I've asked this before

[CreepX]

3.5gb is plenty for 1080. Don't fall into the myth that it is a bad card just because of that issue. If there is a cheaper 290x try to get that though.

Well , I know it's a great card , my biggest concern was that in 2 years , that the card will cause serious problems because of its Vram Memory.. but I guess it won't after seeing all of those answers.

[Razarza]

I said they're equal in price , and I see no reason to get the 290X as  the 390 (As you said it ) is an overclocked version of the 290X ... so why not get that , as they have the exact same price ?

No, the 390 is an overclocked 290 with an extra 4GB of VRAM and the 390X is an overclocked 290X

[CreepX]

No, the 390 is an overclocked 290 with an extra 4GB of VRAM and the 390X is an overclocked 290X

Well Litargirio said it the way I did up there , but I gess he  wanted to say 290 not 290X , but still , I just wanna if the 390 has any significant advantage over 970 at 1080p ... some ppl answered , but I just want some more opinions on the matter ...

[Razarza]

Well Litargirio said it the way I did up there , but I gess he  wanted to say 290 not 290X , but still , I just wanna if the 390 has any significant advantage over 970 at 1080p ... some ppl answered , but I just want some more opinions on the matter ...

The 290/390 and 970 have very similar performance at 1080p, if you play a lot of games that use Gameworks then you might want the 970 to take advantage of that. But if all you care about is pure performance get a 290X if you can find one for the same price.

[DarkSmith2]

Well Litargirio said it the way I did up there , but I gess he  wanted to say 290 not 290X , but still , I just wanna if the 390 has any significant advantage over 970 at 1080p ... some ppl answered , but I just want some more opinions on the matter ...

the 390 havnt any advantage over the 970 @1080p

The advantage comes into play on 4k Gaming where 8GB of VRAM can be useful in some Titles.

 

Never the less a good GTX970 OC sample performs with a little additional overclock just as fast as the GTX980 on 1080p and 1440p. Which even beats a 390x in most titles. 

Sad thing is you cant overclock a r9 390 the same way. So obviously the GTX970 wins when you are planning to OC your card and play on a resolution below 4k.

 

Out of the box with factory overclocks the 390 and 970 performance is about the same. Some Nvidia titles, some titles with abnormal VRAM desires. Without doing anything you'll have to decide which cards performance covers the most games you play.

 

Regarding to this Video a MSI 4G @1464MHz/8000MHz is enough to slightly beat the reference GTX980. 

 

A 1500mhz Core overclock on a Gigabyte GTX970 G1 isnt really hard to achiev. My card can do 1500MHz/8000MHz without increasing any voltages. (stable for about a month now) so I guess my power consumption is really low compared to a r9 390/390x/gtx980.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7556446

[CreepX]

the 390 havnt any advantage over the 970 @1080p

The advantage comes into play on 4k Gaming where 8GB of VRAM can be useful in some Titles.

 

Never the less a good GTX970 OC sample performs with a little additional overclock just as fast as the GTX980 on 1080p and 1440p. Which even beats a 390x in most titles. 

Sad thing is you cant overclock a r9 390 the same way. So obviously the GTX970 wins when you are planning to OC your card and play on a resolution below 4k.

 

Out of the box with factory overclocks the 390 and 970 performance is about the same. Some Nvidia titles, some titles with abnormal VRAM desires. Without doing anything you'll have to decide which cards performance covers the most games you play.

 

Regarding to this Video a MSI 4G @1464MHz/8000MHz is enough to slightly beat the reference GTX980. 

 

A 1500mhz Core overclock on a Gigabyte GTX970 G1 isnt really hard to achiev. My card can do 1500MHz/8000MHz without increasing any voltages. (stable for about a month now) so I guess my power consumption is really low compared to a r9 390/390x/gtx980.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7556446

Well the G1 Gaming is a little bit too expesnive here , so I was planning to get the MSI one , I heard that has agreat cooler and can OC just as good . And I saw that video before. The OCed 970 seems to have the best performance in that video , but ocing it too much , won't that decreas its life span ?

