Gigabyte Gtx 970 G1 or AMD R9 390?

[tential]

So can we please sticky georifles response? I'm trying so hard not to laugh in the bathroom at work right now lol.

 

[clok1966]

So did i miss the OP answer in the mud slinging, fact checking, counterpoints? I am in the same boat (well upgrade) I have a 7990, like the performance, single card. Dislike the power and heat, which i could live with, but the card keeps eating FANS, yes fans. I'm on my 5th in just a shade over a year, support has been great, sent me the WHOLE fan shroud each time, but waiting a week or so and replacing it is getting old.. As i spent enough on the 7990 I'm just not up for another $500+ card, so was looking hard at the 970 with some mild OC'ing which most sites show is not on par but close to a stock 980..

so what did this thread decide? OP question? Gtx 970 G1 or AMD R9 390?

about a wash performance wise is my understanding, with a possibility some upside with DX12 on the 390, but more heat power.

 

[Headfoot]

heat and power is going to be pretty irrelevant since you're going to get a great improvement either way moving from a 7990.

970 and 390 are basically tied. 390 has more VRAM but its unlikely it will be able to run at respectable frame rates any game that actually needs that much VRAM. 970 realistically has 3.5gb of VRAM.

I'd pick based on whichever has a better deal and better game bundle all said and done

 

[tweakboy]

Very short tail.

 

[clok1966]

heat and power is going to be pretty irrelevant since you're going to get a great improvement either way moving from a 7990.

970 and 390 are basically tied. 390 has more VRAM but its unlikely it will be able to run at respectable frame rates any game that actually needs that much VRAM. 970 realistically has 3.5gb of VRAM.

I'd pick based on whichever has a better deal and better game bundle all said and done

that is kinda what i was getting after reading it all. I have been a fan of ATI for awhile bang for buck has been good. But this 7990 has soured me bigtime, it works ok, the frame stutter issues doesn't bother me, but hardware wise, never had a card kill fans non stop ever. So i am leaning towards the Green N for a change.

 

[Magee_MC]

Here's a suggestion. Quit digging while you can still reach the top of the hole.

You're not doing yourself or anyone else here any favors with your posts.

***********************************************

WTF??? ARE YOU NUTS ????? RELAX THERE and ENJOY FORUM.
Your logic SUCKS MAN !!!!
I don't need to send you receipts of cards.
1.First card was XFX r9 290 BE, in the beginning it was good, then BSOD, Black screens
2 XFX r9 290x way to hot.

I didn't lied and JUST MAKE SURE YOUR "TEACHING" TONE IT ACCEPTABLE.
Because of YOU I BOUGHT DAMN 290x and YOU GOT YOUR TILE BURNED !!!!

R9 SUCKS and just ENJOY IT....
Your help was really appreciated in the beginning but this is OVERDOSE !!!!
AND enough saying stupid things, open up your own post and do WHATEVER YOU WANT !!!!!

 

[Chaotic0ne]

I mean I personally would go for the 390 since Nvidia scammed people over the GTX 970, they lied and tried to cover it up that it was essentially 3.5GB, and not 4GB as falsely advertised.

So why would I reward a company that lies and cheats and tries to scam people and gets caught lying?

This is the main reason I didn't buy a GTX 970, and went with an R9 390 instead. The performance difference between the two isn't enough to really matter, and when AMD says I get 8gbs of Vram, its 8gbs, not 7.5 because they're tight wads. And I'm extremely satisfied with the performance of the MSI R9 390 I got. The way I look at the R9 390 is its basically a 290x with 8Gbs of Vram for $30 less. Most of the games I play the 390 outperforms a 970 in, like Witcher 3 and DAI. Most of the rest are about dead even, or the 970 is ahead by 1-2 frames which doesn't matter if I'm over 60 anyway.

 

[GEOrifle]

Here's a suggestion. Quit digging while you can still reach the top of the hole.

You're not doing yourself or anyone else here any favors with your posts.

Sorry man, you're right but i don't like when someone is pushing me and calling a LIAR.
Post is about 970 vs 390 and i was concerned about this cards and not 290x which i bought by higher recommendation, in a 2 weeks i have changed 2 cards and i'm mad about it.
Still wanted to buy 390 series but no discounts right now.
Gigabyte's 970 is good one but i guess outdated with old hardware.
Probably i'll wait until 390x versions will go cheap.
Thanks.

