R9 390 too BRUTAL, but choices aren't pretty

[StupidComputers]

SHORT VERSION: Keep brutal R9 390 or sell and buy rx480-8GB, 980-4GB, 980ti-6GB or 1060-6GB (maybe 9ghz) and pay the extra money which I don't have much of.

I got an r9 390 as a replacement for my 7970. XFX lifetime warranty carries. BUT the 390 is an inferno which sits over my already outrageously hot PCH/chipet (VII hero), AND gaming it's one of the loudest things i've heard indoors (maybe next to blender and old vacuum) it also makes my old trusty PSU scream for mercy (audibly i'm pretty sure?, competes with gfx card) - it's old (8 years?) but I don't need that dying uh.. right away? lol. I'm looking at selling it and choosing between (all used obv) rx480-8GB, 980-4GB, 980ti-6GB and a new 1060-6GB, which is the only other choice with a warranty but not lifetime... maybe an rx 580 but doubtful (price).

Thanks to the mining craze I have offers for about $350 CAD for the 390, the used 480s are about the same, 980 a bit less and 980 ti $50-100 more. Unfortunately thanks to mining 1070s are way out of reach atm and the 1060 6B will run me between $400 and $470 (EVGA FTW2 9ghz memory) after tax. However black friday is in a month, but that's a month without gaming (I have to sell it now, miners don't want to wait cuz time=$) -Ultra level gaming I just started again after like a year and I'm loving it.. boohoo me.

SYSTEM:
i7-4790k (NH-D15) on maximus vii hero
XFX R9 390
1866 cl8 ram
Sandisk 480GB SSD + 3 HDDs (var)
antec ea750 80plus
HAF 932
LG 24" (1080p) and 22" (1680x1050), both 60hz 2ms

I am leaning towards the EVGA FTW2, but it seems like a really risky proposition as it's brand new, they put A LOT of effort into its cooling (too much?) and many people have had to return them from what I've read, which is +$40 shipping again and u get the same model card back.. and more no gaming time - If only hadn't started again the second the card was dropped off

I also worry that AMD drivers are always getting better and their cards are constantly improving against Nvidia over time, which also skunks on DX12 and linux atm.

EDIT: I should point out that right now I'm playing some battlefields and as soon as I get a decent card for it; PUBG - and all on win7 x64, I'm never switching to 10, I wish I had been able to avoid 3.

Thank you, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[ak47jar3d]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

 

[StupidComputers]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

Ya I see what you mean. Do you by chance have an idea of the realworld power usage and heat/noise? Also I worry that it's only a 4GB card, with the mentioned Nvidia issues, especially DX12 - very real issues in the near future I imagine.

 

[ak47jar3d]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

Ya I see what you mean. Do you by chance have an idea of the realworld power usage and heat/noise? Also I worry that it's only a 4GB card, with the mentioned Nvidia issues, especially DX12 - very real issues in the near future I imagine.

The TDP is very low for a 980 in comparison. The GPU in the gtx 980 is nopt fast enough to need more than 4 gb of ram. The 390 can't really use more than 4 gb of vram without tanking frame rates.

 

[Karadjgne]

Yep. 980 is best straight swap, goes head to head vrs a 390 with more wins than losses with a slightly higher range of fps. In DX11.

DX12 is iffy. There's not all that many titles that actually use it, yet, same with Vulcan, and there's even less that have the full DX12 suite coded in. Many titles actually play better on DX11, especially on nvidia cards, because game devs are writing games for the masses many of which are still using win7 and DX11 cards. DX12 more than likely won't really sink in as mainstream until win7 is as done and gone as Vista and most everyone is using at least win10. At which point nvidia will blow up again, fully port physX to DX12, have its own version of HBM and have fully functional Mgpu support with the death of SLI, meaning you'll be able to get full use of dual 1060 cards in tandem with 12Gb of ram. Or dual 980s pushing 8Gb, which is plenty for 4k.

 

[StupidComputers]

Yep. 980 is best straight swap, goes head to head vrs a 390 with more wins than losses with a slightly higher range of fps. In DX11.

