Upgrading from 5970

[PutuLips]

So my 5970 is struggling in games (has been for a while now) and the fan is really annoying me with this "clicking" noise. I also have to oil the thing every month so the fan doesn't just stop turning...

 

I want to buy something off Amazon (Someone gave me a gift card of $150). I don't have much money, so my price point is around $300.

What seems to be the best option is the R9 280x

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GDDR5-3GB-2xMini-Graphics-GV-R928XOC-3GD/dp/B00FONITA6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1385042175&sr=8-2&keywords=r9+290

However the GTX 760 4GB seems appealing to me, because of CUDA and Physx, too...

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GTX760-GDDR5-4GB-Graphics-GV-N760OC-4GD/dp/B00EAMQMUG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1385042821&sr=8-3&keywords=760+4gb

 

The types games I play mostly are League of Legends, Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 and 4, FIFA, Minecraft and Lego games

The programs I use are After Effects CS6, Blender 3D, GIMP and Photoshop.

 

For these programs and games, and specs, what would be my best option versus my 5970? Is the CUDA performance on the 760 any good?

 

Thanks

[lachyman]

280X will blow the 760 out of the water and it can use all of it's 3GB VRAM, while the 760 is too weak to utilize 4GB and has too small bus for it.

But pay up $10 and get this one, it's better: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-R9280X-DC2T-3GD5-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00FT2S4BG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1385043317&sr=8-6&keywords=r9+280x

 

Battlefield 4 is optimized for Radeon and will add Mantle support, CUDA on the other hand isn't a gaming feature. If you want to get a Shield however or record your gameplay, I'd try to find a deal for a 770.

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

280X will blow the 760 out of the water and it can use all of it's 3GB VRAM, while the 760 is too weak to utilize 4GB and has too small bus for it.

It can use 3gb out the box, 3.5 with a good mem oc. Although the 280x is more powerful you will miss out on cuda,physx,shadowplay,gsync. All great tech with the last two being the best. I would go for the 760 imo.

[lachyman]

It can use 3gb out the box, 3.5 with a good mem oc. Although the 280x is more powerful you will miss out on cuda,physx,shadowplay,gsync. All great tech with the last two being the best. I would go for the 760 imo.

The value is very bad. If he wants NVidia for the features, he should get a 770: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-02G-P4-2773-KR-Graphics/dp/B00CZIQZ40/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1385043535&sr=8-6&keywords=gtx770

[WoodenMarker]

What do you use AE and Blender for?

[WoodenMarker]

The value is very bad. If he wants NVidia for the features, he should get a 770: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-02G-P4-2773-KR-Graphics/dp/B00CZIQZ40/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1385043535&sr=8-6&keywords=gtx770

The value isn't the best but it's not that bad. 

[lachyman]

The value isn't the best but it's not that bad. 

For that 4GB model it indeed is IMO, when he can get better performing cards for almost the same price. But yeah, not that bad as the R7 240.

[Onidi]

Go with the 280x the Direct CU II version you will get what you are paying for

[MrSuperb]

or just get a 2GB 760 .... for 249$ including two games (newest assassins creed & splinter cell)

[TechFan@ic]

The GTX 760 is a downgrade from your 5970, it's actually a bit slower.
The 280X is your best bet, you get significantly better performance than a GTX 760 and significantly higher memory bandwidth and total memory than the GTX 770.
The first means that you get better performance right out of the box the second means that your 280X will last you quite a long time before you need to upgrade due to inadequate memory capacity (Linus upgraded his 590 because he kept running out of memory playing any modern game).

Photoshop, Blender 3D & GIMP all support OpenCL so you will get significantly better performance with an AMD card.
After Effects CS6 does not support OpenCL however the latest version which is After Effects CC (12.0) does support OpenCL.

So if you cannot or do not wish to upgrade to the latest After Effects version I recommend getting a GTX 660 Ti instead of a 760, because of the additional 192 CUDA cores CUDA performance will be higher.

