R9 280, R9 380 or gtx 960?

Which Graphics Card should I do with?

  • R9 280 3Gb

  • R9 280X 3Gb

  • R9 285 4Gb

  • R9 380 4Gb

  • GTX 960 4Gb


Results are only viewable after voting.

secretagent

Member
Sep 16, 2015
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So I'm currently at a bit of a predicament. I just finished my first ever build a little while ago, but at the time, I didn't have enough money to buy a Graphics Card, but now I realise, I'm at a fork as to which card I should choose! My original idea was a 960 2Gb, but now, after doing quite a bit more research, I find that the R9 280 and the 380 are also great contenders! I really need some advice as to which card I should go with. My budget is around $300 Cad ($230 Usd) My system specs are an i3-4170, 8 Gb ram, 2 HDD, 2 SSD, H97 Motherboard, and most importantly, a 500W PSU. Let me tell you now, I'm not willing to return any parts and pay more for a better one, let's say return the PSU to get a better, pricier one. The only money I'm willing to spend is for my GPU, so please let me know if a certain card will require a beefier PSU or if my i3-4170 will bottleneck it, so I can rule it/them out. I am also looking to overclock, so I will need headroom for that. I am also going to be running a 1080p 60Hz monitor that I will be stuck with for the years to come, so no upgrading there. I am also willing to sacrifice a few frames for lower power consumption and/or more VRAM. There are many things i don't know, such as if more than 2Gb VRAM will be redundant for my setup, or if I can even go with a card less powerful than the ones I requested, like a 950 or something. All help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 

Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
2,834
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What is the exact model of the PSU, what games do you plan to play, and how important is power consumption to you on a scale of 1-10?

Out of those choices, the R9 380 is the best choice in terms of performance; however, it does use 60-80W more than the GTX 960. Both are completely fine on a 500W PSU (you'll be using less than 300W when gaming in most cases with either card) so long as it isn't a low-quality PSU. The R9 280 is obsolete and not worth buying unless it's cheaper than the others. The 950 isn't worth it if you can afford something better. Either way, try to find a 4GB version.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
I am going to list the cards in terms of actual performance.

The best card to buy around $300 is a used after-market R9 290 (1st pick) (many of them on Kijiji). The next best card is a used GTX780 (2nd pick). Below $280, only HD7970 / 7970Ghz editions make sense as everything else is overpriced in the used market in Canada. More on that later.

If we are discussing strictly new, the next best card under $300 is an R9 280X (3rd pick).
NCIX
Newegg

The next best card is the R9 380 4GB (4th pick). Can be easily found for <$300.

The next best card (5th on our list) is the GTX960 4GB.

Here is how these cards line up at 1080P depending on the review:

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perfrel_1920.gif


http://www.computerbase.de/2015-08/nvidia-geforce-gtx-950-test/3/#abschnitt_tests_in_1920__1080

Some points to keep in mind:

1) DX12 performance - thus far in the 2/2 DX12 benchmarks, GCN beats Maxwell in similar price brackets, except for 980Ti vs. Fury X. For example, R9 285 beats 960 easily, which means the cards I listed above would win by even greater amounts.

1080pi7.png


There are some caveats to this -- Ashes of Singularity and Fable Legends are still in beta and may not be representative of final DX12 performance, not to mention we would need a lot more DX12 games before drawing wider conclusions. Still, facts are what they are and AMD is leading in DX12 right now in your price range.

2) NV specific features like TXAA and PhysX. If you need those, your only choice is NV.

3) Do NOT get a 2GB card.

deadrising3_1920_1080.gif

som_1920_1080.gif

farcry4_1920_1080.gif

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There are certain sites that highly favour NV and continue to ignore the 2GB VRAM issue at all costs. The data is there, including many other games that prove that 2GB is insufficient for 1080P gaming, especially in your price range do not make this compromise.

4) There are a few games that HIGHLY favour NV. WoW and Project CARS come to mind. If you heavily play two of those titles, I would recommend a GTX960 4GB, unless you can find a $300 used R9 290. Otherwise, the rest of my recommendations above hold true if you play a wider variety of games.

You should have noticed that R9 290 is in a completely other league compared to R9 380/950/960 and even the R9 280X. This is why I strongly suggest you consider looking into the used market if your budget is $300 CDN.

Another option - R9 280X is faster than the GTX950/960/R9 285/280/380 4GB but it's actually just a slightly higher clocked HD7970/HD7970 1Ghz edition card. If you look at the prices of these cards in Canada, they go dirt cheap for $150-170 --> so nearly HALF the price of a GTX960 4GB for similar performance. For example, Gigabyte Windforce 7970 1100mhz for $200. Once strategy could be to grab one of these cards as a stop-gap, save yourself $150+ and upgrade again in 2 years.

On your PSU, as long as it's a reputable brand like Corsair, EVGA, Cooler Master, EVGA, you are good to go with any of the GPUs I listed.

BTW, I strongly recommend that you consider a used R9 290/290X because prices on them are just very good in Canada. Even if you get a reference blower one, it might still be worth it if you game with headphones.

Here I found a good deal for you:
R9 290X $320 CDN like new with warranty remaining. The best part is this guy is selling the NZXT Kraken G10 + Gelid VRM cooling kit with that card for just $10 more ($330 total). If you can agree to him shipping it to you if you don't live in the GTA, that's a great deal at current prices in Canada.
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
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My system specs are an i3-4170,


Nvidia cards are faster with slower cpu,s. None of the benchmarks you are reading will show you the actual performance of the 280, 380, 290 because the reviews use fast cpu's like a 4960k to bench with. You have to be carefull on this forum, there are people here who will do anything to sell you a AMD card.

My advice buy a gtx960 for 159.00 AR, your cpu will not even fully use this card but is a close match. It uses way less power and blows way less heat in your case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127844

A 4gb 960 is about 30$ more but at 1080p, you will be ok for quite a while with a 2gb card. The class of cards your looking at ,gtx960, 280, 380 are to slow in most cases to use more than 2gb of memory before the game runs too slow anyway.
 
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Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
2,834
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Nvidia cards are faster with slower cpu,s. None of the benchmarks you are reading will show you the actual performance of the 280, 380, 290 because the reviews use fast cpu's like a 4960k to bench with. You have to be carefull on this forum, there are people here who will do anything to sell you a AMD card.

My advice buy a gtx960 for 159.00 AR, your cpu will not even fully use this card but is a close match. It uses way less power and blows way less heat in your case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127844

A 4gb 960 is about 30$ more but at 1080p, you will be ok for quite a while with a 2gb card. The class of cards your looking at ,gtx960, 280, 380 are to slow in most cases to use more than 2gb of memory before the game runs too slow anyway.

Oh, the irony.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
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Oh, the irony

Post#3....

really a 290 for a i3 4170 is the best pick? You gotta be kidding right?
the 380 cost 30$ more for the ~ same performance as a gtx960 and those benchmarks are so cherry picked its not even funny.

Don't even get me started on power consumption and heat output.

99% of gtx960's will overclock 25% and beat any poorly overclocking 380, 285 in its price range , know one even mentioned this!
 
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Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
2,834
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Post#3....

really a 290 for a i3 4170 is the best pick? You gotta be kidding right?
the 380 cost 30$ more for the ~ same performance as a gtx960 and those benchmarks are so cherry picked its not even funny.

Don't even get me started on power consumption and heat output.

99% of gtx960's will overclock 25% and beat any poorly overclocking 380, 285 in its price range , know one even mentioned this!

I wasn't going to respond to this post, but when you flat out lie to the OP in order to prove your point, you really need to stop. And before you say, "lol cherrypicking," I picked those reviews because they are the ones willing to add voltage. I'll come out and say that the other reviews "only" got to 1100MHz since they stuck to stock voltage. As for RS, he's just addicted to recommending good deals, and the 290 is the best deal you can get while the 960 and 380 appear overpriced. That's why he keeps doing this. You're also acting as if the i3 4170 is a freaking Atom. Bottlenecking a 960? In what games?

The point is, you need to stay objective and logical in your recommendations. Using power consumption as a factor does make the 960 a better choice for him if the reason why is something other than his PSU. Hoever, saying that 2GB is enough without knowing how long he intends to keep the card for and which games he intends to play is short-sighted and could end up causing him to regret his purchase down the line. The reason you're trying to convince him that 2GB is enough is because it makes the 380 look like a terrible deal in comparison, hence the irony in you complaining about people being desperate to recommend a product/company.
 

Rannar

Member
Aug 12, 2015
52
14
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Agree with happy. A 290 is not the best pick all the time specialy to a dual core system.
 

Spanners

Senior member
Mar 16, 2014
325
1
0
A 4gb 960 is about 30$ more but at 1080p, you will be ok for quite a while with a 2gb card. The class of cards your looking at ,gtx960, 280, 380 are to slow in most cases to use more than 2gb of memory before the game runs too slow anyway.

Regardless of which card you chose OP I wouldn't recommend a 2GB card at this time, especially because it sounds like your going to be sticking with your system for some time. That class of card is fast enough to utilize more than 2GB of memory.

Irrespective of being CPU bound I'd much rather have a R9 290 4GB class GPU and be somewhat CPU bound than being GPU/VRAM bound with a 960 2GB.

I have no interest in selling you anything btw, just passing on what I would do in your situation. GL.
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
Regardless of which card you chose OP I wouldn't recommend a 2GB card at this time, especially because it sounds like your going to be sticking with your system for some time. That class of card is fast enough to utilize more than 2GB of memory.

Irrespective of being CPU bound I'd much rather have a R9 290 4GB class GPU and be somewhat CPU bound than being GPU/VRAM bound with a 960 2GB.

