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Upgrade my crossfired HD7850s or wait till next year?

518 views 30 replies 8 participants last post by  scottydsntknow 
#1 ·
I know the GPUs next year are going to be a huge jump forward as far as performance goes... but is a single 290/390 going to be a huge upgrade from what I have now? I know the 4GB over my current 2GB of RAM will help a lot even if the benchmarks in Firestrike aren't exactly a ton higher (I pull about 8100 in Firestrike).

What I was considering doing is one of the rebate deals on a Powercolor 390 triple fan for like $230 or so or get a Reference 290 for $175 after rebates and slap a $30 refurbished H55 cooler onto it with a $30 Corsair bracket and just overclock it to the moon.

Anyone got any opinions? Everything I have now plays pretty good on a single monitor setup but I do have a triple monitor setup and get pretty bad framerates with DCS and Elite Dangerous which is the whole reason I got the 2 side monitors... You guys think a single 290 cranked to like 1200 on water would be ok for those games in Eyefinity?
 
#2 ·
Hi there,

To be honest if you have the money and want to play games at much higher framerate and quality, you should go with the R9 290 if you are in a budget or the R9 390, the difference between the 7850s vs 1 r9 290 is high, because just 1 290 have much more shader power than 2 7850's

you can compare the hardware here

If you want the top of the line, go for the r9 290x, should be cheap, but still a really high end card
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The thing is that if you intend on playing with eyefinity and high quality, you are going to need much more power than just 1 card, but that totally depends on what resolution you play, and the quality level, with one R9 290 you migh be able to play at medium quality on 3 1080p, but like I said that depends on the game and resolution. If you share with us your system specs we can help you better
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You can also wait a few more months to see what AMD and nVidia brings to the table.

Cheers
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#3 ·
Hey thanks for the reply.

The rest of my setup is:

FX8350 clocked to 5.2ghz @1.55 volts under water
16GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 @2133 clock
Asus M5A99X Pro R2.0 mobo
SSD for OS/games
Sentey 1000w PSU

I do not need max graphics on Eyefinity, I would rather play at 1080p with med-high settings and FXAA than fully maxed out settings ultra 16x AA etc... on one screen. I also don't need 60FPS at all times, I would be happy with something like mid 40s average staying above 30FPS when a lot of stuff is going on.

Leaning towards a single Reference 290 (non X) with a $39 refurb H55 water cooler, $35 Corsair bracket and $12 Gelid VRM sinks for about $250 total and then go max overclock and be happy with whatever I get.

I know the 290 and 390 are basically the same card (and that the 390 is not fast enough to use the extra 4GB ram) and that the actual real world difference between the 290 and 290X is minimal and also that a few 290s can even unlock to a 290X but not counting on that.
 
#4 ·
From what you are telling me you should be fine, with the r9 290, and your idea sounds nice.

Im still missing the monitor setup
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. what resolution on the screens? and how many?

Just to give you an idea, if you are using a 3 1080p monitors that equals to 6.2 megapixels while the 4k equals 8.3 megapixels, so i can't tell you how good is that triple setup with just one card, but if you like playing games below 60fps and at medium quality, I guess that would be doable, but contradicts everything here
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Keep in mind that while the R9 290 and the r9 390 use the same chip, the 390 have twice the vram and optimizations, the vram is beneficial when you are doing 4k or multi screen.
 
#5 ·
Sorry, very basic setup of 1080p x3 monitors. 24" Samsung Syncs. I have also been told that while the 390 has twice the VRAM it isn't fast enough to make use of it so there are only a few specific examples of when that extra 4GB would be helpful and never with a 1080p setup.

Of course the visa checkout offer on newegg just expired... wth... oh well. Also I hate gettting charged tax at Newegg but it is what it is.

So you think a single 290 at 3x 1080p at med-high graphics would be doable? I know its kind of on the edge but like I said, I'd rather play on 3 screens with the graphics turned down a bit than one screen at max.

I will say on one screen my HD7850s still do ok on everything at 1080p on one screen although I have not tried Mordor yet. I might do that tonight as an experiment to see just how far the old cards can be pushed but not holding my breath...
 
