GPU Upgrade

[Fluffygong]

You guys have put me on the fence again! I was pretty much decided! Gah! :P

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Ok I ordered one, the MSI cards for both had about a £40 difference and seems as from what I understand, performance wise at 1440p they are basically the same with the 390 a tiny bit ahead and both being about even with DX12. I just went for the cheaper MSI card. Thanks for the help!

[Zephyr Storm]

I would personally go for the 390 at 1440p.

As for the whole DX 12. If I remember correctly the 970 doesn't support 11_2, whereas the 390 doesn't support 12_1. These numbers indicate feature levels of DX12.

Neither card fully support DX12, and both have something what the other doesn't have. I also have no idea how that will pan out when DX 12 is here, I think no one does. As performance is still all speculation.

If I recall correctly, I believe the maxwell cards will support everything up to DX12.2 but maybe I'm just thinking of my own card, the GTX 980ti.

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You guys have put me on the fence again! I was pretty much decided! Gah! :P

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Ok I ordered one, the MSI cards for both had about a £40 difference and seems as from what I understand, performance wise at 1440p they are basically the same with the 390 a tiny bit ahead and both being about even with DX12. I just went for the cheaper MSI card. Thanks for the help!

A 970 that you could then OC would have served you better but eh. Would have been more efficient on top of more games being optimized for Nvidia cards.

Hope you enjoy your new card regardless :P.

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EVGA video cards aren't known for their quality and coolers but for their customer support.

970 and R9 290/390 support different feature sets on the hardware level. Some things don't work on the 970 while some on the 390, it's a gigantic cluster of stuff that DX12 introduced. Ones that aren't supported on the hardware level gets emulated on the software level. Will take the next generation probably to comply to all the DX12 stuff.

Speak for yourself. All of my EVGA cards have been amazing and worked flawlessly. And cooling has never been an issue, even when OCing.

[Deleted]

If I recall correctly, I believe the maxwell cards will support everything up to DX12.2 but maybe I'm just thinking of my own card, the GTX 980ti.

Nope.

DX12 consists out of 5 feature levels: 11_0, 11_1, 11_2, 12_0, 12_1. Maxwell v2 (basicly the 9xx serie) supports everything except 11_2. While GCN 1.1 and 1.2 do not support 12_1.

DX12.2 does not exist (yet), or feature level 12_2 (yet).

[Lathais]

Speak for yourself. All of my EVGA cards have been amazing and worked flawlessly. And cooling has never been an issue, even when OCing.

I don't think she was saying they are bad, just that is not what they are known for. They are very well known for their excellent customer service though. They are decent quality cards, but so is just about everything else out there. They have just marketed themselves well and have great customer service. I really wouldn't know about and GPU Mfgs Customer Service though as I have never once had to deal with them. Been very lucky with my cards throughout the years.

[Gaidax]

Nope.

DX12 consists out of 5 feature levels: 11_0, 11_1, 11_2, 12_0, 12_1. Maxwell v2 (basicly the 9xx serie) supports everything except 11_2. While GCN 1.1 and 1.2 do not support 12_1.

DX12.2 does not exist (yet), or feature level 12_2 (yet).

Yup, there is no card that fully supports everything DX12 has yet, but it does not matter much because all recent cards will support the main functionality, not supported stuff is just some minor fluff here and there.

Nvidia has a slightly better support, because 12_1 is arguably usable in some very limited cases, while 11_2 is almost useless for gaming.

[WskyDK]

The ASUS Strix is what I wish I had gotten. Good passive cooling system, fans stay off until load temps are hit. They are pretty quiet too.

I googled this up as well:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1516121/g...vs-gigabyte-g1

Gotta be careful, some of the Strix cards (Mine included) have some pretty irritating coil whine under load

[Remilia]

Gotta be careful, some of the Strix cards (Mine included) have some pretty irritating coil whine under load

Think that was something that a lot of people had with the 970 but at the same time that's an issue with every single electrical noise. It's very very situation dependent. It could depend on load, power supply, fans, etc could cause the whine. It's very much a luck of the draw that you either don't get one with your hardware configuration or not.
For example the K70 I had, when I turned on the LED it would cause a really annoying electrical whine, since they're technically not coils. Issue was that the LEDs had very high frequency PWM to increase light output, and due that it caused noise.

I don't think she was saying they are bad, just that is not what they are known for. They are very well known for their excellent customer service though. They are decent quality cards, but so is just about everything else out there. They have just marketed themselves well and have great customer service. I really wouldn't know about and GPU Mfgs Customer Service though as I have never once had to deal with them. Been very lucky with my cards throughout the years.

Pretty much. Can't really say there's any card manufacturers that are 'shit' and doesn't work. It's just there are better coolers like the Gigabyte ones that I'd go for.

[Pterodactylus]

The ASUS Strix is what I wish I had gotten. Good passive cooling system, fans stay off until load temps are hit. They are pretty quiet too.

I googled this up as well:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1516121/g...vs-gigabyte-g1

This is the card I have, and I love it. I was MSI fanboy for a long time - then with my 470 - fans died after 1 year, still had warranty - figured it was a fluke - RMAd it, 3 months in Fans died. RMAd again, then sent me a 560 ti claiming they no longer had 470s, and after a year - a fan died. They said I could not RMA it again. My buddy got a 970 from MSI - the fans died on him. IF you read a lot of the reviews many people complain about the cheap fans. So, i gave the ASUS Strix a try, being so damn impressed with their MoBos over the years, and so far it has been a wonderful decision.

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Gotta be careful, some of the Strix cards (Mine included) have some pretty irritating coil whine under load

I've not had any coil whine with mine. Can you RMA yours wskydk?