GFX card choice, your thoughts?

[TechnicalMungbean]

Hi all, firstly Merry Christmas.

I am thinking of getting a new GFX card/s, I am not overly tech savvy but am trying to understand more about what makes my PC tick and the more I delve into it the more questions I have.

From what I can tell all over the net everyone has their own opinions based on personal experience, opinions seem to change depending on the particular forum/site, different sites have different benchmark results for the same card and various other things that make my mind boggle 😛

So I just thought I would pose a scenario and see what differing opinions there are and see what i may learn along the way, I have read a lot of the other threads about current GFX choices but in some responses I want to ask for further information hence my post.

So.... contemplating a new GFX card/s here is some information about my needs/situation.

REASON FOR NEW GFX CARD: Mainly because Fraps struggles in BF4 for me. (more than the normal struggle) and after 2 years this one has done its job and know that I would notice a difference with another card.

CURRENT BITS:
CPU: I7_2600K @ 3.4
MOBO: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
GPU Gigabyte HD6990
RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz
PSU: OCZ Technology ZX Series 1250W
Windows 7 64Home Premium
Case: Haf-X 942
Drives: WD Caviar Black 1TB (Windows)
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB (BF4)
Cooling: Just aircooled and Corsair H70 CPU cooler
And LED's and Sound activated lights 😛

USAGE: Mainly BF4, Racing and new release games, Movie editing in Sony Vegas, Photoshop, Lightroom and After effects, acquiring music and movies. I don't Mine and I don't Overclock.

Consider this card is really only to run Fraps while playing and not a necessity at all, My current 6990 is fine for gaming, I may lose out on a bit of candy but can't fault it for stability and it certainly doesn't affect my KDR and has ran virtually 24/7 for over 2 years, the only fault it has is it doesn't render for me in Vegas or AE but is no big hassle.
I don't mind future proofing and am not really worried about saving $100 for the sake of it. This would either be the purchase of a card that gets replaced when I build a new machine or would be the purchase of Multiple cards that would go into my next build, which way would you do it?

The following are cards that interest me and am not so much worried about the price that may be displayed in the link as I just chose an Australian site but more about the card itself and the various options, also Power consumption and noise is a non issue to me Hybrid cars and Libraries are not my thing.

I like XFX and Gigabyte cards, a fan of Black editions and dual gpu cards only because I have had no issue with the ones I have owned not based on any technical knowledge.

1.) XFX Radeon HD 7990 6GB $800 AUD
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=614083&CategoryID=468

I know the hate for this card but the same was said about the 6690 and MOHW but I have never experienced any problems.

2.) XFX Radeon R9 290X - Core Edition $700 AUD
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=613513&CategoryID=468

Differences between this and cards under it seemed to come down to saving $ and getting less G/flops ROP's and other confusing things

3.) XFX Radeon R9 280X Black Edition $400
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=613753&CategoryID=468

More confusion, higher clock speeds higher memory clock, less transistors :/ but can get 4 for the price of 2 of the others??

4.) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB OC Edition $900
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1577&products_id=26081

I have never bought a Nvidia card, I run a 6990 now and a 4990 before that before that just whatever I could afford or whatever hand me downs I could get hold of. If I was to buy my first one this would be it. 2 of these would be running me for 2+ years I imagine but pricey and less RAM.

5.) Wait and hope supply/demand price increases allegedly due to Mining pass and prices drop and see what if any other cards come out in the meantime or variances of current top end cards?


I am interested in hearing peoples thoughts and hope they provide me the opportunity to further my knowledge through discussion.

 

[bullbearish]

I just upgraded from a GTX 680 to a GTX 780ti SLI configuration in my machine. I run BF4 on Ultra at 2640x1600 and get ~70 FPS and gameplay is as smooth as can be.

My system is similar to yours, though I only run 8Gb RAM. My system is running at stock speeds (CPU and GPU).

There are a lot of good benchmarks for those cards on this and other sites so you can compare side-by-side performance and value.

 

[TechnicalMungbean]

I just upgraded from a GTX 680 to a GTX 780ti SLI configuration in my machine. I run BF4 on Ultra at 2640x1600 and get ~70 FPS and gameplay is as smooth as can be.

My system is similar to yours, though I only run 8Gb RAM. My system is running at stock speeds (CPU and GPU).

There are a lot of good benchmarks for those cards on this and other sites so you can compare side-by-side performance and value.

Cheers Bull

I am Playing BF4 1920x1080 @60hz I have turned some things down to gain smoothness, Ultra is no good for me but custom with most things high but losing some eye candy is smooth and descent fps.
I am trying to get up to speed with screen resolutions but that will take some more reading am not planning on going multiple monitors in the near future.

Yeh mine is stock CPU and GPU and only have the RAM for after effects.

The more I read the benchmarks the more I confuse myself, to me it looks like the 7990 beats everything just at the risk of having the stuttering temp issues, but it seems with all these cards they are all fine until you start increasing the resolution.

 

[bullbearish]

Do you plan to SLI (or crossfire) whatever you get?

 

[TechnicalMungbean]

Do you plan to SLI (or crossfire) whatever you get?

At the moment I have no plans in any direction, in reality I only need a pretty small performance increase above my 6990 to be able to play BF4 smooth on ultra and more than likely any increase from any of those cards will be more than adequate into the foreseeable future, at this stage I only use one 27in monitor and that is not likely to change for a year or so at the earliest.

From what I can tell Nvidia have new cards coming out Early next year and I presume more variances of the 290x etc. are still to come, so if I am not planning on building a new system until late 2014 I guess I either sit with my 6990 (which isn't bad at all except for running Fraps) and see what else comes along or get whatever now and try and make that last long enough to get value from it.

My Idea of value differs from a lot of opinions I read, The 6990 I got in Sept. 2011 for $950 and up until now have never had to worry about GFX settings, I could keep playing BF4 with the AA on 2 and some of the settings on high like I am now which is fine that just tells me its time to start looking 😉

Am I correct, I thought I have seen people say the R9 280x is really or virtually a 7970?

 

[bullbearish]

Hanging on to that 6990 until the next generation cards come out next year may not be a bad idea. I have no experience comparing the R9 versus the 7970.