R9 380 or R9 390 - Crossfire or not

[Shigu]

Greetings everyone, trying to upgrade my GPU as I'm sad I have to run Rust Experimental on Simple/Good to avoid lag spikes.

I currently have the below system (will put it right at the end), my question is - do I get a R9 390 or a R9 380 OR Crossfire one with my R9 270. I'm an absolute tech noob so have no clue with which factors to consider. I was initially looking at the 390, but read some bad reviews tonight on Ebuyer so a little unsure now. Would happily take recommendations also, kind of an AMD fan boy though so not sure how comfortable I am with NVIDIA as I've been installing AMD software and drivers for a good couple of years now. Thanks in advance, any help would be great!

Also below are the 2 cards I was specifically looking at:

R9 380 - MSI Radeon R9 380 GAMING 4GB GDDR5 Dual-Link DVI-D HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

R9 390 - MSI Radeon R9 390 Gaming 8GB GDDR5 Dual-Link DVI-D HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

My current system:

MB: MSI 970 Gaming
CPU: AMD FX-8320 8 Core 3.50Ghz
RAM: 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaw(DDR3 1333) + 2x4GB Generic (DDR3 1600)
GPU: MSI R9 270 Gaming 2GB
PSU: 750W Novatech 80Bronze
HD: 1 x 120gb OS SDD + 2TB HDD
OS: Win 8.1 Legit Copy

 

[PP Mguire]

Eh, don't pay attention to reviews on sites like that. It's one thing I mentioned in my article as you'll have more people go online to bitch about their experience than those who are sitting there enjoying their card.

If you're playing at 1080p the 970 is still a faster card than the 390 at the same price, and for your personal assurance the eVGA gets a 10/10 on eBuyer (albeit one reviewer )

EVGA GTX 970 SSC GAMING 4GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 3x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

One thing to note here, is when you start getting into higher end AMD cards they suck a lot of juice. Your Novatech PSU probably won't be up to snuff carrying a 390 and 8320, whereas the 970 sips power and will run a lot cooler than the 390. So the gamble is up to you as both cards will perform rather similar, but if you want the nitty gritty for proof I can definitely show you.

 

[Shigu]

If you're playing at 1080p the 970 is still a faster card than the 390 at the same price, and for your personal assurance the eVGA gets a 10/10 on eBuyer (albeit one reviewer )

Even with double the VRAM it still under performs

One thing to note here, is when you start getting into higher end AMD cards they suck a lot of juice. Your Novatech PSU probably won't be up to snuff carrying a 390 and 8320, whereas the 970 sips power and will run a lot cooler than the 390.

Is there a way to check how much your system is currently using in W without using external tools?

So the gamble is up to you as both cards will perform rather similar, but if you want the nitty gritty for proof I can definitely show you.

What are the nitty gritty proof that you're referring too?

Is Crossfiring a 380 with my 270 a pointless option then?

Thanks

 

[PP Mguire]

Even with double the VRAM it still under performs

At 1080p, yes. A reference 970 is 3% faster than an AIB 390 @ 1080p, and the eVGA will be about 5-7% faster than that.

Even if you went to 1440p later, the gap between 390 and 970 isn't that far, remembering the 970 reference scores. It'll be closer together with the eVGA 970 linked above.

One thing to remember here is the only real advantage the 390 and 390x have over the 970 and 980 is 8GB of VRAM. If you're not pushing a resolution to utilize it then the competition is the same as a 290 and 290x.

Is there a way to check how much your system is currently using in W without using external tools?

It's a simple calculation of combining the CPU load wattage and GPU load wattage.

For example, at load the 390 takes 323W, and the FX8320 is going to take around 180W full load so we just add these two together. That's 503W pulling 3/4 the total power output of the 750W Novatech (which is a Siretc/HiPower brand, as in not that great). Fans and drives don't consume much power so we don't need to add these together as the load will be very minimal compared to the two main power hogs in a gaming rig.

Another thing to consider is the same problem this guy is having, that if you add a hot power hungry card you'll need the case and airflow to back it up. With the 970 that isn't really something you need to worry about.

What are the nitty gritty proof that you're referring too?

Charts, graphs, and numbers I just linked

Is Crossfiring a 380 with my 270 a pointless option then?

Yes. You'd be better off with just a 380 by itself. Mind you the 380x is out now, but you'd still be better off with a 970.

 

[Shigu]

EVGA GTX 970 SSC GAMING 4GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 3x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

Is this card pretty much the same in terms of performance or slightly different? (I know same make/model etc, but my link has 2 DVI unlike the one you linked)
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-2974-KR 4GB SC GAMING w/ACX 2.0, Silent Cooling Graphics Card - Newegg.com

Like £65 cheaper

Are there any drawbacks of converting from AMD to NVIDIA at all? But yeah 970 seems a lot better than 380/390, the whole Vram and higher bus not performing better is well confusing haha.

Thanks

 

[PP Mguire]

Newegg doesn't ship to the UK though, but eBuyer has you covered. The differences are only in the factory overclock.

EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked GAMING ACX 2.0 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

There are no drawbacks, only a process to go through to make sure you get rid of the AMD display drivers properly before moving to Nvidia.

Edit2: Forgot Newegg does ship to the UK. Here do this one instead.
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Pro...E16814487069&cm_re=970-_-14-487-076-_-Product

 

[Shigu]

There are no drawbacks, only a process to go through to make sure you get rid of the AMD display drivers properly before moving to Nvidia.

Edit2: Forgot Newegg does ship to the UK. Here do this one instead.
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-1970-KR 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 G-SYNC Support Video Card - Newegg.com

Ahh okay, I shouldn't have too much trouble clearing the AMD drivers before installing the new ones so if thats the only "bad" thing, thats all good.

Is there a specific reason for that card you linked compared to EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-2974-KR 4GB SC GAMING w/ACX 2.0, Silent Cooling Graphics Card - Newegg.com this one? The latter is £25~ cheaper so just wondering.

Thanks

 

[PP Mguire]

Yes, reference style blower that blows all heat outside of your case rather than dumping the heat in it.

 

[Shigu]

Ahh I see, okay cool. Just double checking before I make a purchase, 750W is fine for 970 and my AMD CPU then yeah?
Thanks alot

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea.