GTX970/980 vs GTX960: the only benefit is greater resolutions in games?

[boozzer]

no, if you are going nv, it is 980 ti or bust. at every other price point, amd makes much more sense. that is, if you aren't tribal

 

[RussianSensation]

I would go for the gtx 960 4gb as being on amd for years I can tell you drivers are always slow coming and many games are left in the dark with bad optimization. Maybe amd are more focused on dx12 but I guess it's a roll of the dice as to which card would last longer. I'm quite happy with my 960 and every game I've tried plays really well at 1080p shooters play mostly on high/max at over 60fps with v-sync on. With no frame drops, can't say the same for amd's 380. Running a 6500 skylake and ddr4 2400 ram overclocked to 2800. Gtx 960 is running overclocked with boost clock just over 1524mhz and memory speed of 8000mhz and that's with the cheapest gigabyte 4gb card. Hope this helps.

Your post is especially ironic considering in the last 3 years AMD has destroyed NV in driver support for single GPUs. Which cards aged better from HD7000 series vs. 600 series or R9 200 series vs. GTX700 series? The answer is obvious and factual data shows the completely opposite of your post. HD7970Ghz by itself smashed 680 and 770 and almost came close to a reference 780! Today even AMD's mid-range HD7950 OC would beat 680 2GB OC. That's embarrassing for team NV and you are saying that AMD's single GPU drivers are bad? Ooook.

In fact, if you had purchased an HD7950 in 2012, you would still have no upgrade path on the NV side besides moving to a GTX970. Even a GTX960 OC cannot outperform HD7950 OC in 2015.

It's all down to drivers again. ... For gaming right now I would say nvidia all the way.

Your posts essentially contradict themselves. You say it all comes down to the drivers and AMD is beating NV in $150-500 price segments. Therefore, you are basically stating "Buy NV, even though it's slower....because I think AMD drivers are worse."

GTX960 loses to R9 280X/380 and 380X. So why would you recommend someone buy an NV card? It's not logical what you are saying.

Yeah, the 980 makes no sense at all. It would either be the 960 4gb, the 970 or the 980ti if going NV.

For a new rig I'd go 970 or 980Ti if he must have an NV card. 980 is overpriced in most countries and 960 is just bad value. Not directed at you, but this "AMD drivers" sucks meme is getting so annoying because it's flat out contradictory to real world benchmarks across the web. It' sliterally becoming a made-up meme to justify buying green cards which are 15-30% slower in the same pricing segment 960 4GB competes. This is what I've been saying for years: Even if AMD beats NV in nearly all key metrics like absolute performance, VRAM, price/performance, people who hate AMD/only buy NV will buy more expensive and/or slower NV cards. They just care for the logo/perception not what the product represents. Same like people buying the all-new Toyota Corolla with rear drum breaks.

Ridiculous that some people can be that biased when they site AMD drivers as the reason NOT to buy an AMD card when AMD cards outperform NV's products unless we discuss the uber level where 980Ti/Titan X reside.

Damn, that's cheap! It's 425 EUR over here. That's more than 425 USD. I would definately hit it for 300 EUR. No second thoughts.

Until the OP lists prices of R9 380/380X/390/960/970/980, and his max GPU budget, this thread is basically stuck.

 

[idb1rec]

I'm not saying nv are faster or better cards just that the drivers are more regular and perform better out the gate how many driver updates did amd release in the last 12 months? I am purely recommending from my experience. I've had a more rewarding experience from the 960 and more driver updates for it than amd have released in the last year. I would get whatever you feel is best for your needs but driver updates are critical when it comes to midrange gpu's as it's the difference between playable or not. So take that into account

 

[f2bnp]

Why exactly do you need to update drivers every few weeks? If you were on Crossfire, I'd agree that frequent driver updates and CF profiles are a must, but I don't see an issue with single cards.

But, just to answer your question, AMD released drivers in an almost monthly basis this year.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm not saying nv are faster or better cards just that the drivers are more regular and perform better out the gate how many driver updates did amd release in the last 12 months? I am purely recommending from my experience. I've had a more rewarding experience from the 960 and more driver updates for it than amd have released in the last year. I would get whatever you feel is best for your needs but driver updates are critical when it comes to midrange gpu's as it's the difference between playable or not. So take that into account

Sorry but your post makes no sense because at no point in time did 750/750Ti/GTX950/960 outperform its AMD competitors at similar prices in the US regardless of driver updates. From day 1 these cards were released, they offered worse price/performance to AMD's low-end and mid-range cards in the US market and this continues today. Using the cheapest Newegg US prices I could find:

$100 R7 265 <--- 5% slower than R7 370 vs. $110 GTX750Ti 2GB
$110 R9 370 vs. $130 GTX950 2GB
$150 R9 380 2GB vs. $165 GTX960 2GB
$170 R9 280X or $190 R9 380 4GB or $200 R9 380X vs. $195 GTX960 4GB

In every single price category from $100 to $200 U.S., at current Newegg prices, there is an AMD card that offers superior price/performance to any NV card.

This is tested with modern games so your point about drivers is already accounted for in the benchmarks.

But, just to answer your question, AMD released drivers in an almost monthly basis this year.

Back in the days AMD released drivers almost monthly and we still heard how their drivers "suck" despite HD7970Ghz beating GTX680 on day 1 of release. That was all the way in June of 2012. Then when AMD shifted to less frequent driver updates, their drivers again "sucked" and fast forward to today, HD7970Ghz aka R9 280X 3GB smokes 680/770 cards despite these "crappy" less frequent drivers, while $700 GTX780Ti is just 3.5% faster than a $400 R9 290 @ 1440P. Go figure. That's the definition of crappy drives?

That's to say nothing of $200 R9 380X beating GTX960 by 15-28% depending on the review.

 

[idb1rec]

Sorry but your post makes no sense because at no point in time did 750/750Ti/GTX950/960 outperform its AMD competitors at similar prices in the US regardless of driver updates. From day 1 these cards were released, they offered worse price/performance to AMD's low-end and mid-range cards in the US market and this continues today. Using the cheapest Newegg US prices I could find:

$100 R7 265 <--- 5% slower than R7 370 vs. $110 GTX750Ti 2GB
$110 R9 370 vs. $130 GTX950 2GB
$150 R9 380 2GB vs. $165 GTX960 2GB
$170 R9 280X or $190 R9 380 4GB or $200 R9 380X vs. $195 GTX960 4GB

In every single price category from $100 to $200 U.S., at current Newegg prices, there is an AMD card that offers superior price/performance to any NV card.

This is tested with modern games so your point about drivers is already accounted for in the benchmarks.



Back in the days AMD released drivers almost monthly and we still heard how their drivers "suck" despite HD7970Ghz beating GTX680 on day 1 of release. That was all the way in June of 2012. Then when AMD shifted to less frequent driver updates, their drivers again "sucked" and fast forward to today, HD7970Ghz aka R9 280X 3GB smokes 680/770 cards despite these "crappy" less frequent drivers, while $700 GTX780Ti is just 3.5% faster than a $400 R9 290 @ 1440P. Go figure. That's the definition of crappy drives?

That's to say nothing of $200 R9 380X beating GTX960 by 15-28% depending on the review.

I'm not saying they aren't good on paper or on benchmarks. Why do you think I went for the 380 in the first place for its price to performance being better value than the gtx 960. Real life gaming fps and stability showed me otherwise. That's just life you can't believe everything you read. I ruled out everything that could have been causing any issues before sending it back. So take my word or the word of a paid reviewer. Honestly I was just giving my opinion and experience regarding two products and which I would buy again. If you don't like it go cry to someone who cares. I'm happy gaming on my pc. I'm sure the op is trying to achieve the same with his budget he has.

 

[swapjim]

Not just DDR4, but faster DDR4 like DDR4-2800.

Going from 2400 or 2666 to 2800, there is a 30% price increase. What kind of a boost can I expect?

Ya, whoever told you this gave you wrong information. Many new AMD cards also run cool, quiet and turn the fans off up to 60-62C. AMD's MSI Gaming, Sapphire Nitro, Asus Strix, PowerColor PCS+, etc. all have this feature.

To be fair, nobody told me that AMD cards are noisy. I was just told that they consume more power and I assumed that the fans would be louder. Quiet is my goal here, not low power consumption (this doesn't mean that I'm okay with having a VGA that'll cost me $100 per month to operate!).

The cheapest GTX970 is Palit GeForce GTX970 4GB (NE5X970016G2F) which costs 342 EUR. A Gigabyte GeForce GTX970 4GB ITX (GV-N970IXOC-4GD) will cost me around 355-400 EUR. An MSI GeForce GTX970 4GB OC Tiger White Armor (GTX 970 4GD5T OC) costs around 370-400 EUR.

The prices vary depending on the store. Stores that have better street cred on their RMA, are more pricey. So I'm weighting in the posibility of me needing the store's RMA.

So, to continue with the prices, an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB [V316-031] or a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4GB [GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD] from a store that has excellent RMA will cost me 425 EUR.

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 OC Windforce 2X 2GB [GV-R938WF2OC-2GD] costs 240 EUR. The 4GB version of that card costs 230-250 EUR.

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 380X 4GB (GV-R938XG1GAMING-4GD) costs 300 EUR.

A Sapphire Radeon R9 380X 4GB (11250-01-20G) costs between 280 and 370 EUR.

A Gigabyte GeForce GTX960 4GB Windforce 2X (GV-N960WF2-4GD) costs around 230 EUR. A Gigabyte GTX 960 Windforce 2X 4GB [GV-N960WF2OC-4GD] (which is a slightly different version) costs 260 EUR.

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 Windforce 2X 8GB [GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD] will cost me 360-415 EUR.

Hm... It appears that the R9 380X 4GB is a faster card than the GTX960 4GB, which just 30 EUR more.

Also, what is the power rating of your power supply and your monitor's resolution, as well as how long do you plan to keep the card?

I don't even know what is the rating of a power supply. Got to google that.

I don't know how great my expectations can be with this question. It would be nice to keep the card for 2 years. 3 could be great.

The monitor I'll buy is Dell U2415. It has a 1920x1200 resolution. Why does resolution matter? I can always play a game with "No scaling" setting.

How expensive is the electricity in your country?

For power consumption of 0 to 2000 kWh, each kWh costs 0,09460 EUR.
For power consumption of more than 2000 kWh, each kWh costs 0,10252 EUR.

My current power consumption costs me around 30 EUR per month. I have no idea how much my computer is taking up from this. I have an Nvidia 6800GT VGA, which is quite power hungry, but I don't currently play games (save for the occational Zdoom fix) so it must sit idle. So I imagine that the VGA doesn't consume that much.

I have a Sony G220 monitor, which is CRT, and has a power consumption of 105 watt. The PC (and therefore, the monitor) operates about 5 to 12 hours every day. Most days it's around 7 hours.

Maybe the OP can list us prices of 16GB DDR4 2133/2400/2666/2800/3000.

I certainly can!

I'm looking for 2x8GB. Here are 3 examples:

- Kingston 16GB HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz Non-ECC CL15 (Kit of 2) [HX426C15FBK2/16] can range from 120 to 145 EUR. There are some cheaper module kits. The Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-2666MHz (CMK16GX4M2A2666C16R) costs between 110 to 140 EUR.

- Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-2400MHz (CMK16GX4M2A2400C14) can range between 100 to 135 EUR. Other 2400 memory are in the same price range.

- G.Skill RipjawsV 16GB DDR4-2800MHz (F4-2800C16D-16GVG) costs 153 EUR.

- G.Skill Ripjaws4 16GB DDR4-2800MHz costs 130-140 EUR.

Memories are more difficult to find than VGAs. Some of these prices are from stores I have no idea how good their RMA is.

Also, how big is the issue of latency in memories?

It's all down to drivers again. It might be better in some games but really bad in others. I had the gigabyte g1 gaming but exchanged it after 3 weeks as drivers were well piss poor to put it nice. Was always a amd person before with a few gaming laptops ect. I would suggest either going for the cheapest nvidia card and waiting out till the new gpu's hit the market next year or buy one gtx 960 4gb and save for another if you like the idea of SLI as two will outperform any amd offering and the 970. That's considering you even need anymore power when dx12 boost performance on some new upcoming games. It's a tough time to be buying graphics cards when nobody knows what the future holds in regards to performance. For gaming right now I would say nvidia all the way.

I think this deserves its own topic. But maybe, just maybe it was just one faulty card?

 

[RussianSensation]

Real life gaming fps and stability showed me otherwise. That's just life you can't believe everything you read. I ruled out everything that could have been causing any issues before sending it back. So take my word or the word of a paid reviewer. Honestly I was just giving my opinion and experience regarding two products and which I would buy again. If you don't like it go cry to someone who cares. I'm happy gaming on my pc. I'm sure the op is trying to achieve the same with his budget he has.

