Time to upgrade?

[vaxeres]

Alright, I currently have a 7870 and its performed admirably, but its starting to get a little long in the tooth so I'm thinking about an upgrade. I have around $300 to spend to upgrade and I want to get a card that will last me several years. I only need to reach 60 fps because that's all my monitor can manage and it'll be a few years until I can spend the money on one. What do you guys think? 

Also, is it worth waiting for the new nvidia cards to come out? 

[App4that]

Both the 970/390 are great graphics cards and will last you for years. While the new cards are on the horizon we still know nothing about them. So if you consider waiting be prepared to wait 6 months or more.

 

[ReesZRB]

R9 390, performs 15% better than GTX 970. I'm pretty sure it can do 1080p60fps

[Cvdasfg]

Well it depends. You can get a 970 now and thatll last you awhile. Or if your not "dying" you can wait a few months (probably like a year) and find out what pascal has to offer. Personally I'd wait, but thats up to you :). Either way you cant go wrong. 

[App4that]

2 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

R9 390, performs 15% better than GTX 970. I'm pretty sure it can do 1080p60fps

WHAT!?! No, they're equal, they trade blows. Please keep the misinfomation out of this forum.

[ReesZRB]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

WHAT!?! No, they're equal, they trade blows. Please keep the misinfomation out of this forum.

.....Ok lemme not use percentage, the R9 390 performs slightly better than the 970. Go google some benchmarks

[App4that]

Just now, ReesZRB said:

.....Ok lemme not use percentage, the R9 390 performs slightly better than the 970

No  it doesn't. Depends on the game, driver, and clock speed. 

 

THEY ARE EQUAL 

[ReesZRB]

Just now, App4that said:

No  it doesn't. Depends on the game, driver, and clock speed. 

 

THEY ARE EQUAL 

God Jesus Christ .... also the 970 are a bit more expensive. R9 390 Indeed rekted the GTX 970

[App4that]

Just now, ReesZRB said:

God Jesus Christ .... also the 970 are a bit more expensive. R9 390 Indeed rekted the GTX 970

No, the price difference is regional and trading blows means for every time one beats the other, there is a case of the opposite. And the 970 has features and graphics settings unavailable to the 390, along with day one drivers. 

 

So if you want to pound the AMD drum, please allow me to direct your attention to "driver overhead"

[ReesZRB]

Just now, App4that said:

No, the price difference is regional and trading blows means for every time one beats the other, there is a case of the opposite. And the 970 has features and graphics settings unavailable to the 390, along with day one drivers. 

 

So if you want to pound the AMD drum, please allow me to direct your attention to "driver overhead"

I'm about to break my face on the drum. Features wise yes. but performance wise. AMD. Also wish I can slap people across the internet

[johnnysasaki]

2 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

God Jesus Christ .... also the 970 are a bit more expensive. R9 390 Indeed rekted the GTX 970

Depends on region, in Norway e.g. 390 is mostly more expensive. Under no circumstances 390 ''rekts'' 970.

[ReesZRB]

3 minutes ago, johnnysasaki said:

Depends on region, in Norway e.g. 390 is mostly more expensive. Under no circumstances 390 ''rekts'' 970.

Although I am using referenced international prices for that. Alright it's Equal but not vram wise.

[App4that]

3 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

I'm about to break my face on the drum. Features wise yes. but performance wise. AMD. Also wish I can slap people across the internet

Performance wise they are the same, this isn't that hard to understand. Look at ROTTR, they perform the same. Even when the 390 has an advantage like in The Division, overclock the 970 and can you guess? 

 

Ive owned a 390, I know what it can do. And what it can't do which is beat a 970. Just like a 970 can't beat a 390.

 

which is why every fucking topic ends like this. 

[Dabombinable]

6 minutes ago, App4that said:

Performance wise they are the same, this isn't that hard to understand. Look at ROTTR, they perform the same. Even when the 390 has an advantage like in The Division, overclock the 970 and can you guess? 

 

Ive owned a 390, I know what it can do. And what it can't do which is beat a 970. Just like a 970 can't beat a 390.

 

which is why every fucking topic ends like this. 

