I've currently got a GTX 670 Direct CU II top 2gb. I got the bf4 beta and high was good with 45-50ish fps (with the recommended driver) I'm alright with that, but my friend is upgrading his GPU from a Radeon 7450, so I said I might give him my card for like 200 bucks (if I get a new one), because I was hoping to run ultra at around 60-70 average. I've been looking at the Radeon R9 290x, as BF4 comes with it, and it's apparently optimized for the game? Will this have a huge impact on performance, or is it not worth it? As well, I keep hearing about "Mantle", and I don't really get it, but apparently it's a huge deal. So yeah, is it worth the upgrade (really I'm spending $400 because I'm selling my GPU to a friend), or do I stick with the 670 and just go on medium to high and buy the next series of cards when they release? Thanks in advance.

Yes. Radeon R9 290x ... Yes.

Mantle effects will not likely arise till around Christmas.

you will still be winning.

till I get your tags. mughahahg

Alright, thanks. Can't wait to play it

I don't know what you're waiting for.

I've been playing all day

Don't buy a card for Mantle, you know why?
Because your computer is going to be way more powerful anyway.

I'm just buying it cause I want to play BF4 on Ultra. If mantle comes with it (still don't know what it is), I'll take it.

Btw, I don't have it because I'm waiting til I have enough money for the card, so I can get them at once. Rather than have 2 bf4s and need to go to through selling it. And, when I experience the game for the first time, it's on the 290x.

(10-29-2013 08:50 PM)SuttleMuffin Wrote:  (still don't know what it is)

.... and neither does Eddy.

Mantle replace DirectX for some game with partnership with AMD now the problem that will make it not become relevant in the near future is that it will only work on AMD card.
Now if you say "PhysX can only run on AMD card so what's the problem?" well you can run PhysX on your CPU but you can't do that with Mantle and it's not the same thing anyway.
So developer would need to make 2 PC version of the same game.

Plus, PC are already way more powerful than a console, even if it's not optimize in every way it will still look and run better than the two console.
Maybe now PC are not that powerful versus the console but just wait for Maxwell.

Also nVidia have a thing like Mantle launch 4/5 years ago, no one cared AFAIK.

Hey guys, I noticed that the R9 290 has came out, and it's significantly cheaper than the R9 290x. I'll spend the extra cash if I have to, but I just wanna know if I'm spending $200 for a 2% increase. As well, does BF4 come with the 290? Or just the 290x. Thanks in advance.

As well, I'm hearing lots of things about how the 290 and 290x consume ridiculous amounts of power. I have an i7 3770k (stock), a GB ud3h MB, a HDD, SSD and a blu ray thing, 16gb ram currently on a 700w 80+ bronze PSU. Will this be enough, yet not like borderline?

Don't buy the 290 over the 290x.
Even if the game isn't included you can probably do the math and see it's not worth it at all.

And I sure hope your PSU is fine.