R9 280 vs GTX 960? (Sorry.)

[Vozella]

I'm sorry to be posting something so many other people have posted, but I'm still confused. I've been reading in the forums and I see winning arguments from both sides. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinustechtips.com+r9+280+vs+gtx+960

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127789&cm_re=msi_r9_280-_-14-127-789-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127843&cm_re=msi_gtx_960-_-14-127-843-_-Product

I've seen benchmarks where the 280 wins and others where the 960 wins.

Is it true that they are the same except the 960 is colder so it has overclock farther?

Will I ever need 3G vs 2G?

 

Edit: BTW, I'm going for 1080p.

 

Edit: I'm going to plan to go for an MSI GTX 960 for now. If you think otherwise, tell me why.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Vozella

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I would personally go with the 960 because of the features and software BUT 280 may be better in the long-run.

[NeatSquidYT]

3GB is certainly handy to have, but it all depends on what games you're playing, but by the time you've gotten to places where the extra VRAM is useful, your GPU won't be fast enough to p[lay it at a high enough framerate anyways

[PineappleHolidays]

Well ; there is the 280 / 285 / 280x , if you can go for the 280x;

I would take the 280 for the 3GB ( becoming more and more important )

the gtx 960 is quieter and will oc further , but oc'in will only bridge the gap with a stock 280x .

As far as the 960 , it has better software and is newer .

Depends what is cheapest .

[Vozella]

I would personally go with the 960 because of the features and software BUT 280 may be better in the long-run.

 

As far as the 960 , it has better software and is newer .

What software does it have that AMD doesn't? What features? 

[AlexWJD]

Eh. I personally like the 285 more than the 280, as it pretty much outperforms it. The 280 has 3GB, and thats all it has. The power is lacking.

 

Between the 285 and 960, get whichever is cheapest. The 960 is cheaper than any 285 right now I believe 

[typographie]

I'm sorry to be posting something so many other people have posted, but I'm still confused. I've been reading in the forums and I see winning arguments from both sides. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinustechtips.com+r9+280+vs+gtx+960

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127789&cm_re=msi_r9_280-_-14-127-789-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127843&cm_re=msi_gtx_960-_-14-127-843-_-Product

I've seen benchmarks where the 280 wins and others where the 960 wins.

Is it true that they are the same except the 960 is colder so it has overclock farther?

Will I ever need 3G vs 2G?

 

Edit: BTW, I'm going for 1080p.

 

It seems like everyone on this forum loves to hate the GTX 960, but as you've noticed it's about equal to the R9 280/285 with the "winner" depending on the game. Based on the benchmarks out there I'm still inclined to say that a GTX 960 with 2 GB of VRAM is not a serious handicap at 1080p.

 

I don't think the R9 280 is a particularly hot card either, and how a video card responds to overclocking depends on much more than simply how hot it gets. Reliable delivery of a lot of power is also a major factor, so lower-power cards aren't automatically better. The "high-end" overclocking cards often add extra PCIe power connector pins, i.e an. 8-pin or two 6-pin connectors for some 960's.

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What software does it have that AMD doesn't? What features? 

 

3D vision, AMDs 3D setup doesn't work well.

I haven't looked deeply  into AMDs software but Nvidias driver updater, game optimizer and everything kinda just works.

AMDs you have to register or something I forget what its called. Never liked it.

[Atmos]

What software does it have that AMD doesn't? What features? 

 

Shadowplay, sheild,. That's pretty much it.

[That Norwegian Guy]

An extra GB of VRAM may sound nice, but.

 

For example, Dying Light either uses 2GB (medium shadows) or 3.5GB (high shadows) so in this game, there's nothing a 3GB card can do that a 2GB card won't.

 

And I've yet to see an example where 3GB does what 2GB could not, except for games that would normally use 2GB @ 1080p in 1440p.

[Vozella]

3D vision, AMDs 3D setup doesn't work well.

I haven't looked deeply  into AMDs software but Nvidias driver updater, game optimizer and everything kinda just works.

AMDs you have to register or something I forget what its called. Never liked it.

I was origianlly going to go for AMD, but I might go for Nvidia because of the Software. 

[Lawliet93]

Shadowplay, sheild, 0-core. That's pretty much it.

In my experience is amds Raptr as good as shadowplay, 0-core is actually amds technology no available for nvidia cards.

[Vozella]

Damn it. I should have made a poll. Too late now.

[TheGamingBarrel]

Shadowplay, sheild, 0-core. That's pretty much it.

They have their on version of Shadowplay, then splashbox ( I think) and ZeroCore is an AMD Technology.

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

I was origianlly going to go for AMD, but I might go for Nvidia because of the Software. 

 

Yeah that's exactly why I moved from an R7770 to two GTX 760s just because I liked Nvidias software.

[Atmos]

They have their on version of Shadowplay, then splashbox ( I think) and ZeroCore is an AMD Technology.

 

In my experience is amds Raptr as good as shadowplay, 0-core is actually amds technology no available for nvidia cards.

 

Excuse me, meant to say the whole no fan spinning bull crap that 9 series cards do when setup. Got the terms mixed around. Thanks for the correction.

[xAcid9]

960 because of The Witcher 3 and similar price.

[Lawliet93]

Well, they are both good options. The gtx 960 is a little bit more powerful than the reference r9 280 (at 940MHz), but there are overclocked versions of it that are better than the gtx 960. At they max overclocks they are pretty much equal (it depends on the game). Driver support is good for both of them. You get better power consumption with the gtx 960, but the r9 280 has 3GB of VRAM, that are very important these days.  

[c0d0ps]

I agree that you should get which ever is cheaper since there's not a whole lot performance difference.

But if they were a tie in pricing I would go with the 960 over 280 and the 280x over 960.

[ForsakenLive]

Get the GTX 960 unless you can afford the R9 280X

[Lawliet93]

Excuse me, meant to say the whole no fan spinning bull crap that 9 series cards do when setup. Got the terms mixed around. Thanks for the correction.

Yeah, amd shuts down your GPU completely, when your pc is still on (let us say, you are downloading something large, like a steam game and it is going to take a few hours) but your monitor goes to sleep.

[TheGamingBarrel]

Yeah, amd shuts down your GPU completely, when your pc is still on (let us say, you are downloading something large, like a steam game and it is going to take a few hours) but your monitor goes to sleep.

It doesnt shut it down completely, it puts it into a low power state, such as RAM or a HDD while in sleep mode.

[Lawliet93]

It doesnt shut it down completely, it puts it into a low power state, such as RAM or a HDD while in sleep mode.

You have earned a cookie for correcting me it actually decreases the usage of the GPU to around 3W.

[TheGamingBarrel]

You have earned a cookie for correcting me it actually decreases the usage of the GPU to around 3W.

Yup, I learned this when looking around for GPU's when I had less money, saw a R9 280 from MSI, this was a large advertising point

[DildorTheDecent]

Excuse me, meant to say the whole no fan spinning bull crap that 9 series cards do when setup. Got the terms mixed around. Thanks for the correction.

No fan spinney thingy can be applied to any GPU really. Unless there's lock downs in place.

 

I couldn't care about that to be honest. ShadowPlay is alright and the streaming is probably the better stand out feature.