R9 280, R9 380 or gtx 960?

[Seba]

R9 380 faster than GTX960 at a GameWorks game like Witcher 3.

"Hairworks Off"

 

[AtenRa]

"Hairworks Off"

Still a GameWorks game.

Also, GTX960 will be unplayable with those settings AND hairworks on.

 

[Vesku]

If you can find a 290 within your budget I don't see a reason not to get that over the lesser performing options. If you are concerned about power use you can underclock and undervolt it and if such considerations are an afterthought you can overclock and overvolt it.

The main points to be aware of when it comes to choosing a 290 are can you get a model within your price range that at least has a serial number or transferable warranty and that it has a good aftermarket cooler design. I believe MSI and Gigabyte still offer 3 year serial number based warranties. I want to say ASUS as well but I'd have to spend some time checking that which I don't care to do atm, perhaps some other poster will knows.

If a 290 is off the table I suggest whichever tickles your fancy between a 380 or 960 4GB. Even if the 380 ages better with handling DX 12 I don't think developers will be putting out games that run unsatisfactorily at 1080P on a 960 within a 2-3 year timeframe. Barring any Crisis 1 "crush your system" type of game.

 

[Techhog]

"Hairworks Off"

What idiot would use Hairworks with a 960?

 

[Seba]

What idiot would use Hairworks with a 960?

I don't know. But it is curious to point out that a certain game (used for bench-marking) is using some features and then the benchmark itself is performed with some of those features turned off.

 

[Headfoot]

280X is not the same card as 280. Don't confuse them. 280X is going to be faster than 380 4GB and 960 4GB in most cases. At this point I just hope they release a 380X so we dont have this weird product gap between 380 + 960 4GB on newer architectures being slightly slower than the older 280X but then a big price gap until you hit 290/390/970.

 

[Techhog]

I don't know. But it is curious to point out that a certain game (used for bench-marking) is using some features and then the benchmark itself is performed with some of those features turned off.

It's still a GameWorks title, even with the features turned off. Just look at a benchmark with more cards, and there's a very obvious pattern in terms of relative performance:

GCN 1.0/1.1 < Kepler < GCN 1.2 ~= Maxwell

Now why is this? It's simple: Maxwell's strengths are tessellation (a weak point for AMD GPUs before GCN 1.2) and OpenCL (a weakpoint for Nvidia GPUs before Maxwell), which happen to also be strengths of GCN 1.2 and Maxwell. The games are optimized for new Nvidia GPUs, but AMD happened to be a step ahead compared to the past this time.

 

[lilltesaito]

Disregard
Thanks for explaining Railven

 

[railven]

This math is way off. you forgot to /1000 so that 13,66 dollars goes to 13.66 dollars.

Different cultures use , instead of . for numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_mark#Examples_of_use

 

[psolord]

I voted r9 380, which is not a bad card by a long shot, but for an i3 I would recommend a used GTX 970.

Sure the system will get cpu limited quite a lot, but it's better to have a surplus of gpu power, than not.

 

[secretagent]

You're talking about features you can't use. Physx will cripple you on an i3. Gsync and freesync are both vendors... Txaa will again not be worth the perf hit and it's not like there aren't forms of aa you can use including vsr/dsr which I think is superior to anything out there (although again perf hit).

Yeah, the TXAA and Gsync things I kinda figured wouldn't matter, But what does PhysX do exactly?

 

[secretagent]

Really op, I think the difference isnt that great between these cards as choices. If I was in your position the 290 hands down is what I'd pick.

If you really want to penny pinch, I'd go one of the amd models you picked for dx12 and async as you won't have as much cpu power left over for any emulation given your cpu(and I hate to bring dx12 into this as nothing is for sure).

I'd say 970 or 290.

As another poster put it recently you have 2 options.
An r9 390(or 290) and a gtx 980ti.

Everything else really is a horrid value.

Gtx 970 bstock deserves a mention if you Can get that and like nvidia more get it.

I understand that the value of these cards aren't that great, but I'm stuck with 1080p 60fps for the foreseeable future anyways. I won't be gaming too much anyways, maybe 3-4 days a week, for 4-6 hrs. If I can find a 290 (or a 970) within my price range, I will definitely buy it, but if not I think I will go with the 380. I realize that the futureproofing factor is less if I don't go with the higher end cards, but that seems to be my only choice, since I don't have the money for the higher end cards.

P.S. should I wait for boxing day to get my card? I may find a 290 or a 970 that I could afford if I do, or will the wait not be worth it?

 

[tential]

Yeah, the TXAA and Gsync things I kinda figured wouldn't matter, But what does PhysX do exactly?

Not much although it can kill performance on some games.

 

[secretagent]

Well, I found this: http://www.ncix.com/detail/xfx-radeon-r9-380-990mhz-7e-110205-1382.htm

It seems pretty great, just under my price range, but I don't know much about XFX, I don't know anything, actually. Is it a trusted brand? Is the card as good as: http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-radeon-r9-380-twinfrozr-5c-110320-1391.htm

or this: http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-380-g1-4c-110236-1968.htm

or, actually, theres quite a lot... http://search.ncix.com/search/?qcatid=0&q=R9+380

What's the big difference? Which one should I go with? And yes I know the cards have huge sales, but I can't get any one of them right now, it'll have to be around Christmas time...