 

[96Firebird]

that is kinda what i was getting after reading it all. I have been a fan of ATI for awhile bang for buck has been good. But this 7990 has soured me bigtime, it works ok, the frame stutter issues doesn't bother me, but hardware wise, never had a card kill fans non stop ever. So i am leaning towards the Green N for a change.

What resolution are you running? If under 4K, I would choose the 970 based on perf/$ with the 970 @ $300 and the 390 @ $330. Of course, if you aren't buying in USA, price delta may differ...

 

[clok1966]

What resolution are you running? If under 4K, I would choose the 970 based on perf/$ with the 970 @ $300 and the 390 @ $330. Of course, if you aren't buying in USA, price delta may differ...

I went with a 970 and yep, still under 4K, I bought into that on 55 tv and am not really impressed, its nice, no doubt about it, but worth the upgrade now, not IMHO(and really not place to discuss) Im good at lower rez on my PC, i only have a 32" monitor. But would love to go to a 3 monitor setup in th future sometime.

 

[redzo]

that is kinda what i was getting after reading it all. I have been a fan of ATI for awhile bang for buck has been good. But this 7990 has soured me bigtime, it works ok, the frame stutter issues doesn't bother me, but hardware wise, never had a card kill fans non stop ever. So i am leaning towards the Green N for a change.

But why did you buy it in the first place? I remember most reviewers complaining about high temperature and fan noise. The 7990 was the first sign(before the stock 290x) from AMD of completely loosing perspective as far as temps and noise are concerned.

 

[thesmokingman]

What resolution are you running? If under 4K, I would choose the 970 based on perf/$ with the 970 @ $300 and the 390 @ $330. Of course, if you aren't buying in USA, price delta may differ...

I went with a 970 and yep, still under 4K, I bought into that on 55 tv and am not really impressed, its nice, no doubt about it, but worth the upgrade now, not IMHO(and really not place to discuss) Im good at lower rez on my PC, i only have a 32" monitor. But would love to go to a 3 monitor setup in th future sometime.

I had a 970 connected to a 4K tv, it was an ideal htpc setup. Unfortunately it didn't work out so well with it's segmented memory further hampering it's inability to cope with tougher game loads. Easy games like Grid Autosport ran awesome but big triple A ran poorly, though to be fair most cards not named 980ti and FuryX would run poorly.

 

[NomanA]

Grats! Make sure to register the card within 30 days of purchase but wait for a while before sending the rebate in case the card dies on you in the first 15 days. A lot of times gamers have sufficient time to test out the new card before sending the rebate which means if it fails within the early purchase period, you can deal directly with the retailers/wholesaler but if you already sent the rebate, you have no choice but to deal with the OEM (XFX).

Thanks for the advice, and it's what I normally do as well for handling rebates on such PC components.

So the XFX R9 290 DD came in the mail yesterday. I am seriously impressed by this card. It's virtually silent, even when running Firestrike and Heaven, and the temperatures stay in mid to upper 60s. From 3-4 inch distance, I can hear some coil whine but it's otherwise inaudible. I'll take some kill-a-watt readings, but for now I don't feel any difference in heat output into the room compared to the earlier 7950, or GTX 970. It's definitely quieter than both. For that matter the only time, heat output was a problem was when I had 7950 crossfired. For the other single GPUs, I can't really tell except for using power meters.

Firestrike scored 10300 graphic points at stock clocks. Heaven (2560x1440, everything extreme except MSAA of 2x) gets around 970. My 1480MHz boosted GTX 970 used to score around 12300 points in Firestrike, and about 1020-1040 in Heaven.

The plan is to run stock for few days, and then try to have a 10% overclock (around 1050-1070 MHz). If that works, without over-volting, then I'll start lowering the voltage until the GPU becomes unstable.

R9 290 is an excellent GPU, and this particular card from XFX is very impressive. Considering I got it new for under $200, it's an amazing deal for a card which is around 75-80% of FuryX and 980Ti stock performance levels at 2560x1440. It will more than suffice until the next gen GPUs arrive.

 

[CropDuster]

The plan is to run stock for few days, and then try to have a 10% overclock (around 1050-1070 MHz). If that works, without over-volting, then I'll start lowering the voltage until the GPU becomes unstable.

My DD will run -75mV at 1000mhz just as a reference. I've had this card since Feb 14 and have been thoroughly happy with it (my first non nvidia card since my Voodoo 3). :thumbsup:

 

[NomanA]

My DD will run -75mV at 1000mhz just as a reference. I've had this card since Feb 14 and have been thoroughly happy with it (my first non nvidia card since my Voodoo 3). :thumbsup:

Thanks for the reference point! -75mV sounds pretty good. I hope I got a good GPU too.

