By the time the 960 came out there were very quiet 290s, namely the XFX DD and the Sapphire Tri X, so at the time that argument was just another smokescreen...
Have you used the Tri-X before? The only way to describe it is quiet.
"Quiet", "Very quiet", "Silent", etc, are entirely subjective. TPU reviews show
the tri-fan Sapphire 290 still 37-41db (vs 49db reference). The
MSI 960 however was way down at 27db (and 13c cooler) at full load, and 0db for light games / idle / HTPC playback. Same test equipment, methodology and noise floor. Not to mention the obvious secondary effects +170w of extra heat in low airflow cases (800-1500rpm vs 600-750rpm case fans, or a semi-passive PSU being pushed over a 200w trigger point) which can easily add another 5-10db of noise, yet is never measured as a whole system when benchmarking individual components (and thus never shows up on such charts, especially open air test beds).
The "R9 290 at fire sale prices" was certainly a better buy vs the GTX 960 if all you cared about was raw performance & perf-per-$, but to be honest, I think some people here with an increasingly unhealthy anti-960 personal daily obsession are "over-talking" their point when they start advocating 275w 40db cards for sub 20db light gaming HTPC's on the back of "
because the rest of my rig has a 43db noise floor, I declare my 40db 290 is as completely silent as 0-27db cards, and anyone who says otherwise is erecting a smokescreen". It really doesn't work like that. TPU's measurements agree, not to mention the laws of physics don't care about brand warfare either, hence the higher objectively measurable temps and noise on the higher wattage card.
I hope we don't see another situation where the inferior price/perf card is recommended on incredibly flimsy grounds to smoke screen for brand loyalty with the 1060 like we did with the 960/290.
Personally I'm looking forward to the RX 460/470's. Why? Because if they're any good it will both provide healthy competition for nVidia in the low/lower-mid ranges (750/950/960), but most importantly it will finally force +250w space heater advocates to start offering something that actually competes "like for like" vs 90-120w nVidia cards for lower end gaming beyond single metric price dumping and "brand fanboy" accusations vs the same non poverty stricken consumers who are also quite happy to buy a Platinum PSU over a Bronze, a 65w i5/i7 over a 220w FX-9590, etc, and really don't care what labels a few "Forum Warriors" stick on them...
Here's a totally outrageous suggestion to those filling up 135 page threads day after day with this "why can't everyone be exactly like me" community 'analysis' stuff:-
- Those who want a GTX 1060 and are happy to pay whatever premium should just buy one, without needing to talk down any decent AMD offering (RX 480 really isn't a bad card) nor feel any "need" to justify their purchase decision to any Red Team Forum Warrior.
- Those who want an RX 480 should also just buy one without constantly self-inflicting daily panic attacks over watching someone else "daring" to spend even $1 more on another dGPU than their own personal budget permits, or feel any "need" to justify their purchase decision to any Green Team Forum Warrior.
These boards would be a damn site healthier if people cut back on the "whine" and stopped acting like that last $10, $20, $30, etc, difference is like curing cancer vs making 1,000 disabled orphans starve (an attitude
wildly out of proportion to any other PC component, eg, no-one bats an eyelid over $60 vs $25 gaming mice, $60-$120 water vs $30 air cooling, +$70 on color co-ordinated braided PSU cables & lighting, $320 950 PRO vs $160 850 EVO, 32 vs 16GB RAM, etc). Not just spend page after page raging against hardware they don't own (and had zero intention of buying) whilst moaning that they never have enough time to clear that Steam backlog because they're too busy arguing to ever get around to actually using what they're arguing over to play any games...
^ Comment isn't aimed at anyone specifically, but it will certainly "resonate" with some more than others recently who expend an extraordinary amount of energy 'not buying something'...