[DarkSmith2]

haha yea i posted that video in some other threads too .. *sadface* 

The MSI GTX970 4G is also an extremly good choice from what ive heard.

[CreepX]

haha yea i posted that video in some other threads too .. *sadface* 

The MSI GTX970 4G is also an extremly good choice from what ive heard.

But if I OC it to get the performance of a 980 , won't that decrease its life span significantly ?

[CreepX]

The 290/390 and 970 have very similar performance at 1080p, if you play a lot of games that use Gameworks then you might want the 970 to take advantage of that. But if all you care about is pure performance get a 290X if you can find one for the same price.

Why does the 290X have more raw power than the GTX 970 , everywhere I look for 290X vs Gtx 970 , people seem to be recommending the 970... saying it's better at 1080p.

[Razarza]

Why does the 290X have more raw power than the GTX 970 , everywhere I look for 290X vs Gtx 970 , people seem to be recommending the 970... saying it's better at 1080p.

The 290X is often competing with the 980 when benchmarked and generally the 970 is cheaper than the 290X which would be a reason as to why you see them recommended more often.

[DarkSmith2]

But if I OC it to get the performance of a 980 , won't that decrease its life span significantly ?

it depends on a very huge amount of factors, added voltage, added clockspeeds, material behavior, temperatures and so on. Will the card live shorter when oced? yes it will. How long does a card live without oc? about 20years on average.

 

Unless you overclock really sick you wont notice the decreased life span because you wont have that card for so long. An overclock to stock performance of the gtx980 isnt a huge overclock.

[CreepX]

it depends on a very huge amount of factors, added voltage, added clockspeeds, material behavior, temperatures and so on. Will the card live shorter when oced? yes it will. How long does a card live without oc? about 20years on average.

 

Unless you overclock really sick you wont notice the decreased life span because you wont have that card for so long. An overclock to stock performance of the gtx980 isnt a huge overclock.

Well I will most probably keep the card for 2-3 years 4 at max ... so if the life span of a card is 20 years on average , and I OC it (Even if I OC it a lot , nothing too excessive though ) it should last more than 4 years right ?

[CreepX]

The 290X is often competing with the 980 when benchmarked and generally the 970 is cheaper than the 290X which would be a reason as to why you see them recommended more often.

I am talking about 1080p , as I don't think that the 290X can compete with the 980 ... I've seen some benchmarks , and the 980 wins ... so I think that the true competitor to the 290X is the 970..

[DarkSmith2]

Well I will most probably keep the card for 2-3 years 4 at max ... so if the life span of a card is 20 years on average , and I OC it (Even if I OC it a lot , nothing too excessive though ) it should last more than 4 years right ?

correct. You would have to do really fancy or inapropriate stuff to cut your lifespan below 5years.

ATX is calculating with a longterm usage of about +10°C for a 50% reduced lifespan as general Hardware advice.

[CreepX]

correct. You would have to do really fancy or inapropriate stuff to cut your lifespan below 5years.

ATX is calculating with a longterm usage of about +10°C for a 50% reduced lifespan as general Hardware advice.

And if I OC it decently , that means I will get a lot more performance than I would get with a 390 at 1080p right ? Even if i would OC both ?

[DarkSmith2]

And if I OC it decently , that means I will get a lot more performance than I would get with a 390 at 1080p right ? Even if i would OC both ?

Most likely yes, unless you would get a golden sample of the r9 390 or AMD brings out the most performance increasing driver ever.

The r9 390 is allready pushed close to its limits. When overclocking it you have a decent chance to only get a 1%-7% performance increase (in benchmarks).

[CreepX]

Most likely yes, unless you would get a golden sample of the r9 390 or AMD brings out the most performance increasing driver ever.

The r9 390 is allready pushed close to its limits. When overclocking it you have a decent chance to only get a 1%-7% performance increase (in benchmarks).

Well , I think I will get the 970 and OC it over the 390 , thanks for the answers guys .