 

[RussianSensation]

On air coolers you do not get 50 degrees Celsius temperature drop by changing the cooler. So this is why I did not see such differences in power draw between various air cooled cards (same model/same GPU, but with different coolers).

The cooler the GPU runs, the less power it tends to use vs. the same GPU running at higher temperatures.

HD7970 @ 1050mhz = 238W peak
HIS IceQ HD7970 Turbo X @ 1180mhz = 239W peak
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7970_X_Turbo/26.html

The choice of power delivery/VRMs and number of PCB layers can also have some impact.

Hardware.fr also did a great analysis of various HD7970 cards at the time:

Asus DCUII HD7970
1000mhz = 208W
1150mhz = 237W

Asus Matrix HD7970
1100mhz = 227W
1200mhz = 251W

MSI Lightning 7970
1070mhz = 211W
1150mhz = 256W

XFX Double Dissipation 7970
925mhz = 203W
1100mhz = 244W

This was known since at least January 2012 when reference HD7970 cards came out and certain people on AT would keep telling us how all HD7970 cards run hot and loud and how it was impossible to get an HD7970 card to clock at 1150-1175mhz and still use < 250W of power because 238W of power of a reference blower HD7970Ghz was always taken as some gospel truth.

Nonetheless, to this date Wizzard uses reference blower HD7970Ghz card's Furmark power usage numbers as Gaming Peak (he hasn't corrected this mistake for 12 months straight despite all his reviews before showing the correct 238W peak not 273W peak) and to make matters worse, HD7970Ghz never sold in reference design form thus making the measurement a theoretical one not a practical one. That's why we really should have power usage database for a specific SKU (HD7970, 980, 980Ti, R9 290X) as the variance between the heatsink coolers and components chosen often has a great deal of impact on the power usage.

That's why I can't wait for AMD/NV to uses AIO CLC on their reference 250W TDP cards as it provides the triple benefits of lowering power usage at similar voltages/clock speeds, exhausting the heat out of the case which aids in SLI/CF setups, allows the card to run much cooler too.

Thanks for the advice, and it's what I normally do as well for handling rebates on such PC components.

So the XFX R9 290 DD came in the mail yesterday. I am seriously impressed by this card. It's virtually silent, even when running Firestrike and Heaven, and the temperatures stay in mid to upper 60s.

You are welcome! But I think you have a faulty card. It's supposed to be loud, and operate at 90-95C.

R9 290 is an excellent GPU, and this particular card from XFX is very impressive. Considering I got it new for under $200, it's an amazing deal for a card which is around 75-80% of FuryX and 980Ti stock performance levels at 2560x1440. It will more than suffice until the next gen GPUs arrive.

Ya, that's why I've been recommending gamers buy 290/290X/390/970 OR go all the way to the 980Ti. Those are the two sweet spots right now. The 290/390/970 users can just upgrade again on 16nm HBM2 if they need more performance. I don't feel cards like 390X/980 are worth their price premiums at the moment.

 

[boozzer]

390 all the way unless you plan to only keep the 970 till the 16nm gpus hit the market.

2+ years = 100% 390.

 

[RussianSensation]

390 all the way unless you plan to only keep the 970 till the 16nm gpus hit the market.

2+ years = 100% 390.

There are still great R9 290 deals to be had. $220 Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 with 1Ghz clocks. One of the best R9 290 cards. This is a way better deal than any GTX970/390 card at the moment unless one needs HDMI 2.0 feature. $80-110 savings from not buying a GTX970/390 (unless we include $255 B-stock 970) can go a long way towards the next GPU upgrade (i.e., if the gamer diligently sets aside that $80-110, that means the next $300 GPU upgrade is really just $300 - ($80/110) - resale value of the R9 290. That's the best budget gaming upgrade path at the moment that makes cards like GTX950/960/380/280X all irrelevant in the DIY space (i.e., if you don't own a $5 300W OEM PSU) if bang-for-the-buck FPS gaming is a priority.

