Sapphire 390 vs MSI 970. Reliability vs FPS

[BulkyZaNka]

After looking a bit I found a sapphire 390 and a msi gtx 970 both at a very similar price and was wondering would which would be better? I am not going for like a million fps but reliability. I am going to be playing mostly CS:GO and maybe sometimes record/stream. I want this card to be able to get decent fps in games in 3 years time. I also have a mobo with build in overclocking so wouldn't mind pushing that card a bit.

Thanks, Bulky

[Xenift]

Similar price?

GTX 970

[TheRandomness]

390 will last much longer than the 970 simply because of 8GB VRAM.

[Fulgrim]

Sapphire R9 390 will last longer, due to the vram.

[Octavialicious]

R9 390 because extra vram

 

edit: rip 2x ninja'd

[refinedskillz]

970 has higher clock speeds and lower TDP, but the R9 390 has more power.

[ind3x]

i would go 390, despite owning the 970, due to VRAM.

The 3.5GB are not a problem, it's only when i hit 3.8GB i see  a performance decrease in GTA V, and this is only due to my two monitors

[ATrollAaaNnnnn]

390 will last much longer than the 970 simply because of 8GB VRAM.

This is true. But regardless, it wont be running anything that requires 8gb of vram with flying colors. Let alone a good fps.

 

The 390 is the way to go. Seeing as how you need around 4 gb of vram now adays.

[don_svetlio]

R9 390

[BulkyZaNka]

I read that if you oc the 970, it will beat the 390. I do plan to of but I have never done it before so I'm not gonna get any where far with it The heat or power doesn't concern me, I have a water cooled cpu and a phanteks enthoo pro full of fans haha

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I'll suggest the 390 not because of the vram. But because of the architecture, the few benchmarked "games" that came out have shown the mid range AMD cards to be performing pretty well in DX12. Though, I will predict that both these cards won't be able to perform well some years down the road. 

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I read that if you oc the 970, it will beat the 390. I do plan to of but I have never done it before so I'm not gonna get any where far with it The heat or power doesn't concern me, I have a water cooled cpu and a phanteks enthoo pro full of fans haha

 

You can OC the 390 as well. Just so you know...

[Shoob]

I read that if you oc the 970, it will beat the 390. I do plan to of but I have never done it before so I'm not gonna get any where far with it The heat or power doesn't concern me, I have a water cooled cpu and a phanteks enthoo pro full of fans haha

The 390 overclocks decently too. Some lucky 970s would be able to squeeze more performance with overclock than an overclocked 390.

The 390 is a much better card when ti comes to support than the crippled 970, but they both might not be able to achieve playable FPS after 3 years.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Why a $300 GPU to play CS:GO? 

[BulkyZaNka]

Ik it can but people were saying the stock 390 overclocks like trash, same goes for the Sapphire 390? By both do you mean the 390 and the 970?

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Ik it can but people were saying the stock 390 overclocks like trash, same goes for the Sapphire 390? By both do you mean the 390 and the 970?

 

Stock 390 overclocks like trash.... Where would you find a stock 390? 

 

Yes, 970 and 390.

[BulkyZaNka]

Why a $300 GPU to play CS:GO?

Not only to play CS:GO, I want it to be able to run any game I throw at it in 3-5 years, at that point the fps isn't going to be any impressive but at least it would be abr to run it, the one I have has either 1 or even half Gb of Vram, it was a Black Edition XFX card. Runs CS:GO at 300 fps but crashes when I play 7 days to die. It would be a miracle if I could record something at 420p, not even mentioning 720p hahaha

[Nishizumi]

Stock 390 overclocks like trash.... Where would you find a stock 390? 

 

Yes, 970 and 390.

As of the Rx 300 series, there is no reference card besides the Fury X and Nano. There are some Reference PCBs, but pretty much everything is custom. So the answer to that question which you probably know already is nowhere

[BulkyZaNka]

As of the Rx 300 series, there is no reference card besides the Fury X and Nano. There are some Reference PCBs, but pretty much everything is custom. So the answer to that question which you probably know already is nowhere

So the Sapphire wouldn't be "trash" at overclocking?

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

So the Sapphire wouldn't be "trash" at overclocking?

 

Depends on silicon lottery. Right now, it is observed that most Msi cards are good overclockers, followed by XFX and then Sapphire. 

[Nishizumi]

So the Sapphire wouldn't be "trash" at overclocking?

Remember that "trash" means different things for two different cards. For the 390 1200MHz is a great overclock where 1450MHz is great for the 970. It all depends on how lucky you are with the card, but you should be able to get a decent boost.

[don_svetlio]

Average OC on HWBot for a 390 is 1180MHz which is quite good

Average OC for a 970 is about 1400 which is meh for that card as some people have reached 1600

[App4that]

So the Sapphire wouldn't be "trash" at overclocking?

Compared to the 970, yes the Sapphire would overclock like trash. Pure and simple. Out of the box and not playing a Gameworks game the 390 is stronger. Overclock them both and the 970 wins. The 970 will offer more reliable performance and also put less strain on the CPU.

And VRAM? Only useful if you can use it. And in games where you need the VRAM the 390 is already struggling. But I assume the same happens with the 970.

[BulkyZaNka]

So using the built-in oc feature in the msi mobo, I will get better performance with the 970? The it just comes down to more memory or faster speeds right?

Edit: keep in ind that I'm using a single 1080p monitor and might do some kind of recording or streaming.

[App4that]

I've had a Sapphire 290 and 390, nether is reliable over 1100mhz. Memory speed could be increased by 50mhz on broth before you had problems. But AMD overclocks count more per MHz than Nvidia so there's that.

Big thing is Gameworks, which causes the Sapphire to fall on its face. But it doesn't sound like you're playing many Gameworks games so the 390 might be for you.

Though I'd advise the 290 Vaporx