970 vs R9 390 Decision

[Knaj]

So right now I'm deciding between the

 

Geforce GTX 970 https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn970g1gaming4gd

 

And the 

 

MSI Radeon R9 390 https://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9390gaming8g

 

So I've been weighing pros and cons for a while, yet I still can't make a decision.

 

I want a card that will last me a long time, is future proof enough, and costs less than 350$. (AMD side)

 

But I also want a card that is very steady, reliable, and doesn't have many bugs. (Nvidia side)

 

I also like the features Nvidia has for their cards, that AMD doesn't, but the AMD card is cheaper and more powerful too.

 

Can I please get some suggestions? (No just "Oh pick AMD" or "Oh pick Nvidia," I need opinions)
 

 

[Th3 Mans1ay3r]

I'd roll with AMD just because of the price to performance I see with them compared to the 970.

[Knaj]

I'd roll with AMD just because of the price to performance I see with them compared to the 970.

 

But would the AMD card be reliable enough compared to the Nvidia card? I just want the drivers to work very well and be able to play all my games, tf2, cs:go, bf4, dying light, Far cry 4, etc, without issues, or at least without major issues.

[JackTheYoungBuilder]

If you're 1080p gaming go with the 970 cause you're never going to need 8 gigs of vram and a 970 handles 1080p better then the 390 

[Knaj]

I'm just woried about the reliability of how the card will perform

[Knaj]

If you're 1080p gaming go with the 970 cause you're never going to need 8 gigs of vram and a 970 handles 1080p better then the 390 

 

I also want this card to last me a long time and be future proofed enough that it can still handle 1080p games even later on when they require so much more.

[Zhuocheng]

AMD card is just as reliable as the Nvidia card

[Dude]

Power consumption, carp drivers and heat are three things I've experienced when using my R9 290 as well as carp framerates on certain games which the R9 290 should surely maul. The 390 last time I checked is a rebrand and therefore, based on the experiences I have had with my card, should be avoided.

[JackTheYoungBuilder]

I also want this card to last me a long time and be future proofed enough that it can still handle 1080p games even later on when they require so much more.

Overclocking

[Knaj]

Ok so many people are biased... I just want something reliable and will last me a long time, I would go with the AMD card but the only thing slowing me down is the drivers that can be crappy sometimes (as I've heard from MANY reviews), while the Nvidia drivers are always solid, and the Nvidia cards are packed with features

[lPanzer]

Ok so many people are biased... I just want something reliable and will last me a long time, I would go with the AMD card but the only thing slowing me down is the drivers that can be crappy sometimes (as I've heard from MANY reviews), while the Nvidia drivers are always solid, and the Nvidia cards are packed with features

 

I've never had any problems concerning driver issues with my ref 290 to date since its launch, so the user experience may vary there but the current drivers have been pretty solid in respects to the 390 launch and the Fury launch. If I were you I would go for the 390 as it packs 8gb with more performance and there would be no point in having 970s in SLI if the 3.5gb will still hold it back in 4k and High Resolution textures which aren't always present in only 4k. Plus you wouldn't need that much horsepower if you weren't gaming in high res. If you want to "future proof," get the 390. If you're never going to sli, crossfire, or game in 4k then the 390 still beats it in 1080 and in performance/price.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Ok so many people are biased... I just want something reliable and will last me a long time, I would go with the AMD card but the only thing slowing me down is the drivers that can be crappy sometimes (as I've heard from MANY reviews), while the Nvidia drivers are always solid, and the Nvidia cards are packed with features

Don't know where you heard that from but maybe 4-5 years ago amd drivers might have been shit. These days the standard of the drivers from Nvidia and AMD are the same. Just a few weeks ago many people were having a shit ton of problems crashing in chrome and in games with Nvidia drivers. So no, Nvidia drivers are no better than AMD.

What Nvidia does better however is that they can push out driver updates faster than AMD.

So, people aren't being bias when they say Nvidia doesn't have much more reliable drivers than AMD, it's a fact.

[xAcid9]

The only thing that make AMD driver 'crap' for single card is Gameworks. 

[Th3 Mans1ay3r]

But would the AMD card be reliable enough compared to the Nvidia card? I just want the drivers to work very well and be able to play all my games, tf2, cs:go, bf4, dying light, Far cry 4, etc, without issues, or at least without major issues.

I use AMD for the last year and I've received no issues, at least none that I even noticed, at all. I'd say that AMD is as fairly reliable as Nvidia.

[BirdyTheMighty]

But would the AMD card be reliable enough compared to the Nvidia card? I just want the drivers to work very well and be able to play all my games, tf2, cs:go, bf4, dying light, Far cry 4, etc, without issues, or at least without major issues.

dude i have more of a shitty driver experiance with nvidia then amd

[SauronsV]

I'm going to copy paste my comment from an earlier post I made a few days ago

They perform almost identical in 1080p, the r9 390 has been known to do 1-2 fps better in some games and then lose by 1-2 fps, its basically the same power as the 970, both have around the same temperatures in load (970 lower temp in idle) and same amount of noise pretty much, I have heard. The R9 390 is around the same price in most places and has 8GB VRAM, where as the 970 has 4GB VRAM. This will be useful in the future HOWEVER, the R9 390 is not powerful enough to utilize all that VRAM in most future games. But it will still be very useful in 1-2 years when games use between 4-6GB of VRAM.

