R9 280 Dual X or GTX 760 2GB OC?

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KieranDavidW123

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Hi

I am looking to upgrade my GPU in my system. I have looked at specifically the R9 270X DEVIL + RADEON RUBY REWARD, The MSI GTX 760 OC 2GB |Gaming Edition| + Daylight & the Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual X.
MSI GTX 760 OC |Gaming Edition| : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-206-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830
Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-161-PC
Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual X: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-347-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842


Now I already know that the R9 280 will outperform all of the listed cards however, I am afraid that the bottleneck of my CPU will be significantly noticeable when it comes down to framerate. I have an i3 2120 but I plan to upgrade to an intel core i5 2320 or 2400.
I just dont think I'll upgrade to that until Christmas time. Would the GTX 760 or the DEVIL 270X be the ideal choice for me then? Or would my i3 2120 3.33GHz handle the 280 decently?

Thanks.
 
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geofelt


OK, yes.
And I support going with a strong card. At the very least, you will be able to use highest eye candy.

It would not be my personal preference.
I prefer the nvidia drivers.
With a nvidia card, you should be able to use the driver you currently have installed and are familiar with.
If you change to AMD, you will need to uninstall the current nvidia driver, possibly run a driver cleaner, and install the radeon drivers.
Not all that hard to do, really.
From a performance point of view, there will be no detectable difference.
Enjoy.

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paitjsu sadff

paitjsu sadff

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it all comes down to de price of the cards, but if you plan to go to an i5 or an i7 down the road i would pick the best gpu out of the 3 that you can afford and that would be the 280x, it also comes with 3gb of vram and that is a great bonus as it will be more future proof cause the next gen games will most likely for the most part use more than 2gb of vram at 1080p...

your current CPU will indeed bottleneck the card in the most CPU intensive games, but the action games and racing games and most FPS games will run somewhat great still...
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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I suspect that your i3-2120 is stronger than you might think.

I hope you are looking at a significant graphics upgrade, or you may be disappointed.
You will get fair value from any of the three cards. The market is very competitive.

What is your psu? That might dictate how strong a card you can upgrade to.
My philosophy is to buy the strongest card you feel comfortable paying for.
Anything less, and you will always be wondering.
At the very least, you will be able to enjoy more eye candy.

To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.


Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 70% and see how you do.


You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

I like the factory overclocked cards. You get a better bin capable of a factory warranted overclock.
And, I like the direct exhaust blower type coolers. They cost less and they do a better job of getting heat out of your case.
Look at the EVGA GTX760 Superclock:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-228-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830



 
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paitjsu sadff

paitjsu sadff

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..they are similar in performance but the 7970 has an extra gb of vram...in some games the 7970 does better and in some other the 670 does better..you could check this out and pick the games you are likely to play :

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/508?vs=598

 
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geofelt

geofelt

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I suspect the amount of vram is more of a marketing issue than a functional or performance issue..
The vram supplied on a stock card will be the appropriate amount.
Read this report:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
 
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paitjsu sadff

paitjsu sadff

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hahaha of course it does no difference in skyrim or any games that does not use more than 2gb of VRAM...but when the real next gen games will hit the market you will see many of them using MUCH more vram and then if youre stuck with a 2gb buffer you will be in trouble...major stuttering will occur, in fact running out of VRAM is really the worst thing that can happen the game will become instantly unplayable and even crash

i'd suggest you read that arcticle, they asked for proffesionnal opinions (game developpers) what should be considered the best PC for the next generation of games and they say an 8 core AMD cpu is better than a core i5 and that the 2gb vram on the cards will become an instant issue...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-proofing-your-pc-for-next-gen

heres the cut about VRAM :
In terms of pure processing power, the chances are that we now have the horsepower to exceed the first and second generation games seen on next-gen console. But what still isn't addressed to a satisfying degree is the question of on-board video RAM. Both Microsoft and Sony machines use 8GB of RAM with fast access to the GPU. We're currently living in a world where even a £400 GeForce GTX 680 only ships with 2GB - and that's a worry.

