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R9 285 VS GTX 960 : the battle of the mid tier cards

First the GTX 960 :

nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-photo-5.png

 

 

Maxwell , with a tdp of 120W , and 2GB of gddr 5 , is a enticing choise for the mid range .

 

And the contender :

 

The R9 285

 

Tonga , with a tdp of 180w and 2gb of ddr5 is a solid card released a little while ago 

 

radeon-graphics-card-black-fade1-640x453

 

 

There has been a lot of debate on the forums about these two cards , so let's look at the positives for both :

 

 

  - GTX960

+Newer architecture

+Lower power consumption ( 60w ) <-- this difference is that of a normal incadescent lightbulb 

+Lower noise thanks to lower TDP

+nvidia exclusives

 

  - R9 285

+Amd exclusives

+Higher availability ( at the time of writing )

+Availability

 

Nvidia seems to have the edge here , how about some benches ? : 

 

There are a lot of Nvidia titles out there , as well as AMD titles , so we will take a selection of both, sources will be a variety of videos to avoid a bias .

 

 

BF 4 Ultra ( AMD )

Bench 1 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 58, min 41

-GTX 960 : Avg 56, min 42

 

Bench 2 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 58

-GTX 960 : Avg 60

 

Biochock infinite

Bench 1 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 78

-GTX 960 : Avg 74

 

Bench 2 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 102

-GTX 960 : Avg 105

 

Bench 3 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 99

-GTX 960 : Avg 96

 

Far Cry 4 ( Nvidia )

Bench 1 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 57 min 36

-GTX 960 : Avg 56 min 48

 

Bench 2 :

 

-R9 285 : Avg 42

-GTX 960 : Avg 46

 

Crisis 3

Bench 1 : 

 

-R9 285 : Avg 43, min 36

-GTX 960 : Avg 43,min 33

 

Bench 2 : 

 

-R9 285 : Avg 49

-GTX 960 : Avg 48.5

 

There are some other benches , but they can't be compared as easly .

I will add to these soon .

 
Pricing :
 
Newegg & caseking, lowest price for a adequatly cooled card with an advertised price , no rebates :
-GTX 960 : 204$ , 214€
-R9 285 : 199$ , 199€
 
What about some other cards ?
 
-R9 290 : 260$ , 279€
-GTX 970 : 340$ , 370€
-R9 280 : 152$ , 209€
-R9 280x : 190$ , 245€
 
And the winner is ...
 
Your call , they trade blows , pricing is close to identical ,
My say would be to chose what is cheapest at the time of ordering,
Although 280x is much more enticing at 10$ cheaper with an extra 1gb ram , but in the eu that is not true , coming in 35€ more .
 
Think it through , and chose what you preffer .

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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I feel like the only thing to consider is what features you like best, NVidia or AMD as the cards are almost identical in any other way.

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I feel like the only thing to consider is what features you like best, NVidia or AMD as the cards are almost identical in any other way.

That is the point,

There is no clear winner ( as some members state ) 

 

I'm doing an in depth review of all R9 / gtx cards available and their performance .

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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I wouldn't buy either of them. You can get a 970 for 100 bucks more if you look around for deals. Just save up..

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I wouldn't buy either of them. You can get a 970 for 100 bucks more if you look around for deals. Just save up..

100 bucks is / can be a lot for some people , especially if you need to cut elsewhere to have them.

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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The 960 is considerably more expensive than the 285 IN MY COUNTRY! I can get a 280x for the price of the 960, so the clear winner for me in this case would be the 280x.

 

But in the case you stated, with the prices you mentioned, I would go for the 960, but then again AMD seems to be gaining quite a bit with DX12. :)

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280X

I'm adding 280x / 280 / gtx 970 prices to compare.

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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If your looking at either of these cards, keep in mind you can get a 4gb version of the 960, also if yu want to stream or do anything like that, there is Ndivia Shadowplay which is FREE, RELIABLE, AND FAST.

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The 960 is considerably more expensive than the 285 IN MY COUNTRY! I can get a 280x for the price of the 960, so the clear winner for me in this case would be the 280x.

 

But in the case you stated, with the prices you mentioned, I would go for the 960, but then again AMD seems to be gaining quite a bit with DX12. :)

As I said , if they are the same price , go for the GTX 960 , but if the 280x / 285 is cheaper , then by all means take it over the gtx .

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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If your looking at either of these cards, keep in mind you can get a 4gb version of the 960, also if yu want to stream or do anything like that, there is Ndivia Shadowplay which is FREE, RELIABLE, AND FAST.

-the 4gb is useless , adding a lot of $ to the price tag

269€ and 240$ , so 45€ and 35$ extra .

-Shadowplay is a valid argument , but in most cases I would chose xplit or other to avoid the bugs .

But yes , that is an advantage that won't be used by many .

Recommend what is best, not what you preffer.

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