DX12 is iffy. There's not all that many titles that actually use it, yet, same with Vulcan, and there's even less that have the full DX12 suite coded in. Many titles actually play better on DX11, especially on nvidia cards, because game devs are writing games for the masses many of which are still using win7 and DX11 cards. DX12 more than likely won't really sink in as mainstream until win7 is as done and gone as Vista and most everyone is using at least win10. At which point nvidia will blow up again, fully port physX to DX12, have its own version of HBM and have fully functional Mgpu support with the death of SLI, meaning you'll be able to get full use of dual 1060 cards in tandem with 12Gb of ram. Or dual 980s pushing 8Gb, which is plenty for 4k.

Thanks. that's a lot of good sense. I edited to OP but I should have said that I primarily play Battlefield and as soon as I have a decent card for it, PUGB. All on win7 64, and I plan to fight win10 the way I wanted to fight Win3.
BIG edit: I must have been confused before, my reading works again, apologies. When true Mgpu is about then SLIs is not relevant right. And when 1070s become cheap, if it's during SLI's lifetime it won't work with 1060, but 1060s should become a lot cheaper. However I have a feeling with all those beat up 1070s floating around they will also be so cheap that getting another 1060 will be pointless? Or is my thinking exaggerated? If it isn't then would then the 1060 now also be pointless, when a 980 will more than do the job for me at 1080p? So I guess if all that makes sense, that question becomes 980 vs 480 and how they relate to PUBG (assuming I even like it..so much running around alone) and the next few years of games. I assume they won't have much resale value. I'm getting a headache - I may have had one for some time now.

OK, no more edits I promise (Haven't slept in 48): 980 vs 980 ti power consumption (can't seem to find it), worth the extra $100-150? Better idea than equally priced 1060 w/warranty? Manufacturers to look for/avoid? I guess that's what it really boils down to, sorry amd?

 

[JoeMomma]

SHORT VERSION: sell brutal R9 390 and buy rx480-8GB, 980-4GB, 980ti-6GB or 1060-6GB. Unfortunately thanks to mining 1070s are way out of reach atm. I am leaning towards the EVGA FTW2, but it seems like a really risky proposition as it's brand new, they put A LOT of effort into its cooling.

I had a similar situation when my new R9 390 was overloading my PSU, so I returned it for a GTX 970.
After a year I recently sold the GTX 970 to get a used GTX 1070.
Net cost of the MSI GTX 1070 Aero was $140.

I had problems with a blower cooler before and was wary that the Aero reference cooler would blow.
I shouldn't have worried, the stock cooler woks fine. 60C max > 30C

 

[StupidComputers]

Huh? How did the 970 compare? I didn't think there would be used 1070's available, miners would have gotten them but since you said it I looked and there is ONE with a warranty, and dozens all priced similarly of not the same.. maybe I will roll the dice on black friday.

 

[StupidComputers]

Yep. 980 is best straight swap, goes head to head vrs a 390 with more wins than losses with a slightly higher range of fps. In DX11.

DX12 is iffy. There's not all that many titles that actually use it, yet, same with Vulcan, and there's even less that have the full DX12 suite coded in. Many titles actually play better on DX11, especially on nvidia cards, because game devs are writing games for the masses many of which are still using win7 and DX11 cards. DX12 more than likely won't really sink in as mainstream until win7 is as done and gone as Vista and most everyone is using at least win10. At which point nvidia will blow up again, fully port physX to DX12, have its own version of HBM and have fully functional Mgpu support with the death of SLI, meaning you'll be able to get full use of dual 1060 cards in tandem with 12Gb of ram. Or dual 980s pushing 8Gb, which is plenty for 4k.

I think the subjectively best card discussion is a great guideline, as given what I'm seeing while shopping for used models these cards, I think black friday will provide decisive information as to which of these ways to lean, maybe even into the 1070 if prices continue back towards normal. And the 980 prices will only fall farther.. barring a crypto-miner miracle.

 

[StupidComputers]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

Ya I see what you mean. Do you by chance have an idea of the realworld power usage and heat/noise? Also I worry that it's only a 4GB card, with the mentioned Nvidia issues, especially DX12 - very real issues in the near future I imagine.

The TDP is very low for a 980 in comparison. The GPU in the gtx 980 is nopt fast enough to need more than 4 gb of ram. The 390 can't really use more than 4 gb of vram without tanking frame rates.