Why don't you provide your system specs, power supply, and the exact games you had issues with? You come off condescending but even when R9 380 is compared to the 960 in videos, over and over the data proves you wrong. Telling me to go "cry to someone who cares" makes you look very immature since you provided no data supporting your point, never even listed what games you have problems with on the R9 380.

Even your very posts do not sound genuine as I highlighted below:

I'm quite happy with my 960 and every game I've tried plays really well at 1080p shooters play mostly on high/max at over 60fps with v-sync on. With no frame drops, can't say the same for amd's 380.

I even found videos that put your claims to the test:

2Gb GTX 960@1358(Boost 1495mhz) GPU/7200 memory
vs.
4 Gb R9 380 @1115/6520
i7-6700K (4.0)

380 wins in TW3, Tomb Raider, GTA V, Hitman Absolution, Dying Light, Far Cry 4, World of Tanks.
960 wins in Total War II, Arma III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66yhd36PdYg

In some of the games where 380 leads, the lead is far more substantial than when 960 leads. R9 380 will also win in StarWars Battlefront:

Additionally, 380 also leads in Fable Legends, a DX12 game: Fable Legends

MSI R9 380 vs Gigabyte GTX 960 - Which GPU Should You Get?
380 wins in Grid Autosport, Battlefield 4, Far Cry 4, The Witcher 3

All these reviewers/sites are paid? Those videos are fake?

 

[iiiankiii]

I'm not saying nv are faster or better cards just that the drivers are more regular and perform better out the gate how many driver updates did amd release in the last 12 months? I am purely recommending from my experience. I've had a more rewarding experience from the 960 and more driver updates for it than amd have released in the last year. I would get whatever you feel is best for your needs but driver updates are critical when it comes to midrange gpu's as it's the difference between playable or not. So take that into account

Sucks that you've had a bad experience. Glad you've found something that you think works for you. However, i've tried countless GPUs from Nvidia and AMD (GTX 670, 770, 760, 970, 980, 980ti, titan x / AMD 290, 290x, 7970, 280x, 7870, etc, etc.), they all have their quirks. It depends on the games, settings, hardware, etc.

It really isn't as clear as you make it out to be. it depends on the games you play. Clearly, if you see GameWorks, you know it's going to run poorly on ALL hardware. Plus, add to the fact that games are released in beta form, don't expect to get an enjoyable experience on release date. Games are so broken nowadays, it's better off getting the game of the year edition. You'll get a better gaming experience, more content, and CHEAPER. This is the currently state of gaming; regardless of what GPU you have.

 

[RussianSensation]

Going from 2400 or 2666 to 2800, there is a 30% price increase. What kind of a boost can I expect?

There is some benefit for Fallout 4 and a little bit for Ryse Son of Rome on a Core i3 but that's not relevant since you said you'll buy an i7 6700. I would recommend saving $ on the RAM and getting a faster CPU such as i7 6700K that you can overclock OR get an after-market cooler so you can overclock even the i7 6700 with BCLK overclocking.

Quiet is my goal here...

The cheapest GTX970 is Palit GeForce GTX970 4GB (NE5X970016G2F) which costs 342 EUR. A Gigabyte GeForce GTX970 4GB ITX (GV-N970IXOC-4GD)

One of these is a blower (Palit) so it's not quiet at all. The 2nd one is a mini ITX 970 that has a lot of issues and isn't quiet either. The Gigabyte ITX 970 has a huge failure rate on Newegg:

25% of users gave it 1/5, 13% gave it just 2/5 and 7% gave it 3/5. That's pretty awful. I'd say clear of it.

will cost me around 355-400 EUR. An MSI GeForce GTX970 4GB OC Tiger White Armor (GTX 970 4GD5T OC) costs around 370-400 EUR.So, to continue with the prices, an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB [V316-031] or a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4GB [GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD] from a store that has excellent RMA will cost me 425 EUR.

These are much better 970 cars. Also Asus Strix 970 is very quiet.

How much is the Asus Strix 970, Palit JetStream 970, EVGA 970, Gainward Phoenix 970?

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 OC Windforce 2X 2GB [GV-R938WF2OC-2GD] costs 240 EUR. The 4GB version of that card costs 230-250 EUR.

Between these 2, the 4GB is the clear winner since the price difference is small.

