should i trade in my sapphire hd 7970 for an MSI R9 280X.

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fauzan_22

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Hi everyone,Ive had the sapphire hd 7970 for around 8 or 9 months and I've been pretty happy with it although I've been having a little fps problem with assaasins creed 4.
I wanted to know that should I sell my hd 7970 and get the msi r9 280x?
will I see any visible performance or graphical improvement if I get the r9 280x?
if not then will the msi r9 280x atleast be at par with my current gpu?
thanks.
my specs:
i5 2500k
8 gb ddr3
seasonic 750 watts psu
sapphire hd 7970.


 
Solution
quilciri
You have absolutely nothing to gain from switching to a 280x.

Like I originally posted, the R9 280x and the 7970 are essentially the same card. Damn near every single review of the 280x will tell you the same thing, idk where storm killer was getting his information.

If you've overclocked your 7970 to ghz edition speeds, your card is actually faster than the 280x.
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quilciri

quilciri

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They are essentially the same card. The 280x is a rebranding of the 7970 ghz edition, which was itself nothing more than a slight overclock of the 7970.

If your motherboard supports crossfire, your best bet imho, is to save up for a second 7970 or a 280x (the 280x will crossfire with a 7970).

If you end up buying a 280x or 7970 ghz edition as your second card, I recommend slightly overclocking your original 7970 for best results; from 925 to 1000mhz core and from 5.5 to 6ghz memory.
 
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St0rm_KILL3r

St0rm_KILL3r

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What are you talking about... you get significantly visible performance increase between hd 7970 and gtx 770. Msi's r9 280x is even better than gtx 770. So yes, you will really get a sigificant and clearly noticable performance if you are upgrading to r9 280x.
 
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St0rm_KILL3r

St0rm_KILL3r

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Which makes it better performing. And also the op is getting it in replace with it's current gpu and if he manages to sell it till $300-320 he will be able to get a good r9 280x which is worth it. Looking at the benchmarks I would say it's worth it.
I personally have an r9 280x I've seen significantly better performance than my cousins gtx 770, only except for crysis 3 my gpu did well in every other game which I personally tested. He has sli'd gtx 770 but i've tested it while running only on one card.
 
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hypergon

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If you live in US youll have some problems finding amd cards...
In ynearly all benchmarks r9 280x beats the hd7970 but the gtx770 beats them both in the majority of benchmarks (got no clue why we are talking about 770...)
Trade is not useful unless you get the r9 for free
 
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bignastyid

bignastyid

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Proves what exactly? That a heavily OC'd version of the 280x is a 1-2 frames faster than a stock 770? The question here is it worth it to sell a 7970 and buy a 280x. The answer is thats it's not worth it for most people, the small performance gain going from a 7970 to 280x isn't worth the cost imho, even if he was able to get $320 for the 7970 and 280x currently costs ~$400(due to miners driving up demand) The big difference between the 2 cards is the 280x supports Mantle. And spending $80 or more just for mantle support to me and many others just wouldn't be worth it.
 
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St0rm_KILL3r

St0rm_KILL3r

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I agree, but in majority of games r9 280x beats gtx 770 : http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/15/gigabyte_r9_280x_oc_edition_video_card_review
The above review is of the cheapest r9 280x which gave better performance than gtx 770 in most games. Sapphire toxic is even better.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Nope.

Same chip. Same core count. Same memory. Same clock speed. = Same. Damn. Card.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx/5

The 280x is actually a little SLOWER than the 7970 ghz edition due to:
1. the lower base clock. the 280x only hits 1000mhz on boost
2. the ghz edition boost clock is actually 1050 mhz

Like I already said, the only difference between the cards is a bit of overclocking. From base 7970 to 280x is only an 8% overclock. Base 7970 to 7970 ghz edition is 13%.
 
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St0rm_KILL3r

St0rm_KILL3r

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Oh common! consider the gigabyte and msi's performance to hd 7970 which I think is worth the replace if the op is getting it in replacement.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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....Or he could download msi afterburner and have the same performance as a 280 or ghz edition in 10 minutes, for free, instead of spending ~$100 out of pocket for a minor speed boost.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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A 290 would be a decent step up, but he'd still be better off with a second 7970 if his motherboard supports it.

The cheapest 290 is $430 now, and he'll get ~$200 from selling his 7970, so he ends up spending $230.
$70 more would buy a second 7970, yielding considerably better performance than the 290.

@Fauzan: What I would personally do in your situation is buy a used Asus or Gigabyte 7970 (3 year, fully transferrable warranties, no registration required) for xfire.
 
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fauzan_22

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Firstly thanks every single one of as your replies have been very informative a lttle mixed but informative nonetheless.
Unfortunately crossfire is out of the question for me and I already have overclocked my card from default to ghz settings.
The r9 290 is also not an option as I don't have that budget.
What i was thinking was that if I'm able to sell my hd 7970 at almost the same amount for which the msi r9 280x is available then I might buy it.But reading all your posts have got me a little confused and also the gtx 770 is also not an option as it is quite expensive compared to the msi r9 280x (by the way why is that?).
So if I'm able to sell of my hd 7970 and get an msi r9 280x without taking much of a loss then should I go ahead?
Thanks again for all your help guys.


 
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quilciri

quilciri

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You have absolutely nothing to gain from switching to a 280x.

Like I originally posted, the R9 280x and the 7970 are essentially the same card. Damn near every single review of the 280x will tell you the same thing, idk where storm killer was getting his information.

If you've overclocked your 7970 to ghz edition speeds, your card is actually faster than the 280x.
 
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fauzan_22

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Well my motherboard does support crossfire but I don't have the room in my case for fitting another hd 7970 and also I don't have the money.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Ah, then I can only advise you hold out for a while while you save up. Price/performance is about even between a couple options,

You could either save $250, sell your 7970 (~$200) and get a 290, or

save $350, get a new case and a second 7970 (good cases can be had for $40-50 - the antec 300 is on sale right now for $35)

good luck!

P.S. your current case wouldn't happen to have a removable HDD cage that could be taken out to accomodate a second card, would it?
 
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fauzan_22

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Unfortunately no I have an nzxt lexa s,a single sapphire hd 7970 was a tight fit in itself.
 
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Maxrinus

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Actually, the 7000 series cards will also support Mantle (7850, 7870, 7950, 7970, 7990)
 
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bignastyid

bignastyid

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Thanks, I hadn't heard that. :)
 
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St0rm_KILL3r

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No, it has oc r9 280x and also non oc r9 280x running at base clock. which ran better in 3 games out of 5 than gtx 770.
 
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