Which of this 4 cards would be the best choice

[Sam Z Man]

Except that I have not even overvolted it or increased its power limit, how does that even kill it off? And again I just told you I got higher fps than a 280x.

https://youtu.be/SLw0a6kUlXE

[JoeTheProgrammer]

@Sam Z Man Thanks, too bad that opinion of other users as well as benchmark results vary.

[ansauri]

@ansauri Am I missing something or am I just too tired? 10500 vs 9700 points

 

In your comment you said 960 vs 270, not 280

[JetPowerss]

I got a better benchmark with my Gigabyte G1 GTX 960 than my friend did with his Gigabyte 280. There wasn't much in it though

[Sam Z Man]

@Sam Z Man Thanks, too bad that opinion of other users as well as benchmark results vary.

Here are other people's opinion on the 960 vs the

280 cheaper

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/297250-gtx-960-vs-r9-280/

280X around the same price

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/306398-the-showdown-gtx-960-vs-r9-280x/

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/297336-gtx-960-vs-r9-280x/

Also never go by a single benchmark performance can change greatly based on what you are doing.

[CalumGiff]

Which of this cards would be the best choice when I want the best performance for the price. Also is AMD mantle still being developed? That would make R9 superior but google said it was merged to something called Vulcan or something like that if I remember correctly.

MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G 167€

MSI GTX 960 2GD5 191€ (the stock cooler one)

MSI R9 280 GAMING 3G 210€

MSI GTX 960 GAMING 2G 216 €

the 280 IMHO the extra gig of VRam will come in mighty handy and the difference in pure power isnt much at all.

[connorpiper]

I still stand by the 960 being the best choice. 

 

The 760 was worse than the 280 back in the day, and the 960 only improves about 10% over the 760. So if you are running at mid range settings, 6 more FPS. 

The 280 is the best choice, 2GB is not enough at all. Most modern games like vRAM more than horsepower (Like GTA V)

[mattonfire]

Which of this cards would be the best choice when I want the best performance for the price. Also is AMD mantle still being developed? That would make R9 superior but google said it was merged to something called Vulcan or something like that if I remember correctly.

MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G 167€

MSI GTX 960 2GD5 191€ (the stock cooler one)

MSI R9 280 GAMING 3G 210€

MSI GTX 960 GAMING 2G 216 €

I would say the R9 280, but why go with MSI. There are so many other 280's that are not MSI that are a lot cheaper like EVGA and even Asus!

[david cassar]

Gtx 960 for 191 euros is the best value. Its faster than the 280, draws less power and overclocks better.

[CalumGiff]

I would say the R9 280, but why go with MSI. There are so many other 280's that are not MSI that are a lot cheaper like EVGA and even Asus!

asus with the r9 series have had problems with the direct cuI2 cooler making full contact with the components of the card. So i wouldnt go asus. As for evga they only make nvidia cards and maybe the OP likes msi and the way the cooler looks.

[mattonfire]

asus with the r9 series have had problems with the direct cuI2 cooler making full contact with the components of the card. So i wouldnt go asus. As for evga they only make nvidia cards and maybe the OP likes msi and the way the cooler looks.

You may be right about Asus but I wouldn't be into buying a card from the way it looks. 

[CalumGiff]

You may be right about Asus but I wouldn't be into buying a card from the way it looks. 

U get cards that are good enough that aesthetics can be a factor, eg MSI is a good brand and so is gigabyte but when it comes down to it the difference between them isnt all that much so looks can be in the equation. Its not like buying a VTX3D card because it looks nice

[mattonfire]

U get cards that are good enough that aesthetics can be a factor, eg MSI is a good brand and so is gigabyte but when it comes down to it the difference between them isnt all that much so looks can be in the equation. Its not like buying a VTX3D card because it looks nice

He should go with Gigabyte then as there is pretty much no difference but the price is around a $100 drop, also if he really wanted the aesthetics of the little red on the side he could do some home DIY 

[CalumGiff]

He should go with Gigabyte then as there is pretty much no difference but the price is around a $100 drop, also if he really wanted the aesthetics of the little red on the side he could do some home DIY 

depends entirely on where u live, eg in scotland msi variant of the 290 is 20 pounds cheaper than the gigabyte version

[-rascal-]

Except that I have not even overvolted it or increased its power limit, how does that even kill it off? And again I just told you I got higher fps than a 280x.

