Older vs Newer GPU's

[Sovek]

Right now I'm in the planning phase of a pretty powerful PC, where I'm willing to spend more money on certain things that I'd be unwilling to spend previously. My last upgrade was 5 years ago (good grief) and this aging GTX 460 just isnt cutting it.

 

Right now the basics of this computer is skylake DDR4 2133 RAM, 256GB M.2 SSD (SATA 3) with a 620w PSU and 5 channel sound, 710 keyboard from Logitech (and possible mouse to go with it) and a 29-34" ultra wide monitor. This is my upgrade to end upgrades for the next 5-8 years give or take.

 

The only issue is the GPU, and while I have nailed down the case (Grandia G09B), PSU (620w Sea Sonic), which should support any card I choose, I'm undecided on the GPU. I've seen some of the older 7790's go for $100 or less and can run some of the more advanced games in my library like Bioshock Infinite at reasonable (40-50 FPS) on ultra settings at 1080, but the monitor may cause that performance to drop. The 7970's go somewhere between $150-200 so in that range a R9 380 is probably the better buy. When compared to a GTX card in the 780 or 690, it just falls flat, and the 780 will outperform the 380, and the 690 does better against the 780, at least according to anandtech. A 780 can be had for $200 and the 690 goes for about $300-$350, though the 390 starts to catch up to it.

 

Obviously new cards are at a steady price, new, and have warranties whereas the older used cards kind of up in the air as far the best deal, used and lack warranties, but you can get a better price to performance especially if you watch EBay or Craigslist and other sources for used hardware.

 

Opinions?

[don_svetlio]

390 > 780 ~=380X (Kepler isn't what it used to be) > 7970 = 380 > 690 (this is a truly terrible design - lot's of heat, insufficient cooling, loud, just bad) > 7790

[Kobathor]

7790 would be the worst. 690 second worst. 780 third worst or similar to the 7970. Then the 380. The 390 would be the best.

[Unhelpful]

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

390 > 780 ~=380X (Kepler isn't what it used to be) > 7970 = 380 > 690 (this is a truly terrible design - lot's of heat, insufficient cooling, loud, just bad) > 7790

I'd tweak that very slightly.
 

390 > 780 ~= 290 > 380x

 

All of these are within single digit percentage of eachother in most games anyways  but just to nitpick.

 

Fuck the 690.

[App4that]

Any reason you didn't list the 290? That would be what I would look for, any Sapphire not used for mining would be worth getting. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, JoeyDM said:

I'd tweak that very slightly.
 

390 > 780 ~= 290 > 380x

 

All of these are within single digit percentage of eachother in most games anyways  but just to nitpick.

I guess though the 780 really isn't as good anymore - without the meticulous driver optimizations it lags behind a 290.

[Unhelpful]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

I guess though the 780 really isn't as good anymore - without the meticulous driver optimizations it lags behind a 290.

I got both in my house and it still trades blows with the 290, each winning in different games by a couple percent.

 

Your mileage may vary. Could be faults in my testing.

[multifrag]

With some Nvidia sponsored games you will experience planed obsolescence:

 

[Sakkura]

The R9 290 was faster than the GTX 780 at launch, today it's much faster. And the 7970 is faster than the 380. The 380 is on par with the 280, which is just a rebadged 7950.

 

Raw power, 690 > 390 = 290 > 780 > 7970 > 380

 

But the 690 comes with the usual SLI drawbacks, and is held back by its 2GB of (effective) VRAM. 390 tends to be a little faster than 290 due to higher factory clocks.

[Sovek]

4 minutes ago, App4that said:

Any reason you didn't list the 290? That would be what I would look for, any Sapphire not used for mining would be worth getting. 

