Behold! My new PC: Thoughts?

[OctavianAXFive]

Processor
i7-4770k @ stock for now

Motherboard
MSi Z87 GD-65 Gaming Series

RAM
Corsair Vengeance pro 2x8GB

SSD
Samsung 840 Pro 256gb

CPU cooling
Swiftech H220

Case
Fractal Design Arc Midi r2

PSU
Corsair RM series 750w

GPU
Radeon HD 5870:(

Audio
Soundblaster X-fi Titanium HD:D

ODD
LG Blu-Ray reader

Case airflow is negative pressure. Not worried about dust because this thing has tons of filters and I even fitted special PCI plates with dust filters to make sure things stay cool and dust free.

All of these parts are brand new expect for the 5870. It's quite sad because I'd upgraded to a GTX 670 a few months before my old PC was stolen. I still had the 5870 so I didn't get a new card just yet. Idle my PC is pretty quiet (I'd guesstimate it's around 15dB). But whenever any game launches the 5870 attempts to leave the atmosphere, taking the sound barrier with it. All that and it still could fry an egg.

Anyway I'm keeping a close eye on the GPU market. I thought I could live with the 5870 until the GTX 800 series comes out sometime next spring/summer. But it's just so deafening I'm not sure I can wait that long. That and Planetside 2 is hardcore GPU bottle necked now (I know right?!).

I lean away from AMD because their support for older games is suspect (I can barely get KotoR to run when I disable in game movies, which is not good enough because that's an annual ritual for me). What do you guys think, R9 290X, GTX 780/Ti or suck it up and wait for 800 series or R9 3series?

[Goku]

Setup looks pretty bad ass to me anyway. Do not let the 5870 get to you as its still a decent card even today. Over all my current rig (not the one in my sig) is similar performance to yours and I don't have any kind of issues. Obviously not running games on uber high settings though.

The new R9 series and 780 are nice cards, but are a bit expensive for my taste. Most I ever spent on a GPU is $300 and I do not think I can go over that. Which is why I'm waiting for next gen most likely. Though if a price war starts I could see either 290 (non X) being tempting if it goes below the $400 bracket. Just due to the fact overclocking the card should net above GTX 780 performance. If you were to get one of the R9 series or GTX 780 spin offs I don't see why it couldn't last you several years.

[Goku]

Nvidia dropped the price of the GTX 780 to $500. Looking good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600030348%20600451269%20600440544&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

[OctavianAXFive]

I ended up splitting the difference with myself partly because I have high hopes for the 8 series. The price cut brought the GTX 770 down to $300 ($330 for non-ref) and that's what I went with. I figured that I didn't want any of the games in the holiday bundle so I would sell them for a combined $120-140.

I figured a GTX 770 for a net $190 was a pretty good deal, even if it's a glorified (or glorious) rebrand of the GTX 680. That way if the GTX 8 series or R10 series is great (and mantle is what AMD hopes it will be) I won't feel too bad about upgrading next year. And if they aren't that much better, then I can't complain because in relative terms the GK104 is a monster chip.

[Goku]

I would of went with the R9 280X over the 770. I like the fact it has more bandwidth along with the additional 1GB of vram. Seems like a no brainer to me considering the 770 and 280X cost the same. Regardless I am sure the card will serve you well for the duration you intend to keep it.

I am wondering if the 290 may end up @ $400 now due to the 780 price cut.

[OctavianAXFive]

Well from what I can tell the vram in most games never tops 2GB at 1080p (except for Skyrim apparently). I'm not planning on upgrading my monitor anytime soon so I figured for the power a 770 could output, the 2Gb would hardly be a bottleneck.

Like I mentioned in my original post, AMD cards have trouble with older OpenGL games, particularly KotoR which is a big stick in the mud when it comes to choosing a GPU.

The 20nm 800 series is supposed to show up over the summer and I suspect AMD won't be far behind. I think the improvement from Kepler to Maxwell will be noticeable and hopefully more useful for high res gaming in the future. I mean, let's face it, though the 780ti and R9 290x CAN play at 4k 'smoothly' there is a lot to be desired in terms of actual frame rates.

GPUs are being tuned to perform at these resolutions now, but the tech is very much in the early adapter phase. So I figured I would stick with what I know works on the low-high end and wait a few months to see if AMD and Nvidia are ready to deliver on the Ultra HD goodness.

[Goku]

More vram never hurts especially at similar price points in my opinion. Developers have access to a lot more ram now in consoles, so I would expect to start seeing vram usage go up.

I never played kotor, so I am not experienced with that bug. I will say AMD has been lacking in the OpenGL performance from what I have read anyway. Especially the case on linux compared to Nvidia. They do likely have issues that still need to be resolved.

In terms of waiting for 20nm instead of hoping on the current top cards is not a bad idea either. If you get one of those cards be it the 390X or 880 you will probably have a top tier card for well over a year. Every major release of new cards seems to be getting longer and longer. GDDR6 I think is coming out with the next gen too. Offers twice the bandwidth compared to GDDR5, so be interesting to see what Nvidia and AMD does with the new tech.

In terms of Ultra HD its going to be a niche for quite awhile I think unless prices drop a good amount. Personally I would be more interested in a 24 to 27 inch 2560x1440 monitor, as I don't really care for huge displays.

EDIT: 290 ended up being priced at $400. Ties the 780 in stock performance. Only problem seems to be the fan profile can be loud according to some reviews, power consumption is a high as well.

[OctavianAXFive]

Well so far as Planetside 2 is concerned, I can run everything on high/ultra with GPU particle physics enabled at 1920x1200 with 100% render quality and still average over 60FPS in a big fight.

I have shadows turned off completely because they are the bane of frame rates and don't really add much visually except more jagged lines. In the warpgate I'll get up to 140FPS on live.

When BF4 works out all the kinks I'll buy it and see how well my system fares. I learned from BF3's awful launch and didn't preorder because I suspected the same train wreck would happen at the BF4 launch. It's good to be right, even if it's a bit sad.

[Hater Tots]

Sounds awesome. I'm getting a new laptop for Christmas, hopefully it can compete at least slightly with your badass of a computer.