nVidia Fanboy Here - Moving on from GTX 760 2GB - Should I go AMD?

[EarthDog]

I guess the citations scared him off.

 

[medi01]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_390X_Gaming/

3rd paragraph.

Oh, I see:

"The Radeon R9 390X is based on the "Hawaii" silicon (now referred to as "Grenada" without any silicon changes) and features the same core-configuration as the R9 290X. "

"290x and 390x are confirmed to be identical silicon wise. The memory difference is the best argument for them being different, if anything is." - is now confirmed.


Let me repeat it again (as some seem to have forgotten original point): rebadge is LITERALLY renaming existing product. The only thing that is changing when it is just a rebadge is name.

As opposed to "refresh", which is having different physical characteristics, be it core clock or mem clock, with possible minor tweaks to the chip itself.

 

[EarthDog]

As opposed to "refresh", which is having different physical characteristics, be it core clock or mem clock, with possible minor tweaks to the chip itself.

oh.. so you DO conside a card with more memory and higher clocks differen by name?! So with your logic, a 290x with 8gb and higher clocks is a 290x.5? It's still a 290x bub.. you make no sense and are in denial. And I suppose so is every one like this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290x-8gb,3977.html

Would you look at that... a 290x with 8gb and overclocked!!! And they STILL call it a 290x!!!!

There are no tweaks to the arch.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

GPUZ for HD 7970 reads


AMD Radeon R9 200/ HD 7900 series

 

[RealNeil]

This deserves a little clarification. I have been using a pair of Sapphire 4GB R9-290X Tri-X cards in Crossfire in one of my PCs for over a year.
Performance has been good, and they play all of ~my~ games without fault.

I was recently offered a deal on a pair of brand new Sapphire 8GB R9-390X Toxic cards to replace them.
I figured that they're brand new, they have double the memory, and "Toxic" instead of Tri-X. So I bought them.

Here are the results that I got running the Heaven benchmark with exactly the same settings, on the same system, with the same driver.

I leave it open to your own interpretation.
Needless to say these new Toxic cards are probably going back.

 

[EarthDog]

What did you clarify?

My interpretation is that the toxic is clocked at 1120 mhz core while the tri x is 947. I'm not surprised it's beating the slower clocked card.

I'd keep the toxic since it's clocked higher and has more vram.

 

[cdawall]

My interpretation is that the toxic is clocked at 1120 mhz core while the tri x is 947. I'm not surprised it's beating the slower clocked card.

I'd keep the toxic since it's clocked higher and has more vram.

and I would just overclock the trix

 

[Caring1]

The "upgrade" just isn't worth the minimal points for so many dollars.

 

[EarthDog]

Doesnt the toxic have a better vrm on it?

 

[RealNeil]

Since they're already here, I might keep them for the 8GB instead of 4GB onboard.
I'm disappointed that there isn't much improvement for the money.

Now I have four R9-290X OC cards to sell.
Maybe I'll get a couple of GTX-1070s

 

[GreiverBlade]

Now I have four R9-290X OC cards to sell.
Maybe I'll get a couple of GTX-1070s

Naaaaahhhhh, not worth it...

Keep them, and wait until AMD next release, as a single 290X is already enough ( for the 8gb but even for 4gb) for many things.

Here where I live 4 290X sold = ~600chf = 1 *one* 1070 and maybe a snickers if they're out of Vaseline...

 

[HD64G]

Since they're already here, I might keep them for the 8GB instead of 4GB onboard.
I'm disappointed that there isn't much improvement for the money.

Now I have four R9-290X OC cards to sell.
Maybe I'll get a couple of GTX-1070s

Sell now the 3 easiest to go and keep the money and one of them in order to get the best possible of 1080Ti and Vega when they get to normal prices 2-3 months after their releases.

 

[shovenose]

Hey guys, a lot has happened since I posted. And I can see a lot has happened in this thread

My 2TB Seagate drive started giving me trouble (well, my friend dropped my whole PC from about waist height at Lanfest Sacramento last year, so it's been a long time coming), and so I rebuilt my computer. I started over with a clean install of Windows 7 on a new Crucial 480GB SSD with a new 3TB HGST drive for data storage. I did like the Intel SSD caching with my little 60GB Kingston V300 that I put more than 5TB writes on in just a few months, but all the same, I'm happy with the new arrangement. I did move the pagefile to the HDD to increase the lifespan of the SSD. Anyway, this time around I'll be sticking with Windows 7 and not upgrading to Windows 10, so DirectX 12 is out of the question.

I also replaced the motherboard with a new MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition. This motherboard supports both SLI and CrossFire so I have more options in the future. Full specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html

I have an opportunity to get a second EVGA GTX760 2GB for $75 - should I do that? I kind of used my budget up buying the new SSD, HDD, and motherboard, so new GPU(s) are out of the question for at least 6 months.

I should clarify while I have 3x 1080P monitors I only play games on one of them and not across all three. And somebody in this thread mentioned color scheme, well my case doesn't have a side window so it doesn't matter

And for the person who said I don't have to reinstall my OS with changing motherboard, not only did you not realize I was using Intel smart response technology SSD caching, but WIndows 10 is a whole different beast

 

[cdawall]

I wouldn't suggest that z97 krait board to my worst enemy.

