We still don’t know very much about AMD’s next big card, the R 390X. We’ve been led to believe that the card will be debuted at Computex in June this year, which the casual observer might believe is a bit too little, too late – especially given that Nvidia’s already showing off its new ultra-enthusiast card, The Titan X (which we’ll be a getting a lot more information on tomorrow from Nvidia’s GPU tech conference). A purportedly leaked internal slide for AMD’s new card, codenamed Fiji, suggests it could be a beast.
Here’s what the supposedly leaked slide – apparently about the Water Cooled Edition of the card – says (via Videocardz)
AMD Radeon R9 390X WCE:
- Next iteration of the highly successful GCN design
– Up to 4096 shader units - Full DirectX®12_Tier 3 implementation
- Optimized for 4K gaming & beyond
- First ever GPU designed for VR immersion
- Special enthusiast water-cooled edition
- Up to 8GB of ultra-high bandwidth HBM video memory
- Hardware H.265 decoding and over 4x the previous H.264 encoding speed, enabling smooth live streaming
- Enhanced ZeroCore™ functionallity (yes there’s a typo)
Yes that typo cast serious doubts about the slide’s validity, but if it’s in any genuine, it suggests that the next Enthusiast card from Team Red will have up to 4096 Shader units, which is 25% higher than the number reported for Nvidia’s Titan X. It also says we can expect up to 8GB of the company’s new implantation of HBM stacked memory, which offers 640GB’s of memory bandwidth. While on the fence with regards to the validity of this (leaning very much towards it being bogus), new benchmarks from Chinese-language site Chip Hell seem to paint a similar picture; that AMD’s next card is going to be very powerful indeed.
Note : these numbers are in reference to the R9 290X’s performance as a baseline , and not an indication of FPS.
If they’re true, they suggest that AMD’s new card will be the most powerful single card solution available, besting Nvidia’s unreleased GTX 980 Ti, and even the company’s 12GB monster, the Titan X.
According to rumours from WCCFTech, it could be significantly cheaper than either of them, returning the price-to-performance crown to AMD. As is usual with this sort of thing, take it all with a Table mountain-sized bit of salt.
| AMD Radeon R9 390X |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti |
|
| GPU Code Name | Fiji XT | GM200 | GM200 |
| GPU Cores / Shaders | 4096 | 3072 | 2816-2688 ? |
| Die Size | ~550mm² | ~600mm² | ~600mm² |
| Memory |
4GB/8GB Stacked HBM | 12GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Frequency | 1.25Ghz | 7.0Ghz | 7.0Ghz |
| Memory Interface | 4096 Wide IO | 384bit GDDR5 | 384bit GDDR5 |
| Total Memory Bandwidth | 640GB/S | 334GB/S | 334GB/S |
| GPU Clock Speed | 1Ghz~ | 1.2Ghz~ | 1.2Ghz~ |
| Compute Performance | 8.2TFLOP | 6.9TFLOP | 6.0-6.3TFLOP |
| Price | $549 USD ? | $999-$1349 USD | $649-$699 USD ? |
Last Updated: March 16, 2015
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:22
[Mandatory RED >>> green statement]
Metal Rabbit
March 16, 2015 at 13:57
[Obligatory GREEN pitchfork remark]
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 16, 2015 at 14:17
[Optional RED support chirp]
afrogunso77 .
March 16, 2015 at 18:28
[Fearful Yet Prideful GREEN Spiteful Drivers Comment]
Gred Team
March 17, 2015 at 13:52
Woah guys, calm it down.
OptionalLemon
March 17, 2015 at 14:33
Vicious yet civil somehow.
Joe Black
March 16, 2015 at 13:22
Heh… The AMD fan in me wants it so, but its all still out of my league. More power to whoever can afford it though.
Ivan S
April 14, 2015 at 04:13
taking a part time job just to be able to pay for it in a couple of months :/
Not sure if going to be worth it but I have OCD when it comes to specs
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:24
I am considering buying a gaming PC…. But I need help badly!!
