Just some more questions...

[JPG0809]

So, I posted this thread on Thanksgiving:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2875532/gigabyte-asus-gtx-970.html

I decided that I would go with the Sapphire r9 390. for AMD. However, what keeps me back is the amount of wattage the card uses and a few things people warn me about AMD which is that AMD, though cheaper, is a bit noisier and run hotter decrease their life expectancy.

If I were to choose a card from Nvidia's side, it would've been the Gigabyte G1 gtx 970.

Now, this is my first time ever buying/looking to buy an AMD so I'm a bit naive when it comes to a few things but basically, my question is which of these cards would fit with what I'm looking for which is:

• 
  ■ Lasting at least 5 years (the longer this card lasts without dying, the better!)
  ■ Cooling. (I don't care if the Nvidia is a LIL bit better with temperature, if the AMD's cooling is good enough to let the card last longer, that's fine.)
  ■ Future proofing (The thing that got me interested in the r9 390 was it's 8GB of Vram which I hear can help me out in the future if newer games use this benefit)

Another thing people tend to warn me about is heat/noise and wattage consumption. Is the difference between these cards in those factors THAT much to make note of. I just don't want anything that'll make my electricity bill TOO high and make this card die anytime soon.

If it also helps, I don't plan on overclocking and looking more of a plug-in and play experience. Nothing complicated.

That's all can think of for now, but any advice is more than welcome.

Thank you!

 

[Syrus Hussain]

The sapphire nitro is quite quiet and probably the most quietest out of the bunch. People are still rocking the 6xxx series from a few years ago today. And about power usuage.... Its like 70-90w more, im pretty sure that wont effect your bil drastically. Pennies the most.

But amd cards are known for running a tad hotter, they're quite a lot of people cards at 60-70c so i think you should be fine if you live in a cool country and not with high ambient temps in your room.

 

[renz496]

So straight to the point:

1) can't guarantee the card will last that long but if they did the performance probably will sit towards low end side. GTX480 (255W) was the fastest card in 2010 (before being dethrone by slightly faster 580 at november of same year). In february 2014 GTX750TI perform as fast as 480 while consuming 75w only. That is less than 5 years. So i imagine you probably going to upgrade to something new in less than 5 years.

2) usually board partner always come up with better cooler than reference design. In fact some cooler were quite excessive like those triple fan you see on gigabyte's card. But because they have big cooler board partner also lower the fan speed to keep the noise as low as possible. But it is not really a problem anyway since you can easily set your own fan curve these day with third party tool. For AMD card just avoid the one with blower design.

3) better for current games that is vram hungry but future proof? They are not. By current games i mean games that will be coming out now and one or two years from now. People often forgot when newer games comes out they also need more gpu raw power not just more VRAM. By the time game can use 8gb of vram like it's a normal on all games 390 probably will be very weak. Right now game using 4gb is not even the norm at 1080p.

 

[JPG0809]

So straight to the point:

1) can't guarantee the card will last that long but if they did the performance probably will sit towards low end side. GTX480 (255W) was the fastest card in 2010 (before being dethrone by slightly faster 580 at november of same year). In february 2014 GTX750TI perform as fast as 480 while consuming 75w only. That is less than 5 years. So i imagine you probably going to upgrade to something new in less than 5 years.

2) usually board partner always come up with better cooler than reference design. In fact some cooler were quite excessive like those triple fan you see on gigabyte's card. But because they have big cooler board partner also lower the fan speed to keep the noise as low as possible. But it is not really a problem anyway since you can easily set your own fan curve these day with third party tool. For AMD card just avoid the one with blower design.

3) better for current games that is vram hungry but future proof? They are not. By current games i mean games that will be coming out now and one or two years from now. People often forgot when newer games comes out they also need more gpu raw power not just more VRAM. By the time game can use 8gb of vram like it's a normal on all games 390 probably will be very weak. Right now game using 4gb is not even the norm at 1080p.

Thanks for replying!

1.) I don't plan on the card be the creme of the crop in gaming performance through all that time.

That's unrealistic.

However, that's with anything. Newer models are going to blow older ones out of the water without a doubt and newer games are going to demand more. I'm just buying the best I can afford and hope that holds up for a long time usage-wise, not gaming performance. For example, I bought a gtx 760 2 years ago and I love it to bits. I just thought now would be a good opportunity to sell it and get something even better since I have the money now. Hell, even a laptop I got as a gift 4 years ago with a gt 525M still runs some of my games fine enough for me and that's before I new any of model number stuff. I don't need my computer to run the newer games on High through all that time, if I can just get it to run it fine enough without completely studdering and spazzing out, I think I'll be good on med settings despite the not so pretty textures I would get on Ultra. 😀

2.) So, this card I'm looking at, does it have a blower design? One thing people warn me about is AMD has issues with heat and I'm not sure if they're over exaggerating. Also, is it bad if the fans are excessive if what they do (cool the card) is efficient? three fans may be a lot, but if it get's the job done, so be it.

3.) Yes, that's true. I saw a few articles and videos showing that most newer games barely touch the 2.5 or 3 GB mark..for now. As of now, though it's not necessary, we don't know how much VRAM is going to be used in furture games. Maybe it won't hit the entire 8GB mark, but what about 4GB or 5GB. Technically, the Nvidia 970 only uses 3.5 and I rather be safe than sorry.

Also, if you were in my shoes, which card would you choose, the Gigabyte or the Sapphire and why?

