I am getting by with the 290 but been tempted to upgrade. If I don't sooner itll be next year when nvidias next gen is released. Would I see much fps boost or higher min-frames (hoping to play around high not ultra settings) on a 3440x1400 60hz monitor. Is there any way to avoid getting screen tearing when I leave my FPS uncapped and vsync off on a non-gsync/freesync display? Games that I play on PC: Dota 2 Overwatch Diablo 3 But also got a large amount of games like tomb raider etc that I need to get around to playing. If I can get my hands on 1070 between 450-550 and sell my 290 tri-x for around 150+(whats the price range of this these days)?
Honestly its a huge upgrade. A gtx480 is on par with a gtx1060. Gtx1070 does alot better then a 1060. So a 290 to a 1070 is a huge jump. Your fps will go right up.
Definately mate, I jumped from a 290X to a GTX1060... thats was a massive leap in performance on my 1440p monitor
290x is about as fast as a 480, a 1070 is only 30% faster. As someone that has a 1070 and a 3440x1440 screen I don't think it's a good upgrade. https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/24.html
This is for the 580 but shows the improved AMD drivers at play, shrinks the gap a good deal. https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/RX_580_Nitro_Plus/30.html
It's a bad deal no matter how you swing it. Spending 3-4x the sale price of the current card to get 30-40% improvement at a very taxing resolution is not ideal. Not that I'm pushing this but you might be able to get a used fury or fury x for about $250-$350 depending on the card, then it's a 20-30% improvement for only 1.5- 2x the sale price of the current card. Downside is as always power consumption but you have a 290 already so no difference and it's still going to struggle on 3440x1440 for new titles. Don't get me wrong the 1070 is a great card just not for 5M pixels worth of resolution, if we're talking 2560x1440 it would be an easier recommendation.
The price of 1070s *might* come down a bit with the release of the 1070Ti and the 1070 is a strong card but probably not ideal for 4k....a 1080 minimum would be my suggestion.
I guess it depends how serious your into your gaming. 30-40% performance increase is what i would consider to be substantial. Heck competitive players wouldn't blink at paying $500 for a 10% fps increase.
If you're 'getting by' now, then just save your $ and get the next gen If you had something that NEEDED a faster card now.. then sure go ahead. But it doesn't sound like you NEED one..
Next gen is the best option, Pascal has been out for ages. Regarding competitive gamers they don't play at that res.
for the main games you mentioned a 1070 will handle those games fine.... others it will start to struggle
1070 is pretty bad value imo. New a 1070 is $620 at pccg and $700 for a 1070 ti or a Vega 56, but a 1070 has ~27% less cuda cores so as long for games where memory bandwidth or cpu load isn't an issue is ~25% slower. Vega 56 or 1070 ti are better value depending on which games you play and how much you're willing to tweak (vega 56 in particular), with vega 56 having better long term potential as tends to do better in vulkan/dx12 and has more advanced features that nvidia doesn't have that upcoming games will support (eg FP16 shaders etc, so far Wolfenstein 2 is the first game to have any hint of supporting them). With that budget I'd look for a secondhand 1080 or 1070 ti or vega 56 on the forums. Should be close to $550.
I went from a dual crossfire 290X setup to a single RX Vega 64. The difference at 3440x1440 is massive. From mostly just playable to always very playable. If you don't have a freesync monitor, then sure, go for the GTX 1070. It's a decent price. However the performance you will want is the GTX 1070 Ti / RX Vega 56 performance. As for which to get. Both are $699, and for most titles are neck and neck. However my advice is to get the RX Vega 56. It performs far better with DirectX 12 and Vulkan. They are the modern / future API's. The GTX 1070 Ti just won't be as good down the line, so for long term, Vega.
I would agree with the suggestions to go for a 1070ti perhaps While it's only a little bit extra performance, it'll be an absolute beast for anything that isn't 4k gaming It's a good time to look into it as well, a 290 would be getting just to the end of it's usefulness I imagine
Thanks everyone for all the replies. I will likely wait for next gen at this stage if not tempted for a vega 56 if I can find at a decent price.
Fair enough! And Volta architecture is just around the corner now with Nvidia's latest Titan V announcement So you could look into price differences once that happens!