Confusing decission >.<

[xMishax]

Good evening everyone :-) have been waiting for more than a year now to build a pc, because my current one with forc3d HD 5770 and i5 760 su**s bricks in something else than LoL and Sims4. So I waited for so long because as everyone I hoped for amd to release something nice for 1080p, but I got kinda dissapointed, as all AmD was rebranding/rebadging/minor changing. Then I decided to check for Nvidia and found gtx 970 to be total beast out there, but... the price... if I buy gtx 970 ( the cheapest one out there ) I will stay without HDD ( well i gonna have to use my old Samsung one ) and SSD. Kinda sucks. So I searched for alternatives and all I found was gtx 960 4gb, r9 280x and r9 380 4gb. They all cost about the same and thats 120eu less than the cheapest gtx 970 there ( r9 290 costs almost as much as gtx970... im living in wonderworld..)

So folks give me an advice or share your own experience or something which one should I pick: r9 380 4gb or r9 280x or gtx 960 4gb. Will I be able to play recent games on high settings with 30fps ( Im a type of a guy that is used to 30fps and it feels even more than playable and comfortable or maybe Im just not refined enough to feel the difference :-D )

One more thing to consider is software and new thingies, because Ive heard that r9 280x doesnt have some benefits of r9 380.

Thank you in advance !!!

[arronleeds]

r9 280x mate, the 960 sucks and the r9 380 is a rebranded r9 285.

 

the 280x can play some games at 1080p ultra 60fps, so you will have no issue with 30fps.

 

id have said an r9 290 but you said it costs almost the same as a 970 where you live which is stupid, in the uk the r9 290 costs about as much as a 280x did last year which is pretty cheap.

[xMishax]

I could buy and ship r9 290 from abroad and it would be way cheaper, but the fees are so high that they almost kill the price difference.

[SleathX1]

I could buy and ship r9 290 from abroad and it would be way cheaper, but the fees are so high that they almost kill the price difference.

Fees suck.

[JefferyD90]

I personally would grab a R9-285 or R9-380.  They are the same physical card, the 3xx series has extreamly minor improvments on power draw and heat output but these differences are minor.

 

This will take care of any 1080p needs that you would have.

[xAcid9]

Which 280x and which 380 are we talking about?

[xMishax]

Living in Europe ftw :-D

[Prysin]

The 380 is basically the 285 with the ability to get 4GB Vram, a bit higher performance and a slight premium

 

The 285 is inbetween the 280 and 280X, so the 380 should be somewhere between the 285 and the 280X in performance. The 285 was more often then not held back by its 2GB of Vram, the 380 however can get 4GB, so it has some more headroom. There is also additional features avaliable on the 380, such as Freesync, VSR and a few other goodies. AMD has also improved color compression compared to 280X, which means the 380 should be more efficient at using its VRAM, giving you slightly higher performance.

 

 

If the 380 4GB version from Sapphire (Nitro) can be had for about the same as a 280X or 290, then the 380 - from a feature and driver standpoint, is the better choice.

 

While the 290 is more powerful, it is also more power hungry.

[xMishax]

Which 280x and which 380 are we talking about?

For 280X it would we sapphire tri x and for 380 it would be msi twin frozr V

[TheWutofWat]

I would say go with team "Green" (I am a nVidia H***) and get the gtx 960 4GB and maybe a EVGA SSuperClocked or Gigabyte G1 Gaming

[xMishax]

Btw does the r9 280x support dx 12? Ive heard it will benefit gpus a lot

[xAcid9]

For 280X it would we sapphire tri x and for 380 it would be msi twin frozr V

 

Ah.. both is good model. 

 

It all depend whether you need raw performance or more features with slightly lower performance.

The 280x is faster obviously but the 285/380 have new/better features like 4K VSR, Freesync, DX12 with FeatureLevel 12_0, 4K H264 decoding with AMD VCE/AMF, improved tessellation performance.

[xAcid9]

Btw does the r9 280x support dx 12? Ive heard it will benefit gpus a lot

 

280x will support DX12 but with FeatureLevel 11_1. I don't think that'll matter much but need to wait for DX12 games to conclude that.

