Building a gaming PC

[web-head91]

Looks like AMD is preparing for 14nm GPU: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9886/amd-reveals-polaris-gpu-architecture which promises a major power efficiency improvement.

Together with promised open Vulkan driver and them pushing open source tools (GPUOpen), my next video card might end up being from AMD.

yeah i heard about that. pretty impressive and their new CPUs look interresting as well. heck ! i might even consider making an AMD based build, both GPU and CPU.

 

[M4xw0lf]

2016 could be a better year for AMD, for once.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Just keep in mind, that while they plan something for 2016, they depend on the semiconductor foundry (unlike Intel they don't own any). And last time they were set back by TSMC. May be they switched now.

---------- Updated at 01:37 PM ----------

According to this they'll be using GlobalFoundries: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-polaris-14nm-finfet,30823.html

 

[M4xw0lf]

It seems they will work with both TSMC and GloFo/Samsung for their 14/16nm generation products. Today they showed their first low-end Polaris-GPU, which was reportedly manufactured by Globalforundries. Could be they give the low-power/low-end stuff to GloFo, while the high-end GPUs will be made at TSMC.

 

[eskiMoe]

Looks like AMD is preparing for 14nm GPU: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9886/amd-reveals-polaris-gpu-architecture which promises a major power efficiency improvement.

Together with promised open Vulkan driver and them pushing open source tools (GPUOpen), my next video card might end up being from AMD.

Nice.

Really hoping this will be a great year for AMD. Would be nice to see some proper competition between them and Nvidia again. The green team has been too dominating in the last few years.

 

[nukeheal]

Was it said how much PASCAL GPU's will cost? I am without PC atm, wanted to build one considering waiting unless the price will be in range of 1000$.

 

[M4xw0lf]

Was it said how much PASCAL GPU's will cost? I am without PC atm, wanted to build one considering waiting unless the price will be in range of 1000$.

There'll be offerings for every price tier, as always.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Another update on upcoming AMD Polaris GPUs: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/amd-confirms-high-end-polaris-gpu-in-development-for-2016/

High end version is confirmed for 2016. It's going to be an interesting year, with Vulkan coming out and all.

 

[M4xw0lf]

Nvidia is losing it.

The 970 is now the most popular graphics card according to steam, which prompted NV to the following message:

'Who'd have thought, you do like the 970 after all. 3.5 + 0.5 = :heart:'

Who'd have thought what the comments to this look like. People do not like being conned AND THEN ridiculed on top. This company...

View attachment 29362

 

[web-head91]

Nvidia is losing it.

The 970 is now the most popular graphics card according to steam, which prompted NV to the following message:

'Who'd have thought, you do like the 970 after all. 3.5 + 0.5 = :heart:'

Who'd have thought what the comments to this look like. People do not like being conned AND THEN ridiculed on top. This company...

wow talk about a d*** move XD
one day, all their anti-consumer practices will be their undoing, and i look foward to see what happens next with their consumer-base.

 

[M4xw0lf]

It's disappeared from facebook in the mean time. Probably NV Headquarters took offense in the admission of "3.5 + 0.5 GB" right next to an advertisment touting 4 GB ;D

 

[arkhenon]

Wow, that is ridiculous... Even as an owner of a 970, it is embarrassing to see something like that -__-

 

[Mohasz]

Hi all!

So I'm finally about to buy a new PC. I can't afford to spend too much on it, but I'd like to be able to run TW3 on Ultra with ~45 fps, and it would be nice if future games ran decently on it for the next 3-4 years.

I've come to the conclusion that the i5-4690 CPU is a safe bet, and now I'm hesitating between the R390 and the GTX970 cards. On one hand, TW3 seems to run on the 970 slightly better, on the other, almost everyone suggests that the R390 is the better deal. I've always been an Nvidia card owner, but seeing all these praises about the R390, I'm kinda leaning towards that one instead of the 970. I'm sure it's been discussed to death, but it'd be great to hear some input from you, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Senteria]

I'm also on the fence on what kind of pc to build. I got the budget, just questions, questions and more questions

 

[M4xw0lf]

Hi all!

So I'm finally about to buy a new PC. I can't afford to spend too much on it, but I'd like to be able to run TW3 on Ultra with ~45 fps, and it would be nice if future games ran decently on it for the next 3-4 years.

I've come to the conclusion that the i5-4690 CPU is a safe bet, and now I'm hesitating between the R390 and the GTX970 cards. On one hand, TW3 seems to run on the 970 slightly better, on the other, almost everyone suggests that the R390 is the better deal. I've always been an Nvidia card owner, but seeing all these praises about the R390, I'm kinda leaning towards that one instead of the 970. I'm sure it's been discussed to death, but it'd be great to hear some input from you, I'd really appreciate it.

The decision about the graphics card is very much down to personal preferences and habits. If you plan to keep the same card for a long time, say 2-3 years or longer, then the 8GB VRAM of the 390 wouldn't hurt. If you get a new card every year, you can simply upgrade once the 3,5 GB of the 970 begin to fall short in your games.
If you like Nvidia's proprietary features, then that also goes in favor of the 970. Then again with the 390 you have the option to go for a FreeSync monitor (those are more varied in resolution, aspect ratio, resolution than the G-Sync line-up, plus the entry models are a lot cheaper).
So, as I said - it all comes down to your preferences.

 

[Senteria]

The decision about the graphics card is very much down to personal preferences and habits. If you plan to keep the same card for a long time, say 2-3 years or longer, then the 8GB VRAM of the 390 wouldn't hurt. If you get a new card every year, you can simply upgrade once the 3,5 GB of the 970 begin to fall short in your games.
If you like Nvidia's proprietary features, then that also goes in favor of the 970. Then again with the 390 you have the option to go for a FreeSync monitor (those are more varied in resolution, aspect ratio, resolution than the G-Sync line-up, plus the entry models are a lot cheaper).
So, as I said - it all comes down to your preferences.

For me, I've never had a Nvidia so I have no clue what nvidia could offer me in terms 'proprietary features'. My current pc is 6 years old, so I'm looking for something that lasts for a while until the pc I'm getting will need to be replaced again.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

If you can wait - don't buy a new GPU now. There are new architectures and 14nm transistors coming this year. It's better to invest in a high end GPU in the beginning of the architecture / transistor size cycle, or may be somewhat later if you want for hardware bugs to be ironed out. But doing it at the very end of the cycle isn't optimal.

 

[Senteria]

If you can wait - don't buy a new GPU now. There are new architectures and 14nm transistors coming this year. It's better to invest in a high end GPU in the beginning of the architecture / transistor size cycle, or may be somewhat later if you want for hardware bugs to be ironed out. But doing it at the very end of the cycle isn't optimal.

I suppose, but my videocard in my 6 year old pc is crashing very often causing a BSOD. :/
Also new stuff is probably a lot more expensive. The longer you wait, the cheaper it gets.

 

[arkhenon]

The longer you wait, the cheaper it gets.

If you are looking to buy a 970 or 390, I'd say not really. Their prices did not change since their introduction (Well, truth be told I didn't check for 390, but it's true for 970). Now they will probably get cheaper when the new versions are out this year, that's another story. I would understand not being able to wait, because you are using a 6 year-old system But it's been a long while since transistor sizes got smaller for GPUs, so the new generation that will come this year might actually be "really" good. So, if you can somehow wait, I'm pretty sure it will worth it.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

If you want to buy a cheaper GPU right now which is still decent, get Nvidia GTX 680 (or 770 which is almost the same thing). It's a good high end Kepler card, which is cheaper than Maxwell ones, but still can be used for many demanding games just fine.