How much should the below configuration cost me more or less? And what should I change or add?
PC Case: [BLACK] Antec GX300 Clear Side Panel USB3.0 Case – Included
Power Supply: Antec 500W 80+ High Performance Power Supply – Included
Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 (3.6GHz, 8M Cache, 8x Cores, 4.0GHz Turbo) – Included
Heatsink & CPU Fan: Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan – Included
Motherboard: MSI ZH87-G43 GAMING SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Motherboard – Included
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM – Included
Graphics Card: MSI GTX 960 Gaming Twin Frozr V 2GB 128bit Overclocked – Included
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DSX Ulta Fidelity PCI-E 7.1 Sound Card
Primary Hard Drive: 128GB SSD Upto 500MB/s+ Speed Solid State Drive – Included
Secondary Hard Drive: 1TB WD Blue 7200RPM 64MB Cache HDD
Main Optical Drive: 24x Dual Layer DVD +/- Writer – Included
Network Adapter: Integrated Gigabit Network – Included
LCD Monitor: LG 23″ Slim 1920×1080 Full HD IPS LED
Keyboard: Standard Black Keyboard
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Single Language English 64bit
Viking Of Science
March 16, 2015 at 13:27
I’d only up that 960 to a 970 budget allowing….
Also, drop the sound card, Unless you have a 7.1 system to take advantage of it….
Big Mess
March 16, 2015 at 14:25
I agree or buy the R9 290X for allot cheaper and more performance
Charl van der Merwe
March 16, 2015 at 15:15
Haha, hate to break it to you, but the R9 290X and the 970 are at the same price point
and as shown above they at the same performance point 😉
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 13:32
I always say, focus on CPU and GPU. The i7 4790 is nice. I would up that gtx960. And make sure that you can overclock that z87 motherboard, If not get a z97.
The i5 4690k should be fine for gaming. Then up the GPU. Check PSU when you done deciding on what you want in the box.
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:43
Hello REAL Ryanza 🙂
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 13:44
lol.
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:46
o/
Halaster
March 16, 2015 at 13:35
Change i7 for i5 & get next model up gfx card.
FoxOneZA
March 16, 2015 at 14:05
THIS
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:07
I upped the gfx car to a 970 and the motherboard to a Z97… Will that be good then?
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 14:09
PSU, I’ll rather go for a 650w.
Here comes the dreaded “feature creep” of building a new PC 😀
r3iyr75yh
March 16, 2015 at 20:13
you’ll be sorry when dx12 is released. go with the i7.
Jonah Cash
March 17, 2015 at 11:02
I did go with the i7!! Paid it up and now they are building it! Thanks for all the info!!
Mossel
March 17, 2015 at 07:32
I wish someone told me this 3 years ago. Could’ve saved so much. i7 is STILL overkill.
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:38
Have a look at Evetech’s site, they have nice discounts for upgrade kits and or new builds, and will also run your build for 24hrs (I think it is 24hrs) to test for any hw failures etc
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:43
This was taken from Evetech’s website…
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:43
Maybe also look at team RED, if you ask my advice!
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 13:40
If it’s for gaming, drop the i7 and go for the i5 4690K. Also, rather go for a Z97 motherboard. The soundcard is awesome, but you can add that at any stage later, so rather focus on a better GPU now.
Rather tell us what’s your budget and then let the fun begin!
Edit: The PSU will be a problem in future definitely. Go for a 650W
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:42
This configuration is for +-R18000.00… So round there..
Why drop the i7 for the i5? Does it work better for gaming?
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 13:44
The i7 doesn’t give any real performance increase for gaming, and what it gives certainly isn’t worth the price increase.
