Time For Upgrades!

[PajamaXLlama]

I would like to upgrade my graphics card in my pc because it is somewhat outdated and I need the Toms Hardware community to help give their opinions to influence my final decision. First of all, here are my system specs at the time of writing this -

MotherBoard: ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0
Graphics: Saphire AMD HD 7850
Processor: AMD FX-8320 (OC'ed to 4.2 GHz)
PSU: Corsair TX550M
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1tb Black.
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 4gb DDR3 (I had a 4gb stick fail 2 days ago. I have 16gbs of ram in the mail)
CASE: Corsair Graphite Series™ 760T Arctic White Full-Tower Windowed Case

I'm thinking of just upgrading my graphics card because I do graphic-intense video editing and some online game streaming. Budget for graphics <$400.

I was thinking the GTX 970 would be well suited for me because my editing software could take advantage of CUDA for rendering videos. Should I upgrade my PSU as well?

 

[Fincotts1]

Yeah! A gtx 970 would be a great upgrade, price😛erformance ratio is excellent on the 970, and yes i would upgrade the psu, although its not a requirement, its for the best, especially if your overclocking. However, like i said, not a requirement!

Hope i helped

 

[Wisecracker]

What video editing software do you use ?

 

[PajamaXLlama]

What video editing software do you use ?

After Effects CC 2014

 

[Wisecracker]

The only advantage CUDA will really give you is in the 3D ray-tracing effect. Otherwise, OpenCL/GL is the way to go. A comparable (or even, lesser) Radeon card will work just dandy.

Kepler -to- Maxwell really dinged the 'CUDA Cores' Folks are getting better performance on Kepler or even older Fermi GTXs.

edit: OpenCL/GL (other than the 3D R-T effect) will work fine on the GTX 970 -- just a touch slower than the Radeons

Vegas editing, rendering and effects has really gone big-time into GPU compute. A card like the R9 270 thumps even the GTX 970.

 

[PajamaXLlama]

The only advantage CUDA will really give you is in the 3D ray-tracing effect. Otherwise, OpenCL/GL is the way to go. A comparable (or even, lesser) Radeon card will work just dandy.

Kepler -to- Maxwell really dinged the 'CUDA Cores' Folks are getting better performance on Kepler or even older Fermi GTXs.

edit: OpenCL/GL (other than the 3D R-T effect) will work fine on the GTX 970 -- just a touch slower than the Radeons

Vegas editing, rendering and effects has really gone big-time into GPU compute. A card like the R9 270 thumps even the GTX 970.

So, if i were to upgrade my graphics, what would you recommend? Would a GTX 970 show improvement over my HD 7850? Keep in mind this isn't only for video editing.

 

[Wisecracker]

Just for the gaming ... you have to go with the GTX 970 or an R9 390.

I don't believe there will not be much of a difference between either one in AE CC, at least what you will notice. If you think you might ever do Vegas, the Radeon is likely 1/3 faster in editing and effects.

Maxwell cut CUDA core over 30% (nVidia likely prefers 'streamlined') compared to Kepler/Fermi.

 

[PajamaXLlama]

Just for the gaming ... you have to go with the GTX 970 or an R9 390.

I don't believe there will not be much of a difference between either one in AE CC, at least what you will notice. If you think you might ever do Vegas, the Radeon is likely 1/3 faster in editing and effects.

Maxwell cut CUDA core over 30% (nVidia likely prefers 'streamlined') compared to Kepler/Fermi.

Alright thanks. I'm most likely going to get a R9 390 because of the better hardware. I'm most likely planning on having two monitors at 1080p but when I game, I'll only use one.