Hey guys, been ages since I last posted, and just like last time, I'm here to ask questions. So, I'm rebuilding my PC to get it up-to-date with the new games. CPU and motherboard are now good-to-go (AMD FX-8350 and Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3), and I have 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866 as well as a Antec HCG-900 900W PSU in the mail and will be here by the end of next week. Which leaves my GPU to be upgraded. Currently I am running an XFX HD 6870, which has served me well, but alas it is time to retire it (and give it to a poor friend of mine as an upgrade). My price cap is about $350, doesn't matter AMD or Nvidia. 4GB+ VRam is preferred. 2 DVI ports are also wanted due to my dual monitor setup for non-gaming purposes; however I can skim by with 1 DVI slot if it makes a large difference in the long run. Here are the cards that I have been looking at. EVGA 04G-P4-2974-KR GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076 SAPPHIRE NITRO 100382NTOCL Radeon R9 390 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202148 XFX R9-280X-TDFD Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150678 I'm currently leaning towards the EVGA GTX 970; however I'd appreciate other peoples' opinions on the matter. Feel free to add any recommendations or creative criticisms
The 970 is the superior choice. The 390 is better at 1440P by a very small margin, but most 970's can hit 1500 out of the box, while overclocking with the 390 is hit or miss. Not to mention the 970 uses nearly half the power of the 390. The 280X is very old (7970) and you really shouldn't bother with it unless you're on a budget. Also, if you can, I'd change from the 8350 to an Intel platform. The 8350 is very old (released 2012), and is getting spanked by current gen Intel quad core chips.
Unfortunately the 8350 was just purchased, so that'll be a part of my system for probably about another 2 years unless it dies on me. As for why I had those 390's on the list, one was for the costerformance ratio and the other was for that nice 8GB of 512-bit GDDR5 which I imagine, while situation, could come in handy. Though as I said I am definitely leaning towards the 970 for many reasons, namely drivers, power consumption, and overall performance. Would you recommend any other 970 over the one I listed? Granted EVGA makes many that are slightly better; however from the benchmarks I've seen the differences are minimal.
I'd grab the SSC 2.0+. The one you linked may ship with an older version of the cooler which is just outright worse than the new ones. Any EVGA card with a serial starting with 3XXX is what you want to buy now. The 390 will never be able to use its 8GB of RAM to be quite honest. And ignore naysayers who say the 970 is actually a 3.5GB card, because it's not. The last section of memory has a performance penalty with particular access scenarios, but the driver gets around this with zero performance penalty when it comes to actual games.
I would also recommend the 970. I just recently upgraded to the EVGA SSC 2.0(definitely make sure it's the 2.0 one!) card and it's a beast. O/Cs very well and stays cool. Plus ya get the step up program if you decide to use it. Just my 2 cents... Enjoy the new system, which ever way ya go.
Yeah, I decided I'm going to be getting the EVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+. The benchmarks and price are within my expectations, and the reliability seems solid. Will also be buying a back plate for it for some extra heat dissipation. Cheers.
If you're buying a back plate for the card, do so for the aesthetics only. It's not going to make much of a difference in temps, and depending on how it fits it might even make temps slightly worse. If you mainly want to improve temperatures spend the money on upgrading/adding case fans.
The reviews from newegg boasted a 3-5c drop in temp due to the backplate so for $20, even if it doesn't work as planned it'll still look nice cosmetically. Currently I removed the side window on my panel due to under-performing "exhaust" fans on my system. I have 2 intake fans and 3 moving air out of the case, and I guess the exhaust fans aren't creating enough of a low pressure system inside my computer (to my knowledge that's the general idea of what is supposed to happen). I'll be ordering 3 120mm Cougar's (the same fans that I have now as my intake fans) to replace my stock exhaust case fans. 120mm Cougar Case Fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553002