You can't properly compare an overclocked GPU versus another running at stock speed -- or even lower; when the "Tahiti XT2" chip was released, a lot of HD 7970's ad 7950's got upgraded, which is essentially the current R9-280X and R9-280. The "Tahiti XT2" allowed the GPU to run a lower voltages, and introduced higher Core Clock (1GHz Edition) with Boost technology. At that point, most of the newer HD 7970's and 7950's ran at 1000MHz stock on the Core, and boosted up into the 1050 ~ 1100 MHz range. Heck, even my Vapor-X HD 7970 runs at 1050 MHz ,Base, on the Core (while my older 7970 ran at 925 MHz with no Boost ability).

Why manufacturers / board partners dropped the Core Clock back down into the 850MHz and 950MHz range, and even sometimes the Memory Clock, on select models of the R9-280(X) is beyond me.

If you are comparing an overclocked GTX 960, then it is logical to overclock the competitors (R9-280; or R9-280X and GTX 770) as well.

An analogy would be as to compare a tuned (ready to rally race) Subaru WRX STi versus a bone stock Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution of the same generation and manufacuring year.

OP:

Since the stock cooler GTX 960 is cheaper, then it is up to you on whether to get the reference cooler GTX 960, or the R9-280.

I don't see a reason to get the R9-270, or the more expensive GTX 960 -- the "Maxwell" architecture runs cool enough, so that even the reference stock cooler is more than capable.

[EcoBoost]

Wtf is going ooonnnnn

 

280 is slightly better then 960. Both of them are noticeably better then 270.

[flipped_bit]

I must have some legendary gtx 960. I've owned the 270x and it's not just slightly faster, the difference is huge.

 

Indeed.  I have an r9 270 overclocked to a 270x, and I regret not going with the 760/960.  That said, my 270 was dirt cheap in a bundle deal; the effectively price difference between it and the 760 at the time was ~$150.  The 760/960 gives you those extra 6-12 frames to achieve 60fps on high in most games at 1080p.

[JoeTheProgrammer]

@ansauri My bad I meant to say R9 280

Gtx 960 for 191 euros is the best value. Its faster than the 280, draws less power and overclocks better.

Do you know something about noise level of this model with stock cooler?

I would say the R9 280, but why go with MSI. There are so many other 280's that are not MSI that are a lot cheaper like EVGA and even Asus!

Well in my shop MSI is cheaper than those and I heard it's better and as a bonus it looks better.

asus with the r9 series have had problems with the direct cuI2 cooler making full contact with the components of the card

Didn't knew that. That's definitely good to know, thank you.

You may be right about Asus but I wouldn't be into buying a card from the way it looks.

Me neither. That's why I am still considering that GTX 960 for 191 euros with "default" cooler.

Since the stock cooler GTX 960 is cheaper, then it is up to you on whether to get the reference cooler GTX 960, or the R9-280.

I don't see a reason to get the R9-270, or the more expensive GTX 960 -- the "Maxwell" architecture runs cool enough, so that even the reference stock cooler is more than capable.

If it would keep the card cool enough and isn't too noisy then I don't see the point either. Would that stock cooler be enough for overclocking? I am not planning to overclock it for now, maybe in the future.

Here are other people's opinion on the 960 vs the

280 cheaper

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/297250-gtx-960-vs-r9-280/

280X around the same price

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/306398-the-showdown-gtx-960-vs-r9-280x/

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/297336-gtx-960-vs-r9-280x/

Also never go by a single benchmark performance can change greatly based on what you are doing.

Hmm this is the main problem that the benchmark results and people experience differs. I didn't expect that it would differ so much from person to person.

[Techhog]

What? That was just in response to what he said about the 270. Mate I've got this thing on 1550 mhz (which was really easy to achieve) and I'm getting practically 280x performance and I can prove it too.

 

Just use this as an example: 

 

Guy plays on 48 fps max settings yet I got 60 fps on max settings while running a gtx 960 on 3k resolution (according to the people on this website that would've use an infinite amount of more vram than the gtx 960 can take).

Breaking news! Overclocking makes things faster! More at 11, after a shocking story about someone who had to press the power button to turn his computer on!