Is buying the Radeon r290(x) an OVER buy for my MOBO and chipset?

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Nuk3rX

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Mar 8, 2015
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Hi folks!

I want to upgrade my video card, first and foremost. I was debating on building a whole new PC, but I think I can get away with my current setup (plus Video Card update) for a few more years.

I want to "splurge" and buy the 290/290x. But looking at my MOBO, it is PCI 2.x (not 3.0 like the card is). How much performance would I lose? What are some other good options?

These are my specs:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/pZEc0t66i5xFTEbGMWaI5mr

The summary:
Card: radeon hd 6850
Mobo: GA-970A-D3 (amd)
4 Gb ddr3 ram.
processor: AMD FX-4100 (4 cores / 3.6ghz)

I am also on W7 home premium.

What would you do? Is the processor and/or mobo too outdated to upgrade to such a high performance card?

BTW I also have a 900w power supply.

Thank you so much in advance - I am ready to hit the buy button, but I want to be absolutely sure I am making the right (read: smart) choice.

 


Interesting. According to this page, gigabyte says that the 2,x pci will not have the transfer rate to match the 3.0 capable card. I looked it up, and it looks like 2.x is 4.0gb/s and 3.0 is 8gb/s. Thats half the speed. Basically, if you were to go from raw dollar amount per "power", would this make my card over priced and I am basically throwing my money out the window?

Per the CPU suggestion: So you are suggesting I scrap my entire mobo? I was thinking a processor upgrade was down the road a bit, but I wanted to upgrade the card first. Would you upgrade the card or the mobo and/or CPU first? Keep in mind I pretty much only play games.



Thanks, but please help answer my question(s).
 
another way to phrase my problem:

What video card would YOU buy for THIS system if you had the money and wanted the most performance per dollar spent (in other words, putting in a card that the system will be able to take full advantage of)
 
I'd go with the 290. Yes it is a 3.0 card, but your performance will still increase substantially even though the PCI-E lane won't carry as much data.
But another serious consideration is your power supply: recommended power for the 6850 is min. 450watts with a min of 30Amps on the 12v rail. The 290 is 550 watts with 31amps and a 290X is 600watts with 33 amps.
A better suggestion, but maybe more money, is the Nvidia GTX 970 (power req. 500watts/28amps) or the GTX 960 (400watts/20amps). These draw less current and run cooler then the Radeons.
Take a look at the hierarchy chart in this link: You should gain noticeable performance from any of the cards 4 tiers above your 6850.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
EDIT: Forgot to mention: an R9 290/290X or an Nvidia 970 would easily transfer to a new rig should you build one in the next 2 or so years, and probably perform well. If you get a new Power Supply, that also may be able to move to a new rig.
 
Interesting!

This may come off as a dumb statement, but since I have an AMD chipset, I can;t use the nvidia, right? (EDIT: Ok, I found out my answer from this very site:

The chipset on the board only matters if you plan on running Crossfire or SLI. That aside it makes absolutely no difference at all if you put an nVidia GPU onto a board with an AMD chipset or an AMD GPU on a board with an nVidia chipset. The only thing that matters is you buy a card that fits the slot on your board.
Click to expand...
)

As for PSU. you don't think the 900w is sufficient? That was one thing I was relieved to see when I looked at it and it seems like it would be enough to handle an upgraded card.

I may settled on the 280x as well. Still thinking about it.

A friend told me last night that even though I may not get the most out of my new card at least it will be with me when I upgrade further and it should last for a few years.
 


My bad, completely missed the power supply info. No, as long as that is a decent quality power supply then you have more then enough power. I just missed the seeing the info.
Go for the 290 or 290x if you have the room and airflow in your case (they run kinda warm) or the 970 or 980 if you want something that runs a little cooler. Pretty hard to beat the performance per dollar value of the 290/290x.
 
Just to clarify a few points:
There's no single GPU card out there that can use the full speed of PCI-E 2.0, much less the much faster 3.0 revision.
The extra cost of a R9 290X isn't really justified by its fairly small performance gain over the R9 290, the GTX980 is a bit faster than the GTX970 but the value still isn't as good.
The current CPU is going to savagely bottleneck any of the cards so far suggested.
Wattage is no warrant of quality, please for our peace of mind, give us the PSU details because there's an awful lot of garbage out there and not even a good name like Corsair is a guarantee of high quality.

Before making a decision, price up your likely CPU/MB/RAM upgrade so you can budget for it and plan when it can happen.
For non overclocking with a bang and an eye for value: i5 4460+H97MB+2x4Gb DDR3 1600 (or faster) RAM.
For overclocking or just more bang: i4 4690K+Z97MB+2x4Gb DDR3 2100 (or faster) RAM.

For the current system, just as an upgrade I'd look for either the R9 270X or GTX960, I would suggest the GTX760 but, at least on Newegg, they're more expensive than the superior GTX960.
Least expensive future upgrade: 4Gb GTX960, then go SLI later, unless you're into playing at the maximum settings on a display over 1080 rez the GTX960 is adequate and will really come alive with SLI. (obviously you'll need to get a SLI compliant motherboard, check the specs carefully).
The big upgrades have already been discussed but I'd go for the GTX970, it's marginally faster than the R9 290 burns less power and is less demanding on the case airflow (I have a R9 290Tri-X, it's HUGE at 12" long and need good case ventilation to tame its heat output).
 
