Crossfire 285 or...?

It's time for one of my extremely episodic GPU upgrades. I'm not a big gamer but every now and then I like to drag myself into the current era. To give you a feel my current card is a 6870 and before that it was a 48__ (something). Both kept for ages. Anyway, I have a budget set aside and I'm considering buying two Sapphire R9 285s. (I'm pretty sure there's only a 2GB model available, but just in case, it's a 2GB model ). I like that it's a newer chipset (I hate buying legacy hardware) and more practically, I like that it has True Audio and the 4K decoding. I also would quite like to run two DP monitors and this will give me two DP ports without having to faff around with MST.

Alternately, I could pool the money and buy one higher end card. I'm thinking a Sapphire R9 290X 4096MB. Power consumption isn't a huge concern, but noise is.

I'm pretty hung up on staying with AMD as that's what I'm familiar with, but other than that - suggestions / warnings / random comments about echinoderms?

Thanks!

H.

Personally I'd be looking at a single card instead of two of them right off the bat. Your upgrade options are open down the road if you wanna get a 2nd 290/290x on the cheap after the next gen is released.

Also I've read some newer games can take advantage of 3-4GB of vRAM, especially at higher resolutions. You'll be stuck with 2GB on the 285's - xfire doesn't add vRAM together.

Do you plan on gaming, and if so at what resolution? The 290's and the 290x's have 4GB of vram, while a quick look at the 285's show only 2GB. Imo, you are better of with a single card.

Definitely a single card. With how infrequently you upgrade, I think it'll be nice to have less points of failure in your system.

You'll have all the performance you need with a 290X and the vram to support it. Games already do use more than 2. BF4 uses 3.5+ with Mantle.

Which Sapphire are you looking at in particular. If noise is a concern, you'll definitely want to look at the non-reference cooler versions of the 290X. The reference cooler is basically useless (loud and 95C+).

JLK03F150 said:

Also I've read some newer games can take advantage of 3-4GB of vRAM, especially at higher resolutions. You'll be stuck with 2GB on the 285's - xfire doesn't add vRAM together.

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Oh! How embarrassing - I should have realized that. Well, better to find out you're ignorant than to remain oblivious. I think that's a game changer, then. If I'm capping out the RAM at 2GB by going dual-card, I don't want that. Aside from any practical reason, I hate feeling I'm wasting my money! I wouldn't want all that high-quality RAM just sitting there.

mimart7 said:

Do you plan on gaming, and if so at what resolution? The 290's and the 290x's have 4GB of vram, while a quick look at the 285's show only 2GB. Imo, you are better of with a single card.

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Yes, I game a little between contracts when I have the time. But it's rare and I like RPG-ish fantasy games like Arkham City (if that's what you call the genre). I'm not much of a gamer but WHEN I do, I like everything to be as good as it can. It's a bit naughty to spend that much for occasional use but I upgrade so rarely, I like my upgrade to be future-proof for a while.

ninjacore said:

Definitely a single card. With how infrequently you upgrade, I think it'll be nice to have less points of failure in your system.

You'll have all the performance you need with a 290X and the vram to support it. Games already do use more than 2. BF4 uses 3.5+ with Mantle.

Which Sapphire are you looking at in particular. If noise is a concern, you'll definitely want to look at the non-reference cooler versions of the 290X. The reference cooler is basically useless (loud and 95C+).

Click to expand...

It's potentially this one: http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphi...PL3.html?refs=469930000-498110000-50758&src=3

But I'm not loyal to any particular brand of AMD card, just that it's an AMD card.

I know there's a sort of new generation starting though. That was one reason I was looking at the 285. How long do you think it will be before the new higher end refresh will start? I can certainly wait a month if need be.

Thanks to all for the replies! Really helpful!

I'd second everyone here and woukd advice a single more powerful GP up like the 290 or 290x.

As said, grab on did with a good aftermarket cooler (like the Sapphire tri-x).

Hawaii-based 290 and 290x are still just 9mos - 1 year old. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see high-end, Tonga-based GPUS (390, 390x?) in 6 months?

I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a 290 or 290x now, despite the 285 being out (though I do think it's worth looking at used prices as you can find used 290(x)s for almost half of what they go for new - and not all of them were used for mining ).

The vapor-x is a good option. Other great performers are the PCS+ and Tri-X.