Upgrade 290 to Fury or 980ti?

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gdourado

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Hello,
how are you doing?

I need some advice on this matter.
what is the better upgrade from a 290 VaporX?
Is it a Sapphire Fury Nitro or a Gigabyte 980TI G1?
Price is not an issue as they both cost the same.
From looking ate reviews when the 980TI launched, it was almost twice as fast as a 290 at 1080p.
Is this still the case?
I read that AMD played some catch up with drivers.
Also, some say the Fury is better for the future because it has better performance in new APIs like DX12 and vulkan.
Is this the case and will it show this year and early 2018?
I am looking at one of these cards and not the 1070 or wait for veja because I'll sell the 290 now while it still worth something.
Selling the 290 and getting either the Ti or Fury translates in 80 euros out of my pocket.
To get a 1070 it is at least 180 euros out of my pocket.
If I wait for vega, the 290 will go down in value and the Vega cards will be twice as much as the fury or 980ti, so I think one of these two cards now is a good option.
The only question is which one?
Thanks.
Cheers!
 
I'd probably look at the 980Ti in part just because of VRAM. We have already started to see games that can eat more than 4GB of VRAM out there. While they aren't super common at this point, I doubt we'll see less in the future. The extra 2GB could help the Ti last a bit longer for you.
 
I went from dual 290x's in crossfire to a 980ti, but the main reason for me was noise and heat. I will say where crossfire broke down the 980ti was a great bump in performance. Also, the card is light years better in regards to heat and noise production. With that being said I think performance wise between the furry and the 980ti they are pretty close nowadays. Maybe something to consider as a plus for the 980ti is HDMI 2.0, so 4k60 output without a DisplayPort adapter. For the Furry, the HBM memory does apparently keep pace with higher counts of gddr5.

Not sure if you are strapped by your card in particular games, but the 1060 / rx 480 should still be a bump and also drop your power usage a ton as they are in the new 16nm process, but these are more of a side-grade / minimal bump.
 
Might want to consider a 1070 as well. While a highly OCed 980 Ti can beat it some, it's newer and way more power efficient.
Goes double if you can get it used for a good price (eg. I picked up a pair of eVGA 1070 SCs locally for $500)
 
180 euros / $200 USD is not worth saving 80w vs a 980ti in my opinion... kind of crazy prices of there though as they are about the same $ here :) I mean you can get a used 980ti on the forums for about 275-290 vs a new Zotac 1070 at MC for $290 with tax not just a week ago.
 
If you can find a good price on a 1070 (on the forums, or for example from EVGA from their trade-ins (B-Stock)) that would be my recommendation.
 
New Fury's are really inexpensive on Newegg. I am running two of them and am thrilled with them. Given the amazing prices I would hop on board.
 
I upgraded to a fury when they were around $250 a piece. I think they're still at that price on Amazon or Newegg. First off, I don't regret it at all. The fury was about $100(+) cheaper than a 1070 or 980ti that I could find. It handles games just wonderfully. Some people say it runs pretty hot, but that doesn't seem to be case with the Nitro cooler. However, if I were given a choice between a Fury and a 980ti for the same price, then I would go with the 980ti simply for the fact that it's 10% faster at 1080p.
 
Vader1975 said:
New Fury's are really inexpensive on Newegg. I am running two of them and am thrilled with them. Given the amazing prices I would hop on board.
Click to expand...

Confirmation bias fishing detected.

There's a reason they're bargain bin priced. Now in 2017 with 1060's and 1070's to be had for $175-300 respectively, there's zero reason to waste money on a Fury unless all you'll be playing is cartoon games.
 
Do you need the Ramdac on the 980ti? I did so I picked one up 6 months ago for a good price and couldn't be happier with it. If I did not need that I would have waited for the price drop on the 1070s and went that route. Now if you were planning on a FreeSync monitor then go with the fury.
 
The Gigabyte 980 Ti G1 is pretty damn loud. I originally bought one because I was very happy with a 2x Gigabyte 970 setup but the 980 Ti was so loud I sent it back and bought a MSI 980 Ti instead. I don't know if they have since made any BIOS patches that make the fans more reasonable as it ran pretty cool overall. So definitely look into that.

