gtx 690 to r9 390, is it a downgrade?

[ltron]

Hi I'm thinking of selling my GTX 690 and buying an r9 390 as a stopgap card until late next year when the 16nm stuff comes out. I'm struggling in some recent games with the 2GB VRAM limit even at 1920x1200. On top of this, SLI/Crossfire is in the hands of game developers with DX12/Vulkan and I'm worried that some won't bother implementing it or implement things like SFR(lower latency, lower framerate). If DX12/Vulkan take off and AMD's architecture is suited well and Kepler is very poorly suited then the resale value of the 690 might drop like a rock in 6 months.

Also, my 690 gets loud under heavy gaming load and the Sapphire R9 390 Nitro is much cooler and quieter. Is this a silly idea and will I be disappointed with the performance of the R9 390?

By the way my current X58 system is broken, I am in the process of ordering a 5820k, 16GB RAM and an x99 sabertooth motherboard.

[TheDutyPaid]

In my view you are just buying the same card, also going by comparison sites you may as well save your money.

[shaithis]

The 690 is theoretically faster than a 390 although I doubt you'll notice it and wanting to push options that consume VRAM will almost certainly make it seem the other way around.

If a 390 cannot tie you over at 1200p for a while, I don't know what will.....although if this is purely a gaming rig, Haswell-E and 16GB RAM is a lot of money to throw away just to start analysing what you can "get away with" on the gfx side of things.

[ltron]

The 690 is theoretically faster than a 390 although I doubt you'll notice it and wanting to push options that consume VRAM will almost certainly make it seem the other way around.

If a 390 cannot tie you over at 1200p for a while, I don't know what will.....although if this is purely a gaming rig, Haswell-E and 16GB RAM is a lot of money to throw away just to start analysing what you can "get away with" on the gfx side of things.

Thanks for the reply, I think that the 390 may be a good idea from what you said. The core i7 5820k and sabertooth motherboard and RAM would only cost me £90-100 extra over a z170 sabertooth, equivalent RAM and a 6700k as the 6700k is so expensive at the moment and I actually ordered the 5820k today from aria for only £287 including delivery whereas the 6700k is between 20 an 40 pounds more than that.

[shaithis]

Thanks for the reply, I think that the 390 may be a good idea from what you said. The core i7 5820k and sabertooth motherboard and RAM would only cost me £90-100 extra over a z170 sabertooth, equivalent RAM and a 6700k as the 6700k is so expensive at the moment and I actually ordered the 5820k today from aria for only £287 including delivery whereas the 6700k is between 20 an 40 pounds more than that.

Gaming rig today - smart money is still on DDR3 and Haswell. Skylake is overpriced and makes Haswell-E look better but compare Skylake performance and price to haswell...

[EndlessWaves]

Or Broadwell, the 5675C is pretty attractive.

Dual GPU cards have always been a bit flaky and typically have lower minimum framerates than equivalently performing, newer, single GPU cards. A 390 would undoubtedly be the one to go for if you were deciding between them.

Whether it's worth buying one to replace your 690 is a much more difficult question to answer. I think GTX 690 second hand prices are pretty high though, so if you can do it without spending money it might be worth a go as you're not happy with your current card.

[Blackbod]

Just keep the 690 and buy the new x99 components i would recommend going for a 5930k since you are saving money on a GPU the R9 390 is essentially a 690 in all benchmarks it will not be any kind of improvement at all until 4K and the R9 390 will still not be a usable 4K GPU anyway

[Dinklegeta]

I would wait until Pascal, hopefully less power consumption will be a big benefit.

[jigger]

I would wait until Pascal, hopefully less power consumption will be a big benefit.

Why would less power be a big benefit? Less power use means less performance.

[EndlessWaves]

Why would less power be a big benefit? Less power use means less performance.

People want smaller and thinner devices where power input is limited by the heat it turns into. Less power use for a given level of performance means faster cards can be fitted inside smaller machines than would otherwise be possible.

With the looming threat of Intel GPUs that are only a generation or two away from being good enough to run every game, nVidia especially need to ensure that their GPUs will deliver excellent performance in all form factors.

[Biscuit]

I went from 2 x GTX660ti to a R9 290X and it it felt like a significant upgrade due to the additional stability of not using SLI and the extra VRAM available.

[jigger]

People want smaller and thinner devices where power input is limited by the heat it turns into. Less power use for a given level of performance means faster cards can be fitted inside smaller machines than would otherwise be possible.

With the looming threat of Intel GPUs that are only a generation or two away from being good enough to run every game, nVidia especially need to ensure that their GPUs will deliver excellent performance in all form factors.

Thats nice and all, but not important to desktop PC's. In the gaming end of the market it's pritty much all about performance per £.

In order of priority, how thin I can build my next desktop probably ranks just above how the graphics card tastes.

[TerminatorUK]

You'll take the SLI 'complexity' / a degree if micro stutter out of the equation / need of up-to-date SLI profiles by going to the r9 390.

You may also want to have a think above variable refresh rate technologies - do you want to eventually go freesync (AMD) or g-sync (NVIDIA) and use that to help with your decision.

[TheNoseKnows]

The 690 has several disadvantages, such as heat, noise, SLI, 2GB VRAM, and power consumption. As for performance, if you play games with good SLI-support, then it will be a sidegrade. However, if you're willing to shell out for the X99 platform, I don't see why you are so unwilling to get a real GPU upgrade, like the R9 Fury. Remember that mid-tier cards tend to come first when a new architecture is released. The first ever 16nm GPU may end up being another sidegrade to the Fury.

[Razor Time]

690 lacks in vram which is fairly important these days. I would rather have a 390.

[jacked153]

I wouldn't call it a downgrade you might lack some gpu power with the switch but you benefit from quadruple the vram and no sli scaling issues