm currently using from eBay for £130 last week, boxed and in mint condition. Of course, you can access the MM on here as well, which might be better. They still offer fantastic performance for that sort of money (and a large leap over a 7850), although avoid the reference ones at all costs.

yoyo59 · 14 Aug 2016 at 19:54

Aretak said:
For, say, £150 after selling the 7850, you could pick up an R9 290 or probably an R9 290X, which can't be beat for the money. I got the 290X I'm currently using from eBay for £130 last week, boxed and in mint condition. Of course, you can access the MM on here as well, which might be better. They still offer fantastic performance for that sort of money (and a large leap over a 7850), although avoid the reference ones at all costs.

has the requirement changed for MM or? sorry for hijacking the thread lol

ShiWarrior · 14 Aug 2016 at 19:56

no problem

I think its 1000 posts (been like that for a long time I think)

thanks Aretak

arc@css · 14 Aug 2016 at 20:02

The 290 series is a great suggestion. You could also consider an RX 470, which would be around twice as fast as your 7850 (though slightly slower than the 290X).

Actually, going by the prices of the 470, I'd jump on a 290 if you can find one for sensible money (the cheapest 470 on here looks to be about £170).

This never ends well · 14 Aug 2016 at 21:04

Reference 290's are not that bad, i got mine on the mm now and my max temps are 72c with 72% fan speed, if you game with an headset you cannot hear it.

ShiWarrior · 14 Aug 2016 at 21:13

arc@css said:
The 290 series is a great suggestion. You could also consider an RX 470, which would be around twice as fast as your 7850 (though slightly slower than the 290X).

Actually, going by the prices of the 470, I'd jump on a 290 if you can find one for sensible money (the cheapest 470 on here looks to be about £170).

sounds good thanks

yoyo59 · 14 Aug 2016 at 22:13

you should be able to pick up a gtx 970 used with your old card + £100, ive seen loads for 150

ShiWarrior · 15 Aug 2016 at 16:46

yoyo59 said:
you should be able to pick up a gtx 970 used with your old card + £100, ive seen loads for 150

how does that compare to the 290x ?

Aretak · 15 Aug 2016 at 17:03

ShiWarrior said:
how does that compare to the 290x ?

Generally slightly behind (and massively so in DX12/Vulkan titles), although it uses close to 100W less power.

ShiWarrior · 15 Aug 2016 at 17:07

Aretak said:
Generally slightly behind (and massively so in DX12/Vulkan titles), although it uses close to 100W less power.

so you are saying that the 290x is the better card ?

Aretak · 15 Aug 2016 at 17:15

ShiWarrior said:
so you are saying that the 290x is the better card ?

My personal opinion is that a 290X will serve you much better if you plan to keep it for a couple of years or more, given that we're going to see a lot of DX12 (and hopefully some Vulkan) titles going forwards and they really shine there. Plus it generally matches or slightly beats the 970 in DX11 anyway, as well as having a full 4GB of full speed VRAM versus the 970's 3.5GB. And finally there's the fact that it will continue to benefit from driver optimisations going forwards thanks to AMD sticking to the GCN architecture and last year's 390(X) being rebrands of the 290(X), whereas Nvidia have historically dropped their previous lineup like it's hot in that respect as soon as a new one arrives.

However, others will disagree, and if you're not planning for a long-term period of ownership, the 970 is still keeping its head above water and should provide acceptable performance for now.

ShiWarrior · 15 Aug 2016 at 17:37

Aretak said:
My personal opinion is that a 290X will serve you much better if you plan to keep it for a couple of years or more, given that we're going to see a lot of DX12 (and hopefully some Vulkan) titles going forwards and they really shine there. Plus it generally matches or slightly beats the 970 in DX11 anyway, as well as having a full 4GB of full speed VRAM versus the 970's 3.5GB. And finally there's the fact that it will continue to benefit from driver optimisations going forwards thanks to AMD sticking to the GCN architecture and last year's 390(X) being rebrands of the 290(X), whereas Nvidia have historically dropped their previous lineup like it's hot in that respect as soon as a new one arrives.

