R9 285 2GB Strix vs GTX 960 4GB Strix

[tamag901]

Hi,

 

Which would be a better choice, performance wise? Would the 4GB be a waste on a weak card like this? I'm not looking at power consumption/temperature. I'll be playing at 1080p. Both these cards are the same price in my region.

 

Thanks

[Lord_Karango17]

doubt the 4gb will be very useful at 1080p, and I believe the 285 is superior performance wise.

 

A quick search for benchmarks should validate this...

[Nielips]

Whichever is cheaper usually, if you don't care about power/temps. But look at benchmarks for games you want to play as well. Also 4GB version is pointless.

[Sir Asvald]

Hi,

 

Which would be a better choice, performance wise? Would the 4GB be a waste on a weak card like this? I'm not looking at power consumption/temperature. I'll be playing at 1080p. Both these cards are the same price in my region.

 

Thanks

How much money do you have? I would say, the 960. Although the 960 4gb kind of pointless

[Sir Asvald]

do

Double post sorry

[H4X3R]

How much is the 960 4GB?

A 280X or 290 may be in the price range so i would consider on of those.

[Johannes_Lazor]

The 960 4gb,

2gb on my GTX 660 isnt enough for me in games that i can mod the sh*t out of like Skyrim(Im usually at 1800/1950mb 35fps at the lowest and 60fps at the highest). The 960 has about 50% higher performance than the GTX 660 if im not mistaken so it would probably be able to handle atleast 3gb of memory.

[vembutech]

GTX 960 4GB 

[david cassar]

Get the normal 2gb gtx 960. If you can't find one then get the 4gb 960. It performs a bit better or the same as the 285, but draws less power and is much more overclockable.

[tamag901]

Whichever is cheaper usually, if you don't care about power/temps. But look at benchmarks for games you want to play as well. Also 4GB version is pointless.

I'm hoping to be able to play Battlefront 3, Star Citizen and Overwatch when they come out, and also play current gen stuff like Battlefield 4 or Advanced Warfare. But I regularly play casual stuff like TF2, DoTA 2 and Unturned.

[Nielips]

Go look at bench marks for those games then, FYI I have a HD7850, and get a solid 60 fps on most of those games, usually on medium at least. 4 GB version of GTX 960 will be a waste of money, you many as well save a bit longer and get a 970 instead.

[tamag901]

Whichever is cheaper usually, if you don't care about power/temps. But look at benchmarks for games you want to play as well. Also 4GB version is pointless.

But the benchmarks on this site: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1888-evga-supersc-4gb-960-benchmark-vs-2gb/Page-2

show that the 4GB edition has a 1% fps of 30 instead of the 5fps on the 2gb version in AC:U.

 

Or would the 1% frame rate not be noticeable?

[Nielips]

Mate look at the price difference between 2GB and 4GB version, do you think 1% is worth that difference?

[The Toaster]

R9 280.

[Johannes_Lazor]

Mate look at the price difference between 2GB and 4GB version, do you think 1% is worth that difference?

When the game needs more than 2gb of Vram the FPS will drop dramaticaly.

[Nielips]

You are unlikely to run out of Vram before GPU power in most situations.

[Johannes_Lazor]

You are unlikely to run out of Vram before GPU power in most situations.

Ï did, Im on a GTX 660, It has 2gb of Vram and is about 2/3 as powerful as the 960.

By the end of this year games will most likely need more than 2gb of Vram. The 960 has enough horsepower to handle 3gb or more.

[Nielips]

Well my hd7850, overclockedbto around the same performance as GTX 660 hasn't, and his 960 won't in the games he has said he will be playing. You also aren't factoring in the better compression used in the 960. Also go look at some benchmarks, the 4gb in most situations makes practically no difference.

[Johannes_Lazor]

Well my hd7850, overclockedbto around the same performance as GTX 660 hasn't, and his 960 won't in the games he has said he will be playing. You also aren't factoring in the better compression used in the 960. Also go look at some benchmarks, the 4gb in most situations makes practically no difference.

The compression is only for the bandwidth, Not storage.

You dont see what i mean, I mean that 2gb is enough Now, But remember his GPU will be in his rig for Atleast a year, Probably 2 or 3. Games will need More Vram by then even at 1080p.

[Nielips]

Of course the compression reduces the amount of memory used ffs, and because it is smaller you need less band width. And as memory requirements increase so do, GPU performance, so you second point is irrelevant. To put it simply GTX 960 2GB good idea, GTX 960 4GB bad idea.

But it's his money so he can fucking spend on what ever crap he wants to.

[Johannes_Lazor]

Of course the compression reduces the amount of memory used ffs, and because it is smaller you need less band width. And as memory requirements increase so do, GPU performance, so you second point is irrelevant. To put it simply GTX 960 2GB good idea, GTX 960 4GB bad idea.

But it's his money so he can fucking spend on what ever crap he wants to.

I use 2gb of Vram on my GTX 660, It has enough horsepower to handle it. The 960 has 50% higher performance, So it should be able to handle 50% more Vram too.

The 960 is in the lines of a R9 280/x and they have 3gb of Vram. The last 1gb for the 4gb version might be viirtually unusable But it isnt a drawback.

[Nielips]

It's no where near the 280X it's around the 285 and 280. As you have pointed out, the 285 and 280 perform about the same, and because of the compression on 285 it doesn't use as much memory as 280. Hence why the 960 with even better compression doesn't need more than 2GB

[Johannes_Lazor]

It's no where near the 280X it's around the 285 and 280. As you have pointed out, the 285 and 280 perform about the same, and because of the compression on 285 it doesn't use as much memory as 280. Hence why the 960 with even better compression doesn't need more than 2GB

The compression has little to do with the stored data, It almost only affects the bandwidth since it only compresses the colours of the pixels.

Instead of using like 8mb for each frame it uses like 6 or 7mb, For 60fps a regular card would need about 500mb of Vram, But the Maxwell architecture cuts it down to about 400mb, It is only about 100mb.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/maxwell-architecture-gtx-980-970

[Nielips]

Yes and that 100 MB's is a lot, in terms of GPU Vram.

[BrinkGG]

If you're buying a 4GB 960... You have enough money to get an R9 280x, which is a very close race between the two. 

I know people are going to yell at me, cause usually I'm the one vying for the 960, but it depends on what you're doing, OP. 

GTX 970 ~= R9 290 > GTX 960 ~= R9 280x> R9 285 >R9 280 

Hope this helps!