380 vs. 960

[RichieXtheXboss]

i was wondering which one i will get better preformance in gaming.

please tell me your reason for picking the one you did and any benchmarks you can find 

this is for a 1080p display 

[CalculuS]

380 simply because GTX 960 is a huge turd on spec.

 

128bit bus is going to kill itself the moment you turn on AA, the reason it does so well is simply because it has the maxwell architecture.

[Enderman]

380 simply because GTX 960 is a huge turd on spec.

 

128bit bus is going to kill itself the moment you turn on AA, the reason it does so well is simply because it has the maxwell architecture.

nvidia uses an optimization algorithm in 900 series GPUs which reduces the need for massive bus bandwidth

thats why their high end cards dont need a huge 512 bit bus like AMD does

[don_svetlio]

nvidia uses an optimization algorithm in 900 series GPUs which reduces the need for massive bus bandwidth

thats why their high end cards dont need a huge 512 bit bus like AMD does

Thing is - the R9 380 which is GCN 1.2 also features compression techniques which are on par with Maxwell's - hence why the 256-bit bus can easily handle 4GB of VRAM whereas the 128-bit bus on the 960 cannot properly feed it.

 

 

i was wondering which one i will get better preformance in gaming.

please tell me your reason for picking the one you did and any benchmarks you can find 

this is for a 1080p display 

R9 380 is widely known to be about 10-15% faster in games. It also has the bandwidth to support 4GB of VRAM properly unlike the 960 which is bandwidth-starved to the extreme

[NuclearPeace]

All that really matters is that the 380 is faster in pretty much any scenario. There's no point delving into theory when the 380 is faster by such a margin.

[Prysin]

380 is faster. It simply is.

 

however, if you wait a little, the 380X should release in 2 weeks. which will be WAY faster (it will get close to a 970. Not quite, but close)

[NuclearPeace]

Im waiting out myself for the R9 380X. I already made the mistake of saving like maybe $20 by going for the 750 Ti over the R7 270, so I'm not going to hold back on expenses this time.

[App4that]

nvidia uses an optimization algorithm in 900 series GPUs which reduces the need for massive bus bandwidth

thats why their high end cards dont need a huge 512 bit bus like AMD does

When you have to rationalize why it's small.

[RichieXtheXboss]

380 is faster. It simply is.

 

however, if you wait a little, the 380X should release in 2 weeks. which will be WAY faster (it will get close to a 970. Not quite, but close)

 

 

Im waiting out myself for the R9 380X. I already made the mistake of saving like maybe $20 by going for the 750 Ti over the R7 270, so I'm not going to hold back on expenses this time.

have they said a price for the 380x yet

[Prysin]

have they said a price for the 380x yet

the rumors say its 249 USD

 

however AMD has not made a proper official announcement yet...

 

however, 249 USD is a fair bet...

 

380 = 200 USD

390 = 300 USD

 

it fits perfectly inbetween... so yeah... i'd wait atleast for the benchmarks. If it is as good as rumors claim, it'll be like buying a R9 290... However before you go buy a R9 290 instead (cuz they cost around the same now). 380X is based on a newer architecture. And performs MUCH better with Geometry tasks (aka Tesselation)

[Enderman]

When you have to rationalize why it's small.

what do you mean?

this is a fact, that's what they do to have a 384 bit bus on something like a 980ti or titan X, and it actually works

[NuclearPeace]

He has a point. The GTX 960's bus isn't really that small.

 

GM200, GM204, and GM206 are all based on a ratio.

 

Titan X: 3072 CUDA cores with a 384 bit bus

GTX 980: 2048 CUDA cores with a 256 bit bus

GTX 960: 1024 CUDA cores with a 128 bit bus

 

Seeing how that the Titan X nor the GTX 980 are really bottlenecked by bandwidth, with the much lower amount of resources the GTX 960 has, its kinda hard to see how it would be bottlenecked.

 

The R9 380X is rumored to retail at $250. With most 4GB R9 380s retailing at $210-230, for me pitching in the extra $30 is worth it.

[RichieXtheXboss]

He has a point. The GTX 960's bus isn't really that small.

 

GM200, GM204, and GM206 are all based on a ratio.

 

Titan X: 3072 CUDA cores with a 384 bit bus

GTX 980: 2048 CUDA cores with a 256 bit bus

GTX 960: 1024 CUDA cores with a 128 bit bus

 

Seeing how that the Titan X nor the GTX 980 are really bottlenecked by bandwidth, with the much lower amount of resources the GTX 960 has, its kinda hard to see how it would be bottlenecked.

 

The R9 380X is rumored to retail at $250. With most 4GB R9 380s retailing at $210-230, for me pitching in the extra $30 is worth it.

its tough when your on a tight budget

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Leaving the vram alone, the core on the 380 is also faster than the 960. I reccomend the 380.

[Suika]

what do you mean?

this is a fact, that's what they do to have a 384 bit bus on something like a 980ti or titan X, and it actually works

On that same note, the original Titan and Titan Black both featured 6GB of VRAM on a 384-bit bus and could utilize it despite being Kepler and not Maxwell. As well, the GTX 680 and 770 could both utilize 4GB of VRAM on a 256-bit bus, again being Kepler and not Maxwell. If I had to say anything about the bus-width of the GTX 960, it's that it's shown how very little people actually understand the engineering behind it and the advancing memory compression techniques. 

 

There are many users here that refuse to accept that fact that the GTX 960 can utilize more than 2GB of VRAM, there are several titles and higher resolutions that will show stuttering or lower frame averages on a 2GB card but not a 4GB card, evidence to the fact that there are benefits to feeding the GTX 960 more VRAM, but the problem is that those users want to continue being correct rather than accepting a plain as day fact, so they deny it. I'd love to make some silly excuse about how users here only spout this nonsense without proof and despite being debunked several times only because saying terms like "bus-width" make them feel smarter, but I'm not a psychologist.

 

If there is anything to be said, the R9 380 is faster. This is true. The R9 280 was marginally faster than a GTX 960 in a good portion of games, but the better binned R9 380 yields even more performance. However, people who claim the GTX 960 can't utilize 4GB of VRAM are speaking from a poor assumption they had or false claim they've heard, when the fact of the matter is that there are multiple benchmarks proving the GTX 960 can utilize more VRAM, but none proving it can't. Could the GTX 960 have benefited from a larger bus width? Chances are it could have, but we have no conclusive evidence showing that it would. I personally think it would have made more sense as a 3GB card rather than a 2GB or 4GB card, but like many others here, I'm not a hardware engineer either, I'll be truthful in admitting I don't know the feasibility behind it.

 

tl;dr - people say that the GTX 960 can't use 4GB of VRAM because they're silly and don't understand. Anyway the R9 380 is faster.