 

[shovenose]

I wouldn't suggest that z97 krait board to my worst enemy.

Why?

 

[HD64G]

Hey guys, a lot has happened since I posted. And I can see a lot has happened in this thread

My 2TB Seagate drive started giving me trouble (well, my friend dropped my whole PC from about waist height at Lanfest Sacramento last year, so it's been a long time coming), and so I rebuilt my computer. I started over with a clean install of Windows 7 on a new Crucial 480GB SSD with a new 3TB HGST drive for data storage. I did like the Intel SSD caching with my little 60GB Kingston V300 that I put more than 5TB writes on in just a few months, but all the same, I'm happy with the new arrangement. I did move the pagefile to the HDD to increase the lifespan of the SSD. Anyway, this time around I'll be sticking with Windows 7 and not upgrading to Windows 10, so DirectX 12 is out of the question.

I also replaced the motherboard with a new MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition. This motherboard supports both SLI and CrossFire so I have more options in the future. Full specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html

I have an opportunity to get a second EVGA GTX760 2GB for $75 - should I do that? I kind of used my budget up buying the new SSD, HDD, and motherboard, so new GPU(s) are out of the question for at least 6 months.

I should clarify while I have 3x 1080P monitors I only play games on one of them and not across all three. And somebody in this thread mentioned color scheme, well my case doesn't have a side window so it doesn't matter

And for the person who said I don't have to reinstall my OS with changing motherboard, not only did you not realize I was using Intel smart response technology SSD caching, but WIndows 10 is a whole different beast

If you have $75 for a used 760, toy 'd better sell yours and get the RX480 for just a bit more money imho. That would be a GREAT upgrade in performance.

 

[BiggieShady]

The Witcher 3 item icons flickering

Completely offtopic but I have three words for you ... borderless windowed mode

 

[Zubasa]

Completely offtopic but I have three words for you ... borderless windowed mode

That basically just shuts off Crossfire, which defeats the whole point.
In that case, you are better off just setting Crossfire to off in the profile, since Crimson allows a profile per game.

 

[Agility]

Completely offtopic but I have three words for you ... borderless windowed mode

And run in single R290??

That basically just shuts off Crossfire, which defeats the whole point.
In that case, you are better off just setting Crossfire to off in the profile, since Crimson allows a profile per game.

I do get performance improvement in crossfire, it's just the stuttering when moving + icons randomly flickers (HP bar, EXP bar, heck even the Item bar). It annoys me at times, which makes me wanna jump to single GPU.

 

[cdawall]

I do get performance improvement in crossfire, it's just the stuttering when moving + icons randomly flickers (HP bar, EXP bar, heck even the Item bar). It annoys me at times, which makes me wanna jump to single GPU.

I have run crossfire for a long time and never seen that specific issue...sounds game with poor crossfire profiles or a complete lack of crossfire issues.

 

[Caring1]

I wouldn't suggest that z97 krait board to my worst enemy.

Why?

I'd like to know also, as I haven't heard anything bad about those boards, apart from looking cheap.

 

[cdawall]

I'd like to know also, as I haven't heard anything bad about those boards, apart from looking cheap.

I have had nothing but issues out of them from a a service prospective. They look cheap because they are. Between it and the cheap Asus z97-a/z170-a they are the most common dead boards I get in the shop. Anything from loosing USB ports to dead pcie slots.

I currently use one in a hackintosh with a 4770 it has behaved ok but if you don't restart it every few days the USB ports don't auto detect and the Lan kicks off constantly until it's rebooted.

Also if you use the m2 port you loose all but 2 sata ports on the board. Which is stupid.

 

[shovenose]

I'd like to know also, as I haven't heard anything bad about those boards, apart from looking cheap.

Look cheap it does, but the reviews were alright, and it wasn't DOA... so better than an Asus in that regard I've actually never had any MSI board failures and for a time I managed a small datacenter that consisted of an odd mix of consumer and enterprise hardware and most of our consumer grade stuff was built on MSI motherboards... No issues. It was the Asus boards that would die randomly or would just be DOA.

So yes, I'd love to hear why this board is a piece of shit.

 

[newtekie1]

have an opportunity to get a second EVGA GTX760 2GB for $75 - should I do that?

I wouldn't. Stick with the single 760 for now, when you can afford a single newer card, grab it. Put the $75 towards a new card.

 

[crazy098]

@shovenose I created this account just to reply to you. I used to be a fan of AMD video cards. That was until I tried to overclock my HD 7970. It's been a while but from what I can remember (it's late and I'm not using google) AMD claimed that the 7970 had no limits on overclocking. However, I can tell you that after monitoring the card during testing that the clocks were locked at a certain point. I was trying to reach the same clocks as the R290X, as it's just a 7970 with slightly increased clocks. I had read that you could reflash the BIOS on the 7970 to that of the 290X as long as you used the one that went along with your vram vendor and figured I'd do that to unlock the card. My card was one of the original 7970's and after the reflash it would boot into windows, get recognized as a 290X, but my system would always crash whenever I went to play a game. So even that didn't work. My card has 2 bios chips so no damage was done. However, due to AMD's claim regarding overclocking which was the main reason I bought the card, and my experience in real life, I will never buy an AMD product or recommend them to anyone again.