Upgrade from GTX 770 to R9 290 worth it?

[maxpowar]

Hello,

I am currently sporting a GTX 770 that I got back in January. Since then it has worked flawlessly. My local micorcenter has a open box Asus DirectCUII R9 290 for $400 and I was wondering if I would see any difference in performance and/or it would be worth the increase in performance. I am playing BF4 at 1080p and a 4770K. I also use folding@home as well as GPUGrid on BOINC.

I figure I can sell the GTX for 280ish and pay for the difference. Just not sure if it will be worth it at this point.

Thanks!

 

[Toothless]

Not worth it. The 770 is a bit under the 780, which is what goes up against the 290. You're better off waiting for the next series to come out, which is next year or so probably.

 

[eidairaman1]

Just get another 770

 

[Kursah]

What I do...buy a single powerful card in my budget...this round (well last June) was the 770 I have now. I'll use it until it cannot give me the performance I seek..which I imagine will be at least a couple of years if I maintain 1920x1080 as my preferred resolution. Which I plan to.

My HD5870 before it lasted over 3 years without overclocking, and was able to maintain good frames and quality in the games I play. Honestly I could still use it just fine for most of my games.

You'll save yourself a lot of money and hassle if you replace it when it fails, or no longer meets realistic expectations.

 

[coozie78]

I'd only consider the move if I was also upgrading, or planning to upgrade my monitor to 1440, for 1 single 1080 display the extra performance isn't worth the outlay.

 

[Vario]

Keep the 770, it can max out 1080p. Wait 3-4 years and that $400 will buy you something much more powerful than a 290.'


770 is pretty beastly.

 

[alwayssts]

Keep the 770, it can max out 1080p. Wait 3-4 years and that $400 will buy you something much more powerful than a 290.'

I would say '16nm'/20ff (or roughly 1.5-2 years) when 4k is a real thing most people use. 2016 will be a HUGE year. The maturation/price settling of 4k tech, high-end single gpus that can actually handle the resolution, etc.

You're right about staying put (unless the difference is worth it to him), but I think a good way to look at it is in terms of scale:

Take a ps4 as a lowest common denominator. A 7970/280x at ~1150mhz or a 770 at ~1200mhz is around the performance difference between playing a game a 720p on a ps4 versus 1080p on pc, which will probably be the norm before too long. The difference between 30/60fps at the same rez is slightly less than that (say ~2.25x and ~2x gpu performance), or more-so equivalent to those products' stock speeds. The fact things are set up this way is not a coincidence (stock and binned/overclock speeds of products vs other products/consoles across the market and their playable resolutions).

I think it's also safe to assume whatever chips succeeds the 7870/270x/760 on 20nm will also have roughly this spec in mind (and probably also be similar in spec to current offerings, just with higher stock/attainable clocks). All we really have to look forward to is that they may consume less than 225w and perhaps be shorter cards. Once you start going up the foodchain to 2560 and 3840 resolution, you truly do have to question if current higher-end cards will be able to hack it in the future. I think the answer is no. 20nm may bring high-end cards that will scale well to the new generation and 2560, but we're still a bit off from the next solid jump.

 

[Vario]

I think graphics cards are continuing to deliver performance gains each new release unlike CPUs. The mid range 7850 was an amazing jump, it matches the high end 5850! The top of the line 7970 was almost as powerful as two 6970s!

CPUs have been stagnant for 3 years now but there's no sign of that in the graphics market yet.

 

[64K]

I would say '16nm'/20ff (or roughly 1.5-2 years) when 4k is a real thing most people use. 2016 will be a HUGE year. The maturation/price settling of 4k tech, high-end single gpus that can actually handle the resolution, etc.

You're right about staying put (unless the difference is worth it to him), but I think a good way to look at it is in terms of scale:

Take a ps4 as a lowest common denominator. A 7970/280x at ~1150mhz or a 770 at ~1200mhz is around the performance difference between playing a game a 720p on a ps4 versus 1080p on pc, which will probably be the norm before too long. The difference between 30/60fps at the same rez is slightly less than that (say ~2.25x and ~2x gpu performance), or more-so equivalent to those products' stock speeds. The fact things are set up this way is not a coincidence (stock and binned/overclock speeds of products vs other products/consoles across the market and their playable resolutions).

I think it's also safe to assume whatever chips succeeds the 7870/270x/760 on 20nm will also have roughly this spec in mind (and probably also be similar in spec to current offerings, just with higher stock/attainable clocks). All we really have to look forward to is that they may consume less than 225w and perhaps be shorter cards. Once you start going up the foodchain to 2560 and 3840 resolution, you truly do have to question if current higher-end cards will be able to hack it in the future. I think the answer is no. 20nm may bring high-end cards that will scale well to the new generation and 2560, but we're still a bit off from the next solid jump.

Good post but for at least another year, maybe 2 the Xbox 360 and PS3 will probably still be the lowest common denominator unfortunately. The install base of new gen consoles is just too low compared to the old gen. Here's one developers stance....

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/borderlands-the-pre-sequel-sticking-to-pc-older-consoles/

 

[Tatty_Two]

a 13% increase in performance is decent in my opinion if the cost to change is not too great, probably as some have already said, listen to your head and don't bother, altough it's often good to go with the heart..... so get it! Of course if you get another 770 for SLi it will cost you a lot more, but then again your performance increase will be considerably better....... just ask yourself how much you need an increase if at all.

 

[Ebo]

The 5850 was a wonderfull card, and i still have 2 in crossfire on my husbands machine, they still work like a charm together with an old core2quad Q6600( OC'ed 3.8Ghz) on air, it really gives a run for the money at 1650x1280. My new R9 290 OC from Sapphire isent really in my book, so much of a deal yet, but am expecting a 4K screen from Asus comming within 3 weeks, so hopefully it will start shine then and i DONT play BF4 or COD anymore.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Not worth it at the resolution you play at. at 1440p or higher, multi monitor might be a different story though.

 

[Padzki]

I was in the same boat as you are. I sold my r9 280x(AMD's equivalent to 770) to a friend(he was kinda persistent LOL) so that I can purchase an r9 290. I was hesitant at first since my R9 280x was sufficient enough for my gaming. However in my case, I was deciding between helping a friend and getting a bit more performance/more future proofing -so I decided to sell it. There's really no huge performance boost from the 280x.

However, if you can sell your old card for a decent price like I did, then why not? If you're not satisfied with the 770's performance and want a couple more FPS, then go for it.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Chetkigaming]

Definitely not worth it.

 

[Taz100420]

There would be only one reason to switch to a 290 and that would be for mining, period. lol 770 pulls about 120-200 Kh while the 290x does almost 1Mh...