AMD 6970, suggestions for a newer counterpart?

[TheCarbonPhoenix]

Hello, First post on the forums,
 
Currently I am using a AMD Radeon HD 6970, fantastic card hasn't let me down in the 3-4 years I've had it. But its coming to the end of its working life with 2k gaming taking its toll, and so I'm in the market for something a bit more up to date from AMD
 
With the launch of the New r9 300 series + Fury I've been checking out some of the reviews around with little to no success in finding r9 380 and specifically r9 390 in depth breakdowns, to work out what would be best suited to my requirements. AMD brand the 380 as being the 1440p driver and the 390 as the 4k beast but I'd rather have something that covers my back and is future proof to some extent.
 
I am currently running an Asus PA279Q (2560x1440) and a PA238Q (1920x1080 - but running daisy chained off the PA279Q using MST) and so require something with a bit of "umph" to keep both running.

With my budget being between £150-£320, $230-$470, something between the r9 370 and r9 390 seems to be ideal.
 
I'm looking to get the best performance out of my games (Crysis Trilogy - 1, warhead, 2, 3), Battlefield 3 and Titanfall preferably at max settings (with Crysis being the exception - medium to high settings look beautiful anyways) at 2k resolution. But with my interests also lurking in graphics creation and photo editing something that can help improve rendering speeds here would also be great (if possible, without delving into FirePro).
 
At the moment to keep Crysis 3 at 2k resolution at greater than 60 fps I need to severely reduce the graphics settings outside the usual limits, using custom cvars to drop the graphics as low as they can go but even that dips to 30-40 fps, so I've dropped the game res down to 1600x900 and capped the fps at 80, battlefield holds nicely at 60fps with low settings at 2k, and Titanfall with low settings at 2k dips over and under 60 fps so I reduced the game res down to 1920x1080 just to boost the performance.

I'd love to be able to run at 2k consistently with any title I throw at my rig and so any suggestions or pointers would be fantastic,
 
Thanks
Carbon

[ZetZet]

ha. r9 390 is far from 4k beast. it's a 1440p card maaaaybe, on the edge. r9 380 is 1080p card at the most.

 

r9 290x, till you can find them for cheap.

[WereCat]

R9 390 seems like a really good option right now. It trades blows with GTX 970 but it has a lot more VRAM.

Also R9 390 seems to be outperforming both R9 290x and R9 390x for some reason... maybe drivers?

[Prysin]

Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X would be the sweetspot you are looking for. While it is on the more expensive side, the Tri-X cooler is exceptionally effective and should give you some more OC headroom then some of the other versions would.

 

Seems like the 390X Tri-X costs around 434 USD online.

 

Or for 470 USD you can get a Nvidia GTX 980. Which would be a better choice allround if you play a lot of Nvidia games from time to time.

[Lord_Karango17]

ha. r9 390 is far from 4k beast. it's a 1440p card maaaaybe, on the edge. r9 380 is 1080p card at the most.

 

r9 290x, till you can find them for cheap.

Adds more vram, markets it as a 4k card... All right then

[PudgyAstronaut]

I have an R9 290 and it has maxed everything I have played at 1080, except for Crysis 3 and Witcher 3. It will max battlefield 3 at 1440p. The 390 is basically just an updated 290, so depending on pricing in your area, I would recommend either a 290 or 390... just make sure you get a good cooler and pay attention to which ones are loud. Mine is a PCS+ which has fantastic cooling capacity but gets pretty loud (especially in my mATX case), and I also have a Windforce model for a friend that runs quieter/less annoying type of sound, but gets much warmer at full load. If you are in no rush, it may be interesting to see how they price the Fury Nano... I don't think the 390X makes any sense at $450 now anyway, but that card could make it look even more silly.

 

I wouldn't recommend the 370 but the 380 could make sense if you are on a budget and want something to get the job done a bit more efficiently, although I don't think it quite meets your requirements for future proofness and such.

[PineappleHolidays]

R9 390 or 390x.

 

But for 4K at ~high a fury X would be ideal

 

But 4K at medium a 390 would be fine

and 1440p with the R9 390 is ok.

[TheCarbonPhoenix]

I'd like to stress as I see this topic going down the 4K route that I use a 2K monitor and have NO intention to go down the 4K route for a long time, since Asus 4K monitors generally are at the top end of what I would think of paying.

 

So Thanks Mihemine for your suggestion of a 390 or 390x but Fury is way off my budget

[arnavvr]

R9 290[X] You can find them for cheap after the launch of the 300 series

[TheCarbonPhoenix]

Another addition would be that I'm unsure of my system wattage and so have no idea as to how much more my PSU can give before it hits 750W, I'm aware that the r9 290x had rather large power requirements and I would like to keep my rig as silent as possible and within my PSU limit of 750W