for i7 920 @ 3.4GHz, which R9 series card is for me?

[ChaiBabbaChai]

I was thinking I was going to get a R9 290X until I started reading around, and noticing my CPU will be bottlenecking a 290X, so which R9 is for me? 280X? 270?

I don't think I'm going to need TrueAudio, just mainly interested in maxing out the CPU and MANTLE.

The system is in my sig.

 

[3DVagabond]

With Mantle you shouldn't be CPU bound at all. Not everything is going to have the Mantle pathway, though and no older games have it.

You might be very surprised with TrueAudio.

 

[Kenmitch]

The r290 seems like the best option to me.

 

[Techhog]

The R9 290 is the price/performance champion right now. It's no contest, really, though I would personally wait for the AIBs to to get their coolers out so that you can OC this thing well past the stock 290X and Titan.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Yeah, I'm definitely waiting for an ASUS or Gigabyte with their cooler designs and stuff...

TrueAudio might be nice to have, on second thought. However I'm NEVER going with a surround system. I have a great stereo setup and surround is too tricky and invasive in an apartment.

 

[FalseChristian]

Overclock that CPU to at least 4GHz and you're good to go.

 

[3DVagabond]

Yeah, I'm definitely waiting for an ASUS or Gigabyte with their cooler designs and stuff...

TrueAudio might be nice to have, on second thought. However I'm NEVER going with a surround system. I have a great stereo setup and surround is too tricky and invasive in an apartment.

You don't need a surround system. You'll only need 2 speakers. Just like you only need 2 ears. At least that's what I understand from reading about it. It does require game support, though.

 

[Haserath]

Either a 270 or a 290.

270 is exactly half a 290 but it doesn't come with trueaudio.

It depends on if you want to sacrifice settings in new games. The CPU will only limit your framerate to the minimum it can produce, so the 290 will just need higher graphics settings to stay at or below that.

 

[blastingcap]

I was thinking I was going to get a R9 290X until I started reading around, and noticing my CPU will be bottlenecking a 290X, so which R9 is for me? 280X? 270?

I don't think I'm going to need TrueAudio, just mainly interested in maxing out the CPU and MANTLE.

The system is in my sig.

Are you seriously on a Dell P1913SB (19" LCD)? In your case you can just get 270 and be fine.

 

[selni]

Are you seriously on a Dell P1913SB (19" LCD)? In your case you can just get 270 and be fine.

He's also listed a 23" 1920x1080 monitor.

 

[blastingcap]

He's also listed a 23" 1920x1080 monitor.

Oops my bad. I think 290 is about the point where it becomes overkill for many games. Some CPU-bottlenecked games aren't gonna improve from a 270 though.

 

[alcoholbob]

You probably want to get your 920 up to 3.8 or 4GHz to get the most out of your new card.

 

[RussianSensation]

I was thinking I was going to get a R9 290X until I started reading around, and noticing my CPU will be bottlenecking a 290X, so which R9 is for me? 280X? 270?

I don't think I'm going to need TrueAudio, just mainly interested in maxing out the CPU and MANTLE.

The system is in my sig.

There will be a slight bottleneck on average but not much overall for the GPUs you listed. In GPU demanding games such as Far Cry 3, Metro games, Crysis games, you will be more or less GPU limited.

In some sections of the game you may not get 100% of the performance of R9 290 but that's where overclocking your CPU to 3.8-4.0ghz comes in:
http://www.techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming2.php

A more serious CPU bottleneck is more exposed in strategy games, flight sims and Blizzard games.

R9 290 makes R9 290X irrelevant but I would wait for after-market versions only.

A stock i7 930 2.8ghz gets 85 fps average in BF4 at 1080P with Ares II but you need an HD7990 to hit that. That means you'll be GPU limited most of the time with an R9 290. If you overclock your CPU to 3.8-4.0ghz, you should be good to go for even 20nm GPUs.
http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/battlefield-4-test-gpu.html

I think you are going off the wrong assumption that i7 @ 3.4ghz is roughly equal to Phenom II 3.4-3.6ghz or 4.0ghz Bulldozer. This is incorrect as a 1st generation i7 2.8ghz is about as fast as a 4.0ghz FX8350 in CPU limited games that don't use more than 4 threads. But of course it is not possible to fully eliminate the CPU bottleneck as some games are bottlenecked by even a i7 4770. It just depends on the types of games you play.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Ugh... this 920 chip is a slug... but I finally got it stable @ 3.8 with 1850 DDR3 (185 bclk)

It's taking 1.38v

Thanks for all the great responses! I don't want to stop you guys.......

 

[Rvenger]

A 280x equals roughly a 7970ghz. Even a 7970 would be acceptable if you can find one on sale for $250 and under. They are putting those on clearance recently and you might be able to nab one heck of a deal on one for black Friday.


Since the 280x is a rebrand of the 7970 it might be a good idea to keep an eye out.

 

[Randum]

I splurged on the 290 and price/performance cannot be beat. In a year or two, Crossfire that thing and you'll be good for even longer...290x is great but the cost just doesn't justify the jump from the 290

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

A 280x equals roughly a 7970ghz. Even a 7970 would be acceptable if you can find one on sale for $250 and under. They are putting those on clearance recently and you might be able to nab one heck of a deal on one for black Friday.


Since the 280x is a rebrand of the 7970 it might be a good idea to keep an eye out.

I was thinking the R9 supports MANTLE, while the the 7970 doesn't support it. Is that true or false?

 

[Rvenger]

False. All GCN based cards support Mantle. Also, Add a 7950 to your buy list as well. They can be found for under $200. (Sometimes $160-$180) and a very very good deal for the performance.

 

[Meekers]

You probably want to get your 920 up to 3.8 or 4GHz to get the most out of your new card.

Wish my 920 could get there, c0 stepping is not nice.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

I was thinking the R9 supports MANTLE, while the the 7970 doesn't support it. Is that true or false?

False. All GCN chips support Mantle, meaning 77xx and up.


Edit: Didn't see Rvenger beating me to the punch.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Wish my 920 could get there, c0 stepping is not nice.

I'm not sure what stepping mine is, but it takes a lot of juice. I'm running level 2 (load line calibration?) with the dynamic vcore up quite a bit, so that puts it at 1.39v under load with 1.47v QPI/VTT (if IIRC)

 

[Meekers]

Just checked in on Microcenter after reading this thread and they have the 4770k going for the same price as the 4670k, $199. Bundled with an Asrock Extreme6 for $330.

Might be time to say goodbye to the 920.

Edit: Damn...0 in stock in Massachusetts.

 

[el etro]

You can put a Titan in your rig and the i7 will hold well the gameplay. Go for a 290 to match your config; Xfire it when you get a better processor tommorow.

Is good to make it clear: only a 4770k will be good a reasonable upgrade to your config.

 

[3DVagabond]

OP, before you buy a card tell us what brand and model you are looking at. Not all brands are created equal. You'll likely get some conflicting views, but there are some that are better to just stay away from. Like the single axial fan 7950's (unless they're cheap cheap, of course), for example.

 

[Makaveli]

I'm not sure what stepping mine is, but it takes a lot of juice. I'm running level 2 (load line calibration?) with the dynamic vcore up quite a bit, so that puts it at 1.39v under load with 1.47v QPI/VTT (if IIRC)

I'm thinking you may have a C0 also.

My 920 D0 never needed 1.4 to hit 4ghz.

I did at 1.3.

And I think the r9 290 or the r9 280x are your best options.