When it comes to performance the 980 Ti is still really good at anything below 4K. Even 4K runs acceptably and I'm on the fence on upgrading to 1080 Ti or waiting for Vega at this point as I still feel no real need to upgrade considering I mostly play 1440p.
 
If you can get a 980ti for < $250 US, go for it. If you can get a Fury X for the same amount and have space for the radiator, that works well, too. Otherwise, you should be looking at 480s or 1060s.
 
jbc029 said:
If you can get a 980ti for < $250 US, go for it. If you can get a Fury X for the same amount and have space for the radiator, that works well, too. Otherwise, you should be looking at 480s or 1060s.
Click to expand...

A 480 will really not be faster than a 290. Yes, lower power, but its not an upgrade.
 
jbc029 said:
If you can get a 980ti for < $250 US, go for it. If you can get a Fury X for the same amount and have space for the radiator, that works well, too. Otherwise, you should be looking at 480s or 1060s.
Click to expand...
480 would be a sidegrade from a 290/390.
 
I love my pair of Fury X in crossfire, and have had no problems with them in six months. Freesync is a really nice feature --- and allows for cheaper matching monitors too. It makes varied frame rate still feel really smooth - just like Gsync. Both very strong techs.

I run 7680x1440 on three HP Omen 32 (when Eyefinity is supported well) and everything I've tried has been in the freesync range of my monitors and so still feels buttery smooth. Sometimes I drop AA, or drop a setting or two from Ultra to High to keep the FPS in FreeSync Range.

In the states you can get a Fury from Newegg for like $230 - not sure if those types of deals are available for you - but at those prices it's hard to argue against the Fury. Cause a 980TI might cost you $300 or more.

Between the 980TI and The Fury - I'd probably go with the option that matches your monitor tech (freesync or gsysnc). Both are good cards, with mature drivers at this point. It is possible due to the CGN architecture of the Fury that it will receive more driver advancement in the future than the 980TI which may slowly stop receiving future optimizations and Nvidia moves onto their new architectures. But I have no problem with a 980TI --- we use one at work for Cuda purposes on a password cracking box. It's a very nice card, that runs cool and quiet under load for days without compliant.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
480 would be a sidegrade from a 290/390.
Click to expand...

Simply outlining the only candidates that should be considered for purchase when a 1070 represents "out of my reach". Starting from a 290, yeah, most 480's today will slightly outperform it. Last June, they were about even, today there's a bit of a gap but not much. In the same way that I wouldn't recommend a Fury non-X to a 290 owner, I also wouldn't recommend a 480, simply because the gain is too small for a $250 outlay. Fury X is the barest minimum a 290 owner should consider.
 
980ti, no question.
I just sold mine to a friend who had my old 290x.
He is on 1440p and 4K and loves the upgrade.
He is also glad to no longer suffer AMD drivers.

I used the 980ti at 1080p, it was fantastic for holding 60fps constant with max quality on nearly everything, very close to max quality on the few games that push the boundaries.
 
htphm42 said:
I upgraded to a fury when they were around $250 a piece. I think they're still at that price on Amazon or Newegg. First off, I don't regret it at all. The fury was about $100(+) cheaper than a 1070 or 980ti that I could find. It handles games just wonderfully. Some people say it runs pretty hot, but that doesn't seem to be case with the Nitro cooler. However, if I were given a choice between a Fury and a 980ti for the same price, then I would go with the 980ti simply for the fact that it's 10% faster at 1080p.
Click to expand...

I got one too for $239. I sold it later for $259 on ebay. I was quite happy with it, but its too power hungry for mining and i didnt want to buy 3 more of them to fill out a rig. If vega wasnt around the corner i probably would of kept it -- but i have deep concerns about the future of gaming and 4gb of memory.

Another thing i found really odd, in overwatch on epic settings my Fury would use 1800mb. My RX480 with same settings is using 1200mb.
 
buttons said:
Another thing i found really odd, in overwatch on epic settings my Fury would use 1800mb. My RX480 with same settings is using 1200mb.
Click to expand...

That's probably the better texture compression kicking in with the RX 480...
 
buttons said:
I got one too for $239. I sold it later for $259 on ebay. I was quite happy with it, but its too power hungry for mining and i didnt want to buy 3 more of them to fill out a rig. If vega wasnt around the corner i probably would of kept it -- but i have deep concerns about the future of gaming and 4gb of memory.

