When to upgrade?

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Soyo13

Gawd
Joined
Mar 18, 2006
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I've been using my XFX HD 7970 DD since Dec 2012 with a 40" 1080p HDTV until few months ago I replaced that TV with 3x 27" @ 5840x1080. And since then I've been annoyed with several things.

Crossfire/SLI is annoying
Lack of solid support for mufti screen gaming from many games.
Low FPS with single video card.

Primary game I play right now is WoW, I'm getting 30 fps outdoor with High settings. I would like to get 60 FPS+ on High at least.

I don't want to spend a lot on a graphic card or crossfire/SLI that will be replaced eventually. So I'm searching for a single card solution that can give me large FPS gain.

Gaining ~15 FPS or so is not worth $500+ purchase to me. Are those AMD 290's or nVidia GTX 980 what I seek or should I wait for the next generation or so?
 
Wow, my FPS on high settings at 3k is nowhere that close on that article chart on ultra settings...

Hmm I should give 290x a shot, if I don't like it... I'll just eat the restocking fee.

Thanks Nuby.
 
Couple questions for ya...

What is your GPU usage while you are getting 30fps (while playing WoW), is it pegged at 95%-100% or is it bouncing around at 60%-70% (or even lower)? Is your gpu hitting it's full boost while you are getting these low frames?

Same thing on the CPU side... Is the CPU usage pegged at 95%-100%? And is it staying pegged at 4.6Ghz when you are getting 30fps?

I've never played WoW at 3k so I have no idea how demanding it would be on a CPU/GPU, so I can't say I have any experience with your exact situation. But I just wanted to throw a couple thoughts your way before you picked up a new gpu (since you don't seem to be getting the fps the TPU review was showing). Sometimes after I would do a fresh install of windows or drivers I would forget to adjust a couple settings (usually the "high-performance" setting in the CPU power settings or the "prefer maximum performance" in the Nvidia 3d settings) and it would prevent either the GPU or CPU (depending) from overclocking when I played WoW or SWTOR.

And lastly sometimes MMO's just have a ton of performance issues on their end (I'm sure this is even more true the last couple days since WoW released a new patch yesterday)... What kind of fps were you getting with one monitor in Warcraft?


Sorry if these seem like obvious questions/suggestions, just trying to get a better feel for your situation.
 
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I don't want to spend a lot on a graphic card or crossfire/SLI that will be replaced eventually.
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Why bother with PC gaming then, any card you buy (no matter what performance tier) will have to be replaced eventually :|

It is completely unreasonable to have expected playable performance for Eyefinity and high IQ settings on just one GPU unless the games you play consistently perform at 100+fps on just one screen.
 
Getting ~15's sitting in Stormsheild at ultra settings. CPU usage ~30% and GPU at 70% But once i go inside buildings the FPS shoot up to 70, CPU remains at ~30% and GPU 99% usage. It become much worse in dense area or with a lot activity.

WoW is not CPU heavy, other game like Borderland 2 put a lot load on my CPU.

WoW running on one screen at 1080p on ultra give over 120 FPS.

I have no problem spending money to upgrade, just don't want to spend a lot to get small gain. If I can expect significant gain by waiting for the next generation card compared to current generation, I would wait before I upgrade. But if I can get large gain by upgrading to the current generation, I will upgrade right now.

I already knew my FPS would get heavy impact coming from 1080p to 3K. I just want to get more FPS, I'm tired of all that stuttering when it dips below 60 fps.
 
I have a feeling that because you're getting dips into the teens in crowded areas with low GPU usage, if you were to pick up a 290x your average and peak framerate will go up but you'll still continue getting those nasty dips (I'm guessing client side issues).

It wouldn't hurt to give the 290x a go if you're not too concerned about the $30-$50 restocking fee if things don't improve.
 
Soyo13 said:
Getting ~15's sitting in Stormsheild at ultra settings. CPU usage ~30% and GPU at 70% But once i go inside buildings the FPS shoot up to 70, CPU remains at ~30% and GPU 99% usage. It become much worse in dense area or with a lot activity.

WoW is not CPU heavy, other game like Borderland 2 put a lot load on my CPU.
Click to expand...
WoW is CPU heavy (like most MMOs).

Unfortunately, it's likely compounded by the high resolution you play at, and like Fixall said, I doubt you'll be getting satisfactory performance without severely lowering things like DOF and number of on-screen characters (judging by when you say the framerate dips most).

But upgrading GPU is always still fun. :D
 
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