PC build thread

[Cronozilla]

This right here: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-290-v ... ce-GTX-970 is exactly what I was talking about earlier.

On paper the AMD cards are monsters and should be chewing up the competition. Higher everything across the board.

Does it perform better? No. Not even close. It actually performs significantly worse.

Why? It's got to be an architectural thing. There's got to be a corner cut somewhere in that design or some efficiency overlooked.

It's also possible that AMD is focused on making cards that could be used for anything, and not just gaming. In which case the gaming performance would suffer. Though, I don't know much about AMD graphics cards in Workstation environments.

Maybe it's because they got to market a year earlier? Maybe it's because Nvidia has a stranglehold on gaming?

[flex wood]

Aren't those synthetic scores always showing that nvidia has an advantage? I've seen a couple that say the 770 is more powerful than the a 290x which just isn't true no matter how you look at it. I know when the 290 x and non x cards came out they were blowing nvidia cards away at higher resolutions maybe there's a difference there? I don't know, not trying to fanboy anything here, I just don't like the way that site has some things set up. Like seriously there is no way the gap between temps and power should be that narrow. The 290's use 100w more than the 9 series cards and the reference models, which is what I assume they are using based on the posted clock speeds, have about a 10 to 20c difference between the two series.

I usually go by fps benchmarks, at the resolution I'll be playing. Guru3d is usually my trusted place for that stuff. I had gone to Tom's for awhile but after looking at an article for five minutes I looked up and saw that my ad blocker had blocked over 300some ads on the page.

[Cronozilla]

It was just an example. All benchmarks I've seen from actual tests show the GTX 970 outperforming the R9 290 also.

It's just not simple for me to pull it up for a conversation.

[noiseredux]

yeah pretty much every review of the GTX 970 I've read says that the R9 290X is actually a better piece of gear in numbers, but that the performance of the 970 in-game is actually better (and that it pulls far less power to do so).

[noiseredux]

so to continue down this route, I'm looking for some opinions. I've decided firmly that my next GPU will either be a GTX 770 or 970. Both will be a huge improvement over my current card (HIS Radeon HD 6950 2GB) but I'm curious if the jump from a 4GB 770 to a 970 would be that huge?

On the one hand, the idea of getting the new hotness (970) is appealing in the tech-lust way. On the other, for the same price range I can get a 770 w/ a $30 rebate and a free copy of Borderlands Prequel (a game I was planning to buy in the next few months anyway). So there's that incentive.

So I guess my question is will I be "settling" on the lesser model w/ the 770? What would y'all do?

Here's the specific 770 I was looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

[Ghudda]

All this steamy GPU talk is making me want to give my tower some love by replacing my 6970. Those 970's look amazing.

Noise, from what i've read, you see about a 5-10% performance step with the 970, on top of the supposedly better energy efficiency and temps. If it were me, i'd totally pay the extra $50 or so odd dollars and leap for the 970. Though, I havn't REALLY done my research.

[noiseredux]

yeah the power consumption thing is huge. I checked my build in a wattage calculator, and it's crazy but putting a 770 in would keep it about the same, and putting a 970 in would drop it!

There's also the fact that Crono said he'd be jealous if I got a 970 haha.

I think the tough thing for me is just that for about the same price I'd get a 770 AND Borderlands Prequel, so it feels really cost-effective.

#PCMasterClassProblems

[fastbilly1]

770 with funny money and Borderlands is an easy choice

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I'd go for the 970 personally. Never settle when it comes to computer parts.

[ZenErik]

I think I may have some keyboards for sale soon. If anyone out there likes Tenkeyless (no number pad).

I really like my Filco, but I find myself wishing I still had a backlight sometimes. So I ordered a few Tenkeyless Ducky keyboards. One with red switches and one with black. -__- must stop experimenting.