What are stream-processors? R9-270 vs 270x MSI

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josephcreed7

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I am going to buy an R9 Chip. I know I can spend much more and get much more. However, I'd rather not right now. I'm curious why i would want stream processors. What does a non-stream processor card (R9-270) offer me? What does the Stream processor card offer me? (R9-270x) MSI card....Or equivalent recommendation (meaning same price range, same power, and big cooling). I play BF3-BF4, CRYSIS, and Titanfall...also I want something that I can x-fire later to run future games....I dont need ultra I just want to run High quality for a good price. Thanks in advance!
 
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Brunostako
"Stream Processor" is a term used by AMD to refer to the GPU cores in their cards, nVidia uses the term "CUDA cores". All GPUs have "Stream Processors"/"CUDA cores".

The amount of stream processors can give you a performance comparison between GPUs, more is better. But that only applies when comparing between GPUs from the same brand and core's architecture. There are quite some other metrics to consider.

Comparing one GPU from nVidia and one from AMD, and saying that one is better just because it has more cores is completely false.

Comparing two GPUs from AMD, one from the HD 5000 series (which uses the VLIW5 architecture) and one from the HD 7000 (which uses GCN 1.0 architecture) and saying that one is better just because it has...
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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"Stream Processor" is a term used by AMD to refer to the GPU cores in their cards, nVidia uses the term "CUDA cores". All GPUs have "Stream Processors"/"CUDA cores".

The amount of stream processors can give you a performance comparison between GPUs, more is better. But that only applies when comparing between GPUs from the same brand and core's architecture. There are quite some other metrics to consider.

Comparing one GPU from nVidia and one from AMD, and saying that one is better just because it has more cores is completely false.

Comparing two GPUs from AMD, one from the HD 5000 series (which uses the VLIW5 architecture) and one from the HD 7000 (which uses GCN 1.0 architecture) and saying that one is better just because it has more cores is also false.

To finalize, the answer for your question: The R9 270X can play most games at 1080p resolution at high settings. Don't mess with crossfire, is not worth it. If you want more performance in the future, sell your card and buy a stronger one.
 
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josephcreed7

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Why thank you both for the awesome answers! It does make sense that all cards will have Stream-processors. Do you guys know why some websites don't show full specs? Where can I look at full card specs to understand how they are truly built?
 
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k1114

k1114

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You will find a lot of stuff on the internet is unreliable or have incompetent people running them. Wikipedia actually has a easy chart to see all their specs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Radeon_Rx_200_Series But comparing specs is a waste of time. The higher models are better and you compare cards with actual game performance. A specsheet is pretty useless. You could always look at tom's hierarchy chart. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

@brunostako, You could say all gpus have stream processors but not cuda cores as this is a specific platform.
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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Yes, i already established that stream processor was a term used by AMD and the generic term is GPU core (applies to AMD and nVidia). That's why all GPUs have "stream processor"/"CUDA cores".
 
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josephcreed7

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The issue I am having is this, the R9 270 shows no stream processors under newegg/tiger direct specs nor Wikipedia. however the X model does...I dont understand. More power is always necessary because games and technology doubles about every 2 years...however the newer cards boast some major platform changes. I'm seeing much more available ram/speed and higher bus width. I think you talked me into the next model up.
 
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k1114

k1114

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On the wiki the core config is the stream processors. The first number is stream processors. But notice the differences in architecture so you can't directly compare specs of them all.

@bruno saying stream proc/cuda cores means they are the same. They are not. I think you just don't understand what "/" means.
 
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