rx 480 or r9 390 ?!

[Cazapciu Alin]

Hey guys !

 

Right now i own a r9 290, which is a refference model, which has heat issues. It reaches 94 degrees and then it starts throttling. I've tried underclocking it, it still does the same thing. So now, after 2 years, i want a new GPU.

I'm thinking rx 480 OR a r9 390, the sapphire tri-x model.

 

My curent setup is the following : 

amd fx8350

8gb ddr3 RAM

asrock fx990 extreme 3 (motherboard)

Thermaltake Chaser A41 (chassis)

750w from CM bronze certified (i forgot it's name and i'm lazy)

 

I've seen some rx 480 videos and i was impressed, but i'm not sure yet which one is best. All i want is to play on 1080p with 60 fps, and stream from time to time. 

What do you guys think ?

 

Thanks !

[iNoa97]

If all you want is 1080p 60fps max, then either one will do the job. To be honest I would go with the rx 480 for its slightly better in most games like Witcher 3, I would probs wait for the aftermarket ones though, 

[LiquidGoo]

The RX480 is good. The power issues have been fixed. And also have you tried cleaning the 290?

[Cazapciu Alin]

6 minutes ago, LiquidGoo said:

The RX480 is good. The power issues have been fixed. And also have you tried cleaning the 290?

Yeah, i've tried that. I've also tried underclock it, it still does the same thing  I've had heat issues for a year now, i've bought a new case, new fans, tried multiple setups, nothing.

[LiquidGoo]

1 minute ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

Yeah, i've tried that. I've also tried underclock it, it still does the same thing  I've had heat issues for a year now, i've bought a new case, new fans, tried multiple setups, nothing.

Yeah, then the card is toast.

[Cazapciu Alin]

1 minute ago, LiquidGoo said:

Yeah, then the card is toast.

I know it's supposed to run hot, but i just want it to run at 93 not 94 to stop throttling

[2Fast2Quik]

37 minutes ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

I know it's supposed to run hot, but i just want it to run at 93 not 94 to stop throttling

You tried new thermal paste? 

[Cazapciu Alin]

4 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

You tried new thermal paste? 

Yep. The only solution to my problem is a new GPU, but i'd like something better than what i have curently. I'm seeing lots of debates on 480 is worse than 1070, and so on. I don't need a High End card, i just want to play my games on high/ultra at 60 fps (i never max out the settings since there's not that much of a visual difference betweeen high and ultra, only for shadows), and also stream from time to time, that's all, on 1080p.

[Jplaizier]

Personally, Im going for the Rx480 (Im going Xfire) over the r9 390, It will handle the 1080p gaming at max frames better throughout the years to come 

[Gibs960]

I'd go with an RX 480 if money isn't a huge concern, you'll be better for it in the future! 

[cartrucks]

3 minutes ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

Yep. The only solution to my problem is a new GPU, but i'd like something better than what i have curently. I'm seeing lots of debates on 480 is worse than 1070, and so on. I don't need a High End card, i just want to play my games on high/ultra at 60 fps (i never max out the settings since there's not that much of a visual difference betweeen high and ultra, only for shadows), and also stream from time to time, that's all, on 1080p.

Honestly, I think that the 1070 is a bit overkill for 1080p. The 480 should be enough for gaming at high/ultra at 1080p and maybe even bump it up to 1440p at medium.

[2Fast2Quik]

2 minutes ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

Yep. The only solution to my problem is a new GPU, but i'd like something better than what i have curently. I'm seeing lots of debates on 480 is worse than 1070, and so on. I don't need a High End card, i just want to play my games on high/ultra (i never max out the settings since there's not that much of a visual different betweeen high and ultra, only for shadows), and also stream from time to time, that's all, on 1080p.

Well I would advise you to wait for amd's flagship and see its price rx 490 perhaps. However I want to help you with your cooling issues. Have you tried contacting a 3rd party asking if  you could buy a cooler from them. (Something I did for my 270x in fact.)