I upgraded my PC with components bought from Wootware and Takealot. Both of them offered the best prices of any of the online vendors for the components I bought from them respectively.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:46
I checked all the components on Takealot and there is a +-R1500 difference but Evetech puts all together… Which helps because I last touched the inside of a computer when I had a Pentium 2 400…. So I should probably not touch one on the inside now 🙂
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 13:48
Ah okay 😀 Where do you live? Which city? I’m sure someone here will be able to assist you for a six pack or two? 🙂
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:49
I live in Cape Town, but I really can’t use my laptop for every day use anymore! So instead of buying another R15k laptop for work I might as well shell out a bit more for a desktop and keep this laptop for work on planes…
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 13:54
mini itx gaming build to keep next to the tv. Wireless xbox 360 controller. Xpadder for controlling windows with controller. make windows icons big.
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:30
evetech do really good prices on barebones kits, but their prices on other components arent as competitive.
i bought the evetech barebones kit, then went to takealot, raru, wootware etc for the remainder of my parts, then took all the pieces to matrix to put it together.
i dropped the i7 for an i5 and got an R9 270 at the time and it cost me around R13k. if i had gone for everything through evetech, it would have cost me R16k
wootware prices on graphics cards are usually legit.
then raru and takealot usually do the leftovers best.
shopping around is pretty worth it.
the z97 isnt worth it, the z87 should be 100% unless you’re going to overclock etc.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:34
I don’t even know what overclocking is anymore :-(…. Thanks!
Appreciate the feedback, between everyone who commented I should be able to get there eventually!!
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:35
oh, also, definitely stick with that 970 that you decided on.
invest in your graphics card, otherwise you’ll be chasing that minimum spec forever.
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 14:37
An ASRock z97 is R 1599 now, cheaper than almost all Z87 boards, or all I could find actually.
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:38
really? the prices have plumeted for that board then, they were R2500 when i built my pc, not 6 months ago.
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 14:39
http://www.wootware.co.za/asrock-z97-pro4-intel-z97-chipset-socket-1150-atx-desktop-motherboard.html
Also at Wootware, they have some real good deals there!
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:47
oh, the blue ones, yeah, soz, was running under the assumption that all z97s were the evetech MSI dragon ones.
there was something about the asrock ones that bothered me when i was building my pc, think it was something to do with their RAM slots only going up to 1333 or something.
might be something else though, all i know is there was a reason they were cheaper.
Maxiviper117
March 16, 2015 at 16:06
Matrix can build your PC for you? Huh, good to know.
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 13:49
R5500 for GPU
R4400 for CPU
Then R8000 for the rest.
i5 vs i7, what Spathi said. Although keep in mind, when Far Cry 4 was released, must of the issues were for i3 and i5, i think.
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 16, 2015 at 13:56
I almost can’t beat that pricing even with dropping to the i5 and up to GTX 970 and Z97 board.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:58
I stayed with the i7 but added the Z97 3 SATA motherboard and changed to the GTX 970 and now it is at R20 193.00…. Good price or not?
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 13:59
Rather go RED team…
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:00
I see you say that, but I don’t know red at all!! I don’t even get the numbering… I grew up using green… Going red would make me feel even more stupid than what I already do at the moment!!
Hammersteyn
March 16, 2015 at 14:27
http://i.imgur.com/Dku3f9l.gif
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 16, 2015 at 14:16
That pricing isn’t bad. I wouldn’t make any money off selling you that machine if I was trying to fight Evetech pricing.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:20
Thanks for the info!
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 14:20
#ShamelessSelfPromotion
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 16, 2015 at 14:25
#NotShamelessIfCan’tBeatEveF***nTech
XD O.o
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:48
There are a lot of different Z97 motherboards…Gaming 3 SATA, 5 SATA, and 7 SATA… What the hell is the difference?
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 13:51
The difference is just what you want. Like do you want 5 sata ports. Do you want wifi. Do you want 2 or 3 or 4 ports for GPU’s. How much RAM do you want.
So just choose what you want. No other real difference
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 13:54
Pentium 2 was my last time knowing what I wanted in a PC… I am now a complete and utter idiot when it comes to these things!! Learning from scratch again!!
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 14:00
Basically look at RAM slots and if you going to go SLI or CF then check out how many pci slots there are. Those 2 is all that matters when choosing a motherboard. How much Hdd’s you going to use, sata posts but these new boards are stocked up with sata ports.