 

[boozzer]

There are still great R9 290 deals to be had. $220 Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 with 1Ghz clocks. One of the best R9 290 cards. This is a way better deal than any GTX970/390 card at the moment unless one needs HDMI 2.0 feature. $80-110 savings from not buying a GTX970/390 (unless we include $255 B-stock 970) can go a long way towards the next GPU upgrade (i.e., if the gamer diligently sets aside that $80-110, that means the next $300 GPU upgrade is really just $300 - ($80/110) - resale value of the R9 290. That's the best budget gaming upgrade path at the moment that makes cards like GTX950/960/380/280X all irrelevant in the DIY space (i.e., if you don't own a $5 300W OEM PSU) if bang-for-the-buck FPS gaming is a priority.

that I know, but the op asked for 970 vs 390. I just don't wanna presumed too much. :thumbsup:

 

[tential]

I feel like the 290 is only a good deal under 200 dollars. And I being super greedy? I think 2 290s crossfire is still the sweet spot for performance per dollar right now

 

[soccerballtux]

I feel like the 290 is only a good deal under 200 dollars. And I being super greedy? I think 2 290s crossfire is still the sweet spot for performance per dollar right now

290 is just weird to me unless you have need of specific performance in a few games. For example, I ONLY play Tribes: Ascend.

And when I play it, I would like 86fps 24/7.

Otherwise, I'd rather have more shaders == future proof, or more RAM == future proof. But 4GB and 2.5k shaders....just doesn't excite me.

 

[you2]

I was actually wondering the same thing (970 vs 390 vs 290). I noticed that the asus 970 was on sale today for $320 and the msi r9 390 is $330 (didn't check the 290). The 390 seems ot be a lot faster in some games (witcher for example) and only a litlte faster in others (1440p - which is what i use) compared to the 970. The 970 is rated at 100 watts less than the 390 but they both seem to run around the same temp. I'm leaning towards the 390 but was curious if I missed anything obvious. I mostly play games like witcher 3; xcom, dragon age, metro light, ...
-
I could care less about hdmi 2.0 since 1.4 works fine with 1440p; and I could care less about 4gb vs 3.5gb vs 8gb as long as the card gives good performance/visuals.
-
I do care about eventual dx12 performance since that is very near future.

 

[tential]

I was actually wondering the same thing (970 vs 390 vs 290). I noticed that the asus 970 was on sale today for $320 and the msi r9 390 is $330 (didn't check the 290). The 390 seems ot be a lot faster in some games (witcher for example) and only a litlte faster in others (1440p - which is what i use) compared to the 970. The 970 is rated at 100 watts less than the 390 but they both seem to run around the same temp. I'm leaning towards the 390 but was curious if I missed anything obvious. I mostly play games like witcher 3; xcom, dragon age, metro light, ...
-
I could care less about hdmi 2.0 since 1.4 works fine with 1440p; and I could care less about 4gb vs 3.5gb vs 8gb as long as the card gives good performance/visuals.
-
I do care about eventual dx12 performance since that is very near future.

Power Rating isn't a tested metric. It's something you can slap onto a product. Just like food expiration dates don't come from the FDA(Crazy right?), it's just the manufacturers BEST GUESS as to when the food is still good. In fact, in some states they aren't even used at all.

DX12 performance, preliminary, it seems AMD is very ready for DX12.

So R9 390 it is for you IMO.

For a person like myself, I would get the R9 390 as well, but I'd simply upgrade when DX12 is more relevant. GPUs after this gen will blow the R9 390 out of the water. Of course, everyone buys and sells things differently, but either way I doubt you go wrong with the 390. It's the "safe" bet to me.

 

[iiiankiii]

I feel like the 290 is only a good deal under 200 dollars. And I being super greedy? I think 2 290s crossfire is still the sweet spot for performance per dollar right now

Under $200, the 290 becomes a godly deal for those looking at cards priced <$350. Of course, I'm talking about aftermarket cooler 290s; not the reference blower. I would recommend a $200 290 over a GTX 950/960, R9 280/285/380/390/x and the GTX 970. At $200, it becomes a no brainer unless you're one of those guys that must have the lowest TDP possible or have those janky PSUs.

 

[tential]

Under $200, the 290 becomes a godly deal for those looking at cards priced <$350. Of course, I'm talking about aftermarket cooler 290s; not the reference blower. I would recommend a $200 290 over a GTX 950/960, R9 280/285/380/390/x and the GTX 970. At $200, it becomes a no brainer unless you're one of those guys that must have the lowest TDP possible or have those janky PSUs.

Been trying to pick one up used for under $180. Probably very very unreasonable but this gen sucks, and I need some performance to hold me over til gpus that can actually handle what I want at reasonable prices.