However, others will disagree, and if you're not planning for a long-term period of ownership, the 970 is still keeping its head above water and should provide acceptable performance for now.

but the 970 is more expensive? so I cant see the point of what you and the others are saying about the 290x

Aretak · 15 Aug 2016 at 18:27

ShiWarrior said:
but the 970 is more expensive? so I cant see the point of what you and the others are saying about the 290x

Not quite sure what you're suggesting. That the 970 must be better because it's more expensive maybe? Nvidia cards tend to command a higher price on the used market due to their dominance and brand loyalty. Just recently I sold my GTX 780 for more than I paid for the 290X I'm currently using, despite the fact that it's a way back in terms of performance and has less VRAM. People pay more for Nvidia cards based on the name alone. There's also the fact that the 970 is a year newer than the 290X, so people are expecting to get more for them. Plus the 970 does have the advantage of not requiring as beefy a PSU and putting out less heat, which is important for some people.

Anyway, you know what I think and there's plenty of performance numbers out there to base a decision on. You'd be best off looking at 390X numbers for the 290X, as it's the exact same card with more VRAM and (generally) more aggressive factory overclocks, and AMD's drivers have improved a lot since the 290X's original release.

ShiWarrior · 15 Aug 2016 at 18:35

cheers

well, I see OcUK are selling an R470 for £170 which isn't bad really?

Aretak · 15 Aug 2016 at 18:43

Yeah, there's also that. It's ~10% slower, but you do get the benefit of much lower power usage (less than the 970 even) and buying brand new with a warranty to back you up. Plus it's a newer revision of the GCN architecture with the potential for more to be squeezed from it, whilst Hawaii/Grenada must have been mined dry at this point.

Lots of options to consider.

ShiWarrior · 17 Aug 2016 at 15:03

is there any brand to go for, from what ive read, MSI or Sapphire seems to be the best ones ?
also, is a Sapphire R9 290x Tri-x worth getting over the normal 290x ?

SiDeards73 · 17 Aug 2016 at 15:25

ShiWarrior said:
is there any brand to go for, from what ive read, MSI or Sapphire seems to be the best ones ?
also, is a Sapphire R9 290x Tri-x worth getting over the normal 290x ?

The 290x Tri-X smashes the normal 290X apart, it has a higher clock, better components, and most importantly is better cooled, its night and day in difference with regards to cooling and noise, and the factory OC puts it ahead in performance.

Due to the better design and cooling it will also overclock a lot better on air.

ShiWarrior · 17 Aug 2016 at 15:33

SiDeards73 said:
The 290x Tri-X smashes the normal 290X apart, it has a higher clock, better components, and most importantly is better cooled, its night and day in difference with regards to cooling and noise, and the factory OC puts it ahead in performance.

Due to the better design and cooling it will also overclock a lot better on air.

if its that good, what can you compare it to ?

also how do you tell if you've bought the 290x Tri-x and not the normal 290 tri x?

SiDeards73 · 17 Aug 2016 at 15:57

ShiWarrior said:
if its that good, what can you compare it to ?

also how do you tell if you've bought the 290x Tri-x and not the normal 290 tri x?

Well the reference card is a blow type, its extremely loud and the card ramps up to about 90c at normal clocks, the fan runs at about 80% or something around this level and is very very noisy, i had a ref 290 and sold it for a Tri-X.

The Tri-X by comparison runs around 65-75c at full tilt and the fans keep around 60% or something and massively quieter in comparison.

If you can bare to watch this video without thinking the guys a serial killer who may potentially track you down and murder you in your bed for watching it, then this video is a good comparison (hes put a 290 Tri-X against a ref 290X, the 290 is about 10% slower than the 290X, but the noise etc and thermals will be almost identical between a 290X tri-X and a 290 Tri-X)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNb8kWa5U0

From 7min onwards he talks about the coolers on the cards, id ignore the benchmarks prior to this as the videos 2 yrs old and the GPU drivers have matured massively since then.