All the great advice I received helped to clarify this, thanks. Barring some kind of black friday pricing miracle, it's what I'll do. Probably be able to bring the price down a bit around then too, or I'll just buckle and buy it one of them before then (the ti if regular can't cut it in PUBG when I pull the trigger)

 

[StupidComputers]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

Ya I see what you mean. Do you by chance have an idea of the realworld power usage and heat/noise? Also I worry that it's only a 4GB card, with the mentioned Nvidia issues, especially DX12 - very real issues in the near future I imagine.

The TDP is very low for a 980 in comparison. The GPU in the gtx 980 is nopt fast enough to need more than 4 gb of ram. The 390 can't really use more than 4 gb of vram without tanking frame rates.

I've been searching for where I saw this on my computer, but it said that the 390 had around 4gb dedicated and 4gb system shared or something like that, and while searching I checked GUP-Z and it has a dedicated memory load and a "dynamic" memory load..

 

[StupidComputers]

In terms of performance, the gtx 980ti would be the best. Without that being said, you will be better off with a GTX 980 for its efficiency since its the 390 overall power draw/noise/heat is what really brothers you and won't sacrifice performance in the exchange.

Is the ti loud?

 

[renz496]

Since you're not going to use win 10 then there is no use thinking about DX12 since DX12 is exclusive to win 10. The 980ti consume around the same power (or less) than 390. Not sure how loud it is going to be though.

 

[StupidComputers]

Since you're not going to use win 10 then there is no use thinking about DX12 since DX12 is exclusive to win 10. The 980ti consume around the same power (or less) than 390. Not sure how loud it is going to be though.

Mantle on BF4 is kinda DX12 rev 0 lol, Vulkan I think might have something to do with it.. maybe? What about linux, no dice there? cuz if ur sure, you may have just saved me a TON of headache!

edit: or given me a bigger one cuz i might have to figure out how to gut an all new meaner windows, or just get the 980 lol... for now!

 

[BurgerandChips66]

What is your issue with Win 10? Don't like the interface?
There are programs you can download (for free) that will make it look like Win 7. Some are pretty good.
And yeah, No Win 10 = No DX12!

 

[renz496]

Mantle is no more. Vulkan work well with both amd and nvidia as long as developer know what they do with it. Some people think vulkan will always work better on amd than it was on nvidia but i don't think that's necessarily the case. Principle of talos for example running faster on amd hardware with DX11. But in vulkan nvidia actually end up bring faster. In Doom case vulkan end up really fast on amd hardware because they were using some specific feature that exclysive to amd hardware. The thing is not all vulkan based games will use this feature. Also it is also poaaible that vulkan end up faster on nvidia if developer are using specific feature (via extension) that exclusive to nvidia hardware only.

On linux maybe you should look at phoronix. It is one site that dedicated to linux and they do game benchmark as well. But to my knowledge if gaming is your primary concern nvidia still the best when it comes to linux. While they did not support open source driver as hard as AMD they still put serious effort on their binary drivers. It is direct opposite to what amd did. AMD pretty much want open source driver to be their official driver for linux but this open source driver still left a lot to be desired when it comes to game performance on linux.

 

[StupidComputers]

What is your issue with Win 10? Don't like the interface?
There are programs you can download (for free) that will make it look like Win 7. Some are pretty good.
And yeah, No Win 10 = No DX12!

It's a combination of the evils of Microsoft and Windows.
1) Since 3.1 was forced upon us killing DOS (which I'll never forgive ), the user's ability to control their own system has been reduced more with every incarnation if Windows, with windows 10 system applications refusing to work if denied access back to microsoft (by design), as of the forced anniversary update, now cortana can no longer be disabled!! WTH.

Which brings me to

2) Flagrant forced personal data mining and the principal of privacy - yes I know it's a pipe dream, but I can at least hamper commercial entities from abusing mine (privacy and pipe dreams lol).

When 10 was new I acquired a program from IRC for a friend to hobble Windows 10's "spying" as the program was touted. No it was not the clickbait malware you see on the web today. I can't find it on my PC, must have lost it in a windows 7 reinstall - oh! maybe it's on my old OS HDD! But I assume it won't work anymore, given the updates to enforce 10's data collection. I haven't spoken to said friend in a while. I can manually gut windows 7 and almost entirely protect myself from this, which I do with every win 7 install.