 

[renz496]

Blower design is like the one use in this review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review

There are few things that contribute to why AMD gpu being much harder to cool than nvidia but in general blower type cooler will not be able to keep up to cool gpu like 390 properly. That blower cooler on 290X causing severe throttling. And another another minus point of blower type cooler is noise. At 70% speed they already sound like a vaccum cleaner. And i'm not joking about this. Try looking on you tube videos about blower type cooler noise.

The concern about non blower cooler (or open air cooler as some like to call it) is they did not throw the heat outside the case. Since the heat still circulate inside the case you need the assist of case air flow to dump the heat. For bigger case with multiple fan mount this probably not an issue. But for much smaller case like mini itx case where the space inside is quite cramp. So having blower type cooler might be much better due to the heat was not circulated back inside the case.

On the VRAM thing i just want to point it out that it will not going to be future proof as many would like to believe it. Plus VRAM usage is can vary even on the same setting. For example in one game my 660 VRAM usage abd 960 VRAM usage are not the same despite i use the same setting to run the game. So just because we see the game use certain amount of VRAM then game absolutely need that much.

 

[jerdle]

SO, to make a long story short, the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 is an awesome GPU and is a better long term buy than a gtx 970.

Also, if a card works right when you get it, its unlikely to 'break' by itself during its useful lifespan.

 

[renz496]

Well 'long term' can be subjective. If you really intend to use your card for a very long time; for example 5 years and above nvidia actually is better in this regard. If we go by history AMD will be the first to drop support for their card. Just go ask how 4k series user were burned because of this especially those with crossfire setup and 4870x2. Right now those 4k series don't even have official support for win 8.1 while nvidia still support their ancient 7k series in windows 8.1.

 

[JPG0809]

LITERALLY the only reason I'm looking at the Sapphire is because of the whole 8GB of Vram thing.

If it helps I'm only running one monitor at 1080.

So, now it feels like:

Go with Gigabyte, and I have a better understanding on how their system and support works along with (apparently) better noise, cooling, and power consumption (small, but still something), but run into the fear that future games (5 years let's say) use more than 3.5 GB of VRAM.

Go with Sapphire and I get a cheaper price and 8 GB of VRAM, but I go in hoping it doesn't screw me over in the future because of support and I don't use the card's vram anyways.

What am I missing out if AMD does eventually drop the support for the 9k series. Maybe they'll come back to helping older models? Also, is there a LEGAL way to add vram to cards without screwing up the card's life expectancy?

 

[Mousemonkey]

LITERALLY the only reason I'm looking at the Sapphire is because of the whole 8GB of Vram thing.

If it helps I'm only running one monitor at 1080.

So, now it feels like:

Go with Gigabyte, and I have a better understanding on how their system and support works along with (apparently) better noise, cooling, and power consumption (small, but still something), but run into the fear that future games (5 years let's say) use more than 3.5 GB of VRAM.

Go with Sapphire and I get a cheaper price and 8 GB of VRAM, but I go in hoping it doesn't screw me over in the future because of support and I don't use the card's vram anyways.

What am I missing out if AMD does eventually drop the support for the 9k series. Maybe they'll come back to helping older models? Also, is there a LEGAL way to add vram to cards without screwing up the card's life expectancy?

If you do go for an AMD card just be aware of their latest driver issue. 😉

http://news.softpedia.com/news/warning-new-amd-crimson-driver-is-heating-and-killing-gpus-users-report-496867.shtml

 

[jerdle]

"what this story didn't add was that is caused by a 3rd party oc software like afterburner, all they have to do is uninstall that and everything is fine"

as OP doesn't plan on using software to mess with his cards clocks, and amd is fixing 3rd party software's problem in the first place on monday, I think that comment is moot.

And no, you can't add VRAM to cards.

 

[Mousemonkey]

"what this story didn't add was that is caused by a 3rd party oc software like afterburner, all they have to do is uninstall that and everything is fine"

as OP doesn't plan on using software to mess with his cards clocks, and amd is fixing 3rd party software's problem in the first place on monday, I think that comment is moot.

And no, you can't add VRAM to cards.

What about all the people who's cards get fried BEFORE Monday? I bet they don't think it's moot.

 

[jerdle]

You know mm, I thought this story seemed familiar. Turns out it was.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-196.75-drivers-over-heating,9802.html

 

[renz496]

Go with Gigabyte, and I have a better understanding on how their system and support works along with (apparently) better noise, cooling, and power consumption (small, but still something), but run into the fear that future games (5 years let's say) use more than 3.5 GB of VRAM.

future games will surely use more VRAM in the future. but so did the requirement for raw performance. that's why some people upgrade every two or three years.

Go with Sapphire and I get a cheaper price and 8 GB of VRAM, but I go in hoping it doesn't screw me over in the future because of support and I don't use the card's vram anyways.

for me having more never hurts. but that 8GB on 390 indeed excessive for 1080p monitors.

What am I missing out if AMD does eventually drop the support for the 9k series. Maybe they'll come back to helping older models? Also, is there a LEGAL way to add vram to cards without screwing up the card's life expectancy?

if the problem is a minor one maybe they will ask you until the problem being solves in updated legacy drivers. but if it's about new game on cards that already being drop from support then no. and i don't think there is any way to add more VRAM to the card without actually breaking it. and where did you want to get the memory module anyway?

 

[renz496]

You know mm, I thought this story seemed familiar. Turns out it was.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-196.75-drivers-over-heating,9802.html

and some people always using this to defend AMD drivers. they say: AMD drivers might have more issues but they never kill your card. seems like they can no longer use that excuse.