#6 ·
So your eyefinity setup would be 5,760 x 1,080p just so you know
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To better understand how good the R9 290 perform with that resolution, you can actually look for 4k reviews for that card, and keep in mind that using 3 monitors 1080p vs 1 4k is about 20% less stress for the GPU if im not mistaken, which translate to more performance.

here is one review that have 3 settings, 1080p - eyefinity - 4k

Also the good thing is that you can later on add a second GPU and get the performance increase
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#7 ·
Thanks I'll definitely look at that review. And good to know about comparing a single 4K screen to 3 1080p. I would hope I could pick up a second Reference 290 for cheap next year secondhand and then go for broke with a custom loop. My Fractal case is basically built for custom setup. Pump mounting holes and reservoir brackets and everything.
 
#9 ·
With your build you should just game at 1080p. Makes no sense to try to game on 5760x1080p which 75% of a 4k resolution where I'd recommend minimum gtx 980's in SLi.

5760x1080 = 6,220,800 pixels.
3840x2160 = 8,294,400 pixels.
3 1080p monitors are 75% the resolution of a 4K monitor. Two R9 290s should run it pretty well, so choose whichever one you want more.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottydsntknow View Post

Seems like with that review a stock 290 would have no issues on a med-high setting at 5760x1080 at least on BF4. But that is a year old game. I wonder how Mordor/Witcher3/Fallout4 would run at that resolution on med-high... I guess only one way to find out...
It's hard to get those reviews, since new games have more reviews with new generation cards than the old ones, You could try to see how good the r9 390 perform with 4k res, the thing is that the 390 have the advantage of the extra vram, so it's not going to be 100% accurate
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottydsntknow View Post

Well hell if I was going to buy two 290s I'd just get a Fury.
This is a good one, well keeping in mind that you are upgrading from a card that's 3 generations away, it's really a incredible upgrade. the thing is that if you get the 290's it's going to be as strong as the Fury X with the difference of the added performance from the HBM ram.

If you are in a budget then the Fury X is a no go. At least that's imo
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by josepi View Post

It's hard to get those reviews, since new games have more reviews with new generation cards than the old ones, You could try to see how good the r9 390 perform with 4k res, the thing is that the 390 have the advantage of the extra vram, so it's not going to be 100% accurate
This is a good one, well keeping in mind that you are upgrading from a card that's 3 generations away, it's really a incredible upgrade. the thing is that if you get the 290's it's going to be as strong as the Fury X with the difference of the added performance from the HBM ram.

If you are in a budget then the Fury X is a no go. At least that's imo
The 390 cannot use the extra VRAM, it isn't fast enough. The Fury only has 4GB of ram because the HBM ram is so damn fast it doesn't need more than that.

But no money for the X, would have to be an air cooled jobber if I got a Fury.

A buddy of mine has recently been able to pull almost 15k in Firestrike out of a single max overclocked 290X under water. The 290 (non X) is not much slower, I think what I am going to do is get a Reference 290, throw a cheap 120mm AIO onto it and go for broke on the overclock. I can do it for under $300. Then next year pick up another Reference 290 secondhand or NOS or something and go custom loop and put my two AIOs into other systems. Or sell it and get a legit single card then when I have a little more spare cash.

Budget gaming FTW!
 
#13 ·
8GB cards are necessary to run the highest resolution content pack for Mordor at the highest setting because it uses more than 4 GB of VRAM. The 8 GB is beneficial for this even at 1080.

290X 8GB cards also boosted minimum framerate in Tomb Raider and Mordor significantly at 4K. I don't know how well that translates to the 390, though.
 
#14 ·
Single R9 270X (4GB) will beat performance of 2 Hd7850 2gb
 
#16 ·
I was saying that 7850 cf is slower than a stockR9 270x 4gb
I had a 2x 7850 and i made a built for others the R9 270X smoked the performance of my 7850s
 
#17 ·
Hmmm I might grab one as a placeholder until the Zen chips come out. They are currently dirt cheap. I pull about 11000 graphics score in Firestrike with the overclocked 7850s and 8400 or so on a combined score. Do you remember what your 4gb 270x benched?

Amazingly these things do ok with Elite Dangerous in a triple screen... I may just leave them alone and wait for the next big sale.