I was counting that as a "new" card, where the 390 has some minor improvements, and Newegg is being pricey about them, hence not worth it. E-Bay DOES have them available but most seem to be the crappy, noisy blower style coolers (havnt had one of those since my GT 6-7K series). Getting one with a decent cooler could be tricky but I seem to be able to find them on amazon. Will keep an eye on them

[App4that]

Just now, multifrag said:

With some Nvidia sponsored games you will experience planed obsolescence:

 

Can we have one topic without the fan BS?

 

It's not "planned obsolescence", it's architecture. But getting a older AMD card is a better choice because of the better architecture. No need to spew hate in order to prove that. 

[multifrag]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

Can we have one topic without the fan BS?

 

It's not "planned obsolescence", it's architecture. But getting a older AMD card is a better choice because of the better architecture. No need to spew hate in order to prove that. 

Just watch the video. There is no fan BS. I don't see any ''architecture'' evidence oppose to games running quicker on freaking 960 over 780. 960 is not a quicker card, but in gameworks titles in performs worse.

[don_svetlio]

7 minutes ago, App4that said:

Can we have one topic without the fan BS?

 

It's not "planned obsolescence", it's architecture. But getting a older AMD card is a better choice because of the better architecture. No need to spew hate in order to prove that. 

Stop calling people fanboys for saying something you don't like, it's rather due...

[don_svetlio]

Just now, multifrag said:

Just watch the video. There is no fan BS. I don't see any ''architecture'' evidence oppose to games running quicker on freaking 960 over 780. 960 is not a quicker card, but in gameworks titles in performs worse.

Don't argue with him, you're wasting your time friend

[App4that]

Just now, multifrag said:

Just watch the video. There is no fan BS. I don't see any ''architecture'' evidence oppose to games running quicker on freaking 960 over 780. 960 is not a quicker card, but in gameworks titles in performs worse.

No it's not. And ROTTR is a Gameworks title and the 780 was used for the tech demo. The 780ti performs up there with a 980, not a few frames behind.

 

That video is cherry picked garbage. Do you see Digital Foundry posting garbage like that? No, but they did find the stuttering issue in AMD cards with JC3 and the high driver overhead on the AMD side. So let's keep the evidence on the up and up. 

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

No it's not. And ROTTR is a Gameworks title and the 780 was used for the tech demo. The 780ti performs up there with a 980, not a few frames behind.

 

That video is cherry picked garbage. Do you see Digital Foundry posting garbage like that? No, but they did find the stuttering issue in AMD cards with JC3 and the high driver overhead on the AMD side. So let's keep the evidence on the up and up. 

A 960 beating a 780 is what we call "intentionally gimping Kepler via GameBreaks". Stop trying to start a flame war...

[App4that]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

A 960 beating a 780 is what we call "intentionally gimping Kepler via GameBreaks". Stop trying to start a flame war...

Don, stop quoting me. You went right over me advising a 290 and saying the older AMD cards are a better purchase than older Nvidia cards because I drew the line at saying Nvidia did it on purpose, which they didn't. I have no interest in discussing anything with someone who is as polarized as you. 

[don_svetlio]

3 minutes ago, App4that said:

Don, stop quoting me. You went right over me advising a 290 and saying the older AMD cards are a better purchase than older Nvidia cards because I drew the line at saying Nvidia did it on purpose, which they didn't. I have no interest in discussing anything with someone who is as polarized as you. 

You're the one mixing brands and I'm polarized? Yeah, good luck selling me that. GameWorks is broken, it abuses extreme amounts of Tessellation and is overall an unoptimized sorry excuse for a mess. It needs to go away for the sake of gamers, not brands.

 

 

[Sovek]

geeez, please stop with the flame wars, I asked for an honest assessment on how well older cards perform compared to newer cards in the price to performance area. I didn't ask for all the drama of Nvidia vs AMD.

[Unhelpful]

6 minutes ago, Sovek said:

geeez, please stop with the flame wars, I asked for an honest assessment on how well older cards perform compared to newer cards in the price to performance area. I didn't ask for all the drama of Nvidia vs AMD.

Not a war with just 2 or 3 people. It's a catfight