Which Card is better

[Tarzanf10]

I have been given a AMD Radeon R9 290 but I already have a GTX 960 .. trying to work out which one is better to use on my main rig (till I can do a proper upgrade)

 

Any help would be fantastic 

[Zulu-Cheese-Alpha-IV]

That's an R9 290, it flat out destroys the GTX 960.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r9-290.c2397

[minibois]

R9 290 should be quite bit better, it was always more of a competitor (but slightly worse IIRC) than the GTX 970. The last time I looked has been years ago though, not sure how AMD Fine Wine^TM has affected that.

It does use quite a bit more power though and probably runs a lot warmer too, so it depends on how important you think that is.

[Haraikomono]

3 minutes ago, Zulu-Cheese-Alpha-IV said:

R9 290

would also go with that, since its much better supported under linux

[FRD]

Even though the R9 is older, it's much better. The X version even has a 8GB variant. I just believe the only drawback is that it consumes much more power.

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, minibois said:

R9 290 should be quite bit better, it was always more of a competitor (but slightly worse IIRC) than the GTX 970. The last time I looked has been years ago though, not sure how AMD Fine Wine^TM has affected that.

It does use quite a bit more power though and probably runs a lot warmer too, so it depends on how important you think that is.

290 is not pretty much universally better than a 970 between 5-20% (sometimes even more really just depends on when the 0.5gb of slow ram gets hit on the 970 hence why there is a lot of variance in benchmarks at settings that shouldn't cause it normally).

[Tarzanf10]

2 minutes ago, minibois said:

R9 290 should be quite bit better, it was always more of a competitor (but slightly worse IIRC) than the GTX 970. The last time I looked has been years ago though, not sure how AMD Fine Wine^TM has affected that.

It does use quite a bit more power though and probably runs a lot warmer too, so it depends on how important you think that is.

Heat is not an issue  .. thank for the feedback

[Zulu-Cheese-Alpha-IV]

9 minutes ago, jaslion said:

290 is not pretty much universally better than a 970 between 5-20% (sometimes even more really just depends on when the 0.5gb of slow ram gets hit on the 970 hence why there is a lot of variance in benchmarks at settings that shouldn't cause it normally).

At 1450mhz or higher, the 970 becomes a much more formidable card and almost every GTX 970 is capable of 1400mhz minimum, at 1500mhz you essentially have a GTX 980.

 

 

[Tarzanf10]

2 minutes ago, Zulu-Cheese-Alpha-IV said:

At 1450mhz or higher, the 970 becomes a much more formidable card and almost every GTX 970 is capable of 1400mhz minimum, at 1500mhz you essentially have a GTX 980 .

iv got a 960

[Zulu-Cheese-Alpha-IV]

Just now, Tarzanf10 said:

iv got a 960

If you can find a 970 I recommend it, it will not draw anywhere close to the power of an R9 290 whilst handily beating it overclocked.