Yeah when I got back to PC gaming coming from console, I too didn’t know what was up. Still not clued up on everything.
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 14:20
I wonder if you can crossfire two eierdose
FoxOneZA
March 16, 2015 at 14:09
Dude, you don’t need gaming components to get gaming. My humble i5 2400, stock 8Ggb 1333mhz RAM, H61 mobo and R7 260X can still run BF4 at 1080/60fps. My advice is to go for a basic i5 system and up the GPU to the best you can afford. Good PSU is also vital.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:09
Thank you sir!!
danglingparticiple
March 16, 2015 at 15:26
Honestly, you don’t even need the Intel Proc. FX 8370 is a great chip. Mine is paired with the R9 290 and Battlefield 4 rendered with Mantle is gorgeous. Ready for the Freesync driver that is going to be released March 19th. 😀
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 14:09
Sounds like an Xbox One to me
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 14:10
“can still run BF4 at 1080/60fps” – Did you miss that somehow? 😛
FoxOneZA
March 16, 2015 at 14:36
I posted my benchie run on Twitter a while ago. Team green was thrown back.
FoxOneZA
March 16, 2015 at 14:37
Sounds like 2 XBox One’s to me.
Matewis Jubilai
March 16, 2015 at 13:44
I would go for a bigger monitor, since you might wind up using it for many years. Perhaps consider a 27”
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 13:59
Sorry for the rough copy and paste. Here is a EXTREMELY rough indication of what you can get for the same price, and which PC, according to me, is better is every aspect than the Evetech one. The price for everything is R 17 026.00
ASRock Z97 Pro4 Intel Z97 Chipset Socket 1150 ATX Desktop Motherboard – R 1599
Intel i5-4690K – R 3199
Corsair CMY16GX3M2A1600C9B VengeancePro Blue 8GB x 2 DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v – 240pin – R 2491
Samsung 840 Evo Series 2.5 inch Solid State Drive – 120GB – R 1139
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD 64MB Cache – SATA 3 – 6.0Gb/s – R 1257
Galax 97NQH6DNB4TX GeForce GTX 970 EXOC Black Edition 4096MB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-Express 3.0. – R 4999
Samsung 27 inch LED Monitor – R 4499
Any case – R 700
Antec TP-650C TruePower Classic 650W 80PLUS Gold Certified Desktop Power Supply – R1,142.00
Extras – R 500
Spathi
March 16, 2015 at 14:05
Replying to myself, because I’m cool like that.
Anyway, You can go for a smaller monitor, and 8gb less Ram, and then you’ll easily be in the evetech PC’s range or less. It will still be a better PC than the evetech one though.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:08
Thanks for your help! It is appreciated!!
Ryanza
March 16, 2015 at 14:08
How dare you suggest less RAM. We always need more RAM.
http://images.lazygamer.net/2011/07/RAAM.jpg
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 14:20
XDXD
ucantflyon1wing
March 16, 2015 at 14:16
put a K on that 4790 and you are instantlly the big boy on the block
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:19
I saw that… But damn it goes up quite quickly just by adding the things that everyone below mentioned!! Closer to R21k now 🙂
ucantflyon1wing
March 16, 2015 at 14:24
I know it goes up quick but my devils canyon is the best thing in my computer, sometimes I hear it laughing at my 970.
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:40
the K is for overclocking, seeing as you dont know what that means anymore, its not really necessary.
Big Mess
March 16, 2015 at 14:22
clearly he`s been mislead by some nvidian bcoz the GTX 960 is a horrible 128BIT card, and will be bottle neck for the I7 4970 CPU
ucantflyon1wing
March 16, 2015 at 14:50
voltage regulator ! the cpu is on auto or adaptive mode it will play ball with any gpu It’s not going to stomp on them per sa.
Hammersteyn
March 16, 2015 at 14:26
What have you done? Look at all the upvotes I need to hand out!
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:39
Lots and lots of comments for Hammersteyn!! Hahaha
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:44
the king of getting peoples hopes up has work to do.
