Looking for help with GPU upgrade

[GhostMirror]

Hello I am in the market for a new GPU I have been doing a lot of research and reading up on what to go with and hearing that there isn't fully compatibility with DirectX12 I am in a bit of a predicament whether I get a new card or not I was looking at upgrading from my current Radeon R9 270X to a GTX 970 but with the compatibility issues with both Red & Green sides I am not sure if I should get a Nvidia card or wait another (possibly) year or so before Pascal architecture releases Or go and head and empty my pockets on a Maxwell card currently 

 

Would really appreciate any help that anyone can provide to help me make my decision on what to buy 

Thanks in advanced 

[PlayStation 2]

Go with an R9 390

you won't regret it 

[Stardar1]

390, or 970 are both good. Personally, i upgraded from a 270x 4GB to a 970 and have enjoyed NVidia a lot more.

[don_svetlio]

R9 390 - better performance than a 970 - more than double the VRAM and almost identical power consumption. (36W difference)

[jimakos234]

R9 390. 8 gigs of vram is a nice to have. Also amd drivers for now look like they are in

a better condition than nvidia, imo.

[don_svetlio]

Btw - Nvidia's Maxwell cards don't support DX12 fully - it's basically been torn apart by now. Maxwell has 31 compute + 1 Grapchis lane that cannot run simultaneously since the analog scheduler ain't up to the task. AMD's GCN 1.1 and above has 64 compute lanes + 1 Graphics lane that can run at the same time - giving AMD's current cards around a 40% performance increase.

[AresKrieger]

I say wait until pascal and what is it called greenland

[don_svetlio]

I say wait until pascal and what is it called greenland

Pascal is more than a year away and Arctic Islands are as well.

[AresKrieger]

Btw - Nvidia's Maxwell cards don't support DX12 fully - it's basically been torn apart by now. Maxwell has 31 compute + 1 Grapchis lane that cannot run simultaneously since the analog scheduler ain't up to the task. AMD's GCN 1.1 and above has 64 compute lanes + 1 Graphics lane that can run at the same time - giving AMD's current cards around a 40% performance increase.

The titan can't do it the other cards are an unkown aka maxwell 2.0

[AresKrieger]

Pascal is more than a year away and Arctic Islands are as well.

true

[GhostMirror]

Thanks for all the replies the reason I wasn't going with the R9 390 or 390X is 8GB VRAM is too much to be honest for what I want it for I am 1080p gamer currently and I don't really plan on upgrading anytime soon to a 4K display I might upgrade to a 1440p monitor at some point in the next year or so but I will not be able to fully Utilize the 8GB VRAM on a R9 390X or 390 for now so I see it as being a little bit of a waste currently even though they have rather decent performance

[don_svetlio]

The titan can't do it the other cards are an unkown aka maxwell 2.0

Titan X is still GM200 series - like all other 900 series

[don_svetlio]

Thanks for all the replies the reason I wasn't going with the R9 390 or 390X is 8GB VRAM is too much to be honest for what I want it for I am 1080p gamer currently and I don't really plan on upgrading anytime soon to a 4K display I might upgrade to a 1440p monitor at some point in the next year or so but I will not be able to fully Utilize the 8GB VRAM on a R9 390X or 390 for now so I see it as being a little bit of a waste currently even though they have rather decent performance

Actually - I can name a dozen games that will use over 4GB of VRAM at 1080p - Shadow of Mordor uses 6, Dying Light uses 4.2, GTA V can use all the way up to 8. and etc

[GhostMirror]

Actually - I can name a dozen games that will use over 4GB of VRAM at 1080p - Shadow of Mordor uses 6, Dying Light uses 4.2, GTA V can use all the way up to 8. and etc

hmm okay thanks for the info ill have to do some more price comparisons elsewhere and see what strikes me 

[CostcoSamples]

970 is a great card, and so is the 390.  Either will be a great performer at 1080p ultra settings.

 

Keep in mind Pascal is going to be a huge leap forward in performance.  Possibly the biggest leap we've seen in one generation.  They are shrinking down to 16nm.  From current 28nm this is like skipping the 20nm step.  At 16nm, estimates put the number of CUDA cores in the 5000 to 6000 range.  Titan X has about 3000.  So we are talking about roughly doubling the number of cores, combined with HBM 2.0.  We can realistically expect real world gaming performance to be double or better.

 

What is my point?  Whatever you decide today, expect to be upgrading when Pascal comes out.

[don_svetlio]

970 is a great card, and so is the 390.  Either will be a great performer at 1080p ultra settings.

 

Keep in mind Pascal is going to be a huge leap forward in performance.  Possibly the biggest leap we've seen in one generation.  They are shrinking down to 16nm.  From current 28nm this is like skipping the 20nm step.  At 16nm, estimates put the number of CUDA cores in the 5000 to 6000 range.  Titan X has about 3000.  So we are talking about roughly doubling the number of cores, combined with HBM 2.0.  We can realistically expect real world gaming performance to be double or better.

 

What is my point?  Whatever you decide today, expect to be upgrading when Pascal comes out.

nm shrink is not Pascal - it's Volta - Pascal is still 28nm

[GhostMirror]

God this is turning out to be much harder decision to make than I thought so many decent cards to go with think I might need to spend some more time and reconsider what I should buy for now 

[don_svetlio]

God this is turning out to be much harder decision to make than I thought so many decent cards to go with think I might need to spend some more time and reconsider what I should buy for now 

For the 390 - check the Sapphire (entirely custom board with higher quality VRMs and better design) and MSI

[CostcoSamples]

nm shrink is not Pascal - it's Volta - Pascal is still 28nm

That is incorrect.  You may be thinking of the shrink to 10nm.  Pascal will indeed be 16nm with HBM 2.0, and appears to be on schedule for 2016 release.

 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvidia-Tapes-Out-Its-First-Pascal-Based-GP100-Prototype-GPU-483601.shtml

[GhostMirror]

For the 390 - check the Sapphire (entirely custom board with higher quality VRMs and better design) and MSI

Also isn't the 3xx series in general a Refresh of the 200 series just higher core clocks and memory clocks and new driver features?

[don_svetlio]

That is incorrect.  You may be thinking of the shrink to 10nm.  Pascal will indeed be 16nm with HBM 2.0, and appears to be on schedule for 2016 release.

 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvidia-Tapes-Out-Its-First-Pascal-Based-GP100-Prototype-GPU-483601.shtml

All it says is that it's "rumored" - nothing concrete.

[don_svetlio]

Also isn't the 3xx series in general a Refresh of the 200 series just higher core clocks and memory clocks and new driver features?

A refresh - higher memory amounts, optimized board and core. Not all really - 380 and Fury series are GCN 1.2, not 1,1.

[GhostMirror]

Sorry to bring this thread back up again but I have also been wondering people have been recommending me to get the R9 390 over the GTX 970 the only thing that bothers me about it is I feel like I will be buying the same card I have had before but just refreshed and rebranded I know the card has had refinements But I am still in a bit of a predicament  

are the AMD drivers better at the moment as I know the current version is 15.7.1 

 

I do play on a 1080p display currently but I would like to try and the DSR/VSR and how they handle on both cards as I would like to try 1440p quality on my 1080p screen