PCFormat Forum Archive

The R9 280X is replacing the 7970 but at $300. The 680 is on par for around $400.

Being SA I won't really want to take the price into concideration seeing as our pricing changes everything to. So based on current benchmarks, AMD doesn't seem to be there yet.

Also since AMD GPU's can mine BitCoins and Nvidia can't AMD wins on that round as well...

StarBound wrote:The R9 280X is replacing the 7970 but at $300. The 680 is on par for around $400.

Being SA I won't really want to take the price into concideration seeing as our pricing changes everything to. So based on current benchmarks, AMD doesn't seem to be there yet.

So you would rather buy something that performs the same for 30% more? . You are right, though, lets see SA prices first.

GreyWolf wrote:So you would rather buy something that performs the same for 30% more? . You are right, though, lets see SA prices first.

All depends

I have a i7 3930k and gaming isn't that much different between the i7 3770k and 4770k. Infact that other 2 have a power consumption advantage. As for top of the range nvidia still holds the crown. If AMD can topple the titan with compatitive pricing then I'll start waving AMDs banner again. But I ended up going with the GTX 680 because it was faster and required less juice to outperform the 7970.

Just saying. And I believe SA pricing is always more for the geforce brand.

StarBound wrote:But I ended up going with the GTX 680 because it was faster and required less juice to outperform the 7970.

Nice one.

StarBound wrote:Just saying. And I believe SA pricing is always more for the geforce brand.

And unlike in the rest of the world, prices of old stock never drops. In the Toms hardware review they saying prices of the 7970 have dropped to $300, thats about ZAR 3000.00! here its still 5.5k and up.

The cheapest 7970 I've seen is R4300 or around there. But everything needs to be taken from whatever relavent point you are coming from. The best bang per buck are actually those cards that run around the R1.5-2k pricing range but they will never be able to do what those R5k+ cards can do. The titan is unmatched, both in performance and pricing. Ofc we are refering to stock speeds. OCing or OC models can end up doing the same or better. Or you can go sli/xfire.

StarBound wrote:The cheapest 7970 I've seen is R4300 or around there.

link?

R3999, and with 4 free games:
http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolor-ax ... drive.html

D3PART3D wrote:Cheaper, and with 4 free games:
http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolor-ax ... drive.html

What he said.

Wow! Thanks for the link.

OOOH!!!! Much more impressive:

http://www.wootware.co.za/gigabyte-gv-n ... -card.html

All AMD did with the 280x was slap a new name on the 7970, which is probably why they can let it go for so cheap.

The gtx770 is pretty much a gtx680.

But but ... Nvidia still can't mine Bitcoins...

And AMD is much better at running password hacks. ...or is that the same thing? I guess we are now talking about gaming vs hacking.

StarBound wrote:And AMD is much better at running password hacks. ...or is that the same thing? I guess we are now talking about gaming vs hacking.

Same thing and you are right. AMD is much better at running parallel computational tasks than Nvidia which is strange when you consider that Nvidia used that as a marketing function.

I'm just putting that out there to change the topic slightly from gaming to computing power. If you want to get rich via digital currency and want a password breaking machine as well as gaming get AMD if you want gaming get Nvidia.

Back when Radeon waved the ATI banner I remember that a lot of things used to be better on the card, like multimedia functionality, video decoding, colour vibrance, etc.

It is a shame the one thing that nvidia never ever used was the glide api.

But don't worry SB, Nvidia can always carry that mantle with, erm, Mantle, if they so choose.

GDI_Lord wrote:But don't worry SB, Nvidia can always carry that mantle with, erm, Mantle, if they so choose.

So I looked it up.

AMD seem to have pulled off an amazing strategy here.

1. Get BOTH next gen consoles to use your hardware
2. Implement an API that works across platforms, thus making it easier to port from 1 system to another
3. PROFIT

nVidia need to implement Mantle right away, or they will get left behind.

That seems indeed to be the idea. If they can pull that off then AMD systems will be ideal for gaming. It could even remove intel as the gamers choice if it means cross platform optimization of their cpu side and it will be possible for a midrange card to even beat the heavy lifters.

The one thing that goes against this is xbone and microsoft. Microsoft is reliant on DirectX and if AMD offers a solution that can be bypassed they will loose the windows market aswell. Imagine that SteamOS with drivers optimized to go directly for hardware rather than going through DX.

The thing is: the api is there and ready to go, and it is better than DX, it's in the DEVELOPERS best interest to utilise it to provide the best graphics. It is a VERY smart move by AMD to get the push for adoption from developers. I sure hope it pans out, if for no other reason than to give Intel and nVidia some proper competition.

I absolutely agree.

Since its something that is used in both consoles and on certain PC hardware its a very easy move. But Xbone uses directx so Windows Pc will still use that. I can see how an AMD system can perform wonders with this though since if they develop games for PS4/Windows/Linux with the API and then Xbone/PC for the direct X component things will be very interesting.

Hardcore sense tingling

StarBound wrote: But Xbone uses directx

Really? Then why does it take so long to port from XBox to PC?
I hope this also sways developers away from the XBox.

Despite MS going back on the initial system requiring a constant connection, and other BS, I want to see the XBone fail miserably. A message needs to be sent.


But I digress.

As you say: hardcore sense is tingling, and we are entering some interesting times.

GreyWolf wrote:

StarBound wrote: But Xbone uses directx

Really? Then why does it take so long to port from XBox to PC?

The Xbox uses DirectX yes, but on the 360 it was DX9 most games on PC need to be on DX10 or 11. Also the 360's processor differs wildly from x86. That's why porting takes long.

The Xbone also uses DX, I don't know which version though. But running Mantle on it will work if the API comes with the game as it bypasses DX completely, that is unless MS blocks it somehow.

Mantle is just means that developers can access the graphics hardware of AMD GPU's in a standard way irrespective of machine type. There's also less overhead with Mantle as it's a more direct way of addressing the hardware.

And now seeing as the CPU's in the new consoles are based on AMD X86 hardware porting should be vastly quicker too.