- Nov 20, 2005
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So one thing that kinda sticks out to me as someone who has only recently gotten into PC gaming more the last year or so is how (with full 20/20 hindsight) much better the 7970 was than its competition for current games. The GTX 680 was very highly regarded when it was released, I can find more than one review from then recommending it over a 7970 GHz and defending the 2GB of RAM, and yet here we are in 2015 and that 2GB of RAM is a hindrance even at 1080p and the GPU compare tool shows the 7970 to be a CLEAR longterm winner especially when you look at the 280x (which you have to assume is just the 7970 GHz with newer/better drivers right?):
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1348?vs=1041
Why I bring this up is I feel there is an similiar situation with a GTX 970. When you look at current game benchmarks the 970 pretty much always beats a 290 and often beats the 290x, especially at 1080p. I haven't found a solid example of a current game that uses over 3.5 GB of RAM but not over 4GB at 1080p (that has settings that run at playable rates), which shows me that currently there is nothing to really put the 290 or 290(x) over the 970. But then I look at the history of the 680 vs the 7970 and I wonder: Will the 290 win out long term? Will the 290x?
I know there are a lot of other things that go into this equation that makes the current battle a little different than the one from yesteryear: Does Gameworks cut into a future AMD edge? Does the fact that the 390 is kinda a rehash almost guarantee future driver optimizations for a 290(x) that a Maxwell GPU won't get in the Pascal era? Do the consoles hold back 1080p gaming to current levels making it a wash? Does better tessellation performance win over asynchronous compute as the thing to have in abundance going forward?
Thank you in advance for any input.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1348?vs=1041
Why I bring this up is I feel there is an similiar situation with a GTX 970. When you look at current game benchmarks the 970 pretty much always beats a 290 and often beats the 290x, especially at 1080p. I haven't found a solid example of a current game that uses over 3.5 GB of RAM but not over 4GB at 1080p (that has settings that run at playable rates), which shows me that currently there is nothing to really put the 290 or 290(x) over the 970. But then I look at the history of the 680 vs the 7970 and I wonder: Will the 290 win out long term? Will the 290x?
I know there are a lot of other things that go into this equation that makes the current battle a little different than the one from yesteryear: Does Gameworks cut into a future AMD edge? Does the fact that the 390 is kinda a rehash almost guarantee future driver optimizations for a 290(x) that a Maxwell GPU won't get in the Pascal era? Do the consoles hold back 1080p gaming to current levels making it a wash? Does better tessellation performance win over asynchronous compute as the thing to have in abundance going forward?
Thank you in advance for any input.