And I still maintain that a single 290/390 would roflstomp two 270x in a CF. Maybe if I could get a 270x 4gbfor $100 I'd get 2 and crossfire tho. I think the cheapest I'm seeing them is $150 after rebate.
 
#18 ·
The 270x 4GB was for my mates build. I did stress test on kombustor 2.5 and it scored like 5-15 more FPS wihout OC compared to 2X 7850 oc
 
#19 ·
Yeah but I have the Powercolor HD7850s that come OC'd out of the box to 1000/1225 stock and they are the 2GB versions, not the 1GB versions. I have a feeling what I have would equal a 270x performance wise but even if that is the case if the extra VRAM on the XFX card would get me some extra FPS on 3 monitors to where ED was ALWAYS above 30 at med-high settings and same with DCS I might consider it.

Will have to bang around a little more.
 
#20 ·
7850s are in my kids pc now. I make sure to tell her to make fun of all the kids with Xboxes and to tell them her dad made a machine 5x as powerful as theirs out of spare parts. Not really but maybe I should...
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. Her machine is an overclocked 2.8ghz to 3.6x6 1055t Thuban, 8 gigs of ddr1600, ssd/hdd, a nice 650w psu and dual HD7850s which can still run any game out pretty well.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottydsntknow View Post

7850s are in my kids pc now. I make sure to tell her to make fun of all the kids with Xboxes and to tell them her dad made a machine 5x as powerful as theirs out of spare parts. Not really but maybe I should...
smile.gif
. Her machine is an overclocked 2.8ghz to 3.6x6 1055t Thuban, 8 gigs of ddr1600, ssd/hdd, a nice 650w psu and dual HD7850s which can still run any game out pretty well.
Single 7850 at stock should do most mid range games wihout a sweat. It does it for me lagg free
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1080P
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#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iwamotto Tetsuz View Post

The 270x 4GB was for my mates build. I did stress test on kombustor 2.5 and it scored like 5-15 more FPS wihout OC compared to 2X 7850 oc
Hate to burst your bubble, but a 270x is a rebranded 7870. The reason it was winning by 5-15fps is because the 7850's crossfire wasn't working, and it was just a single 7850 vs a 7870 lol.

Also, about the people saying the 390 can't use the 8gb of ram... It just guarantees you will never have a problem with running into a vram wall, and it will be good for crossfire.

As to OP. Buy the cheapest card that you can find that performs around a R9 290 level, and just wait to see what happens with the new cards. If you want to see how it will perform in eyefinity, go find 1080p benchmarks for games at around the settings you plan on playing and divide the fps by 3 to get a gauge of where the performance will be. It's a rough estimate and will probably end up being slightly worse than the FPS you would actually get playing in eyefinity due to the CPU being more of a bottleneck at high FPS than the GPU-- but still it will give you an idea.
 
#23 ·
r270x 4gb is = to a single 7850 2GB price back in the days
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7870? So? , its still faster
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#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultracarpet View Post

Hate to burst your bubble, but a 270x is a rebranded 7870. The reason it was winning by 5-15fps is because the 7850's crossfire wasn't working, and it was just a single 7850 vs a 7870 lol.

Also, about the people saying the 390 can't use the 8gb of ram... It just guarantees you will never have a problem with running into a vram wall, and it will be good for crossfire.

As to OP. Buy the cheapest card that you can find that performs around a R9 290 level, and just wait to see what happens with the new cards. If you want to see how it will perform in eyefinity, go find 1080p benchmarks for games at around the settings you plan on playing and divide the fps by 3 to get a gauge of where the performance will be. It's a rough estimate and will probably end up being slightly worse than the FPS you would actually get playing in eyefinity due to the CPU being more of a bottleneck at high FPS than the GPU-- but still it will give you an idea.
The most I have seem my vram use was around 7gb, I think that might have been on ark survival though
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I agree, you can get some 290's fairly cheap atm depending on where you are, maybe even a cheap 980 if you look around, though amd supposedly has some new cards coming next year so it might be worth saving a little here for a bigger upgrade there
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#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultracarpet View Post

You said that a 270x is faster than 2 7850's in crossfire. It's not. Not even close.
Try your self, you will find out 270x single 4GB will beat it without OC compared to 7850 OC
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You can trust me as I was a proud owner of a 7850 CF
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