I have no interest in selling you anything btw, just passing on what I would do in your situation. GL.

You missed the part about the cards being too slow by the time they use more than 2gb of memory. The class of cards 285, 380 gtx960 will be running slow fps when you choose settings over 2gb of memory anyway. You might in some games have to turn down a setting or two but most of the time the cards dont have the raw gpu power to utlize 3 or 4 gb of memory.

The 290 is way overpowered, uses way to much power and runs hot as the sun.
 

rancherlee

Senior member
Jul 9, 2000
707
18
81
Used 290 IMO, There really won't be too many games where his i3 holds it back THAT much, and then he has a card that will "grow" with him if he decides to toss an i5 on the board later. I'd take a 4gb 380/285 over a 280x at this point also, due to GCN 1.2 vs 1.0 and the extra 1gb of memory. I'm purely a price/performace shopper, which usually means I get a AMD card in the price ranges I usually shop. The 960 makes sense if you game 3-4 hours a day and power is expensive where you live.
 

Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
2,834
2
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You missed the part about the cards being too slow by the time they use more than 2gb of memory. The class of cards 285, 380 gtx960 will be running slow fps when you choose settings over 2gb of memory anyway. You might in some games have to turn down a setting or two but most of the time the cards dont have the raw gpu power to utlize 3 or 4 gb of memory.

That's true of most older games now, but due to most games being console ports many games are just becoming heavy on memory. As I said, it's short-sighted to believe this because many things which affect VRAM usage have little to no effect on GPU load, such as textures. It's just safer to spend that extra money based on the direction games appear to be heading in.
 

Zstream

Diamond Member
Oct 24, 2005
3,395
277
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Used 290 all the way or new 380. If you have more to spend, get a 980ti.
 

tg2708

Senior member
May 23, 2013
687
20
81
You missed the part about the cards being too slow by the time they use more than 2gb of memory. The class of cards 285, 380 gtx960 will be running slow fps when you choose settings over 2gb of memory anyway. You might in some games have to turn down a setting or two but most of the time the cards dont have the raw gpu power to utlize 3 or 4 gb of memory.

The 290 is way overpowered, uses way to much power and runs hot as the sun.

Bold statement but not all runs hot, mine runs well below the supposed max temperature target of 94 degrees and that's in a room that gets quite hot in the summer. Your statements are that of a fanboy. What happened to the statement "their is no such thing as overkill"?
 

Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
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Bold statement but not all runs hot, mine runs well below the supposed max temperature target of 94 degrees and that's in a room that gets quite hot in the summer. Your statements are that of a fanboy. What happened to the statement "their is no such thing as overkill"?

He would say that an R5 240 runs hot. No need to listen to that, since he talks about head in EVERY post he makes about AMD. I'm not saying that Hawaii is a cool chip, but some of the fanboys here (this is a general statement) really go nuts with it to the point of not being helpful.
 

tg2708

Senior member
May 23, 2013
687
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He would say that an R5 240 runs hot. No need to listen to that, since he talks about head in EVERY post he makes about AMD. I'm not saying that Hawaii is a cool chip, but some of the fanboys here (this is a general statement) really go nuts with it to the point of not being helpful.

Exactly this, instead of the repeated statements of blatant fanboy-ism its best for everyone to just give OP suggestions and or opinions about the cards he listed instead of turning every thread into AMD vs Nvidia.
 

secretagent

Member
Sep 16, 2015
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0
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What is the exact model of the PSU, what games do you plan to play, and how important is power consumption to you on a scale of 1-10?
My PSU model is the Corsair CX500M, I plan to play modern AAA titles such as The Witcher 3, GTA V, Dying Light etc. And on a scale of 1-10 I would give power consumption importance a 8/9-10, It's very important to me, and if I have to sacrifice 10 fps for it, then so be it. And OC headroom should be considered as well.
 

secretagent

Member
Sep 16, 2015
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Regardless of which card you chose OP I wouldn't recommend a 2GB card at this time, especially because it sounds like your going to be sticking with your system for some time. That class of card is fast enough to utilize more than 2GB of memory.
Yes, I will be sticking with this system for a long while, at least for 4 years minimum.
 

secretagent

Member
Sep 16, 2015
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0
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The best card around $300 is the after market cooled, brand new, reference EVGA 970
Thank you for the recommendation, but unfortunately this price is in USD, while this card will be almost $400 CAD, and I don't have that kind of money to spend.
 

Gikaseixas

Platinum Member
Jul 1, 2004
2,836
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I recommend

1 - 290 if you get one within your price range
2 - 970 if you get one within your price range
3 - 380
4 - 960 4GB

Your i3 is fairly new, has pretty robust cores and performs very well against FX chips and even some i5 due to higher clocks. It will have no problem pushing beasts like the 290 / 970 at all.