Upgrade from 280x

[TheAlmightyChalupa]

Hey Internet, my 280x cant quite max out games at 1080p anymore and i was looking for some recommendations for an upgrade. I was thinking about a 970, but the new AMD 300 series has given me second thoughts. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.  

[Sportiva]

Budget?

[TheAlmightyChalupa]

Budget?

Around $350

[Cyrus49]

300 series is just oc'd 200 series I'd say go for the 970 if it's within your budget. It can max out almost anything 1080p.

[mroz10]

970 all the way. That's what I'm upgrading to. It'll max out every game EXCEPT Witcher 3 (just turn off Hairworks and turn down foliage distance).

[i_build_nanosuits]

That the kind of performance boost you,re looking for?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1355

 

I would go with a 970 over a R9 390...the 390X might be worth it as it would depend on the price...the 390 perform similar to the 970 and the 390X is closer to the 980 but not quite there.

[arnavvr]

R9 280X Crossfire

[Nikht_Revan_S539]

Hey Internet, my 280x cant quite max out games at 1080p anymore and i was looking for some recommendations for an upgrade. I was thinking about a 970, but the new AMD 300 series has given me second thoughts. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.  

What games can't you max out?

 

Anyways, you're almost at the top of what AMD has to offer. The r9 3xx series is just a refresh, but there are slight upgrades from the r9 2xx series.

 

Obviously there is the 290/x or the 390/x, but the X models are what you want. I personally wouldn't recommend the 970, not because it's a bad card, but because of the shitty business practice nvidia did with it.

[i_build_nanosuits]

R9 280X Crossfire

^^ this is defenetly something to consider...you can also find HD7970...same GPU, can crossfire too.

 

HD7990 (Dual Hawaii GPU, same as R9 280X crossfire) VS GTX 970:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1074?vs=1355

[arnavvr]

^^ this is defenetly something to consider...you can also find HD7970...same GPU, can crossfire too.

 

With that money he could also get 3 way crossfire....

[Monarch]

The thing with AMD is that, even though their cards are pretty good, they're bottlenecked even by best CPUs due to high DX11 driver overhead. This is evident at resolutions 1440p and below. That's why AMD cards catch up Nvidia's at 4K. 

On the other hand, Nvidia is struggling with drivers at the moment. Their last 3 drivers are unstable, you can find a lot of complaints everywhere. 

 

So currently, both AMD and Nvidia suck. I really don't know what to recommend anymore. And taking into account the state of PC gaming...

[i_build_nanosuits]

OP: Your AMD FX cpu will greatly limit the perfomance of ANY of the GPU options we've discussed so far...and for crossfire of such cards you want pcie 2.0 at 8x/8x minimum, your current board does not offer that.

 

i had a 4.6ghz FX-8320 paired with my GTX 780, and the CPU was way to slow in many games the GPU usage was dropping in the 60 to 70% range and the FPS where dropping to sub 40FPS a lot.

 

Your current parts are well matched, i'm pretty sure if you monitor your GPU usage you,d realise your CPU is already slowing you down some in some games...i wouldnt recommend any high end graphics solution to pair with that old CPU.

[Mew]

I wouldn't go 970 because the performance isn't that much better than the 280x. I would go all the way and get a 980ti or Fury x.

[i_build_nanosuits]

I wouldn't go 970 because the performance isn't that much better than the 280x. I would go all the way and get a 980ti or Fury x.

he has an FX-8350 CPU in there...on a motherboard that has VRM's made out of candy.

A proper Gaming CPU would be needed as well for him to enjoy such graphics cards...otherwise the CPU will always slow him down...a lot.

[TheAlmightyChalupa]

OP: Your AMD FX cpu will greatly limit the perfomance of ANY of the GPU options we've discussed so far...and for crossfire of such cards you want pcie 2.0 at 8x/8x minimum, your current board does not offer that.

 

i had a 4.6ghz FX-8320 paired with my GTX 780, and the CPU was way to slow in many games the GPU usage was dropping in the 60 to 70% range and the FPS where dropping to sub 40FPS a lot.

 

Your current parts are well matched, i'm pretty sure if you monitor your GPU usage you,d realise your CPU is already slowing you down some in some games...i wouldnt recommend any high end graphics solution to pair with that old CPU.

Sorry, forgot to update that parts list, but i upgraded to an i5-4690k with an Asus Z97-Ar motherboard

[i_build_nanosuits]

Sorry, forgot to update that parts list, but i upgraded to an i5-4690k with an Asus Z97-Ar motherboard

in that case, i would trow in another R9 280X or HD7970.

[Nena Trinity]

280X is great wait for next batch of GPUs!