So short answer: The evil you know.. I guess - and the evil you can mostly defeat lol

 

[StupidComputers]

Mantle is no more. Vulkan work well with both amd and nvidia as long as developer know what they do with it. Some people think vulkan will always work better on amd than it was on nvidia but i don't think that's necessarily the case. Principle of talos for example running faster on amd hardware with DX11. But in vulkan nvidia actually end up bring faster. In Doom case vulkan end up really fast on amd hardware because they were using some specific feature that exclysive to amd hardware. The thing is not all vulkan based games will use this feature. Also it is also poaaible that vulkan end up faster on nvidia if developer are using specific feature (via extension) that exclusive to nvidia hardware only.

On linux maybe you should look at phoronix. It is one site that dedicated to linux and they do game benchmark as well. But to my knowledge if gaming is your primary concern nvidia still the best when it comes to linux. While they did not support open source driver as hard as AMD they still put serious effort on their binary drivers. It is direct opposite to what amd did. AMD pretty much want open source driver to be their official driver for linux but this open source driver still left a lot to be desired when it comes to game performance on linux.

That is definitely the first time someone has said Nvidia over AMD on linux! There's a linux gaming server on discord. They were very insistent on staying AMD because of the drivers. TBH if linux gaming was even close to comparable with windows, I would have left windows in the dust the very day that became a reality, and I still will! I'm really hoping that day arrives, and before windows 7 goes the way of XP and games no longer run on it.

The worst part, the real kick in the teeth, is that even though I somehow have Vulkan software on my system (must have been messing with it way back when), Vulkan support for my processor is only available on Windows 10 - but is available for it on Linux, which the cause of my recently renewed my insterest in it. I've installed and tried Mint and TW so far. Actually have a chunk of SSD partitioned to raw right now trying to figure out how best to install it when I convert the drive to GPT (gone there and back to MBR with no data loss, thanks easeUS!). It's probably much less complicated than I'm making it out to be..

 

[renz496]

I haven't check phoronix for quite a while so i'm not too sure how the situation are right now. But i think it might not change too much. Majority of developer that porting their games to linux still using opengl instead of vulkan. And amd themselves said that they did not put as much effort on OpenGL they did when compared to vulkan.

Also those on linux they sometimes have this "open source principle". They will said amd is better not because amd hardware perform better in games vs nvidia hardware but simply because amd stance in supporting open source driver better than nvidia. So even if amd gpu only got 40-50 fps and nvidia gpu can maintain above 60 fps some of them will consider that as non-issue. "It is very playable on my amd gpu. I see no issues with it". It was that kind of thing. So i suggest you to look some of the bench done at phoronix and decide it for yourself. Honestly i have no issue for those want to support AMD because they support open source driver better. But to those that directly denied nvidia performance advantage just because nvidia stance on open source driver that i think is a bit problematic.

 

[StupidComputers]

I haven't check phoronix for quite a while so i'm not too sure how the situation are right now. But i think it might not change too much. Majority of developer that porting their games to linux still using opengl instead of vulkan. And amd themselves said that they did not put as much effort on OpenGL they did when compared to vulkan.

Also those on linux they sometimes have this "open source principle". They will said amd is better not because amd hardware perform better in games vs nvidia hardware but simply because amd stance in supporting open source driver better than nvidia. So even if amd gpu only got 40-50 fps and nvidia gpu can maintain above 60 fps some of them will consider that as non-issue. "It is very playable on my amd gpu. I see no issues with it". It was that kind of thing. So i suggest you to look some of the bench done at phoronix and decide it for yourself. Honestly i have no issue for those want to support AMD because they support open source driver better. But to those that directly denied nvidia performance advantage just because nvidia stance on open source driver that i think is a bit problematic.

I totally agree. People denying facts because they believe their principle to be superior is a huge problem, and they don't realize that it hurts the credibility of those very principles - which is worse when the principal is right. I think that open source is very important, for transparency at the very least. If everything were equal, or relatively similar, I would choose open source every time. But if Nvidia is more suited to my current and temporary needs, I don't want to be lied to. That's not right, and can turn people away.

I will definitely look into this, thank you