New GPU advice for aging system.

[Rookie1986]

Hey Guys

I'm hoping for some advice, recently my ATI Radeon 3GB XFX 7970 GPU has decided to stop working - so I'm now in the market for a new GPU.

My setup is as follows:-

CPU:- Intel i5 3570K
Motherboard:- ASRock Fatal1ty z77 Pro
Memory (RAM):- 16GB (2 x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400Mhz
Storage (HDD):- Crucial M4 SSD 128/256GB - Seagate 2TB 7200rpm
Graphics Card:- ATI Radeon 3GB XFX 7970 Black with Ghost + Hydrocell
PSU:- Corsair AX850
Case:- Corsair Obsidian 650D
Operating System:- Windows 10
Monitor:- LG 34UM95 34" 21:9 UltraWide QHD (3440X1440)

I don't have any preference on team Red/Green or manufacture, one slight stipulation would be that it matches everything else within my rig (Red, Black, Silver/White). I have around £500-£600 total to spend.... what would you guys recommend?

Additionally, is now a good time to buy or would I be better waiting until the next release from NVidia/AMD (I know my rig isn't the newest, latest or greatest.... would I be better going for a whole upgrade/new build rather than just GPU??).

Thanks a lot,
Rookie

[kalniel]

Rest of your system is fine for ages yet, just stick in a GPU and you're good to go.

If you *can* wait until the end of the year then new tech is coming that's going to be quite a decent leap. But that's a long time to wait without a GPU.

So if buying nowish, I'd get a AMD R9 Fury X - they're supposedly about to receive a price cut. If you had to buy tomorrow then an R9 Nano would top the list - they've already had their price cut.

[EndlessWaves]

Looking it up it appears the 34UM95 is the one without variable refresh rate tech (that's the 34UM67). As it isn't and you're presumably not like to change it for the life of the card it's worth looking at the nVidia cards as well as AMD.

A new generation of cards that look to be a nice performance bump is coming this year but indications are that the mid-range will launch first. You could easily be waiting nine months for the next £500-600 card.

[scaryjim]

Rest of your system is fine for ages yet ...

+1. You won't see any significant advantage upgrading your base rig for several years.

... if buying nowish, I'd get a AMD R9 Fury X ... If you had to buy tomorrow then an R9 Nano would top the list ...

It's probably worth looking at the R9 Fury too (non-X) - they're generally a bit faster than the Nano, but it looks like you can currently get the Nano cheaper anyway (this wasn't the case when it first came out!).

Nano at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...ms-3x-displayp
Fury at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...3584-streams-d
Fury X at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...aio-water-cool

Hexus review featuring all three cards: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...r9-fury-nitro/

The Fury X pricing is close enough to the standard Fury that, if the price does come down, it's going to be a bit of a no-brainer: question is: how long can you wait

[Rookie1986]

Rest of your system is fine for ages yet, just stick in a GPU and you're good to go.

If you *can* wait until the end of the year then new tech is coming that's going to be quite a decent leap. But that's a long time to wait without a GPU.

So if buying nowish, I'd get a AMD R9 Fury X - they're supposedly about to receive a price cut. If you had to buy tomorrow then an R9 Nano would top the list - they've already had their price cut.

Well that’s reassuring, would have been gutted if I was going to need a total new build in under 4 years, so at least that’s going to save me an awkward convocation with the wife ahahhah!

Mmmm end of the year is sooooo far away and it will seem twice as long without a GPU (I’d be back down to Intel HD4000 ).

How does the R9 Nano compare with NVidia offering as the benchmarks seem to put it substantially lower in real world performance

Looking it up it appears the 34UM95 is the one without variable refresh rate tech (that's the 34UM67). As it isn't and you're presumably not like to change it for the life of the card it's worth looking at the nVidia cards as well as AMD.

A new generation of cards that look to be a nice performance bump is coming this year but indications are that the mid-range will launch first. You could easily be waiting nine months for the next £500-600 card.

Your right, I won’t be looking to change the 34UM95 as I’ve only just purchased it (swapped from 3 x 24” Dell u2412m due to space restriction in new office – although so far I’m fairly pleased with it and having no bezels to compensate for is amazing! ).

Again, waiting 9 months with only the Intel HD4000 is a loooooong wait so I think I’m going to be forced into buying something sooner rather than later. Do we have any other details on the next gen releases in regards to how powerful the mid-tier chipsets will be or is it just speculation at present?

+1. You won't see any significant advantage upgrading your base rig for several years.

It's probably worth looking at the R9 Fury too (non-X) - they're generally a bit faster than the Nano, but it looks like you can currently get the Nano cheaper anyway (this wasn't the case when it first came out!).

Nano at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...ms-3x-displayp
Fury at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...3584-streams-d
Fury X at Scan: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...aio-water-cool

Hexus review featuring all three cards: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...r9-fury-nitro/

The Fury X pricing is close enough to the standard Fury that, if the price does come down, it's going to be a bit of a no-brainer: question is: how long can you wait

At least not having to do a full new build is a relief

How do the Nano / Fury / Fury-X stack up against the NVdia counterparts? And is there enough of a difference at this price point (£500-£600) to make one an out-and-out winner above the other??

