Graphics card for 3D Game Dev?

gmaesplayer · January 1, 2015

I just build my first PC, at around $1500 for everything. My GPU is a Radeon R9 290 Black Edition. Would there have been a better choice for around $300? Also, as the name suggests, I was planning on using this build as mainly a way to develop 3D games.

ZetZet · January 1, 2015

you bought it, why do and ask later. 970 is better.

Sentient68k · January 2, 2015

There are other viable options but there's nothing wrong with an R9 290 either. I mean there's always going to be better stuff coming out over time so don't get too hung up on if you got exactly the best part at the given time. The Nvidia 900 series cards probably would've been a better choice right now but then who knows if AMD won't roll out cards next month that are even better (or whenever the 300 series cards come along)! I work with UE4 on a regular basis with an R9 290 in my rig and performs just fine so I wouldn't be too worried for now.

Something else to keep in mind too: Your CPU might matter a lot more for development work. Compiling code and crunching through lightmap generation will benefit from that along with more RAM if the engine you're working with utilizes that kind of thing.

Briggsy · January 2, 2015

I just build my first PC, at around $1500 for everything. My GPU is a Radeon R9 290 Black Edition. Would there have been a better choice for around $300? Also, as the name suggests, I was planning on using this build as mainly a way to develop 3D games.

depends on where you live. a 970 is $400+ where I live, while a 290 can be had for less than 300. the $100+ price premium doesn't grant much of a performance increase, unless you're running a 290 at stock speeds inside a hotbox.

gmaesplayer · January 2, 2015

There are other viable options but there's nothing wrong with an R9 290 either. I mean there's always going to be better stuff coming out over time so don't get too hung up on if you got exactly the best part at the given time. The Nvidia 900 series cards probably would've been a better choice right now but then who knows if AMD won't roll out cards next month that are even better (or whenever the 300 series cards come along)! I work with UE4 on a regular basis with an R9 290 in my rig and performs just fine so I wouldn't be too worried for now.

Something else to keep in mind too: Your CPU might matter a lot more for development work. Compiling code and crunching through lightmap generation will benefit from that along with more RAM if the engine you're working with utilizes that kind of thing.

Thanks for the response! I also use UE4, and as for the other parts you mentioned I got an Intel i7 4790K and 16Gb DDR3. I thought it was pretty good and wanted no bottlenecks in my system but I'm probably just paranoid.

Sentient68k · January 2, 2015

Thanks for the response! I also use UE4, and as for the other parts you mentioned I got an Intel i7 4790K and 16Gb DDR3. I thought it was pretty good and wanted no bottlenecks in my system but I'm probably just paranoid.

That sounds solid to me! Lightmass is multi-threaded and I have an AMD 8350 myself. It fully utilizes all 8 cores when I'm compiling maps and it more or less runs very nicely. Your 4790K should do just as well. I doubt you'll hit any bottlenecks too hard.