Otherwise the R9 280X is a better card in every other regard.

[Altecice]

It can use 3gb out the box, 3.5 with a good mem oc. Although the 280x is more powerful you will miss out on cuda,physx,shadowplay,gsync. All great tech with the last two being the best. I would go for the 760 imo.

 

I think you misunderstand what he ment.  He means it cant use all 3GB of VRAM because the Bus width cant address all of the RAM correctly. Much like how the titan could never use all 6GB effectively hence the 780ti only having 3GB.

 

AMD got it right by putting a 512bit Bus on 4GB VRAM meaning it can address it all at once

 

---

 

But yes the 280x is by far the best thing to go for. CUDA means nothing now most render programs support OpenCL now, the only reason i can see you wanting to go for an Nvidia product is shadowplay (and that's being copied as we speak)

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

I think you misunderstand what he ment.  He means it cant use all 3GB of VRAM because the Bus width cant address all of the RAM correctly. Much like how the titan could never use all 6GB effectively hence the 780ti only having 3GB.

 

AMD got it right by putting a 512bit Bus on 4GB VRAM meaning it can address it all at once

 

---

 

But yes the 280x is by far the best thing to go for. CUDA means nothing now most render programs support OpenCL now, the only reason i can see you wanting to go for an Nvidia product is shadowplay (and that's being copied as we speak)

No the titan can access it all. So can the 780ti. And yes the card can do that 4gb but it would have to have a good mem oc to do so.

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

The GTX 760 is a downgrade from your 5970, it's actually a bit slower.

The 280X is your best bet, you get significantly better performance than a GTX 760 and significantly higher memory bandwidth and total memory than the GTX 770.

The first means that you get better performance right out of the box the second means that your 280X will last you quite a long time before you need to upgrade due to inadequate memory capacity (Linus upgraded his 590 because he kept running out of memory playing any modern game).

Photoshop, Blender 3D & GIMP all support OpenCL so you will get significantly better performance with an AMD card.

After Effects CS6 does not support OpenCL however the latest version which is After Effects CC (12.0) does support OpenCL.

So if you cannot or do not wish to upgrade to the latest After Effects version I recommend getting a GTX 660 Ti instead of a 760, because of the additional 192 CUDA cores CUDA performance will be higher.

Otherwise the R9 280X is a better card in every other regard.

Bro what have you been smoking? A 5970 is much slower than a 760. A 6970 is slower than it as well. =~a 7790/7850.

[Altecice]

No the titan can access it all. So can the 780ti. And yes the card can do that 4gb but it would have to have a good mem oc to do so.

 

For the titan to max its memory it would need a serious OC and I mean out of the reach of most peoples systems to do so and i never said a 780ti couldn't i just said that was part of the reason they put 3GB in and didint keep the 6GB

[TechFan@ic]

Bro what have you been smoking? A 5970 is much slower than a 760. A 6970 is slower than it as well.

Oh deer T_T, It's not really your fault, it's AMD's confusing naming scheme.

A 6970 is not a replacement for a 5970, a 5970 is a dual GPU card preceding the 6990.

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

For the titan to max its memory it would need a serious OC and I mean out of the reach of most peoples systems to do so and i never said a 780ti couldn't i just said that was part of the reason they put 3GB in and didint keep the 6GB

Please read this post. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/44197-memory-bus-size-and-how-it-effects-your-vram-usage/

It will help.

[Altecice]

Please read this post. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/44197-memory-bus-size-and-how-it-effects-your-vram-usage/

It will help.

 

cough

 

edited. i see, well turns out i was wrong.

 

+1 to you 

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

Oh deer T_T, It's not really your fault, it's AMD's confusing naming scheme.

A 6970 is not a replacement for a 5970, a 5970 is a dual GPU card preceding the 6990.