 

[secretagent]

On the XFX website, the minimum power required for the 380 4Gb is 750W!!! Is this true, because if it is, thats insane!

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/...on-r9-380-4gb-double-dissipation-r9-380p-4255

 

[Techhog]

On the XFX website, the minimum power required for the 380 4Gb is 750W!!! Is this true, because if it is, thats insane!

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/...on-r9-380-4gb-double-dissipation-r9-380p-4255

It's an error.

 

[secretagent]

It's an error.

Phew

 

[Techhog]

Phew

Haha. The power consumption numbers posted in this thread earlier wereusing that card.

 

[Leyawiin]

AMD and some of its partners grossly overstate the power supply requirement for their cards. You have a very thrifty CPU so basically the only demand on the system is the GPU and an R9 380 will be fine with the power supply you have. In fact, Powercolor and Gigabyte only specify a 500W for their R9 380. That said, a GTX 960 uses about 80W less at load.

 

[PhonakV30]

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-discontinue-2gb-versions-geforce-gtx-960/

 

[RussianSensation]

Or, buy a card in the US, ship it to me, and sail over Lake Ontario and pick it up. I'll even test it out for ya.

Ya, since the OP is considering buying his card in December, any deals from now until December could get him an R9 390/970. The sales are already starting and they are big.

If someone can help the OP buy the card and ship it to him in Ontario, this is easily the best value at around $300 CDN.



================================

I don't know why some people in this thread insist on the R9 380/960 as those cards are absolutely overpriced brand new in Canada and their performance for future games is not going to be good enough to last the OP 3 years.

960 is overpriced beyond belief, and it's only getting worse with newer games. DX12 performance looks mediocre from what we know.

Performance in modern shooters is falling apart as well.

Let's not even forget that not everyone plays only AAA games. What about other games? Oh that's right, 960 gets killed by a 280X. How much are used HD7970Ghz cards in Canada? About half the price of a new 960 4GB. 960 makes no sense at current prices in Canada.

The OP wants to play TW3, and how does a 960 perform relative to a 290?

What about GTA V? Once again, well behind the R9 280X/290.

Indie games? Once again 960 loses to even the 280X:
http://www.computerbase.de/2015-08/trine-3-benchmark-grafikkarte/#toc

 

[RussianSensation]

Battlefield games? Once again 960 loses to even the 280X:

Even in Batman AK, a GameWorks title, the 960 still loses to a 280X:

What about Black Ops 3? 280X crushes the 960, again, while 290 is nearly doubling it.

There are very few legitimate cases where the 960 makes sense - WoW, Project CARS and if you need an HTPC card with HDMI 2.0 out into your living room for your 4K TV. Otherwise, it's overpriced, slow. Same for the 380 as far as Canadian pricing goes. The best course of action for the OP if the goal is to save $ are used HD7970/7970Ghz, after-market 290/290X. These 2 options smoke 380/960 in price/performance. Alternatively, try to wait for a deal on a new 390, or someone helps him buy a card in the US and ships it to Ontario. Skip 380 and 960. There is no way those cards are worth $250-300 CDN.

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-discontinue-2gb-versions-geforce-gtx-960/

That's a positive step forward, but even if GTX960 4GB drops to $160, it's still overpriced. We are already seeing deals on 390 for $225. 960 should have never been labelled as a 960. I feel sorry for 90% of gamers who bought into the x60 marketing name. One of the worst cards of this generation, along with a 285 2GB. It's amazing how the Fury and Fury X got a massive beating online and by the media but one of the biggest sellers this generation got away with being such an overpriced turd. A true shame.

 

[xorbe]

I got the single-fan mini evga 4gb 960 for my htpc for $199. For fun, I jammed it into my main titan x godbox for testing (oc'd 4790k, 32gb, rice stickers, etc). It's a really quiet card. None of those oversized 960 cards need dual fans, it's stupid. It sells because it works at 1920 with reasonable settings, it's easy on the psu, and "only" $199. That ticks a lot of boxes in the consumer world.

 

[Leyawiin]

That's a positive step forward, but even if GTX960 4GB drops to $160, it's still overpriced.

That would be an utterly ridiculous and totally subjective assessment. I'd snap up one in a hot minute if there were no MIR hanky panky to muddy the waters as with every price you quote.

 

[secretagent]

I got the single-fan mini evga 4gb 960 for my htpc for $199. For fun, I jammed it into my main titan x godbox for testing (oc'd 4790k, 32gb, rice stickers, etc). It's a really quiet card. None of those oversized 960 cards need dual fans, it's stupid. It sells because it works at 1920 with reasonable settings, it's easy on the psu, and "only" $199. That ticks a lot of boxes in the consumer world.

I don't care much for noise, I don't mind it at all.