Trying to choose between the R9 280 and the GTX 960. Those two only. What do you pick and why? I play everythign from GTA 5 to Arma 3. More Inside

[cab11150904]

I'm running a 4790k on 8 gigs of RAM so I should be able to keep up with either card as far as processing goes.  

[The Crazed Child]

R9 280 for sure, both games are VRAM hogs (rightfully so since the game worlds are so big)

[thatguyyouknow75]

id go with the 280, especially with the 300 series around the corner, the prices will likely drop and a second one to run Xfire will be less expensive

[iruixos]

2operator4u

 

 

The 960 doesn't seem like a bad card.

[XTankSlayerX]

280 for sure...

 

Reasons...

 

Errr... More VRAM (I'm going from memory) and more powerful.

 

As powerful as a 770, and as a owner of a 770. Its going to impress you.

[Boink]

It kind of depends on what you are doing. AMD cards will output more heat and consume more power for the performance you get in games, but they work better for compute tasks like rendering and cryptocurrency mining.

If you have good airflow in your case and a decent power supply the 280 is probably the better choice, especially if you do any rendering. And, with the rumors of the performance gains that Direct X 12 will bring to the table, especially in AMD cards, and the already widespread adoption of freesync (and more supported monitors coming out very quickly), the 280 is a solid choice.

If you have a more restrictive case with less airflow, a weaker power supply, already have a gsync monitor, and/or you don't do a lot of compute based tasks, the 960 is a quieter, cooler, much more power efficient card that trades blows with the 280 in games.

 

Personally I would go with the 280 due to the reasons I already stated, but if silence and low heat output are more important to you than performance outside of games, the 960 would be better.

[cab11150904]

280 for sure...

Reasons...

Errr... More VRAM (I'm going from memory) and more powerful.

As powerful as a 770, and as a owner of a 770. Its going to impress you.

You are actually talking about a 280x

[chamath]

-GTX 960 is more power efficient and GPU runs much cooler than 280. If you are overclocking, 960 has greater potential.

-960 fully support Directx 12

-3GB Vram and wider bus is useful if gaming in 1440P or using mods. But if you are gaming 1080p or below, 2GB is sufficient

-Nvidia drivers support is usually better than AMD

 

My recommendation is GTX 960. Much better if you can buy 4GB version.

[Hecknologist]

I'd go for a 960 4gb.

It's a much newer architecture (280 architecture is from 2012) which means cooler and quieter operation, better feature support and (if 4gb card) more vram. It has shadowplay, gpu boost, no fan rotation when no 3d rendering is required, much better overclocking potential, better game support (from my experience), etc.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Either a 4gb 960 or a 280. I wouldn't go for a 2gb 960.