480 or fury at nearly same price point?

[Essence_of_War]

I'm buying a new gpu and psu in the next week, I have found an 8GB sapphire 480 nitro+ for ~280 USD, but Ive also found a sapphire nitro fury non-X for ~310 USD.

Pros for th fury: it's about 30-35%faster for only 10-15% more money. HBM. Excellent cooler, excellent thermals, excellent noise profiles (extremely cool and quiet).
Cons: higher total cost, noticeably higher power draw, "last gen" architecture, less total video memory.

Pros for the 480: more memory(?), lower total cost, more power efficient, latest and "greatest"
Cons: seems over priced at its perf level, it sounds like sapphire cheaper out on the cooler and thermals are quite high and fan noise is very loud (comparable to reference design in both)

Both are in my budget, fury is on th edge. Assuming that I'm gaming at 1920x1080/1200 for the next 12-24 months in games like witcher 3, tomb raider, HotS, civ5, SC2, Arkham, AC series, which of these is the better buy?

 

[Bacon1]

I went with the Fury myself. We've yet to see the 4GB of HBM have issues with games, even when running crazy settings like 4k w/ 4x SSAA in Rise of the Tomb Raider. It scaled the same as the Titan with 12GB of GDDR5.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/02/29/rise_tomb_raider_graphics_features_performance/12

Like you said, it's faster and nearly the same price. Its "last gen", but also basically current since it has most of the improvements over Hawaii that Polaris does as well as a newer memory config with HBM vs GDDR5. I game @ 3440x1440 so it made more sense, for 1080p you can go with either though, as its not until past 1440p that the 480 and Fury really differentiate.

 

[crisium]

As Bacon says, at 1080 the Fury can't really pull its weight. Latest TPU chart has the Fury only 14% faster at 1080 (22% faster 1440). The VRAM difference won't really matter here at only 1080.

In fact I'd tell you to go Fury for 1440 for sure despite the 4GB of VRAM (so far, thankfully, it hardly matters). At 1440 the Fury definitely gives you noticeably more performance and/or higher settings. At 1080, the advantage could not matter quite as much. You could go either, though since both fit your budget I guess I'd say you may as well go Fury since even at 1080 it is usually the faster card. Unless you want HDMI 2.0.

 

[Shmee]

Fury seems to make more sense for your situation. It may also unlock!

 

[Bacon1]

Also, you can always use VSR with the Fury to run the game @ 1440p even with a 1080p monitor. If the price is very close and you don't need HDMI 2 (I wouldn't use a TV as a monitor!) Fury is better buy.

 

[kawi6rr]

If AMD does some great stuff with their drivers like they did with the 290/390 then the 480 is a tough one to pass up. If I were to buy a graphics card now and the fury was close in price then it would be hard not to purchase it.

All out performance = Fury
Possible longevity = 480 but I don't know if drivers will get it past Fury.

 

[crashtech]

I picked up a Fury last week for $279. I think for me it was a good choice for 1080, have put 4K on hold indefinitely, may go with a used 1440 monitor at some point.

 

[kawi6rr]

I picked up a Fury last week for $279. I think for me it was a good choice for 1080, have put 4K on hold indefinitely, may go with a used 1440 monitor at some point.

That's a really good price for a Fury, you scored!

 

[Bacon1]

I picked up a Fury last week for $279. I think for me it was a good choice for 1080, have put 4K on hold indefinitely, may go with a used 1440 monitor at some point.

Great deal on it!

You can always use VSR for 1440p in games on your 1080p monitor

 

[crashtech]

That's a really good price for a Fury, you scored!

To be fair, it was used, but when I got it it was spotless and still had protective film on some parts So yeah, a Sapphire Nitro Fury for $279...

Amazon has them new for $309 which is not bad either:

https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rad...c&ie=UTF8&qid=1473279014&sr=1-1&keywords=fury

 

[Essence_of_War]

Thanks for weighing in everyone!

After careful consideration, I picked up a different 480, an Asus ROG that popped into stock with a promo code. Should be delivered today!