Thinking about upgrading GPU from HD7870 to r390

broke-law-student · Jan 15, 2016

My current build. http://

Thinking of upgrading my GPU to an r390 because I'm bored and have some cheese to spend. I was thinking of a whole new build altogether, but I don't think my CPU is outdated yet. I'm also probably going to upgrade my case.

Any recommendations or suggestions? Should I just go with a complete new build?

naturesninja · Jan 15, 2016

You will definitely want to replace your power supply if you go with the 390.

maxalge · Jan 15, 2016

broke-law-student :

you would need a good 650w power supply, grab a tier 1 or 2 unit from this list:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I recommend the evga supernova GS 650w

broke-law-student · Jan 15, 2016

Yeah I figured the power supply would need to be upgraded too. Thanks for the suggestions. Am I missing out on any CPU advancements by not going with a new build? It looks like my i5 3470 is still pretty good. Sorry for the questions, I haven't kept up with CPU cycles the past couple of years.

geofelt · Jan 15, 2016

R9-390 is not a sufficiently large upgrade that you would be pleased with the performance improvement.
A GTX970 would be similar to the R9-390, but is sufficiently power efficient that it will work with your 500w psu.

What is your upgrade budget?

I recommend a ssd upgrade. A Samsung 850 evo will be about $15o and is one of the best performance upgrades you will ever make.
You use the Samsung ssd migration tool to migrate from your hard drive to the ssd.

geofelt · Jan 15, 2016

With Skylake now available, there is absolutely no question in my mind that a new build should be Skylake.
a. Prices for cpu, z170 motherboard and ddr4 ram are almost precisely the same.
b. 6600K has an estimated 5-10% performance improvement per clock over haswell.
c. 14nm runs cooler, you get a decent overclock without the need for exotic cooling.
d. The Z170 chipset permits the use of much faster ssd devices on the horizon. Samsung 950 pro for example:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html
e. skylake can be upgraded in the future to kaby lake.

maxalge · Jan 15, 2016

geofelt :

you can use m.2 ssd on any motherboard that has a spare pcie 3.0 x4 or better slot and get the full speed ( some only need 2.0 x4 )

but yeah I agree, it would be worth the upgrade if the OP went with a "k" series cpu + mobo

as you can sell the old parts

broke-law-student · Jan 15, 2016

My budget is a $1,000, but I wasn't sure if I should only upgrade my GPU and save the money or go with a full new build. I would probably favor a new build if the cost of upgrading my current system is $400 and results in marginal gains.

naturesninja · Jan 15, 2016

7870 to 390 is a huge step in performance. 970 is great too of course, but I wouldn't mix any expensive GPU with that PSU either way. SSD is a good subjective upgrade for a gaming rig, sure, but I would never recommend an SSD upgrade over a GPU upgrade on a gaming rig. I guess that's just me.

broke-law-student · Jan 15, 2016

So should I just stay with my current mobo and cpu and upgrade GPU and PSU? I'm pretty sure the 390 is worth the upgrade. I seek the interwebs collective wisdom.

naturesninja · Jan 15, 2016

You won't see a big difference building a new system with a 390 vs just adding a 390 to what you currently have. Swap that PSU though for sure.

burgessanthony · Jan 15, 2016

Put an oc on your i5 ( plus 400mhz across the cores) and 390, ssd and new psu. All will be good. Similar to my setup and it doesn't struggle

naturesninja · Jan 15, 2016

H77M Mobo. But SSD is a good idea if you've got money to burn.

pete_101 · Jan 15, 2016

The R9 390 is a huge improvement over a HD 7870, it's at least double the performance. The i5 3470 is still a good enough CPU for most games when paired to a 390, so no point in replacing it. As you already know, you need a new PSU. Apart from that, there is no point at this stage spending more than you need to as you aren't going to achieve much of a performance gain over what your current CPU, motherboard and RAM can give you.

burgessanthony · Jan 15, 2016

Ah h mobo. Still, cpu good, 390 massive improvement over 7870. Go for it! Csn confirm that that cpu and 390 will pull no more than 400w from PSU so a good 600-650 is fine

geofelt · Jan 15, 2016

390 is three tiers higher than the 7870 on tom's hierarchy table.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html
They do not recommend graphics upgrades less than that.

burgessanthony · Jan 15, 2016

Tiers or not, the 390 has twice the pixel output and almost 3x mem bandwidth...its a big jump and would probably see games at 40fps on the 7870 hit 70ish on the 390...so very noticeable.

Thinking about upgrading GPU from HD7870 to r390

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