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 380X 4GB (GV-R938XG1GAMING-4GD) costs 300 EUR. A Sapphire Radeon R9 380X 4GB (11250-01-20G) costs between 280 and 370 EUR.

I would not buy an R9 380X for more than 280 EUR based on your prices of that card vs. 390/970.

A Gigabyte GeForce GTX960 4GB Windforce 2X (GV-N960WF2-4GD) costs around 230 EUR. A Gigabyte GTX 960 Windforce 2X 4GB [GV-N960WF2OC-4GD] (which is a slightly different version) costs 260 EUR.

At these prices the 960 4GB is a worse buy because you can get the R9 380 4GB for 230-240 EUR or 380X for 280 EUR.

A Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 Windforce 2X 8GB [GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD] will cost me 360-415 EUR.

How much is the Sapphire Nitro 390, PowerColor PCS+ 390, MSI Gaming 390, XFX R9 390?

Hm... It appears that the R9 380X 4GB is a faster card than the GTX960 4GB, which just 30 EUR more.

Yup, in your market 960 4GB is not a great option.

I don't even know what is the rating of a power supply. Got to google that.

You can just give the exact model number of the PSU and I'll look it up.

I don't know how great my expectations can be with this question. It would be nice to keep the card for 2 years. 3 could be great.

Ok, what do you think about buying a 230 EUR card like a 380 4GB, then reselling it again in 20-24 months, taking 130-150 EUR you save now from not buying a 390/970 and buying a new videocard say Q3/Q4 2017?

The monitor I'll buy is Dell U2415. It has a 1920x1200 resolution. Why does resolution matter? I can always play a game with "No scaling" setting.

Have you considered that there are affordable FreeSync monitors now? This fixes the screen tearing at sub-60 fps:

SAMSUNG S24E370DL

AOC G2460PF Black 24" 144hz 1ms Widescreen LED Backlight Free-Sync Monitor

Nixeus Vue 24" 1920x1080 144Hz, AMD FreeSync, 1ms, Adaptive-Sync 30Hz to 144Hz

LG 29UM67P Black 29" Adaptive-Sync (Free-Sync)

Acer XG270HU omidpx 27-inch

AOC G2770PQU 144hz, 1ms, Ultimate Performance 27-Inch Professional Gaming Monitor

I have a Sony G220 monitor, which is CRT, and has a power consumption of 105 watt. The PC (and therefore, the monitor) operates about 5 to 12 hours every day. Most days it's around 7 hours.

Just keep in mind that if you prioritize colours, viewing angles with IPS/PLS monitors, you may notice a big difference in input lag and responsiveness on the these LCDs. The 144Hz TN 1ms monitors will be faster for gaming but have less accurate colours and worse viewing angles. Either way, be prepared for some + and - when moving from a CRT that you've used for so many years.

- Kingston 16GB HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz Non-ECC CL15 (Kit of 2) [HX426C15FBK2/16] can range from 120 to 145 EUR. There are some cheaper module kits. The Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-2666MHz (CMK16GX4M2A2666C16R) costs between 110 to 140 EUR.

At these prices DDR4 2666 hits the sweet spot for you. You could consider starting off with just 8GB and investing the difference into a faster GPU such as 970/390. You can always buy another 8GB of DDR4 later as prices are expected to fall in 2016. I'd much rather invest the difference into an i7 6700K + better CPU cooler + move up from R9 380/380X to 970/390 and have 8GB of RAM as for most games it's enough.

Also, how big is the issue of latency in memories?

For Skylake, memory speed matters more than timings. In your case, do not pay extra $ for lower timings, focus on DDR4 speed. Given the prices you listed, DDR4 2666 at 110 EUR is good.

 

[idb1rec]

You come across like I'm lying when I'm purely stating my experience. Your benchmark results are comparing the 2gb 960 with the 4gb 380 how's that a fair when we are talking about 4gb vs 4gb?

My system spec.
Corsair vs450
Corsair lpx ddr4 2400 8gb overclocked 2800 15-15-15-32 t1
Asus z170m-plus
I5 6500

Games I tested
Titanfall
Splintercell bl
F1 2015
Rocket league
Blop's 3
Killing Floor 2
Wolfenstein old blood
Cod aw
As syndicate
Project cars

Games the 380 beat the 960 in
Gta 5
Batman ak

These are from my testing. I'm not here to fight about team red or green it's about best user experience and mine has been best with the gtx 960.