[xMishax]

I would say go with team "Green" (I am a nVidia H***) and get the gtx 960 4GB and maybe a EVGA SSuperClocked or Gigabyte G1 Gaming

Yeah I wanted to go team green because I like their physx and hairworks, but too bad that gtx 970 are so pricey :-( anyway does gtx 960 4gb makes any bigger difference from gtx 960 2gb?

[xMishax]

Ah.. both is good model.

It all depend whether you need raw performance or more features with slightly lower performance.

The 280x is faster obviously but the 285/380 have new/better features like 4K VSR, Freesync, DX12 with FeatureLevel 12_0, 4K H264 decoding with AMD VCE/AMF, improved tessellation performance.

Vsr is that thingie that you can use 4k and use it on lower resolution monitors right? But will I be able to use it efficiently with r9 380?

And one more thing - how that tesselation improves gaming performance?

[TheWutofWat]

Yeah I wanted to go team green because I like their physx and hairworks, but too bad that gtx 970 are so pricey :-( anyway does gtx 960 4gb makes any bigger difference from gtx 960 2gb?

Well if you want to get a 1080p @60 FPS go with 4GB as it is good and does add more "Future Compatibility" as I want to get one of these cards EVGA or Gigabyte, I am soooo confused, yes it will make difference between 2 and 4 GB as it is a low end card but a "Sweet Spot for 1080p"

[xAcid9]

Vsr is that thingie that you can use 4k and use it on lower resolution monitors right? But will I be able to use it efficiently with r9 380?

And one more thing - how that tesselation improves gaming performance?

Yup, maybe on older games that have sucky AA implementations, not on newer games.

Tessellation improve game aesthetics, but lower gaming performance *cough*Gameworks.

 

If you don't care about VSR/DSR, ability to record gameplay with less performance hit over 1080p resolution, Freesync/GSync, better DX12 features, get the 280x.

[xMishax]

Yup, maybe on older games that have sucky AA implementations, not on newer games.

Tessellation improve game aesthetics, but lower gaming performance *cough*Gameworks.

If you don't care about VSR/DSR, ability to record gameplay with less performance over 1080p resolution, Freesync/GSync, better DX12 features, get the 280x.

well tesselation improvements and dx 12 sound really apealing to me, as Im a lil bit of a graphics wh*re :-D trying to get as much eye candy and still play pretty comfortably :-) btw you said that newer games can use 4k vsr/dsr with minimal performance drop?

[xAcid9]

well tesselation improvementsand dx 12 sound really apealing to me, as Im a lil bit of a graphics wh*re :-D trying to get as much eye candy and still play pretty comfortably :-) btw you said that newer games can use 4k vsr/dsr with minimal performance drop?

 

280x support DX12 too.

No, none of these cards is playable at 4K for most games.

 

What is your CPU btw?

[xMishax]

280x support DX12 too.

No, none of these cards is playable at 4K for most games.

What is your CPU btw?

It probably will be i5 4460 or 4590

[JefferyD90]

Btw does the r9 280x support dx 12? Ive heard it will benefit gpus a lot

Yes.  AMD has said that all of their R9 series will be DX12 compatible.

[xMishax]

Damn, there so few benchmarks of r9 380 comparing with other same price point Nvidia/ AMD GPU's... the only one is Gamers Nexus and it seems that in most games R9 380 scores 2-5 fps better.

 BTW if anyone still visits this thread which one of the should theoretically overclock higher and better?

[xAcid9]

Damn, there so few benchmarks of r9 380 comparing with other same price point Nvidia/ AMD GPU's... the only one is Gamers Nexus and it seems that in most games R9 380 scores 2-5 fps better.

 BTW if anyone still visits this thread which one of the should theoretically overclock higher and better?

Obviously 960 will clock much higher. 

Have you check this review? http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_r9_380_gaming_2g/4.htm

 

It probably will be i5 4460 or 4590

Ok, that won't bottleneck any of these cards.

[xMishax]

Thanks everyone for your help and advices really appreciate that (y) Ive decided to go with R9 380 4gb dont know which brand yet doe
have a nice evening/night