The only thing that should have an impact in you deciding to pick the 970 or the 390 are these things IMO

-Drivers

-VRAM

-Coil whine

-power usage

People say AMD drivers are bad, but they are only partly right. Frankly both AMD and NVIDIA drivers are rubbish. So far the AMD drivers have done well for the R9 390, although some people have complained about having a hard time installing the GPU (I think its due to them not uninstalling previous drivers correctly). AMD drivers dont get updates as often, but dont need them as often as NVIDIA. NVIDIA drivers get updates quicker and they solve problems quicker than AMD does. Overall I would say NVIDIA drivers are better but not by as much people say. TBH they are both pretty poor

VRAM will be useful in a year or so but as I said the R9 390 is just not powerful enough to use more than 6GB VRAM or so in games in like 2-3 years I THINK, I could be completely wrong. But none the less the VRAM will be useful eventually.

Coil whine has been a known issue for the 900 series, especially the 970, I have had one and it has had annoying coil whine. Some make high pitch sounds and some make buzzing sounds, both being super annoying. But you probably wont realize when you play games anyway. As for the R9 390, I have not heard a single person complaining about (audible) coil whine yet, which is a good sign.

The 390 consumes more watts, but apparently people with 600+ watts will have no problems running a R9 390. Make sure ur PSU can handle it.

There is no point comparing performance, dont listen to most people who say 'THIS GPU HAS 20% MORE PERFORMANCE BLABLABLA', that is rubbish. They are basically the same.

I am neither a AMD or NVIDIA fanboy, I just pick whats best and so far I would say the R9 390 is better than the 970, and most people on the internet seem to agree with this.

(you cant go wrong with either they are both fantastic)

[gilang01]

Nvidia's drivers aren't necessarily better, but they do optimize their drivers. i would just go 970 and overclock it to 980 levels.

I'm an ex-AMD user (280x), and I can tell you that the extra "Nvidia Features" are worth the price.  

[MACGYVR]

they are same price

 

the 970 has 3.5 gb vram

the 390 has 8 gb of vram

 

 

the 970 has smaller heatsink

the 390 has bigger heatsink

 

i choose the 390 over 970 even though i am a nvidia fanboy becase it has more vram and will be more "future proof"

 

jaystwocents on youtube just did a 970 vs 390 vid.  check it out!

hope this helps

[MACGYVR]

Ok so many people are biased... I just want something reliable and will last me a long time, I would go with the AMD card but the only thing slowing me down is the drivers that can be crappy sometimes (as I've heard from MANY reviews), while the Nvidia drivers are always solid, and the Nvidia cards are packed with features

they are both reliable (from experience)

the new vid games and work programs are beginning to use more vram as time goes on slowly but surely

for the price (both being the same) i would choose the 390 because as far as vram capabilities you will be set for a WHILE !

most games will use all 3.5 gb of vram on the 970 and need more, for instance gta v uses quite a bit. 

any way as far as reliablity goes your good.

like i said before check out                                  

this vid it is good advice.

[alphaproject]

AMD's driver's had weird effects on both of my Windows installs. Seems as their running background service MOM.exe was extremely annoying.

[killcomic]

I haven't had any real issues with AMD drivers. They work fine for me and seem reliable on my overclocked r9 280. No driver crashes or such.

NVIDIA does however have far more frequent updates. So you're likely to get performance boosts more often.

 

I don't know about heat and noise from NVIDIA, but heat has never been an issue on any of my AMD cards, mind you they all had non-reference cooling.

 

AMD will give you better raw performance for the price (I don't know where you are, but in Australia that's the case) but NVIDIA does have more bells and whistles (like PhysX and gameworks) and also NVIDIA has better tessellation performance. So I guess the deciding factor is if you want just raw performance for your money or better set of features.

 

I doubt you'll end up regretting your purchase no matter which card you go for.

[Prysin]

But would the AMD card be reliable enough compared to the Nvidia card? I just want the drivers to work very well and be able to play all my games, tf2, cs:go, bf4, dying light, Far cry 4, etc, without issues, or at least without major issues.

The whole "AMD drivers suck" is a thing of the past that Nvidia fanboys are touting to raise a flaccid and irrelevant point. Yes AMD might not always be releasing drivers pre-game release. But they are releasing drivers within a week of any ame coming out.

Ive used AMD for the past 3,5 years now.

In those years, ive used 2x 7950 in CF, and for the last 5 months ive used a R9 295x2 (single card with 2 GPUs on it).

In those 3,5 years ive mainly used their beta drivers, because unlike Nvidia, AMD releases a lot of beta drivers and very few WHQL drivers. However in 5 years, their beta drivers has gone tits up 5 times. FIVE TIMES.

In contrast, Nvidia dropped the ball 3 times in the last 2 months with their drivers... And that is only the drivers issues I know of at the Nvidia side.

People seem to glorify Nvidia like they are some kind of gods. Their not. All their staff is humans, and they will fuck up just as much as any other human will. Thats how it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

With that being said, benchmarks prove that the R9 390 can keep up or beat the GTX 970 in almost all tests, even in The Witcher 3, which is a Nvidia game, the R9 390 is keeping up. Despite The Witcher 3 being heavily favoring Nvidia cards.

The only actual useful feature Nvidia has over AMD atm, is CUDA. Everything else, AMD has a match for htme

[Whorax]

I'm just woried about the reliability of how the card will perform

I haven't had a single problem regarding reliability with my 290X. With that being said, I didn't have reliability problems with my SLI 970s either.

 

I personally don't think you need to be too concerned with reliability of either brand. I've used AMD cards nearly all my life with no problems, and for the little time I've had my 970s I didn't encounter problems either.

[Knaj]

I do like all the features Nvidia software has, especially PhsyX, I really like PhysX, do you think it would be a worthy trade for the 390?

[RyGuy99]

like i said before check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cKZiJw6Pk

this vid it is good advice.

It's just too bad he used a bad overclocking 970 in that video...all that benchmarking for one of the worst 970s *facepalm