Op I would save the money and get the lpx 2400 and overclock them with 1.35v and the timings I wrote above as anything higher than 2800mhz provides no real world performance boost for gaming anyways.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Looking at the R9 270 vs GTX 960 results, I think it's fair to say not only have vram usages spiked, but also bandwidth utilization as well with the new consoles. Looking at every other spec, the 960 should demolish the 270 by a significant margin. Instead, they are mere steps away. Was Maxwell well into development before the consoles launched?

 

[Gikaseixas]

OP, 970 or 390/290 nuff said

 

[swapjim]

Lets see some prices:

Asus GeForce GTX970 4GB Strix OC (90YV07F0-M0NA00) -- 403 to 435 EUR
Asus GeForce GTX970 4GB DirectCU II (90YV07F1-M0NA00) -- 427 EUR

The link for the Asus Strix goes to "Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix 4096MB GDDR5". I found one model, which I believe is the same: Gainward GeForce GTX970 4GB Phoenix (3521) -- 374 EUR

Palit GeForce GTX970 4GB (NE5X970H16G2J) -- 393 EUR

EVGA GeForce GTX970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-2974-KR) -- 374 EUR
EVGA GeForce GTX970 4GB ACX 2.0+ (04G-P4-3975-KR) -- 420 EUR

Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 8GB WindForce 2X (GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD) -- 370 to 415 EUR

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro (11244-01-20G) -- 395 EUR

PowerColor Radeon R9 390X 8GB PCS+ (AXR9 390X 8GBD5-PPDHE) -- 531 EUR (only in one store, not the greatest RMA)

MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Gaming (R9 390 GAMING 8G) -- 400 to 420 EUR

XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Dual Dissipation (R9-390P-8DF6) -- 360 EUR from a store with unknown RMA quality

XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Dual Dissipation Black Edition (R9-390P-8DB6) -- 363 EUR from a store with unknown RMA quality

XFX Radeon R9 390X 1090M 8GB Dual Dissipation (R9-390X-8DB6) -- 441 EUR from a store with unknown RMA quality

And a couple more for bonus:

Sapphire Radeon R9 380X 4GB (11250-01-20G) -- 282 EUR

Gigabyte Radeon R9 380X 4GB (GV-R938XG1GAMING-4GD) -- 309 EUR

Ok, what do you think about buying a 230 EUR card like a 380 4GB, then reselling it again in 20-24 months, taking 130-150 EUR you save now from not buying a 390/970 and buying a new videocard say Q3/Q4 2017?

Sounds good! I don't know if I will be able to sell it though. And if I manage to sell it, I have no idea of the price. I may have to "kill" it for peanuts.

Does the 380 Windforce 2X of Gigabyte makes a difference in noise levels? Because if yes, that's 256 EUR. 244 EUR for the non-Windforce one. The prices must have swifted a bit.

Have you considered that there are affordable FreeSync monitors now? [...]

Oh boy! The monitor was the only thing I have settled! Colour is priority. I understand that there will be some lag in games. Maybe I need to keep the CRT for gaming?

[...] I'd much rather invest the difference into an i7 6700K + better CPU cooler + move up from R9 380/380X to 970/390 and have 8GB of RAM as for most games it's enough.

Hm... I was recommented 16GB in the thread that I ask about the CPU. Yeah, I guess I could do that. I just don't know how the used market works here. I don't know if people are looking for used RAM. I've never sold anything used.

So, as I understand, the conclusion is that:

- I should prefer the 380 (around 245-256 EUR) from the 960 (around 243-256 EUR)
- I should prefer the 390 (370 EUR) from the 970

 

[xorbe]

I run my LCDs in vertical orientation, and these tl;dr posts still don't fit on my screen ...

 

[swapjim]

I run my LCDs in vertical orientation, and these tl;dr posts still don't fit on my screen ...

Haha! I try to make them sort but I also want to include all info and thoughts, and make them as clear as possible.

 

[skipsneeky2]

2gb cards for 1080p hardly ever have the gpu power to push 2gb anyways with more recent titles.Their performance and vram allocation seem to go hand and hand.I say this as someone who usually chases a 60+fps experience so this may be subjective.

With a moderately good cpu,you may never notice the difference between a 660,a 960 or a 770 for lower end resolutions like 720/768p.Biggest issue there at 720/768p will be vram while 1080p needs a bit of both performance and vram.