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 16, 2015 at 14:38
Best tip I can give is concentrate on the very best motherboard out there. It greatly increases longevity of any build.
Rest is up to you although stay away from Asus due to the hefty pricetag they add cause “Asus”. MSI and Gigabyte do exactly the same for less. Not that Asus is bad per se. They are really good but the price just does not add up.
Also get windows 7. It is cheaper and you get a free win 10 upgrade in a month or two.
Also … wear …. sunscreen. 🙂
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 14:41
Trust me on the sunscreen
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 16, 2015 at 14:43
The rest of my advice is based on my own meandering experience. 😛
Admiral Chief
March 16, 2015 at 14:41
Last time I checked W8.1 is cheaper than W7…
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 16, 2015 at 14:42
Depends where you buy but get whatever is cheaper cause you should be upgrading to win 10 immediately on availability cause DX12.
SlagywaG
March 16, 2015 at 14:40
Buy a CPU Heatsink… Anything but the stock standard… If you don’t have the budget for it then wait a month or two and get one. I can’t stress enough how important it is.
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 14:41
What does it do though? Keeps everything cooler or what?
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:44
again, for overclocking
I dont have an aftermarket cooler and havent had a problem.
you’re not running AMD, so you should be fine, my old AMD ran 20 degrees hotter than my i5.
if you find your PC is running hotter than you’d like, you can always splurge on a cooler later
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 16, 2015 at 14:47
That is a rather large misnomer, Running things cooler is not just for overclocking but actually makes the component last longer as well.
I would always suggest get 1 up from stock. It is best practice.
Matthew Holliday
March 16, 2015 at 14:51
i agree its a good practise
but increasing longevity, im not so sure, my dads i7 is one of the first gen ones and its still going strong.
Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event
March 16, 2015 at 16:54
mb also requires decent cooling. Many people just stuff fans in everywhere causing heatzones. If you optimize your cooling your system will run perfect 10 years down the line. Look at my custom built router. AMD64 3200+ from about 8 or 9 years ago still working perfectly. Hell I can still game on it as long as its nothing past 2010.
Cooling priority goes. System>GPU>CPU. If your system can’t stay cool your other components do not matter.
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 16, 2015 at 15:20
I’ve been running every AMD since my K6 with the stock cooler provided, my current 965 has been going for 4 years already. I don’t bother with overclocking though.
Matthew Holliday
March 17, 2015 at 09:44
I had a stock cooler for my 945, it died somewhere around the 4 year mark.
although whether or not the cooling is to blame, i dont know.
Guest
March 16, 2015 at 14:44
I see what you did there. Am seeing allot of lately what you just did or maybe you’re the same person going around on every AMD GPU thread and asking the same question. Nice derail btw
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 15:33
Hahahaha!! I am genuinely going to buy a PC and needed info… This seemed like the best article to get that info… This is my first PC post ever on here so no you have mistaken me with someone else… I last had a PC 10 years ago, so I am out of touch to say the least!! Do you come here often or do you just search PC stuff?
disqus_GB8lUuziuG
March 16, 2015 at 15:40
Upgrade the cpu heatsink and case fans, way quieter and cooler, also don’t buy a cheap IPS, less than about 600$, if you dont want to spend that much a top quality VA panel is half the price and they have come a LONG way!! the new VA’s are very pretty. You may also want to consider a larger SSD but not mandatory in anyway.
Shaun De Hoog
March 16, 2015 at 15:57
I must agree with most comments on this post, and suggest:
– Replace the i7 with an i5
– Up the GTX 960 to a 970
– Drop the soundcard, since the MSI motherboard’s sound is more than sufficiant
– Go for a 24 or even better a 27 inch LED Monitor
Then, a question with an opinion.