I regret what i said and blame amd. Although with microstuttering and runts thrown in it should be a good upgrade to go to a 760. loer power cunsumption and heat with better drivers.

[BookerDeWitt]

I regret what i said and blame amd. Although with microstuttering and runts thrown in it should be a good upgrade to go to a 760. loer power cunsumption and heat with better drivers.

You should really blame yourself for being rude.

There are no micro-stutters, all frame pacing issues were eliminated with AMD's HeartBeat technology back in the summer.

A 280X is still better than a 760, because it's an actual upgrade with better performance, a 760 is a side-grade or even a downgrade.

R9 280X handily beats the 770 and matches a 780 when overclocked.

[img[http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph7406/58768.png

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

You should really blame yourself for being rude.

There are no micro-stutters, all frame pacing issues were eliminated with AMD's HeartBeat technology back in the summer.

A 280X is still better than a 760, because it's an actual upgrade with better performance, a 760 is a side-grade or even a downgrade.

NVM Wrong gen. You will still mis out on lower power compsumption. Also the 280x is only about 7% faster so its not that significant. Nvidia has shadowplay and gsync, two very good reasons to grab their cards.

[BookerDeWitt]

NVM Wrong gen. You will still mis out on lower power compsumption. Also the 280x is only about 7% faster so its not that significant. Nvidia has shadowplay and gsync, two very good reasons to grab their cards.

Gsync is irrelevant for one major reason, it's expensive, the cheapest available panel is $400, if you can afford to spend that much on a monitor chances are you already have or going to upgrade to a 2560x1440 high quality IPS panel, Gsync is limited to 1920x1080 and only to TN panels, no one in his right mind would downgrade from a beautiful 1440p IPS panel to a 1080p TN, this defeats the whole purpose of Gsync.

AMD has GameStream which offers the exact same functionality as shadowplay, AMD also has Mantle, HDAO & finally TressFX which performs way better on AMD cards.

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

Gsync is irrelevant for one major reason, it's expensive, the cheapest available panel is $400, if you can afford to spend that much on a monitor chances are you already have or going to upgrade to a 2560x1440 high quality IPS panel, Gsync is limited to 1920x1080 and only to TN panels, no one in his right mind would downgrade from a beautiful 1440p IPS panel to a 1080p TN, this defeats the whole purpose of Gsync.

AMD has GameStream which offers the exact same functionality as shadowplay, AMD also has Mantle, HDAO & finally TressFX which performs way better on AMD cards.

TressFX- Hardly used.

HDAO- Not that big as hbao is pretty much the same.

Mantle- Unproven.

GameStream- Unproven. And ,as far as i can tell, nonexistent.

[MetroP]

TressFX- Hardly used.

HDAO- Not that big as hbao is pretty much the same.

Mantle- Unproven.

GameStream- Unproven. And ,as far as i can tell, nonexistent.

PhysX - hardly used

HBAO - looks AWFUL.

HDAO = available only on AMD cards, HBAO works on both AMD & Nvidia but never recommended because it ruins the look of the game.

Mantle = proven and awesome.

GameStream - Works and awesome.

 

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

PhysX - hardly used

HBAO - looks AWFUL.

HDAO = available only on AMD cards, HBAO works on both AMD & Nvidia but never recommended because it ruins the look of the game.

Mantle = proven and awesome.

GameStream - Works and awesome.

 

Your mantle post is still speculation. I cant tell between hbao and hdao on those shots.

[PutuLips]

Alright, well the R9 280x definitely looks like the way to go ... Especially since it's on-par with the 770. The $10 extra for the Asus edition will definitely be worth it since the shipping will be cheaper (it weighs less). 

 

I'm not too interested in G-Sync seeing as I don't want a new monitor, and MSI Afterburner works about the same or better than shadowplay (when recording).

However the CUDA is the main reason I was looking to buy a 760...

Does anyone know what the OpenCL performance is like for the 280x?