Replacing my R9 270X

[Mandathor]

Hi. I just bought new components to rebuild my computer.

Intel Core i5-444
ASUS B85-PLUS
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Dual-X
Kingston 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
SSD 256 GB

I use the discountiniued power supply:
CORSAIR HX Series 620HX

But I'm not overly satisfied with the graphics output. When I play Far Cry 3 I have to put down the resolution (playing on ultra settings). And its still have noticable framrate issues with only 2MSAA.


I'm not very savy with computers. And I was just wondering if the power supply could handle something like a Radeon R9 280X instead? Or wouldn't it be nessecary because the midline CPU and 8 GB of ram would bottleneck the performance anyway?
Thank you!

 

[doubletake]

The 270X isn't really able to push high fps on ultra in FC3. There are a couple settings you should turn down for a large performance boost. First, Post FX, which should probably be on medium or high, and geometry. Geometry on ultra is extremely demanding and can significantly lower FPS for an almost imperceptible difference in visual quality, so set it to high. Pretty much everything else you can leave on ultra if you want.

As for your other question, yes, your PSU can handle an R9 280X. Also, your CPU is a perfectly capable one for gaming, and it will not bottleneck ANY graphics card you could care to purchase, and neither will the 8GB of RAM, unless you plan on having a few dozen programs and a game running at the same time.

 

[Mandathor]

Thank you very much. What about Sapphire Radeon R9 290? Would that be too for the power supply to handle?

 

[coozie7]

The R9 290 is a massively powerful card for the money and will eat even FC3 but it's very noisy under load, if you want to go for one of these beasts I suggest you hold off until better cooled versions become available (End December/mid Jan).
If you can find one at a reasonable price the R9 280/280X is still a very fast card and there is plenty of quieter options out there, downside is that stock seems to be limited worldwide and prices seem artificially high as a result.
If you have not already done so, try Doubletakes tuning tips, FC3 is hard on the system and a little careful trimming can make a significant difference to how it plays. If you're getting a lot of stuttering when driving/running grab a copy of RadeonPro set a profile for FC3 then a framerate cap, it should be no higher than the MINIMUM your system can provide.

 

[Mandathor]

Thank you. If that is the case I would wait for a less noisy iteration of the R9 290. You say the 280(x) cards are noisy too? I don't like noise and my 270X dual-X is silent.

Also I gave RadeonPro a try. The weird thing is that if I put the framerate cap on 50 frames it would output 50 frames in areas where my computer earlier would have a hard time holding up 35+ frames? Is this safe, and why is it that it can output 50 frames when I set the cap on?

I noticed afterwards that there is a RadeonPro version for the R-series. But I don't see the use of downloading that when the original worked just fine...

 

[coozie7]

I meant there is several very quiet R9 280s out there, sorry 'bout the confusion.
The cap should LIMIT the frame rate, it should not allow the card to produce 50 FPS in an area where you were getting 35 previously...Which is odd.
Perhaps you're not using the latest drivers or you made some changes in Radeonpro like turning AA off?

 

[Mandathor]

Using hotkeys you can get RadeonPro UI running while in game and you can turn framerate cap on and off at any moment. Ingame I noticed framerate drop significantly, so I decided to turn on the framerate cap here. I could really notice that the framerate did increase to 50 frames, and the realtime framrate counter also told me it was running at 50 frames. So i tried to turn it on and of a couple of times, the framerate increased to framerate cap every time. And I couldn't notice any graphical difference.

 

[coozie7]

If that's a bug I'm all for it!
Anyone else seen this behaviour with Radeonpro?

 

[Mandathor]

Experimented some more. Seems like the game sometimes locks the framerate to 30 frames in more demanding areas (just for a very brief period). The framerate cap seems to override this framerate lock.

 

[coozie7]

Looks like you have Vsync turned on, that would explain the 30FPS lower limit and yes, the Radeonpro cap will override that-it's not so much as a cap as it tries to keep the framerate constant at the value selected rather than synching with the monitor.

How are things otherwise?
Still looking for an upgrade or happy where you are?

 

[Mandathor]

Trying to get it sold for a reasonable amount. Its not a bad card by any means. I just think I wanna be prepared for games to come.

I'm still unsure if my 620W corsair can handle a card like R9 290. Any ideas?

edit 1:
So I'l probably be fine if I trust 3dguru:
"Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:

AMD R9-290X - On your average system the card requires you to have a 550~600 Watt power supply unit."

 

[doubletake]

Yes, any decent 620w can handle a single R9 290. However, you would definitely have to upgrade if you wanted to run more than one of them.

 

[Mandathor]

Just sold it for a decent price (got 80% of what I gave for it). And this SAPPHIRE R9 290 Tri-X seems to be doing really well: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-r9-290-tri-x-oc-review-1600p-ultra-hd-4k/

Think I will pick it up when it becomes available in my country...

 

[Shocking777]

Hey, have you ordered it yet? If you do can you tell me the price in your country? I'm looking foreard for the R9 290 too thanks

 

[Mandathor]

Its not available. I think its going to be about 30 euros above standard west european price when it becomes available. I live in Norway.