R9 280, R9 280x, R9 285, GTX 960. Which one should I get?

[DaCrewMaster]

I have been looking at the R9 280, R9 280x, R9 285, and GTX 960 cards for awhile and all are around $200 and have around the same performance. 

Which one should I buy? And also which brand should I buy?

[Suika]

Of the bunch, the R9 280X is the most powerful, with the GTX 960 right behind it and a lot more energy efficient.

 

If the price difference is next to none, I would pick up the R9 280X.

[itscatbug]

I think when it's about 280x vs 960 it's all about the features AMD or NVidia offer

[Misanthrope]

The 280x is actually the fastest of all of those but the 960 is the most power efficient and feature filled of the bunch. Depends on what you want: all the power you can get or an elegant, quiet and feature rich solution.

[ADZ_123_!"£]

The 280X is the most powerful card.

[minibois]

I have been looking at the R9 280, R9 280x, R9 285, and GTX 960 cards for awhile and all are around $200 and have around the same performance. 

Which one should I buy? And also which brand should I buy?

280X > 960 > the other ones.

 

If you want most performance and some more VRAM, get the 280X.

If you want those features that Nvidia has, quieter at just a tad bit less performance and more efficient, get the 960 (or if you don't have anything room in your case. Some 280X cards are pretty big)

 

EDIT: as for the 280X, Saphhire's cards are pretty much always good for AMD.

Pretty sure Gigabyte was nice too, but heard their warranty stuff was not as good.

As for the 960, the Gigabyte version is nice, but the Asus Strix and MSI version are good too

[Jeremykin]

Of the bunch, the R9 280X is the most powerful, with the GTX 960 right behind it and a lot more energy efficient.

 

If the price difference is next to none, I would pick up the R9 280X.

I have to agree with Suika. 280x has the best price/performance ratio, and if you get a factory OC you've got a pretty powerful card. Might want to consider 285 for the "newer gen features" AMD has to offer. The 285 has slightly less performance than the 280 (not 280X), however it has these new features, such as better mantle support, freesync and true audio. Mantle will help IMMENSELY for new games, especially star citizen which I'm pretty sure is being optimized for it. Good luck! 

[Johannes_Lazor]

The most "future proof" card is the 280x becouse of its 3gb of Vram and performance,
The 960 has about as much Graphical perfomance
But it only has 2gb of Vram, And 2gb is on the edge now, So it will not be able to hold on as long as the 280x.

[DaCrewMaster]

Ok thanks. Now which brand do you guys prefer? I am looking at the XFX. I've also heard bad reviews about the Gigabyte version.

[Johannes_Lazor]

Ok thanks. Now which brand do you guys prefer? I am looking at the XFX. I've also heard bad reviews about the Gigabyte version.

If you wont overclock you should get one that looks good in your rig and/or is the cheapest.

The Sapphire(AMD)/EVGA(Nvidia) and Gigabyte models are often the best.

Remember to quote us or tag us like this @DaCrewMaster when you reply so we get a notification.

[ansauri]

The 285 has slightly less performance than the 280 (not 280X), however it has these new features, such as better mantle support, freesync and true audio. Mantle will help IMMENSELY for new games, especially star citizen which I'm pretty sure is being optimized for it. Good luck! 

 

That's false. Nowadays 285 is closer to 280x than 280. And it doesn't have better support in mantle. What it does have is more ACE, which should provide more theorical dx12 performance with better parallel power.

[Suika]

Ok thanks. Now which brand do you guys prefer? I am looking at the XFX. I've also heard bad reviews about the Gigabyte version.

As far as I've been told, as long as it's not a reference or DCUII, any is fine. My personal preference is Sapphire, though.

Really I would go for whichever you think looks better, or if you want to overclock, the beefiest cooler and best rated one.

That's false. Nowadays 285 is closer to 280x than 280.

The R9 285 falls short of the GTX 960, and the GTX 960 falls short of the R9 280X.

[ansauri]

The R9 285 falls short of the GTX 960, and the GTX 960 falls short of the R9 280X.

 

Look the performance reviews of Bioshock Infinite, Shadow of Mordor, GTA V or Project Cars. In these games the 285 equals the others, or even it's able to do better.

 

And the 285 performance is a bit better than 960.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Ok thanks. Now which brand do you guys prefer? I am looking at the XFX. I've also heard bad reviews about the Gigabyte version.

 

Can't really go wrong with any brand. Just avoid the Rev 1.0 of 280x from Gigabyte. Rev 2.0 is much better 

[Akamii]

hey the right order is R9 280x > R9 285 > or = gtx 960 > r9 280

 

and this order based on alot of reviews.

 

the r9 285 sometimes (the most) beats gtx 960 , and gtx 960 sometimes .. (u can say 2 or 4 games so its little)  beats r9 285 but in the same time gtx 960 has lower tdp , but if you are looking for high performance then r9 285 is better than gtx960 (almost all the reviews)

 

note that r9 285 u can call it the edited r9 280 (non-x) so its better than r9 280

 

so at the end r9 280x is the best one but choose vapor-x tri-x because its hasn't that artifact problem

[Jeremykin]

That's false. Nowadays 285 is closer to 280x than 280. And it doesn't have better support in mantle. What it does have is more ACE, which should provide more theorical dx12 performance with better parallel power.

Say what you will - those were linus's words from the youtube vid.. 

[Techhog]

Wait for the 380 (285 with a 4GB version) and 380X 4GB.

[Techhog]

Say what you will - those were linus's words from the youtube vid.. 

Read the fourth word in that post.

[BestBOTEU]

280x unless you wanna save 3$ per year then go for the 960

[Jeremykin]

Read the fourth word in that post.

"will" 

[Techhog]

"will" 

I meant in the post you qutoed, though I meant to say third word.

[ansauri]

Say what you will - those were linus's words from the youtube vid.. 

 

Linus's words are from September, the same as most reviews you can see. R9 285 has been a bad luck guy cause it came with new architecture and no other model with it. Since it isn't a top gpu like 290, 970... devs and AMD didn't give it the attention needed in the firsts days.

Also Tahiti already had 2.5 years when 285 was launched, with a lot of drivers in his back and even a rebranded with higher frequencies.

 

But now that more drivers have come and we know Tonga will be in 300 while Tahiti won't, everybody has paid more attention and the results can be seen in GTA V and The Witcher 3.