Will you be running your games from the SSD, or will they all reside on the SATA drive? Having the SSD drive for your OS, will speed up boot times and login, but not really your gaming experience. If you are not too worried about bootup, then go for an SSHD, and load your main games on the SSD part, and the rest on the HDD. The Random Read/Write is what your games’ load times will benefit from, and these are about the same between the SSD and SSHD, yet the SSHD is MUCH cheaper 🙂
Regarding the standard cooler…it will be fine if you go for the standard i5 4460 or so, unless you plan on OC’ing your PC somewhere down the line, then go for an i5 4690k, and add a Corsair H100i water cooling system (or something similar). If you go for the standard i5 4460, you could still go for a Noctua Cooler (NH-D14), just to keep the temps down a little, and maybe extend the life or your CPU – choice is entirely yours though, as either way, everything should be fine.
Good luck, hope you get your new toy soon 🙂
Jonah Cash
March 16, 2015 at 16:02
Thanks for the info!!
deppman
March 16, 2015 at 17:30
+1 upgrade to a GTX 970. Avoid an AMD GPU if you think you might run Linux.
Upgrade the PSU to a high quality 600W PSU if you can, as that will give you headroom for expansion (bigger still if you might use SLI in the future).
Drop the soundcard unless you are an audio pro.
Consider using a Synology or similar RAID SAN for longer term storage instead of a second HD. It sucks to lose 250 GB of photos, music, and lord knows what else because of a single drive failure.
afrogunso77 .
March 16, 2015 at 18:30
Only thing i would change is 2 960s in SLI
WildmanSteve
March 17, 2015 at 00:43
You’re far better off getting an i5 and a GTX 970. The 2Gbs on the 960 isnt enough for most Ultra textures with heavy anti aliasing even at 1080p. The 970 is much faster and will give you the added VRam.
Jonah Cash
March 17, 2015 at 11:10
I stayed with the i7 but did go up to GTX 970…. Thanks for the info!!
Travi the Batman
March 17, 2015 at 09:22
Drop the i7 to an iy and up the 960 to either 980 or 390x. Spending money on GPU is more important than in a processor if its a gaming PC.
Lord Chaos
March 17, 2015 at 09:43
Depends. Sanbox games tend to be more CPU intensive.
aenews
March 17, 2015 at 09:51
Sounds like around $900 probably less. I’d definitely recommend upgrading the GPU to a GTX 970, but even that isn’t necessary if you are only going to be doing 1080P gaming. Why not a Z97 Mobo? There are periodically great deals on SSDs off Newegg and Tigerdirect. I snagged a PNY 240GB SSD for around $65 late last year.
Jonah Cash
March 17, 2015 at 11:09
Thanks man!!
Shawon
March 17, 2015 at 17:56
If the main purpose is gaming consider replacing i7 4790+GTX 960 with i5 4690k+GTX 970/R9 290
Jonah Cash
March 17, 2015 at 21:01
I kept the i7 as I will use it for work as well. But I did go for the GTX 970… Hope this thing works as well as everyone seems to think it will?!?!?
Always Late Game Reviews
March 19, 2015 at 08:55
Just some things to keep in mind. First, chose brand. Intel/nVidia or AMD. I prefer AMD…you’ll find a lot of people say they suck and shit all over them for no good reason. I’ve been using AMD since 1997 and I love their stuff. For gaming you’re not going to really be affected by the slightly less powerful AMD CPUs (all that babble about threads and cores and shit is more important for intense computational processes like video/graphics editing work and that sort of thing…don’t listen to the hype and go with what you can afford). It is ALWAYS true that an Intel/nVidia build will costs hundreds of dollars more than an AMD build (for an acceptable game rig, you can sometimes get a cheap Intel PC but it’s not usually appropriate for gaming) so figure out your budget and go from there. You’re considering Intel but if your budget won’t allow it there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with an AMD rig.
-I’d up the PSU to around 700 Watts if you can. I always like a little bit of extra headroom especially if you’re going to overclock. Good brand too…never, ever, EVER cheap out on the PSU. it may cost $150 bucks for a good one but it’s better than a fried computer.
-Unless you absolutely HAVE to have that case I’d certainly get a cheap one especially if it’s going to be tucked away and not really on display. I got a windowed case with no included PSU for like…20 bucks? It’s really not worth buying an expensive case unless it’s going to be a showcase in the room. I can’t find price for that case but it does seem a bit…roomy…for a build that doesn’t seem to take advantage of all the expansion slots for hard drives and such.
