GTX MSI 970 or R9 MSI 390?

[Clyne]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20QPpIqo-YY

 

As shown, some games it does better than the i5, and some games the i5 does better. I think they're pretty much equal.

...

Using Crysis as a example....it's different from the games that you see today.

Now where does it justify the price...even for it's "futureproofness"

I give up, i'm sure you'll end up regretting owning a FX 8350 due to it's lackluster performance in the coming years. 

HERE'S YOUR AWNSER

Both, both cards are equal in performance and have their own features that you may or may not like but you won't get the full performance out of both cards anyway due to the CPU underperforming/bottleneck.

[Le Lion de Barreras]

 

Both, both cards are equal in performance and have their own features that you may or may not like but you won't get the full performance out of both cards anyway due to the CPU underperforming/bottleneck.

What benchmarks have you've been looking at? The 390 is clearly superior than the 970. Not to mention it won't lag if it's 3.5vram is exceeded.

[Le Lion de Barreras]

Obvious lead with the 390 while the 970 keeps up but the 390 is still the winner.

[Clyne]

What benchmarks have you've been looking at? The 390 is clearly superior than the 970. Not to mention it won't lag if it's 3.5vram is exceeded.

All benchmarks are basically a draw, it's basically what you want from each card that matters anyway.

Lower power consumption with Nvidia features or Raw performance with 8GB VRAM. 

The 970 perform better than the 390 in some games meanwhile the 390 performs better than the 970 in some games.

That's how i would put it out.

No need for another 390 vs 970 war as both are around equally the same in performance. 

[Clyne]

Obvious lead with the 390 while the 970 keeps up but the 390 is still the winner.

At that point, their basically at around the same level, it's up to what you want.

Lower power consumption with Nvidia features like shadowplay or Raw performance with 8GB. 

It's what you choose that you want.

[Le Lion de Barreras]

All benchmarks are basically a draw, it's basically what you want from each card that matters anyway.

Lower power consumption with Nvidia features or Raw performance with 8GB VRAM. 

The 970 perform better than the 390 in some games meanwhile the 390 performs better than the 970 in some games.

That's how i would put it out.

No need for another 390 vs 970 war as both are around equally the same in performance. 

 

I won't lie and say you're wrong. I agree. Problem is the current driver support in those games aren't there for the 390 yet if it was it would have at least equaled the 970. Some games being Witcher 3 and GTAV as they favor Nvidia. But, I think the 390 is better bang for the buck card than the 970.

[Clyne]

 

I won't lie and say you're not wrong. Problem is the current driver support in those games aren't there for the 390 yet if it was it would have at least equaled the 970. Same games being Witcher 3 and GTAV as they favor Nvidia. But, I think the 390 is better bang for the buck card than the 970.

Each company will have bad drivers time to time, you can't really expect everybody to be perfect.

It's basically your choice to get what card.

[Le Lion de Barreras]

Each company will have bad drivers time to time, you can't really expect everybody to be perfect.

It's basically your choice to get what card.

I agree. Hopefully the new Radeon Crimson driver will bring a bit of a boost in performance.

[don_svetlio]

Each company will have bad drivers time to time, you can't really expect everybody to be perfect.

It's basically your choice to get what card.

The last 3 Nvidia drivers are unusable by me. My system crashes, burns and freezes.

[Clyne]

The last 3 Nvidia drivers are unusable by me. My system crashes, burns and freezes.

From time to time there will always be bad drivers.

Nvidia and ATi has a share of bad drivers before...nothing will always be perfect.

[don_svetlio]

From time to time there will always be bad drivers.

Nvidia and ATi has a share of bad drivers before...nothing will always be perfect.

I'm talking mobile - Nvidia drivers on mobile have been 75% bad so far. Feel free to ask others on Notebookcheck or other laptop forums - it's quite bad for us laptop users. I'm currently on the August WHQL which appears to be stable.

