Upgrade now or wait?

Jenkinio · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:18

Morning peeps,

The nice men and women at HMRC gave me a surprise reimbursement of overpaid National Insurance and my mind immediately turns to PC upgrades...

I currently run 2x 7950 in X-fire but would like to run a single card, hopefully with a performance benefit. I've found a few issues with games not running X-fire effectively so I want to move away from that.

I was looking at a 390X and have a few questions about it, which I hope you kind brainy folks can assist with :-)

- is this likely to result in an appreciable performance boost versus my 7950s?
- will it likely run the impending VR sets due in 2016 at any meaningful rate?
- a friend mentioned about new GPU architecture coming soon and said to wait for that. My thought is that if you wait for new tech you'll never buy, but is there sense in waiting?
- is the 390x even the best choice at that price point?

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Jenks

Jono8 · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:22

Wait. New cards are on the horizon. I would at least wait until the end of March as we will likely have lots more news about what is coming and what is coming looks like it might be a pretty big step up from what we have now.

SamyBoy13 · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:26

Personally I would keep these cards until next gen gpu's Pascal. If you game at 1080p there is no need for upgrade. Only if you start to go for 1440p or even 4k you might want to consider an upgrade but even then I would wait. I know they are quiet old cards bust still very capable.

JediFragger · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:35

Polaris is too close to ignore now. If you can make it last you just a few more months then I think it's probably going to be worth it

Jenkinio · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:38

Thanks a lot. So when is the new tech out and what's it called? Polaris?

Ta

alex_123_fra · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:42

Dual 7950s are on par (if not faster) than a single GTX 980. What games are you playing that don't support X-fire?

At 1080, there just isn't a need to upgrade. If you are running higher res such as 1440p, the only cards I'd consider are Fury X, R9 Nano or 980ti or titan x if you want noticeable performance increases. But unless you're turning settings down to make things playable, I'd wait till later in the year when the new stuff is out.

Simon Belmont · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:50

Wait. As others have said new series incoming.

Jenkinio · 20 Feb 2016 at 09:50

Useful info. Thanks guys.

Based on this I'll hold onto my cash and buy later.

Jenkinio · 20 Feb 2016 at 10:04

alex_123_fra said:
Dual 7950s are on par (if not faster) than a single GTX 980. What games are you playing that don't support X-fire?

At 1080, there just isn't a need to upgrade. If you are running higher res such as 1440p, the only cards I'd consider are Fury X, R9 Nano or 980ti or titan x if you want noticeable performance increases.

I've had various issues with X-fire, all resolved by tinkering or driver updates, but it's a bit of an irritation sometimes, although maybe that's just down to AMDs level of software support....

I recall significant issues with Titanfall, which was unplayable in X-fire. TF wasn't the biggest challenge to the cards, but I was running eyefinity (1080) at the time so I had to pull back the settings in order to run through 1 card. Elite Dangerous didn't run well either but I haven't tried since I updated the drivers recently. I now run a 1440 screen and a single card runs ED on ultra at that res, with just draw distance pulled back a tad, so not an issue. Just slightly annoying to know that the second card is sometimes not being utilised, but so far not having any dramatic effects.

Seems clear that these 7950s will tide me through to the next gen, so thanks for the input.

fullmetaltony · 20 Feb 2016 at 12:54

Your friend sounds like he knows what he's talking about

Sin_Chase · 20 Feb 2016 at 14:39

I was going to wait but thought screw it.

There is not even a paper launch of either of the next 2 new cards. I doubt we will see anything before 2H 2016.

AiiR · 20 Feb 2016 at 15:01

Sin_Chase said:
I was going to wait but thought screw it.

There is not even a paper launch of either of the next 2 new cards. I doubt we will see anything before 2H 2016.

Exactly this, there's no hints of a release date or in what order they will release stuff. AMD are cheap right now and a Fury Nano is a great buy.

Terrorfirmer · 20 Feb 2016 at 15:26

alex_123_fra said:
Dual 7950s are on par (if not faster) than a single GTX 980. What games are you playing that don't support X-fire?

X-Fire doesn't scale 100% and in many cases can scale from anything from 10-90%, and often ends up all over the place in between. Anyone with X-Fire setups that plays a decent variety of games can tell you that. I gave up on dual GPU setups for that reason. It was an absolute pain in the arse.

opethdisciple · 20 Feb 2016 at 15:26

I think it's up to you. I always set my self a target and go for it.

Would I wait? Well we are almost in to March. I reckon we are about 4-5 months off.

Given that, a Nano probably isn't a bad buy.

theMilitant · 20 Feb 2016 at 15:45

Just bear in mind that if you do decide to wait that delays and such might mean you're left waiting for more than just a few months for your new card. In any case, crossfire 7950s should last you for a fair while yet at 1080p. VR gaming looks to be quite demanding as the recommended requirements for the rift etc do seem to be pretty high, so one of the new gen cards should serve you well in that regard.

P4Clock · 20 Feb 2016 at 15:59

There is always something to wait for, Upgrade was and when you need to.

Jenkinio · 22 Feb 2016 at 16:57

When I last checked this thread it seemed clear to wait.... Looking at the latest comments it's not so clear now.
I guess release of the new tech may be some months off, then a while before enough tests have been done to truly see which are the ones to buy... Then we have no idea really how good these will be versus current gen and at what price... Decisions, decisions...

Jenkinio · 22 Feb 2016 at 16:59

opethdisciple said:
I think it's up to you. I always set my self a target and go for it.

Would I wait? Well we are almost in to March. I reckon we are about 4-5 months off.

Given that, a Nano probably isn't a bad buy.

I didn't even look at the Nano as I assumed it would be a miniaturised GPU for small devices. Is it a good option for a "normal" sized rig then?
I just looked at some benchmarks and it seems to be tad more powerful than the 390x.

FoxEye · 22 Feb 2016 at 17:30

Jenkinio said:
When I last checked this thread it seemed clear to wait.... Looking at the latest comments it's not so clear now.
I guess release of the new tech may be some months off, then a while before enough tests have been done to truly see which are the ones to buy... Then we have no idea really how good these will be versus current gen and at what price... Decisions, decisions...

There is no right answer. It's a judgement call.

The next significant date is March 14th, when Game Dev Conf is held. Both GPU companies are expected to make announcements about their upcoming GPUs.

Nobody knows currently exactly how far away the new cards are, I'm afraid.