speaking of video cards

jwa · Oct 27, 2014

currrently have a radeon 7770. doesn't do too bad but have to turn down a few things here and there. would a r9 270 allow to max thing out? have an older quad core processor and using a 27" hd monitor. suggestions please.

Thomas Friedrich · Oct 28, 2014

I got two 7870 Cards (Crossfire) but all I've read is, that if you prefer racing sims, you should get a Nvidia card... so my next (mid-price, around 400EUR) upgrade will be a 3072MB ZOTAC GeForce GTX 780 Ti Amp! Edition... should have the best value for money at the moment...

edit:
Just looked up the R9 270... it's an older card in the price segment around 150EUR, right? Haven't looked up the benchmarks/reviews, but I would think that it's not worth getting it. With my configuration I already have to turn down more than a few things, not to speak of AA which gives me a massiv FPS hit...

James Cook · Oct 28, 2014

The Nvidia GTX 970 is the best price/performance card out there right now in my opinion. I've seen them going for around £270 in the UK which is a great price for what the card offers, but obviously that is still quite a lot of money.

As always depends what the upgrade budget is as it's difficult to recommend a card without knowing that. Also, what is your CPU?

jwa · Oct 28, 2014

budget is really around 200us. most I could probably squeeze into that is a gtx 770 or a r9 280. only gaming will be pretty much racing sims.

jwa · Oct 28, 2014

quick price check, more likely gtx 760 not 770.

know these aren't top of the line, but still a significant upgrade from my 7770 I would think.

Andi Goodwin · Oct 28, 2014

a 760 may be just on the limit realistically and your not really future proofing yourself , id seriously bite the bullet for a while longer , save a bit of extra cash and wait for some promo or sale and get the 970 that way your fine , your future proofed and you will be thankfull you waited

Andi

James Cook · Oct 28, 2014

Agree with @Andi Goodwin

Getting something like a 760 is a false economy. Sure, it would be a nice upgrade over what you've got but you'll not be able to run R3E and the other latest sims to their full potential. You will get the upgrade itch much sooner than you'd like.

Save a bit more and get something that offers a truly worthwhile upgrade i.e. the 970. You won't regret it.

jwa · Oct 28, 2014

something to think about. thanks.

Dietmar · Oct 28, 2014

I got myself recently a 290, I think I have not maxed out everything. Definitively not in AC (though that's off topic here). But I am running at 2560x1440.

Connor Caple · Oct 28, 2014

I'm probably going to grab an R9 280 3GB as that's as far as my budget will extend this year, at about £130UKP. There is no better card for the same money - I checked carefully at Tom's Hardware and other benchmarking sites.

jwa · Oct 28, 2014

Assuming that the 2560x1440 is much harder on a video card than my 1900x1200. Don't anticipate a new display anytime soon. The r9 280 does have good specs for the money.

James Cook · Oct 28, 2014

Connor Caple said:
I'm probably going to grab an R9 280 3GB as that's as far as my budget will extend this year, at about £130UKP. There is no better card for the same money - I checked carefully at Tom's Hardware and other benchmarking sites.

That's also another good option. I've heard AMD's drivers are much improved and give better results with racing sims now.

Thomas Friedrich · Oct 28, 2014

As I said, I'm quiet happy with my 7870 cards, but most of the time I read that Nvidia cards have got a better performance in racing games. I don't know why, just read this in AC or PCars forums... perhaps someone here can explain it to me. Is the architecture of those cars better for racing sims, is it a driver thing or are most of the racing sims just optimized for them? I've at least have come to the conclusion that an Nvidia card should be better for me as a sim driver when it comes to my next upgrade...

jwa · Oct 28, 2014

would be interested in knowing that also.

James Cook · Oct 28, 2014

As far as ISImotor based titles are concerned, I believe it's simply a case of Nvidia optimising their drivers for the game engine and AMD not doing so. At least that's my understanding from reading comments by devs on the ISI forums. AMD were supposedly focused on improving drivers for mainstream titles whereas Nvidia were more all-encompassing. At least that's my interpretation of the situation.

Things may have changed recently as people with AMD cards have been reporting much better performance with the likes of rF2. However, Nvidia cards seem to have the edge in sims using other engines like pCARS and AC so there must be more to it than simply driver optimisation.

jwa · Oct 29, 2014

lots of time to look around. wife said she would buy me a new card for Christmas, so hopefully will be able to find a good deal on something around then.

Blkout · Oct 29, 2014

jwa said:
lots of time to look around. wife said she would buy me a new card for Christmas, so hopefully will be able to find a good deal on something around then.

Not sure what your budget is, but currently the best bang for the buck to me is a GTX 970 or a used GTX 780ti both of which can be bought for around $350'ish. If you got a bit more to spend, a GTX 980 is the best choice. And before the AMD fans come out of the woodwork, I realize some of the AMD R9 290 and 280 series are outstanding values but they use a LOT more power and run very hot which isn't preferable for most people.

Connor Caple · Oct 29, 2014

They do draw more power at times, but I'll happily argue with the heat comments. Only the top R9 290 gets hotter than the NVidia Titan. The R9 280 runs cooler than a GTX750, GTX660, etc.

Power consumption and thermal test

James Cook · Oct 29, 2014

The GTX 980 doesn't make much sense at all. Yes, it's the fastest card but the price is significantly higher than a 970 yet performance is only marginally better. In fact, as far as I'm aware the 970 can be overclocked to 980 speeds quite easily.

The GTX 970 has not only killed the competition from AMD, it's also made Nvidia's own flagship card look rather pointless.

Blkout · Oct 29, 2014

Connor Caple said:
They do draw more power at times, but I'll happily argue with the heat comments. Only the top R9 290 gets hotter than the NVidia Titan. The R9 280 runs cooler than a GTX750, GTX660, etc.

Power consumption and thermal test

You realize of course you're comparing a non-reference cooler to a reference cooler on the temperature difference right? Not exactly apples to apples eh? Nvidia reference coolers typically hoever around 80c because they prioritize fan speed and noise over card temperature but a custom fan profile can often bring those temps down, or even an non-reference cooler as you demonstrated in the AMD R9 280. The difference between the two as it relates to temps and heat dissipation is that the AMD cards draw more power therefore must dissipate more heat, therefore require more powerful cooling solution to keep temps in check and thus often generate more noise too while doing it.

The bottom line is and there's no way around this, more power draw means more heat output. Its directly related. The type of cooler that is strapped to the card affects the temps of the card but not the heat dissipated.

James Cook said:
The GTX 980 doesn't make much sense at all. Yes, it's the fastest card but the price is significantly higher than a 970 yet performance is only marginally better. In fact, as far as I'm aware the 970 can be overclocked to 980 speeds quite easily.
The GTX 970 has not only killed the competition from AMD, it's also made Nvidia's own flagship card look rather pointless.

You would be correct as long as you don't play at higher resolutions. The 970 is a great value no doubt but starts to fall way behind the 980 above 1600p resolutions. Just depends on what display you're using and whether or not you want to use the new DSR feature. And for that matter the 980 can be overclocked as well. Remember, apples to apples if you're going to make a comparison.