I've bounced ideas around here plenty of times, helping to improve my knowledge in order to make a good, proper build for my next computer (That I will eventually put together). However, I have been finding that with the falling prices of the Canadian dollar, a whole new build might be problematic. So, I have decided to bring it down to upgrading my GPU for now. This is where things get tricky...
I run a 3 monitor setup on a GTX 760. 2 monitors at 1080 60hz, and one at a much lower resolution (Not even 720p) as a screen to put my iTunes, Skype, and Steam chats in. It's not often I run super graphics intensive games, but I have started to dabble in recording videos with Shadowplay, and recording audio along with it. Even without recording it's hard to keep the frame rates perfectly stable at max settings for a number of games, most likely due to the high amount of monitors on a low VRAM GPU. So, I'm thinking of upgrading within the year.
I've heard of the 3.5GB issues on the 970, some issues with the R9 series and their drivers, and all sorts of mess. So, I've come here yet again for your assistance in getting a more clear idea of where I should go with a potential upgrade. I won't be buying anything until the dollar rises and the prices drop back down again, so sub $400-500 is ideal if I can get it.
My specs are:
CPU: AMD 8350 4.0 ghz
MOBO: Asus m5a99fx pro r2.0
RAM: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaw
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2.0GB VRAM
PSU: Antec 750W Gold
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: The prices of stuff like GPUs won't be dropping here very soon, so I won't be buying anything before Polaris and Pascal drop
Right now I'm in the process of upgrading my setup to 3 1080p monitors with my 970. I've run into a problem with the outputs on the 970. The HDMI out doesn't like to run when the DVI ports are occupied, which has resulted in me changing my plan of attack a little bit. I would recommend getting an HDMI to display port adapter. It has to be an active one. Apparently passive adapters actually sell and don't work for this type of issue.
EDIT: I've tested a lot of the games I want to run with 3 screens in 4k and it works well enough. I'm looking to play Dirt 3 and various older racing games.
Well with pascal and polaris launch right arround the corner,
it might make sense to wait and see what the new amd and nvidia cards are up to.
If you cant wait, then a R9-390 would be a good choice.
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Pascal and Polaris will be here before you know it so I'd personally wait. But if you need a card last week the 970 is not a great option when you can get a 390 at effectively the same price which gives you better raw performance and more memory. Also, from what I've seen so far the amd cards perform better than nvidia with dx12 and vulkan.
I've heard all sorts of mess with the drivers though for AMD products. I'm sure people will give varying degrees of "They're fine" and "They're awful." I just need to get a grasp on how good or bad they are in general
i personaly never had any issues with AMD drivers.
But i do have to say that i´m currently not rocking the lastest Crimson drivers.
I haven't had any problems so far (its been over a year). But there are a plethora of ppl who have had driver problems recently with either team.
Yeah i usually wait for the bugs to get ironed out before updating the drivers
I haven't updated my drivers since I heard of the mishap that was Nvidia's latest release. Oh dear
As someone who always updates to the absolutely bleeding edge drivers I can tell you the drivers are fine. Sure my Fury X is held back a bit in terms of performance but in terms of stability the drivers are quite good. Other than that it's probably worth it to get some of the new polaris stuff or just get a 390