GTX 970 / R9 290x / 2x R9 280x Crossfire for BF4

[Yakshirak]

Hey guys.

 

First time for me posting in this forum but I have been a long-time lurker on the LinusTechTips and NCIS Tech Tips youtube channel.

I'm a college student from Germany. So please ignore any kind of weird sentences or spelling mistakes 

 

I was wandering if you guys could give me some advice or put some convincing arguments on the table which graphics card I should get.

 

• Current graphics card: R9 280X Sapphire Vapor-X (custom cooled with the "Alpenfön Peter II") 14.4 catalyst drivers
• Current CPU: i5 4670k
• Ram: 8gb 1300 DDR3

 

• Option A: R9 290X
• Option B: GTX 970
• Option C: Another R9 280x for Crossfire

 

• Games I play: Mainly Battlefield 4
• Monitor: BenQ Xl2411T (so I'm trying to reach 144 fps or 120fps (together with strobelight)

The concerns I have in mind:

• Despite the raw performance boost the GTX 970 brings in comparison to the R9 290X, having Mantle in mind I'm not really convinced that it will actually perform better in BF4
• I would have to upgrade my PSU if I'd crossfired two 280x (although pricing for one 280x + psu is almost the same as getting one of the other cards)
• R9 280X uses GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 on the R9 290X should perform better on mantle (would that be enough to run BF4 on ultra no AA no HBAO on constant 120fps?)

The main reason I'd like to upgrade my R9 280X is that although I can run BF4 almost stable on 120fps (on Ultra Textures / Filtering and the rest on low / off) I'd like to ramp up the graphics a little higher while still remaining with a stable 120fps for smooth gameplay.

 

I'd really appeciate any kind of input from you guys and I hope some of you have similar systems or experience with BF4s' Mantle performance.

[askmax]

Crossfire 280x would give the best results for pure fps.

[SkilledRebuilds]

290-OC stock (1040mhz) doesn't sustain 120fps @ 1080p Ultra /w 4xAA on my system (sig) 70-110fps average, 2xAA is 90+

I myself up the Res scale and enjoy the pretties, as your after overall fast fluid fps @ 100fps+ average, the 970 is the way to go, with varied settings in game,... last week I'd have said 780Ti or 290x but now... 970 or 980.

My older HD7950 (stock as well) was @ about 55+ average and I ended up after a little while using Ultra 2xAA then High and it was pretty nice, so maybe Crossfire (cheapest option) is the way to go.

Thats up to your budget.

[D00M_GaMeR]

Option B: GTX 970 because low temps, low cost, low TDP = Monster OC card and better performance for his price Be smart, and in the future you can buy second GTX 970 if games need more FPS power from your GPU. But today games don`t need SLi if you play them on 1080p or 1440p

[Yakshirak]

Yeah just what I thought basically. The best bang per buck should be the crossfire solution right now. 

 

I'd also like to ramp up the res-scale. Basically I'm just trying to get the smoothest gameplay performance I can possibly get. That would include nice and sharp edges.

I myself had the best experience with the game capped to 120fps with 120hz strobed with strobelight and v-sync forced through CCC.

[Yakshirak]

Option B: GTX 970 because low temps, low cost, low TDP = Monster OC card and better performance for his price Be smart, and in the future you can buy second GTX 970 if games need more FPS power from your GPU. But today games don`t need SLi if you play them on 1080p or 1440p

 

Also true. It's basically two ways I could go now:

• A: Go for the raw performance NOW and crossfire two r9 280x
• B: Go for the saver GTX 970 (future wise) and settle with not "as much" performance boost 

And I'm also not really sold on the R9 290x. High temps + power consumption

[-rascal-]

Also true. It's basically two ways I could go now:

• A: Go for the raw performance NOW and crossfire two r9 280x
• B: Go for the saver GTX 970 (future wise) and settle with not "as much" performance boost 

And I'm also not really sold on the R9 290x. High temps + power consumption

 

Temperature is only an issues on the reference cooled R9-290(X). The ones that use custom GPU coolers (i.e. Tri-X / Vapor-X) don't have that issue.

 

Even though I'm running two, what is essentially, R9-280X's, I'd recommend that you go the GTX 970 route.

Crossfire R9-280X versus one GTX 970 comparison (unfortunately, they don't have a BF4 comparison for the two): http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1058?vs=1355

 

I'm don't think even Crossfire R9-280X will be enough for constant 120 FPS with MSAA, AF, graphical settings ramped up to it's fullest in BF4.

 

By the way, what power supply are you using for your system?

 

And...welcome to the forums!

[Yakshirak]

Right now I have a 650W from Cooler Master. And I would have gotten a 850W maybe also from Cooler Master. Maybe from Corsair. If I had gone with the Crossfire solution. But I think I will get the GTX 970. It's just more future-proof and with the pricing I should have a bit money to spare to finish my sleevin project in my Pc