[Cazapciu Alin]

2 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

Well I would advise you to wait for amd's flagship and see its price rx 490 perhaps. However I want to help you with your cooling issues. Have you tried contacting a 3rd party asking if  you could buy a cooler from them. (Something I did for my 270x in fact.)

I didn't want to invest in an aftermarket cooler for the GPU, and it's already been 2 years since i bought the card, so to me it makes no sense in doing that since i'm also looking for an upgrade. Also, the card is locked, so i can't even OC it if i want. The rx 480 is really cheap here where i live (compared to other gpu-s), so i thought i'd wait for a sapphire or some other version of the card, and take it. I don't really plan on playing on anything more than 1080p for the next 2 years anyway, so i don't see the point in investing in a High End card right now.

[BrightCandle]

The RX 480 is less power consumption than the 390 which is 275W and hence quite hot on its own. With the RX 480 even after the fix drawing too much power and is still out of spec I wouldn't go for the reference card and its a blower, hot (throttles) and loud. Instead wait for some aftermarket AIB based cards if a RX 480 is what you want. Make sure you have sufficient case cooling as there is a chance the card you have is getting hot due to poor environment temperature.

 

The other possibility is to get a 970. They can be had for a similar price as the RX 480 currently and are similar performance, a bit less VRAM but for the settings you are talking about you aren't sounding like a texture modder so a 970 might be a reasonable substitute that you can buy today. Despite being 28nm its similar power output to the RX 480 and hence quiet and cool and doesn't have overheating issues, plenty of second hand ones on the market right now that are going to be a lot cheaper than a new RX 480.

[Cazapciu Alin]

19 minutes ago, BrightCandle said:

The RX 480 is less power consumption than the 390 which is 275W and hence quite hot on its own. With the RX 480 even after the fix drawing too much power and is still out of spec I wouldn't go for the reference card and its a blower, hot (throttles) and loud. Instead wait for some aftermarket AIB based cards if a RX 480 is what you want. Make sure you have sufficient case cooling as there is a chance the card you have is getting hot due to poor environment temperature.

 

The other possibility is to get a 970. They can be had for a similar price as the RX 480 currently and are similar performance, a bit less VRAM but for the settings you are talking about you aren't sounding like a texture modder so a 970 might be a reasonable substitute that you can buy today. Despite being 28nm its similar power output to the RX 480 and hence quiet and cool and doesn't have overheating issues, plenty of second hand ones on the market right now that are going to be a lot cheaper than a new RX 480.

What would be the in-game difference between a 970 anda AIB based rx 480 ?

[BrightCandle]

1 minute ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

What would be the in-game difference between a 970 anda AIB based rx 480 ?

Not a whole lot currently, the 970 is on average a little faster but its not a massive advantage.

[Coaxialgamer]

I would get the rx 480 . But what i would try is replacing the thermal paste on your 290. It helped a lot on my cards , and i'm not the only one.

[Cazapciu Alin]

6 minutes ago, BrightCandle said:

Not a whole lot currently, the 970 is on average a little faster but its not a massive advantage.

How future-proof would a 970 be ? Also, if you were me, what would you do ?

[BrightCandle]

5 minutes ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

How future-proof would a 970 be ? Also, if you were me, what would you do ?

I just upgraded from 2x 970's to a 1080, I play in the high end space of the market not the lower mainstream.

 

Nvidia supports their GPUs longer than AMD does in terms of official driver support historically. A lot of the "future proofing" of AMD's drivers gaining performance I view as performance that ought to have been there when the card was released, its an example of bad and inefficienct drivers and not a sign of a well made product from the outset. But when you compare today an AMD card to Nvidia the AMD card is likely to be faster in a few years time than it is today.

 

DX12 presumably matters and in the games that go fully AMD promoted and fully utilise async compute it'll get a hefty performance improvement. In other cases the 970 has otherwise good DX12 support and a lot of features even the RX 480 still doesn't have so its going to be a mixed bag really. Too early to tell, AoS might be the future or hitman/warhammer might be and I tend to think its probably not going to make much difference because driver overhead is rarely the issue with games and so most games are currently not gaining much as expected.