[Clyne]

I'm talking mobile - Nvidia drivers on mobile have been 75% bad so far. Feel free to ask others on Notebookcheck or other laptop forums - it's quite bad for us laptop users. I'm currently on the August WHQL which appears to be stable.

....

Obviously most of the time people would talk about desktop anyway.

[don_svetlio]

....

Obviously most of the time people would talk about desktop anyway.

It's still a valid issue though - I hear over and over how fantastic the driver support from Nvidia is yet I find myself strongly disagreeing, at least when it comes to mobile users and that has to be said - I don't intend to stay on this driver for eternity - I want at least one working one per month

[DGaming]

The R9 390 can bring you 1 or 2 FPS more in games, but I prefer the GTX 970, mainly because I like NVIDIA a lot more than AMD! 

 

1. Yes the R9 390 runs hotter than the GTX 970

2. No, the R9 390 is NOT as quiet as the GTX 970

3. 750w PSU is more than enough, yes

4. You don't need 8gb of vram atm, 4gb is enough for 1080p gaming

5. Why does the GTX 970 have more consumers? - Because NVIDIA... and because NVIDIA > AMD !  

6. As to the drivers, I dont know to be honest! 

7. For overclocking, I've heard that the GTX 970 can overclock like CRAZY! Especially if you get the EVGA one

 

Hope I was helpful Good luck!

[don_svetlio]

The R9 390 can bring you 1 or 2 FPS more in games, but I prefer the GTX 970, mainly because I like NVIDIA a lot more than AMD! 

 

1. Yes the R9 390 runs hotter than the GTX 970

2. No, the R9 390 is NOT as quiet as the GTX 970

3. 750w PSU is more than enough, yes

4. You don't need 8gb of vram atm, 4gb is enough for 1080p gaming

5. Why does the GTX 970 have more consumers? - Because NVIDIA... and because NVIDIA > AMD !

6. As to the drivers, I dont know to be honest! 

7. For overclocking, I've heard that the GTX 970 can overclock like CRAZY! Especially if you get the EVGA one

 

Hope I was helpful Good luck!

1 2-3*C hotter

2 it strongly depends on the cooler - G1 970 is quite a bit louder than Nitro 390

3 550W is also more than enough

4 3.5*GB and no, it is not enough considering games are only going to be more demanding - 8GB will very much last longer

5 personal opinion - not relevant or supported by facts/statistics

6 fair enough

7 1MHz for GCN is like 1.4MHz for Maxwell - a 1500MHz 970 is like a 1150MHz 390

[DGaming]

1 2-3*C hotter

2 it strongly depends on the cooler - G1 970 is quite a bit louder than Nitro 390

3 550W is also more than enough

4 3.5*GB and no, it is not enough considering games are only going to be more demanding - 8GB will very much last longer

5 personal opinion - not relevant or supported by facts/statistics

6 fair enough

7 1MHz for GCN is like 1.4MHz for Maxwell - a 1500MHz 970 is like a 1150MHz 390

3. I know 550w is more than enough, but he asked if 750w is enough.. sooo yeah!!

4. I will get to that in a minute

5. I know its a personal opinion, but it is kinda supported by statistics... the gtx 970 has more consumers!!

And the grand finale, number 4 ! Maybe 3.5 is not enough for the games that are gonna come out for the next few years.. BUT the r9 390 with its 8gb of vram actually performs the same as the 4gb vram cards.. here is a video showing that:

 

[don_svetlio]

3. I know 550w is more than enough, but he asked if 750w is enough.. sooo yeah!!

4. I will get to that in a minute

5. I know its a personal opinion, but it is kinda supported by statistics... the gtx 970 has more consumers!!

And the grand finale, number 4 ! Maybe 3.5 is not enough for the games that are gonna come out for the next few years.. BUT the r9 390 doesnt actually have 8gb of vram..well yes it does, but it doesnt have the power to access them, or something like that.. here is a video showing that:

 

