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Graphics Best sub £300 card deal. 7970? For BF4 usage

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by FIBRE+, 17 Sep 2013.

  1. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    Lots of Intel fanboy nonsense coming up, as usual. Crysis 3 is a next gen engine, as is BF4. This is why you see benchmarks like this:

    [​IMG]

    There's a big difference between i5s and i7, and older Intel CPUs and the latest. Similarly, Piledriver AMD processors do very well when the software is optimised for them, which we know *for a fact* BF4 is.
     
  2. AlienwareAndy

    AlienwareAndy What's a Dremel?

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    But dude.. What about the smoothness and better overall Windows experience?

    DOESN'T THAT COUNT FOR ANYTHING?!?!?!

    Sarcasm aside I think any one with some brain matter can work it out. Gaming is about the GPU. Yes, you need a capable CPU that will allow it to do its thing but the GPU is far more important.
     
  3. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    The GPU's most important, yes, but with games moving to using over 4 threads, the minimum CPU requirement is shifting too - to a decent quad core Intel processor or a FX-6300 or above. BF4 multiplayer will be CPU intensive, that is clear, and it will use 8 threads.

    There's a common misunderstanding between hardware and software. Since most games are written with 2-4 core Intel CPUs in mind, that's what they perform best on. That doesn't make the CPU more powerful. Software designed to run on 8 core CPUs can have the 8350 ahead of all Intel CPUs except their 6 core enthusiast ones.
     
  4. AlienwareAndy

    AlienwareAndy What's a Dremel?

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    Yup. Just checked the latest Passmark and -

    http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8320+Eight-Core

    And oddly enough the 8320 is still the best value CPU on the market right now and by a bloody long way.
     
  5. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    This wasn't even about AMD vs Intel, rather that BF4, being a next gen game, is going to perform best on modern i7 and 8xxx CPUs. BF3 will struggle even on a 2500K in large multiplayer maps, and BF4 is only going to be worse.
     
  6. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    em your wrong. I play bf 3 online extensively on 32 / 64 player maps using 680 slis and ive never seen below 60fps at ultra 4xFXAA settings. on my prehistoric i7 950 cpu running at a 3.2ghz clock speed. Id not accept less than 60fps due to the very nature of the game.

    Played that game for over 400hrs now with the settings at what they are. BF3 is really not that cpu intensive. My gpus cap at 99% each, My cpu is 100% thread 1 and 10-15% threads 2-8.

    As ive said in other topics theres no douting AMD are making decent CPUs for gaming and if the product supports more than 4 cores other software. What they are not doing is creating chips that high end users will pick over the intel cpu. They have said so themselves AMD that they are not competing for that market segment and will continue to not do so.
     
  7. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    Sod it, ordered the 7970 but delayed the delivery date to October 4th to hopefully see the new cards before the order is posted :naughty:

    Let's wait and see how different processors will fair in BF4, the discussion seems to be getting a bit too heated :confused:
     
  8. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    There are plenty of benchmarks that show BF3 multiplayer not coping well at all times on a 3570K, it may be that even older i7s do better there. In modern multithreaded games, the older i7s suffer, and BF4 is far more taxing than BF3.

    It's not very long before it's out anyway, so we'll all see sooner or later. The fact they're looking at an i5 or a 6300 as the minimum recommended spec should give some idea, benchmarks put the i5 2500K and 6300 equal in games like these.
     
  9. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    I'll see how it goes, if it's still not running smoth enough due to CPU i'll push forward upgrading, I was probably going to do it some time next year otherwise. I could afford to do it now but I already feel guilty spending £440 on a graphics card and SSD this week. I found guilt to be a great way of saving money though :hehe:
     
  10. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    There's no reason to upgrade the CPU before the game comes out for sure. We know the game will suit AMD hardware, and the 7970 is a brilliant card, so it's an easy choice at these silly prices.
     
  11. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    Just testing the new card on BF4 beta, for anyone else looking at the same upgrade...

    FPS is mostly 50-60 with everything on max, 30 - 120 is the extreme low and high.
    Old card was getting 25-30 with med\high dropping to 18 at the lowest.

    Went with this one in the end: www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-293-AS

    Happy so far :D
     
  12. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    Great choice on graphics card, I'd love one of those. Be sure to OC it, these can often get over 1300MHz.
     
  13. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    I've been gradually upping the clock. Gpu: 1200 \ Mem: 1700

    Res is 1080p and old card is a 5850.
     
  14. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    You'll get it higher than 1200MHz if you up the voltage. But 1200MHz is already brilliant. Different world to a 5850! I hope you've got some free games to try out.
     
  15. Xaine

    Xaine Death... destroyer of brain cells

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    Now that the cards have been shown and the prices of the 280x will be similar to that of the matrix platinum, is it worth waiting for the 280x or will it not be better as its a sort of rehash of the GE which isnt as good as the matrix platinum?

    Apologese if it seem iffy posting this here, not meaning to steal the thread just seemed the most appropriate place to post a single question.
     
  16. xaser04

    xaser04 Ba Ba Ba BANANA!

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    Rumours suggest the 280x will be a rebrand of the HD7970 GE with assumed identical clocks (1050/6000. The Matrix Platinum comes out of the box at 1100/6600.

    Assuming the 280x slots in around the same price as the MP currently, you would be better off getting the MP.

    I recently picked up a MP as a stop gap until the 290x arrives and so far I am quite impressed. Mildly clocked (1200/7000) it pretty much matches a "stock" GTX780* and probably has some further headroom for core clocks.

    *This ties in with my GTX780 Surround testing where my old clocked VTX7970 lined up pretty nicely with a stock GTX780 performance wise.

    I got my MP from Ebuyer and received the Gold voucher, Never settle reloaded voucher and a seperate Bioshock Infinite voucher. Makes the card about £240 after I sell the vouchers I don't need/want.
     
  17. Xaine

    Xaine Death... destroyer of brain cells

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    hmmm, while thats very tempting, I'm rather intrigued by this new audio software, gonna have to think about this a bit. thx for the opinion bud :)
     
  18. Xaine

    Xaine Death... destroyer of brain cells

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  19. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Man everyone is complaining that top of the line GPUs are released at £500+ - but this just goes to show you can get absolutely MASSIVE performance at around the £250 mark.
     
  20. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    Best sub £300 card deal. 7970? For BF4 usage

    +1 to that, I run BF3 on a rig with a similarly ancient 980x and dual 295's in tri-SLI (fourth GPU running third monitor) and it runs BF3 just fine on massive 64 player maps with medium settings. I had a 780 in it last week and cranked BF3 up to full settings, and it still gave me a frame rate of 60+ in intense firefights. I don't know where you're getting the idea that BF3 is CPU intensive from. I'm playing it on a chip that's almost 4 years old and it runs absolutely fine.

    Anyway, have some of us at least agreed that the 7970 is the best value for money for BF4? The only problem with it is that I'll lose my triple screen setup until I buy a new SLI setup :rolleyes: With that in mind, what's the best sub £300 card from team green at the moment which I could add a second one to at a later stage to get my triple setup working again?
     
    Last edited: 29 Oct 2013

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