mothboard vga compatibility

[ibbski]

Hi guys,

I am looking at upgrading my vga and was debating over the gtx 980 and r9 390x and pushed towards the r9 due to higher ram and lower price with the hope of sli/CF in the future.

I have a Z97 Gaming 7 msi Motherboard and on the msi website it doesn't say that the r9 will be compatible but have seen one or two other sites showing it will be. After contacting msi tech help people and asking they simply said they haven't tested it so can't say either way and have no plans on testing i soon.

My concern is that bus, the r9 has a 512 bit interface with the 980 having a 256 bit. Would the r9 still work as well as the 980 would or would there be any bottlenecking with using the r9.

Thanks.

 

[Calculagator]

The rule of thumb is that any modern GPU will work with any modern motherboard as long as it physically fits.
Concerning bottlenecks, the only thing you need to consider is actual, real-world performance. Here's a comparison:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1559?vs=1442
They have very similar performance. The main difference is that the 390x uses between 150w and 200w more power than the 980. The memory bus is completely irrelevant because the cards are designed differently.