Best Graphics card for BF4?

[Focux]

LOL, don't hate me. Lets agree to hate Nvidia since you could have almost got the 780 Classified Hydro Copper for what your regular 780 costs now. I know I hate them since they did a price drop weeks after I bought mine and won't give me a partial refund!

And where I live, price cuts hardly ever take effect..

[k4show]

Is it worth waiting for the R9 290 non reference boards or just pick up a GTX 780 for a bit more?  Will the R9 290 outperform the 780 over clocked in BF4 in the future with Mantle?

[FluffyNuggets]

Is it worth waiting for the R9 290 non reference boards or just pick up a GTX 780 for a bit more?  Will the R9 290 outperform the 780 over clocked in BF4 in the future with Mantle?

Nobody knows. 

 

I'd still get a 780 but that's just me. I read a review somewhere yesterday about the 290 and they said they didn't believe it was outputting as much FPS as it was and strongly thought there was an error or something. Something about it not feeling right or something to that effect and they said AMD agrees the 290 shouldn't be performing better than the 290x. 

 

The 780 seems refined whereas the 290 and 290x seem like an experiment. I'm not playing fanboy or anything but those cards seem rushed and not very well thought out. 

[TechFan@ic]

Nobody knows. 

 

I'd still get a 780 but that's just me. I read a review somewhere yesterday about the 290 and they said they didn't believe it was outputting as much FPS as it was and strongly thought there was an error or something. Something about it not feeling right or something to that effect and they said AMD agrees the 290 shouldn't be performing better than the 290x. 

 

The 780 seems refined whereas the 290 and 290x seem like an experiment. I'm not playing fanboy or anything but those cards seem rushed and not very well thought out. 

I think you just misunderstood what was going on, the 290 fans run at 47% default, while the 290X fans only reach 40% at default, the added cooling capacity allows the 290 to maintain higher clocks for longer periods of times, i.e. it reduces throttling and thus you get better performance.

If you run both cards at "Uber mode" i.e. 55% fan speed you will eliminate the variability in the clock speeds and will see the 290 maintaining the same level of performance while the 290X performance would soar.

The best thing to do now is to wait for the non-reference 290X & 290 cards, Asus has one coming very soon, with good cooling, you're looking at much quieter operation and much higher sustainable clock speeds which would translate to better performance.

In any case, to answer the OP's question, if you're playing at 1920x1080 your best bet is the 280X, it's the fastest card in BF4 at the $300-350 price point. At this resolution you would not be needing a 290, you will be able to max the game out on the highest settings and still maintain a 60+ FPS average.

And once the Mantle update rolls out in a few months you will get even more performance.

In BF4, the 280X already performs pretty much like the 780, with Mantle the 280X will surely outperform an overclocked 780.

http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page3.html

[FluffyNuggets]

I think you just misunderstood what was going on, the 290 fans run at 47% default, while the 290X fans only reach 40% at default, the added cooling capacity allows the 290 to maintain higher clocks for longer periods of times, i.e. it reduces throttling and thus you get better performance.

If you run both cards at "Uber mode" i.e. 55% fan speed you will eliminate the variability in the clock speeds and will see the 290 maintaining the same level of performance while the 290X performance would soar.

The best thing to do now is to wait for the non-reference 290X & 290 cards, Asus has one coming very soon, with good cooling, you're looking at much quieter operation and much higher sustainable clock speeds which would translate to better performance.

In any case, to answer the OP's question, if you're playing at 1920x1080 your best bet is the 280X, it's the fastest card in BF4 at the $300-350 price point. At this resolution you would not be needing a 290, you will be able to max the game out on the highest settings and still maintain a 60+ FPS average.

And once the Mantle update rolls out in a few months you will get even more performance.

In BF4, the 280X already performs pretty much like the 780, with Mantle the 280X will surely outperform an overclocked 780.

http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page3.html

That graph is so jacked. I get more FPS with my 780 at 2560x1440 then they get at 1920x1080. I call BS!!!

[A/C]

Hahahah, 280x performing the same or better as na overclocked 780? Even the biggest AMD fanboy won't buy into that sort of crap. (and I've got one 280x on pre order as we speak).

 

With all due respect @TechFan@ic but... Please...

[TheGhostVII]

R9 290X, R9 290, and R9 280X.

[TechFan@ic]

Hahahah, 280x performing the same or better as na overclocked 780? Even the biggest AMD fanboy won't buy into that sort of crap. (and I've got one 280x on pre order as we speak).

 

With all due respect @TechFan@ic but... Please...

I said with Mantle a 280X would outperform a 780, the performance gap is already less than 10% between the 280X & the 780, so unless you believe Mantle will result in less than single digit performance gains, then surely the 280X would end up faster.

 

That graph is so jacked. I get more FPS with my 780 at 2560x1440 then they get at 1920x1080. I call BS!!!

ehh   http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark,7.html

[TheProfosist]

The best card is the bes5 one you can afford.

[A/C]

I said with Mantle a 280X would outperform a 780, the performance gap is already less than 10% between the 280X & the 780, so unless you believe Mantle will result in less than single digit performance gains, then surely the 280X would end up faster.

 

ehh   http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark,7.html

 

Time will tell, but I refuse to believe battlefield 4 would be so badly optimized for nvidia in the end, everyone knows the 780 is much faster than the 280x, not 2x faster (because it's 2x more expensive) but a lot faster. Also, I don't believe mantle will benefit all amd cards the same (some may perform 15% better, some 5%...). I can tell you first hand how badly bf4 is optimized for now. But like I said, time will tell. And I have an option to get any card I want now basically, I have a 280x on order which I'll use for testing purposes before I hand it down, and prolly get a 780ti for me in the end, if it turns out to be everything promised and deliveres "reasonable" bang for buck ("reasonable" for me that is...). Why? Because BF4, although I play it 90% of the time, isn't the only thing I plan to play for the next couple of years, and I certanly plan for the GPU to outlast the BF4, and well into BF5, even @ 1440p.