Cheers for the replies,
Rookie

[kalniel]

How does the R9 Nano compare with NVidia offering as the benchmarks seem to put it substantially lower in real world performance

Which benchmarks? The main competition for the nano is the 980, which it seems to beat.

The other advantage is going forward the performance of the nano vs the 980 is likely to only get better as AMD seem to be able to better support their cards looking forward - not to mention AMD's performance increase come DX12

If you want the fastest card right now though, get the 980ti. It probably won't be as good value going forward as the nano (or now), but if it's within budget and you don't mind paying more for something good right now it's hard to argue against.

[Rookie1986]

Which benchmarks? The main competition for the nano is the 980, which it seems to beat.

The other advantage is going forward the performance of the nano vs the 980 is likely to only get better as AMD seem to be able to better support their cards looking forward - not to mention AMD's performance increase come DX12

If you want the fastest card right now though, get the 980ti. It probably won't be as good value going forward as the nano (or now), but if it's within budget and you don't mind paying more for something good right now it's hard to argue against.

Well I was meaning that the GTX 980 Ti seems to beat all of the mentioned AMD cards (Nano, Fury and Fury X) and since its within my budget would it not be silly going for a lesser card?

Are NVidia not supporting DX12?

I'm not really in it to save money, I don't mind spending the £500-£600 on the GTX 980 Ti even if it drops in price over the next months (or if the AMD cards drop in price). I simply want the best card possible within my price bracket.

Rookie

[kalniel]

Well I was meaning that the GTX 980 Ti seems to beat all of the mentioned AMD cards (Nano, Fury and Fury X) and since its within my budget would it not be silly going for a lesser card?

Not in my book - the saving can go to bringing forward an update when it will actually make more of a difference.

Are NVidia not supporting DX12?

Sadly not very well this generation. Future cards will probably be better, but currently AMD gain a lot from DX12 while nVidia cards seem not to improve. But it's early days. There's an ongoing question over how much nVidia will care about the 980ti when their newer cards are out though.

[Rookie1986]

Not in my book - the saving can go to bringing forward an update when it will actually make more of a difference.


Sadly not very well this generation. Future cards will probably be better, but currently AMD gain a lot from DX12 while nVidia cards seem not to improve. But it's early days. There's an ongoing question over how much nVidia will care about the 980ti when their newer cards are out though.

I most likely won't be making any further upgrades for sometime after the GPU so it's not so much of an issue as most likely my next build will be in 3 or so years for around the £2000-£2500 mark (money's not so much of an issue as its my "main" hobby).

But if the next gen GPU are 9-10 months away one would surely expect NVidia to continue its support for the 900 series and further develop its functionality in DX12?

I did go and check some DX12 benchmarks (although there really isn't much info in the area right now) and I have to give one to AMD in regards to performance increase....

I guess it's a really hard to buy as there's a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment.... Oh why did my HD 7970 have to fail now

Rookie

[kalniel]

I most likely won't be making any further upgrades for sometime after the GPU so it's not so much of an issue as most likely my next build will be in 3 or so years for around the £2000-£2500 mark (money's not so much of an issue as its my "main" hobby).

If it's your main hobby then I'd definitely consider upgrading GPUs more frequently than every three years.

But if the next gen GPU are 9-10 months away one would surely expect NVidia to continue its support for the 900 series and further develop its functionality in DX12?

You'd have thought the same for the 780ti and so on, but nVidia's focus on absolute performance now means once a new technique, or new card, comes along older cards don't fare all that well. As you probably know from your 7970, AMDs approach has tended to be a bit more forward looking and their recent architectures have lasted very well.

I guess it's a really hard to buy as there's a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment.... Oh why did my HD 7970 have to fail now

Indeed, that's why I think you should consider something good now that is a little under budget and then replace it after some time when the picture is clearer.

[DanceswithUnix]

I guess it's a really hard to buy as there's a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment.... Oh why did my HD 7970 have to fail now

Rookie

I would have thought it was fairly easy to buy. Your old card has the performance of an R9 380X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1495?vs=1592

So if you want the same performance but with the happy benefit of a little more VRAM, then that is the card for you. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

An R9 390 would give you a nice performance boost... http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1495?vs=1594

... and spending less now puts you in a better position in the summer when Polaris turns up: http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-pol...ktops-laptops/

[cptwhite_uk]

I'd be waiting for the new cards and spending around £150 now to see me right until then. The R9 380 4Gb should set you back around £150. According to UserBenchmark

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare...380/2163vs3482

...it should perform similarly to your 7970 to keep you going until the next generation

[scaryjim]

Left-field suggestion, if for some reason you're desperate to spend at least £500: your motherboard supports SLI/Crossfire, so buy two £250 graphics cards. A pair for R9 390s will set you back £500 and generally outpace a 980 Ti (although dual-GPU set ups are not without their foibles).