Should I wait until a new GPU comes out to buy an old one? If not: R9 290x or GTX970/780

[paradonym]

Speaking of the moment right now:
Should I wait until a new GPU comes out to buy an old one? To get the most out of the price while still staying relatively safe for still Single-GPU'ing games in <=2 years...
 
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PC-GTA5 played in 2560x1080 px with high-textures and at least very heavy anti-aliasing (as GTA5 screams for anti-aliasing in normal textures)
 
How important is the GPU-RAM for future games? Should I purchase something like "SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X R9 290X 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E 512bit" for delivering 8 GB's of GPU-RAM (because nVidia still sticks at 4 GB on purchasable cards like GTX 780 or GTX 970)

or should I rather set to a GTX 780 because of (probably) better performance of the GPU itself?

 

Speaking of 08/15 I set something like a 290x with 8 GB GPU-RAM or a GTX 970...

 

Or would you suggest a totally different ~500 EUR GPU?

[lani100]

Speaking of the moment right now:

Should I wait until a new GPU comes out to buy an old one? To get the most out of the price while still staying relatively safe for still Single-GPU'ing games in <=2 years...

 

Next question:

Task:

PC-GTA5 played in 2560x1080 px with high-textures and at least very heavy anti-aliasing (as GTA5 screams for anti-aliasing in normal textures)

 

How important is the GPU-RAM for future games? Should I purchase something like "SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X R9 290X 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E 512bit" for delivering 8 GB's of GPU-RAM (because nVidia still sticks at 4 GB on purchasable cards like GTX 780 or GTX 970)

or should I rather set to a GTX 780 because of (probably) better performance of the GPU itself?

 

Speaking of 08/15 I set something like a 290x with 8 GB GPU-RAM or a GTX 970...

 

Or would you suggest a totally different ~500 EUR GPU?

At higher resolutions a 290x is a good card but GTA V is a bit more Nvidia optimized I personally would wait a bit for the next gen AMD cards and check their performance.

[itachipirate]

Save AMD 2015! Buy all their graphics cards!

 

I suggest waiting for the 300 series or getting an R9 295x2 (Yes I know it's not a single GPU technically) since I doubt the 290 could drive that resolution with lots of AA. I don't have any evidence on this I'm just assuming since a 290 about equal to 970, and that's what I have

 

Or you could go Nvidia and continue suffocating AMD you horrible monster...

[PineappleHolidays]

290x = 970

 

But you do get 4-8 gb ram instead of 3.5 , and just for that I would go AMD .

Otherwise wait and get an awesomme   21:9 144hz ips freesync monitor with your R9 390

[paradonym]

So you guys mean not to wait for a new generation of GPU's to take a possible price drop for the 290x?

I can't find a single-chip graphics card based on AMD's 295x - is it only the dual-gpu-card available coming with dual 295x-chips?

 

According to a recent LTT-video https://www.vessel.com/videos/QP6Uei-kF(will be on Youtube in about a week or so) the GTX 970 beats the 290x in the FPS-comparision... But having only 4 GB of GPU-RAM isn't really compatible to an SLI when the GPU's become cheaper to purchase more power...

[xc3ll]

I got a 780Ti recently. Since everybody was/is going 980 and Titan X you can find them pretty cheap. I got a new one for 300Eur, which is a pretty good price/performance ratio.

And it's faster than the 290X in most cases, definitely faster than a 970 and 780.

 

Btw.: I wouldn't say the 970 performs better than the 290X. I depends on the game... Just to give to examples: Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3. They run so much better on AMD, that even my old 280X performed better or at least as good as my new 780Ti. If you have as many AMD-optimized games as Nvidia ones, the 970 would end somewhere around the 280X-290. But since there aren't as many AMD games at the moment....

[Demozwolf]

I would say wait.

Your GPU is capable to play modern games?

Wait for the new and cards if you don't like them get a 980 for pure power.(or a 970 for a cheaper option)

[paradonym]

I would say wait.

Your GPU is capable to play modern games?

Wait for the new and cards if you don't like them get a 980 for pure power.(or a 970 for a cheaper option)

 

currently using a single AMD HD7850 GPU, it is capable of GTA5 in 2560x1080, but without the high textures and without really good AA. So I thought about a new one which should be capable of that at least with good AA and high textures (But I heard GTA5-Anti-Aliasing can kill every GPU up to Titan X SLI's)...

GTA5 without high textures is looking something like GTA4...

What do you say about the R9 290x <-> GTX970 Comprarision? If I plan a SLI/Crossfire-System in some years (when the performance of recent GPUs becoming retro) should I set to the R9 290x because of 8 GB of GPU-RAM or still to a GTX970 or 780 even if they only have 4 GB...

[Demozwolf]

-snip-

The r9 290x and the 970 are very close to performance. if you were to go amd 2 290x 8gb will probably hold up for a few years. If nvidia go get 2 970s! 

 

[gunjumero]

I know I'm waiting to see how the 390x performs and how today's cards do in next month's Witcher 3. 

Especially if current cards don't do so well , I'm not that interested in upgrading right away, sure drivers and patches will help but I'm not looking to upgrade for another 2 years after that.

About VRAM, it looks like 4GB and above is becoming the norm, it'd be surprised at that resolution (2560) , if anymore than that makes a huge improvement. 

I'll probably be buying something else, I just don't have an answer for what just yet .

With that said,  I can't really recommend you a card



 

[R_Golden]

currently using a single AMD HD7850 GPU, it is capable of GTA5 in 2560x1080, but without the high textures and without really good AA. So I thought about a new one which should be capable of that at least with good AA and high textures (But I heard GTA5-Anti-Aliasing can kill every GPU up to Titan X SLI's)...

GTA5 without high textures is looking something like GTA4...

What do you say about the R9 290x <-> GTX970 Comprarision? If I plan a SLI/Crossfire-System in some years (when the performance of recent GPUs becoming retro) should I set to the R9 290x because of 8 GB of GPU-RAM or still to a GTX970 or 780 even if they only have 4 GB...

If GTA v is what you're concerned with get a 970. The game performs well with Nvidia.