-Drop the sound card. Onboard audio nowadays is really good. Only buy one if you have a surround sound system or you’re a music buff and need super-duper-creepy-studio quality music playback from your 5.1 system.
-Seriously, buy an aftermarket CPU cooler. Stock fans are flimsy and LOUD.The tower style ones are really good. This is the one I have and it keeps my AMD FX-6300 overclocked to 4Ghz at 30C idle and about 50C at load. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835999034&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-CPU+Fans+%26+Heatsinks-_-N82E16835999034&gclid=CjwKEAjwxKSoBRCZ5oyy87DimEcSJADiWsvgGlbedBiSDtcqGW2XkgXSTTJdJTe5tIj771xOPvNmyhoCGeTw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
-I’d look around for a deal on the next card up in that line if you’re going with nVidia. There probably won’t be much price difference. Research release dates for model numbers and buy “lats year’s tech” to save some bucks. 2Gb is great, 4Gb will add a touch of future-proofing. Either way as long as it’s GDDR5 and you slot it into the PCIe 16x slot you’ll be fine with either RAM configuration on your GPU.
-HDDs look fine. If you can find Windows 7 on sale I’d rather that option as you can save quite a bit of money if it’s on sale. It won’t matter too too much as Windows 10 (which will be a free upgrade) is due soon but this makes it all the more important to find the OS at the cheapest possible price. If Microsoft will allow you to upgrade why spend $100 for 8.1 when you can get 7 at $50?
Overall it looks like you’re heading in the right direction. Take your time and do your research. It’s not a race to buy the most expensive stuff you can find that will most likely be so much more power than you will ever conceivably use. Feel free to ask for more help if you need it 😀
Jonah Cash
March 19, 2015 at 13:49
Thanks for the info! I upped the graphics card to a GTX 970, also upped to power supply to a 620W. I changed the motherboard to a Z97 3 SATA, took out the sound card. I kept the rest more or less the same. If I need any help when it does things it shouldn’t I will definitely come back here to ask for help!!
Bl00ddrunk
March 20, 2015 at 19:57
Get H97/B85 mobo or cheapest Z97 from Asus or Gigabyte,just coz MSI mosfets on “Gaming” boards are total bullshit.
If you want the black/red color scheme go for Asus B85 Gaming board.
Rest is fine unless you wanna look for the 970 or R9 290/x on some sale maybe.
Also diference between i5-4690 and i7-4790 in gaming is like 2-5fps…not worth getting the i7 IMO.
Get the 970 or R9 290/x for the money you saved buying the i5,and you’ll gain more than 15fps boost 🙂
Jonah Cash
March 23, 2015 at 10:39
Thanks for the info. I went for a Z97 SATA 3 board. 970 and I cept the i7 it was only R700 more than the i5… But yeah I am now just waiting on it to be delivered!!
ucantflyon1wing
March 16, 2015 at 13:55
with directX 12 we can sli them together. Don’t you think they’ll make a lovely couple!!!
Big Mess
March 16, 2015 at 14:56
wow am waiting for R9 390X bcoz i want HBM VRAM instead of DDR5 VRAM on current GPU`s. And am go get 16/32GB DDR4 system RAM
utack
March 16, 2015 at 16:45
The damn thing comes out so long after Nvidias original GTX 9 series announcement it was not even a question for me. Especially since HBM is almost absolutely certain now.
Trent Foley
March 16, 2015 at 17:32
These have been the rumored specs for a year, it would not be surprising to see the 390x outperform titan x. Amd will have hbm at least a year before nvidia.
Hayabusa
March 16, 2015 at 20:22
And the answer of the post’s title is??
Tbone187
March 18, 2015 at 09:52
Crickey, that i7, 4.2 ghz is a beast of a processor. I need one!
Milic Install
June 3, 2015 at 17:36
AMD 390X VS NVIDIA TITAN X VS 980TI