[Cazapciu Alin]

5 minutes ago, BrightCandle said:

I just upgraded from 2x 970's to a 1080, I play in the high end space of the market not the lower mainstream.

 

Nvidia supports their GPUs longer than AMD does in terms of official driver support historically. A lot of the "future proofing" of AMD's drivers gaining performance I view as performance that ought to have been there when the card was released, its an example of bad and inefficienct drivers and not a sign of a well made product from the outset. But when you compare today an AMD card to Nvidia the AMD card is likely to be faster in a few years time than it is today.

 

DX12 presumably matters and in the games that go fully AMD promoted and fully utilise async compute it'll get a hefty performance improvement. In other cases the 970 has otherwise good DX12 support and a lot of features even the RX 480 still doesn't have so its going to be a mixed bag really. Too early to tell, AoS might be the future or hitman/warhammer might be and I tend to think its probably not going to make much difference because driver overhead is rarely the issue with games and so most games are currently not gaining much as expected.

Okay but what about the vram ? Games, as far as i see, tend to start using more and more vram. 970 has 4gb. Will this be a problem in the future ?

[BrightCandle]

1 minute ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

Okay but what about the vram ? Games, as far as i see, tend to start using more and more vram. 970 has 4gb. Will this be a problem in the future ?

Most of the time VRAM usage scales with the performance of the core itself and addresses the lowest common denominator. There are exceptions (like Mirrors edge) but by and large if the settings require too much VRAM the card can't play at those settings at 60hz anyway. There is a reason for that, developers target specific hardware that users have with their settings. Most of the time a higher VRAM count goes to waste unless of course you know you are modifying games to use more in which case more VRAM is something you know you need. I just view it as a none issue, its been a non issue for a decade it keeps getting talked up and I keep seeing the same thing play out - it effects 1-2 games a year and usually pretty minimally. I doubt this year or next is going to be the year when all the developers suddenly stop supporting the most used GPU in the market currently.

[xAcid9]

I'll get AIB 480 over 390.

[Cazapciu Alin]

20 minutes ago, BrightCandle said:

Most of the time VRAM usage scales with the performance of the core itself and addresses the lowest common denominator. There are exceptions (like Mirrors edge) but by and large if the settings require too much VRAM the card can't play at those settings at 60hz anyway. There is a reason for that, developers target specific hardware that users have with their settings. Most of the time a higher VRAM count goes to waste unless of course you know you are modifying games to use more in which case more VRAM is something you know you need. I just view it as a none issue, its been a non issue for a decade it keeps getting talked up and I keep seeing the same thing play out - it effects 1-2 games a year and usually pretty minimally. I doubt this year or next is going to be the year when all the developers suddenly stop supporting the most used GPU in the market currently.

What about the fact that the 480 is newer than the 970 therefore newer technology is used also. Would that play a role in the next years that would make at some point the 480 better than thhe current 970 ?

[BrightCandle]

2 minutes ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

What about the fact that the 480 is newer than the 970 therefore newer technology is used also. Would that play a role in the next years that would make at some point the 480 better than thhe current 970 ?

Bored now. Good luck with your purchase. You have your options go do some research.

[Prysin]

3 hours ago, Cazapciu Alin said:

Hey guys !

 

Right now i own a r9 290, which is a refference model, which has heat issues. It reaches 94 degrees and then it starts throttling. I've tried underclocking it, it still does the same thing. So now, after 2 years, i want a new GPU.

I'm thinking rx 480 OR a r9 390, the sapphire tri-x model.

 

My curent setup is the following : 

amd fx8350

8gb ddr3 RAM

asrock fx990 extreme 3 (motherboard)

Thermaltake Chaser A41 (chassis)

750w from CM bronze certified (i forgot it's name and i'm lazy)

 

I've seen some rx 480 videos and i was impressed, but i'm not sure yet which one is best. All i want is to play on 1080p with 60 fps, and stream from time to time. 

What do you guys think ?

 

Thanks !

RX 480

why?

better tesselation performance (important when playing "gimpworks"^TM titles)

Lower power consumption

upgraded architecture capable of handling HVEC decode and encode.