Hi!

Well yes its been some time.

I ended up buying a refurbished 280x. It's working great, but since then my PSU burned out. I ended up getting a corsair 750w from best buy. so now at least thats covered.


But you are right, the cpu is the biggest bottleneck, so now I am going to upgrade it.

i've been doing a LOT of reading on this and I have 2 choices. I prefer to buy from newegg so that limits my options as well, but hear me out:

My mobo is rev 1.1, which means that it also has not heatsink on the mosfet. I am still looking around for how to fix this (basically, looking for what type and size of heatsink I need to get).

I can also not run (as in, my bios wont support it), ANY of the fx 8XXX 125w chips, so that leaves out the top end.

Next year I will most likely get a new mobo so keep that in mind and here are my 2 choices:

FX 6300 (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286&cm_re=6300-_-19-113-286-_-Product )

6 core, 3.5 ghz,

or the FX 8320E (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113376&cm_re=8320e-_-19-113-376-_-Product)

The 8320E is the low power version of the 8320 so it clocks at only 3.2ghz and is 95w (so I wont be melting my mosfets). Its 8 core but its also 40 to 50 bucks more.

I am having a really hard time deciding between the 2. The 8320e is newer. Its 8 core, but looking at my speeds the 6300, well, it looks good. And I read that the 6300 is a very solid choice and can be OCed (when I get a new mobo that is).

Is the 6300 the better value? Or is it worth the extra money to get the low power version of the 8320?



Also, if anyone can recommend any mosfet heatsinks for this board, it would be greatly appreciated :)

 
Take the 6300 over the 8320e by a million miles mate seriously.I have no time for the e series chips at all.

That board will handle a 6300 easily even over clocked - weird that it won't run an fx piledriver 8 core as it supports 125w phenom & bulldozer chips & they both drag a lot more voltage through the vrm's than piledriver.

MOSFET heatsinks are worthless mate IMO - good airflow even over bare caps is far far better.

Think about an aftermarket cooler for the 6300 that also pushes a downdraft over the vrm area.
Primarily these 2 in particular..
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/raijintek-cpu-cooler-0r100004
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/deepcool-cpu-cooler-gabriel
 
Hmm thanks for your opinion on that. I was reading some major websites review of the E series chips and it made me want to get it, but that's not where I want to get my info from as I know they can be biased for the wrong reasons.

Right now I have some sort of evermax closed loop cooler. I bought this rig from someone so I dont know if it came with his set up. Anyway, my next goal is to see if its a cheap one and if so, I will replace it with an evo 212 or something because the CLC doesnt allow much airflow onto the mosfets.
 
I agree completely! But -HH-, my question is to which CPU? It's down to the 8320E (low power version of the 8320) or the 6300
 


I honestly dont understand why anyone would buy the 8320e - in the uk at least it actually costs more than the standard 8320 .
the only reason it has a lower tdp is because its downclocked & undervolted,you can do that with a standard 8320 should you really feel the need.

I understand its a harder choice for you as the board doesnt support a standard 8320 for some reason,
BUT I would still go with the 6300 honestly,it has a higher base clock,a higher turbo speed & that more than makes up for the lack of the 2 extra cores which make about 0% when it comes to gaming performance.

& the fact your board will take a 1090t or 1100t 125w phenom means there is overclocking headroom on your current board even though its a 4+1 phase setup.
I will always trust the component quality on gigabyte & asus boards over any other - those mosfets will be very very good quality trust me.
The fact it doesnt have heatsinks doesnt matter (they are honestly more for show than anything else imo & do very very little) - what does matter is those voltasge regulators will get hot because theyre carrying twice the current of an 8 phase board - which means keeping them cool is paramount.
That pallas cooler has the same cooling performance as an evo 212 but pushes air straight onto the vrm area.
I honestly believe youll push 4ghz at least on that board with a 6300 & that cooler - look at the 6300 rig in my sig - your board is better quality than mine by a fair bit too & at 4.3ghz the 6300 powers a gtx 970 absolutely fine.



 
Thanks! You've helped me make up my mind and I'll just go for the 6300. Most of the owners I speak to about it do say they love it. I just wasn't sure if spending the extra 40 bucks would be worth it for the 8320e.



Pallas cooler? You mean the evermax closed loop cooler I mentioned?



 
I've got my FX-6300 on a stable overclock to 4.0Ghz with a strictly modifier change, didn't have to mess with the voltage at all. And that's with a crappy mATX board. I think you'll be very happy with that for at least a couple years.
 
I just wanted to say that this community f***ing rocks!

I've been researching component upgrades for my particular setup for over a month now and every single time I am lead to these forums to answer my questions or to find out more about experience with certain component combinations. It seems like most questions I ever had along the way, someone has asked a similar or the exact same question here.
 
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