Another thing i found really odd, in overwatch on epic settings my Fury would use 1800mb. My RX480 with same settings is using 1200mb.
Click to expand...
No offense meant here, but it's possible you might have been worried about the wrong thing (memory usage - (which really doesn't affect any title at 1080p or 1440p in any major way)) vs. real world performance and minimum framerates -- which do.

Though, if heat and power draw was the major concern --- you did probably about cut the use in half with the RX480 over the Fury. As far as mining performance - I have no knowledge.

http://www.pcgamer.com/radeon-rx-480-review/

K7dStKj69am7zs63jC8V4g-650-80.png
 
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I went from the 290 to the 980TI and I can safely say it kicks the crap out of it.

Mind you I play at 2560x1440 so take that into consideration.
 
Archaea said:
No offense meant here, but it's possible you might have been worried about the wrong thing (memory usage - (which really doesn't affect any title at 1080p or 1440p in any major way)) vs. real world performance and minimum framerates -- which do.

Though, if heat and power draw was the major concern --- you did probably about cut the use in half with the RX480 over the Fury. As far as mining performance - I have no knowledge.
Click to expand...

I have seen that graph, while i completely agree the fury is a lot faster then a rx480 I didnt see any benefit at 1080p over the RX480 and in VR, i still gave a bad experience in project cars. Being that it used two 8 pin power connectors and my last electric bill was around $400 I decided to part ways with it before vega arrives.

I didnt have optimal drivers for the fury mining, but i think it was pulling in 360mh/sec where as my 480 4gb are doing 290mh/sec The 480s i can run 6 of them off a single power supply, with the fury that would be impossible. If you can get them for $239 Its still the best thing at that price point. Also very impressed with my rx480s for $149AR that come with a free game...
 
980ti is about as powerful as 2 290in crossfire. I
buttons said:
I have seen that graph, while i completely agree the fury is a lot faster then a rx480 I didnt see any benefit at 1080p over the RX480 and in VR, i still gave a bad experience in project cars. Being that it used two 8 pin power connectors and my last electric bill was around $400 I decided to part ways with it before vega arrives.

I didnt have optimal drivers for the fury mining, but i think it was pulling in 360mh/sec where as my 480 4gb are doing 290mh/sec The 480s i can run 6 of them off a single power supply, with the fury that would be impossible. If you can get them for $239 Its still the best thing at that price point. Also very impressed with my rx480s for $149AR that come with a free game...
Click to expand...

You shouldn't base your opinion on any AMD card on how it performs in project cars
 
I would try to get the 1070, only because the 980Ti loves drawing power :(

980Ti over Fury though IMO.
 
DPI said:
Confirmation bias fishing detected.

There's a reason they're bargain bin priced. Now in 2017 with 1060's and 1070's to be had for $175-300 respectively, there's zero reason to waste money on a Fury unless all you'll be playing is cartoon games.
Click to expand...

Yes I did detect your Bias.

GTX 1060 performance - 3855 GFLOPS, 120 GTx/s, 72 GPx/s, memory bandwidth 192 GB/s, power draw ~ 120 W. Has 3 GB VRAM at your bargin price.

R9 Fury Nitro performance - 7526 GFLOPS, 235 GTx/s, 67 GPx/s, memory bandwidth 512 GB/s, power draw ~ 300 W. Has 4 GB VRAM

Now my fury will have some power draw but vs your 1060 for the money? My Fury thanks.
 
I do think that 4gb of ram on the Furry is not a big problem. I'm not sure if its due to the HBM, or what, but I over went that 4gb on GTA 5 and saw no performance drop. Also, if you look at the graph, the Furry (with a bit of overclocking) actually ties with the 980ti at 4K, which is saying something. That being said, I still think the 980ti will give you a better deal if you can get it for the same price.




Archaea said:
No offense meant here, but it's possible you might have been worried about the wrong thing (memory usage - (which really doesn't affect any title at 1080p or 1440p in any major way)) vs. real world performance and minimum framerates -- which do.

Though, if heat and power draw was the major concern --- you did probably about cut the use in half with the RX480 over the Fury. As far as mining performance - I have no knowledge.

http://www.pcgamer.com/radeon-rx-480-review/

K7dStKj69am7zs63jC8V4g-650-80.png
Click to expand...
 
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