New Graphics Card

why couldnt they have fixed that fan...and sorted out the huge power consumption because against a 780Ti which draws 250W at max load the 290X draws 50% more power it runs at something like 375W or so...I need to check those numbers so dont kill me if I have got the wrong numbers there PLEASE!!

 

You don't need an AMD product for it.

 

I have no idea what it's stock TDP is (350 maybe?), but I know overclock can take it a fair bit over the 400w mark.

You do right now, nvidia will only get advantages from it if they sign up for it.

 

Currently, yes.

My main issue with all of this is, I want to record, but is the $80 more worth being able to use shadowplay? The benchmarks in certain games can be worse on the 770 4GB which leads me to want the 280x...

 

Recording is not an issue trust me. Basically you're paying $80 for a slower card which has a few extra features. The 280x is faster, cheaper, and wont have any problems at all while recording.

Heck, I even recorded at 120FPS in Battlefield 3 max settings on Metro, just so I could slow the video down and view it smoothly. And that's with a 7970, which is slower than the 280x.

Recording mainly comes down to CPU. So if you have a good one, you'll be sweet.

 

I have no numbers as I am on mobile, but I think a 280x and 770 should be pretty even, if not leaning towards the 770. I mean, they are just rebrands of the 7970 and 680 rivalry. :/ It depends on what you play. If the games you play lean nvidia, then go for the 770; if it's a fair mix I would go 280x though. Shadow play is an unknown to me though. (Impactless recording?)


EDIT; well hello Sam.

 

FRAPS also has the extremely huge file sizes. I was leaning more towards the 280x because of the cost, and how it has a few frame advantage in most games currently. If mantle actually becomes supported, I feel like it could be extremely instrumental to gaming. I hope AMD rips off shadowplay and makes their own .

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The max drops I've heard of are 6%. So very minimal.

 

If you are worried about fps there are utilities that force a certain fps. For example it will always record evenly spaced farms then play them back at 60fps, it tricks the game engine. Doesn't work on all games though.

 

Yeah Fraps captures the raw footage and gives you a raw file. Just use MSI Afterburner if you're worried about that, It has loads of settings. And it's less intensive while recording than Fraps.

Though I still use Fraps for all my videos, because I use Sony Vegas to render it anyway.

 

I am a Sony Vegas user also (I LOVE IT!). What's a good AMD brand to go with? I go with EVGA for Nvidia, but I don't know any good AMD brands. Any help ?

 

It's very good If you're going with the 280x. Get the Sapphire R9 280x Toxic. It has 3 fans, so it stays cool, very quiet, and a lot faster than the stock 280x cards. (Make sure your case can fit it, it's huge. About 31cm long I think)

And if you're in doubt about recording, this is a video I made using my 7970, recorded raw 1080p footage @ 30fps(Had it locked cause Youtube cuts it down to 30 anyway)


Watch that in 1080p, the distorted bits and stutters are from the Rendering, I only found out after rendering that playing a game while rendering screws things up. So ignore that

 

SAMs recommendation is a MASSIVE 3 slot cooler. Huge. I like HIS due to their coolers, but RMA's can be a pain. Gigabyte and sapphire are both good.

 

That toxic looks sweet, but it's $360. I'm currently reading about it.

 

Eh, size doesn't matter if it's just going to sit inside a box, right? I'd rather have a beefy cooler that looks pretty awesome than a small approach... But yes HIS is good too, I used to have an HIS 5770 back in the day.

EDIT: ^Oh wow that sounded so wrong, my bad.

Well, you could always get a Sapphire 280X Vapor-X, It's the version down from Toxic, I have a Vapor-X(Vapor-X is pretty much the cooling), and it's fantastic. I have my fan permanently set to 5%, and my temps don't go over 65 which I am very happy with. So basically I have a virtually silent graphics card, that kicks ass

Should be cheaper too, and smaller(It has 2 fans instead of 3).

 

you've got the fraps fps locked to recording at 30 - doesn't that lock your in-game fps to 30 as well? it did when i last tried fraps, unless i was missing a setting. additionally, what is the max FPS you can record with fraps at how much of an FPS loss do you actually take? you're speaking like it's a perfect solution by itself when it generally destroys fps. there's a reason nvidia chose to pursue this shadowplay technology. i'll reiterate that shadowplay records 1080p/60fps 100% of the time while you play with zero fps loss. fraps is childsplay comparatively.

i know personally I can't record myself playing Team fortress 2 with fraps, dxtory, or any software based solution because it lowers my FPS too much (usually around the 200 fps mark while not recording) and i have the same processor as you. i do record to a WD blue hard drive, however.

it might seem like i'm pushing shadowplay quite a bit, but it really is a stunning out of the box solution to a long-time problem in gaming. fraps recording just doesn't compare.

 

People have been recording with Fraps for years without issue, where do you think all the Youtube videos of gameplays are from? Shadowplay didn't exist back then.

All I'm saying is that, with his 2500k and 280x, he wont have trouble recording. I'd probably relate your problem to your HDD, because I've never had a problem recording, in fact, I don't see any decrease in FPS while recording.(Maybe 5% or so?)
Just like anything including Shadowplay, make sure you're recording to a HDD that isn't you Windows one, if you're trying to run Windows, play a game, and record on the same 7200rpm HDD, you will most likely have problems.

Shadowplay is a cool wee tool, AMD would be stupid not to take the ideas on board, which is exactly what they will do.

 

I was looking at the benchmarks here http://www.anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review and I am actually loving it. I always hate buying something this major because I am nervous as to how it will turn out.

 

sorry, but having a dedicated h264 encoder on the graphics card itself is not a wee feature. unless AMD has been sneaking them into their cards, they can't copy the feature on their current gen cards. pretty soon shadowplay will be able to stream directly to twitchtv at 1080p and 60fps with no fps loss. currently that is something reserved for those with only extremely high end computers. looking into the future, this was a feature simply released for free to people who own semi-recent nvidia cards. not to mention physx, CUDA, etc.

all AMD has in their future is an ever-decreasing market share. their FX family of processors won't get an update to steamroller at all in 2014, they've just taken a $500 million line of credit from the Bank of America, and there is speculation at a number of layoffs happening very soon. there's probably a good reason for it.

i probably sound like i'm pushing nvidia pretty hard here, but you're exuding confidence that the 280x is the best choice for him when in reality, he could pick any card near or even slightly below that pricepoint and be perfectly happy. these 'wee features' are what make or break the experience. auto-updating video drivers that don't require a restart are pretty nice to have.

 

As I thought, beats the 770. It would be stupid to not get it.

Make the step! I can assure you that you won't be disappointed at all.

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AMD graphics are fine, he already has a good CPU so it's not a problem for him. Personally I would not pay an extra $80 for some recording thing when I can do that no problem anyway.

The 280x is faster than the 770, so why should he pay extra for a slower card? It makes no sense. Sure it has better recording capabilities, but is that really worth the extra cash? After all, you get a slower card with it.

Also, 280X comes with free games, and Battlefield 4 is soon to be one of those free games that come with it, so why pay more for a slower card, and miss out of great free games, just because of a simple recording feature that doesn't lose FPS, when Youtube caps your videos at 30 FPS? It makes no sense. It's a great feature I do admit, but not all that great, it's only a feature that has been possible ever since the start of PC, it just does it better.

I'd rather get a faster, cheaper card. Than a slower, more expensive card, that has a few extra features, that honestly do not matter all that much.

 

I'm not saying it's a bad card, it's amazing, but 3 slot coolers will not fit some cases. I have a network card preventing me from 3 lot cards, so just check to make sure.