Long story short, only get an R9 390 if you need the vRAM.

[TheArmChairGuru]

33 minutes ago, vaxeres said:

Alright, I currently have a 7870 and its performed admirably, but its starting to get a little long in the tooth so I'm thinking about an upgrade. I have around $300 to spend to upgrade and I want to get a card that will last me several years. I only need to reach 60 fps because that's all my monitor can manage and it'll be a few years until I can spend the money on one. What do you guys think? 

Also, is it worth waiting for the new nvidia cards to come out? 

So, instead of bickering about how you can get 2% more performance from one vendor or another, i'll attempt an answer.

If you want to buy a card now, go for it, it will last you for years at 60 fps.

Have you, in the past, had good luck with a specific vendor such as team red or team green ?

Then by all means, buy a card from that vendor, either one will do pretty much the same thing, which is to say, display your video.

All other arguments are invalid because you said you wanted 60fps...

not 60 fps in a specific game or on a specific monitor or with a specific driver or setup or game or engine or ....omg who cares.

 

If you have the money and want to upgrade, pick your fav team and get one  

[UGame_]

I think a good GPU to get is the: 

(Drumroll pls)

 

XFX Radeon R9 390 Double Dissapation Video Card.

 

Why?

I think this card will last you a pretty good amount of time, like other have said. 

This card will 100% guarantee 60 FPS on most games if not all on Ultra or High Settings.

 

 

                 Sell the 7870 while you wait for Nvidia's new Pascal chipsets to come out, and then you can decide weather or not to get one.

Then, if/when you get one, you can sell the R9 and make a few extra bucks.

[SteveGrabowski0]

43 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

R9 390, performs 15% better than GTX 970. I'm pretty sure it can do 1080p60fps

That would put it even with the 980. I'm not believing your figure.

[DJ25380]

1 hour ago, vaxeres said:

Alright, I currently have a 7870 and its performed admirably, but its starting to get a little long in the tooth so I'm thinking about an upgrade. I have around $300 to spend to upgrade and I want to get a card that will last me several years. I only need to reach 60 fps because that's all my monitor can manage and it'll be a few years until I can spend the money on one. What do you guys think? 

Also, is it worth waiting for the new nvidia cards to come out? 

Buy my R9

[SteveGrabowski0]

I don't think it's time for you to upgrade. You still have a very solid GPU, and the stuff in your price range isn't a great deal. The GTX is already almost a year and a half old and still sells for what it launched at. The R9 390 is essentially two and a half years old (390 is just a 290 with better and more vram). The 970 was an amazing deal at $330 in 2014 when it launched, and the R9 290 even better at $250 a month later. But now we're at the tail end of Maxwell, the tail end of Hawaii, and the tail end of 28 nm, Since you sound like you want something to last 4+ years, look to past history when there was a major size reduction of the transistors making these chips up (2012). Right now you'd still be getting pretty solid 1080p performance with a 28 nm GTX 670 four years later, but if you went back in time to Jan 2015 you probably wouldn't be all too happy running a 40 nm GTX 570 at 1080p. You're talking a 40% difference between the 70 series cards after the node shrink and new architecture (Kepler 28 nm). Well, that's exactly what's happening in 2016, node shrinks to 14nm/16nm and new architectures from both AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia doesn't have anything to show yet, but AMD's Polaris 10 running at about half the power of a GTX 950 while they were both pulling a locked 60 fps at what looked like 1080p high at CES was pretty awesome to see. If they're doing that on 40-50W imagine what their 160W card is going to be like. If you were on something really weak like a 560 Ti I'd say go for the upgrade now, but with a 7870 I'd hold out for the new stuff. Besides, they'll be out in time for the big rush of holiday 2016 games.

[Calidus]

I personally went from a 7870 to an R9 290 and I think it was a good move back then, the card handles every game at 60 fps fine.

 

However, due to where I live AMD cards are generally cheaper for comparable performance with more expensive Nvidia ones. So I'd get either a R9 390 or GTX 970, whichever is cheaper for you. As for the board makers, go with a make you've used before and are happy with. In my experience for example I always use either Sapphire, HIS or EVGA.