"I think we can assume that most games will use a majority of the 8GB for graphics resources, so I'd go for as much GDDR5 on the GPU as possible," says Avalanche's Linus Blomberg.

anyone interested in the PC gaming should take 5 minutes to read the full arcticle...these are not nobodys they are experts on the subject...
 
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KieranDavidW123

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Yeah, my PSU is more than capable of handling all three of these cards. Trust me. And I have tested that if I lowered my resolution to 1366x768 or 1440x900 in Borderlands 2, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare & GTA IV, I can set the Graphics settings to Ultra?
Does this mean my i3 IS capable of running the 280 Dual X?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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I suspect AMD FUD.

No game developer wants to limit their market by requiring 8 cores and lots of vram.

If a graphics card runs out of Vram, it swaps the data from system ram across the pcie interface.
That is a fast process that is likely to go even faster when new versions of pcie show up.

By that time current graphics cards will be on the way to obsolescence anyway.
 
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schau314

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Just like the old phenom processors are doing well today. The problem is that future proofing is pointless in the fact that upgrading is necessary. It is better tomorrow for amd but by tomorrow the intel ix-6xxx processors with contend with the 12 core amd processors if this tend continues. Meanwhile chrome might be able to use 2 cores and 4 gb of ram for fast web searches. These cores are pointless to have for most uses and use a good amount of heat to run as well as power.
 
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KieranDavidW123

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Ok, it looks like your right! Here are my results on Borderlands 2 (I am currently using a GeForce GT 640 2gb)

Lowest settings @1080p 25-30 fps, horrible.
High-Ultra settings @1366x768 averaging at around 45 fps and it is very smooth!
low-med settings @1366x768 capped at 50 frames, it would cap at 60fps if i wanted it to.
Does this mean my CPU will be capable enough to handle the r9 280 Dual X?
Bearing in mind I am running on a sandybridge i3, not an IvyBridge i3.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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It tells me that your cpu can certainly deal with a stronger graphics card.

Actually, a GTX750ti would be a significant upgrade.
It is one of the first Maxwell products.
I might expect it to do even better as the drivers mature.
I have no problem with an even stronger upgrade.

In general, you get fair value at every price point.
The amd cards seem to do very well with fps benchmarks, but Nvidia might be better for smoother gameplay.
Most like the Nvidia drivers better.

You might take comfort in the performance of a i3-2120 in this report which included a i3-2120 among <$200 cpus and used a GTX680 for the graphics card:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-processor-frame-rate-performance,3427-9.html

 
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paitjsu sadff

paitjsu sadff

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your cpu being a bottleneck or not for the gpu ony depends on the games yu play...if you do mmo or strategy games or anything that needs a lot of computing oower the cpu will become the bottleneck but if you play mosty fps or action or racing games than it will be fine...that being said the games you tested are not very cpu dependent...still i would think that yu would be happy with a 280x or even a 770 with that cpu unless youre a big mmo or strategy games fan...
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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If your budget permits, go ahead and splurge on the GTX770.
I never regret paying more for something good, but have often regretted paying less for a lesser product.

A GTX770 is close to as good as it gets for fast action games on a single 1080P monitor.
It gets the nod in tom's best graphics card March article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
The R9-280X is in the same performance class. But, it is overclocked out of the box so it will run hotter and noisier than a GTX770.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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OK, yes.
And I support going with a strong card. At the very least, you will be able to use highest eye candy.

It would not be my personal preference.
I prefer the nvidia drivers.
With a nvidia card, you should be able to use the driver you currently have installed and are familiar with.
If you change to AMD, you will need to uninstall the current nvidia driver, possibly run a driver cleaner, and install the radeon drivers.
Not all that hard to do, really.
From a performance point of view, there will be no detectable difference.
Enjoy.

 
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