New Build - cant decide on a gpu

[dangerousdan73]

So ive been playing around putting together a new computer to primarily play games (WoW and Skyrim) and get off my laptop.
After a bit of research and comparing prices available here in Australia and advice from my previous post i put together the following list the only thing i'm not sure on atm is the Graphics Card as little further down the track i intend going sli/crossfire with the graphics card hence the larger then required psu.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan
Other: ASUS DRW-24D3ST 24x DVD Writer
Other: Coolermaster 2 x USB 3.0 Front Expansion Bay
Other: BitFenix Spectre Pro 140mm Black Tinted Red LED Fan
Other: Desktop 5.25in Accessories Drawer

[Ecwfrk]

So ive been playing around putting together a new computer to primarily play games (WoW and Skyrim) and get off my laptop.
After a bit of research and comparing prices available here in Australia and advice from my previous post i put together the following list the only thing i'm not sure on atm is the Graphics Card as little further down the track i intend going sli/crossfire with the graphics card hence the larger then required psu.

I always refer people to Tom's bi-monthly "best video card for the money" article (link is to the latest Sept. One).

Simply find your budget bracket, make allowance for a 2nd if you want to go cross fire (not really needed though for WoW or Skyrim unless you start out with a really low end card), check the comments for any massive changes since the article was published and you're good.

Your choice of R9 280x is a great choice, especially if you plan to go Crossfire in the future as the R9 will pair with a 7970 which you should be able to find on the cheap in a year or so.

[yurano]

Multi-GPU favors Nvidia GPUs. Nvidia's SLI technology is still significantly superior to AMD's CF.

Instead of buying a HAF 912 and additional fans, it might be cheaper to buy a higher end case. The CM Storm Enforcer is being discontinued (read: on sale) and comes with 2x200mm + 1x140mm fans, painted interior, and a side window.

Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

PCPartpicker Australia shows the ASUS Z87-Pro to only be $15 more. If you can stomach the gold color scheme, I recommend the Z87-PRO for its 3-pin fan control and Intel NIC. The Z87-PRO also comes with high quality onboard Wifi, but most people don't need it.

[Toffie]

Multi-GPU favors Nvidia GPUs. Nvidia's SLI technology is still significantly superior to AMD's CF.

Other than WoW, the difference is very very slim both in terms of scaling and frame latency.

[yurano]

Other than WoW, the difference is very very slim both in terms of scaling and frame latency.

Catalyst 13.8 only fixed DirectX 11 for single monitor displays, its still missing support for multi-monitor setups, OpenGl, D3D9. Unreal Engine games like Borderlands 2 can't be run in DirectX 11.

Even then within the DX11 single monitor subset, it not as good as Nvidia:

Another interesting phenomenon that is likely a result of the frame pacing algorithm and methodology that AMD has implement shows up in the form of very fixed, stepped graphs with the 13.8 driver.

In the black line, notice how the bottom of the bar seems to take "steps" up and down, rather than smoothly progressing up and down like the blue bar of the GTX 690. The AMD driver is clearly doing a "balancing act" between the frame time of GPU1 and GPU2 and the changes and delays it inserts to "pace" the animation have very specific variances. While I don't think this is adversely affecting your gaming experience exactly, I find it interesting and it might help us in further testing down the road.

Similarly while AMD’s frame pacing has improved to the point where we find it acceptable, 20% deltas are still generally twice that of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 690, never mind the extreme consistency single-GPU setups offer. We never realistically expected AMD to match NVIDIA’s frame interval consistency overnight, but in time it would be nice to see them get close, and for both parties to further improve beyond that.

[Toffie]

This review is before the frame pacing was fixed in 13.8 & 13.11

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...nd-rating.html

It's pretty much the same as the 690 in the majority of the games or a little worse.
I imagine with the frame pacing drivers the difference is just as good as the 690.

Bioshock
"For frame performance both cards do well, remaining under 25ms, at 1920x1080 but 5760x1080 results are all over the place. At 5760x1080 the AMD card remains low in terms of delivering frames but there are some spikes on NVIDIA, a couple up at the 60ms mark."

Battlefield 3
"When looking at frametimes we see some spikes on AMD however none are above 22-23ms so unlikely to cause concern. Overall this good result for AMD continues to be the case at 5760x1080 but NVIDIA show spikes around and above 60ms on multiple occasions."

Far Cry 3
"Frametimes show neither card to be perfect at 5760x1080 but we do note that NVIDIA offer better results at that resolution. At 1920x1080 the overall performance is good however there are a couple of spikes on the 7990."

Tomb Raider
"For frametimes we see that 1920x1080 performs fine, there is a single spike on NVIDIA however not to a level which would be a concern. 5760x1080 is a little rougher on both cards, bordering on the level which would give concern in frame delivery."

F1
"Starting with the 1920x1080 results we see that the two cards offer near identical performance in this game with frame time performance also very impressive. As we move to 5760x1080 the 7990 really begins to pull ahead though, offering significantly higher performance and lower frame latency."

Borderlands
"At 5760x1080 we see a single spike on NVIDIA and interestingly no issues on AMD."

I gotta say, I hated crossfire before but they seem to have gotten their act together.
Still needs some work in AC3 though.

[dangerousdan73]

Ecwfrkthanks for the link very informative have it bookmarked now.
The two cards i was tossing up between were the 770 and 7970 with a lean to nvidia mainly because ive never used a amd card before and was more familiar with nvidia and as mentioned i hadnt read many good reports about xfire technology, however the general consensus around the web is to wait till the R9's come out and see how they review as intial reports have been pretty favourable. So im really waiting to see what the initial reviews say and how the pricing works its self out

I looked at the Z87-Pro but went with the MSI board for a few reasons mainly the lagkiller software for games (handy when your playing from down under every little bit helps) and their command center software.

[Toffie]

Lowest R9-290 card is gonna be about 500 $, so depends on your budget if you should wait or not.