4 - yes it does - if you'd bothered to read @D2ultima 's extensive tests in his guide you'd know that VRAM usage is not remotely connected to GPU power - in fact - it's only connected to memory bandwidth and actual need of the application - you see - I've also tested that and I've used all 3GB of my 280 while remaining just shy of 70% GPU usage - same goes for my 860M - I can use more than 3GB on it without really running out of GPU horsepower. I'd strongly suggest reading it as it will provide some invaluable information for future reference - it's stickied in the GPU forum

5 - the statistics you mention include the 6 month lead of the 970 and the people who buy pre-builts or buy based on brand without actually thinking what offers them more for the money. There's a reason why after the 390 and 380 launched Nvidia lost 5% market share in that segment within 3 months whereas it took them a year to gain it initially.

[DGaming]

4 - yes it does - if you'd bothered to read @D2ultima 's extensive tests in his guide you'd know that VRAM usage is not remotely connected to GPU power - in fact - it's only connected to memory bandwidth and actual need of the application - you see - I've also tested that and I've used all 3GB of my 280 while remaining just shy of 70% GPU usage - same goes for my 860M - I can use more than 3GB on it without really running out of GPU horsepower. I'd strongly suggest reading it as it will provide some invaluable information for future reference - it's stickied in the GPU forum

5 - the statistics you mention include the 6 month lead of the 970 and the people who buy pre-builts or buy based on brand without actually thinking what offers them more for the money. There's a reason why after the 390 and 380 launched Nvidia lost 5% market share in that segment within 3 months whereas it took them a year to gain it initially.

4. I will read it but as you can see in the video, shadow of mordor which uses more than 5gb of vram performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card, and batman arkham knight which uses more than 6gb of vram, again, performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card

5. I do know that nvidia is hurt after the r9 390, amd did punch hard this time and ill give em that! Im not saying that the gtx 970 is better, im just saying that i prefer it over the r9 390! Yes the r9 390 is a little better, but proven by benchmarks it gives around 1 or 2 more fps than the gtx 970 in 1080p gaming! And tbh, its 60 euro more expensive in amazon uk than the 970 In america its more worth it cuz its even cheaper than the gtx 970

[don_svetlio]

4. I will read it but as you can see in the video, shadow of mordor which uses more than 5gb of vram performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card, and batman arkham knight which uses more than 6gb of vram, again, performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card

5. I do know that nvidia is hurt after the r9 390, amd did punch hard this time and ill give em that! Im not saying that the gtx 970 is better, im just saying that i prefer it over the r9 390! Yes the r9 390 is a little better, but proven by benchmarks it gives around 1 or 2 more fps than the gtx 970 in 1080p gaming! And tbh, its 60 euro more expensive in amazon uk than the 970 In america its more worth it cuz its even cheaper than the gtx 970

4 - Shadow of Mordor has quite a bit of stutter when using max settings on a 970 - even JayzTwoCents - probably the most Nvidia-biased reviewer acknowledges the 970 RAM as an issue since because of the way it's separated, instead of caching in system RAM when the 3.5GB are used up and effectively increasing the capabilities of the card, the 970 attempts to use the last 512MB causing severe stutter and issues - not low frame rate - simply awful stuttering.

5 - at 1080 you get 4-5% more. At 1440p you get 8-10% more and at 4K you get 15% more with a 390 - GCN scales a LOT better with res than Maxwell mainly because as the need for draw calls decreases, the true power of GCN begins to show

[D2ultima]

4. I will read it but as you can see in the video, shadow of mordor which uses more than 5gb of vram performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card, and batman arkham knight which uses more than 6gb of vram, again, performs the same with the 4gb vram card and the 8gb vram card

5. I do know that nvidia is hurt after the r9 390, amd did punch hard this time and ill give em that! Im not saying that the gtx 970 is better, im just saying that i prefer it over the r9 390! Yes the r9 390 is a little better, but proven by benchmarks it gives around 1 or 2 more fps than the gtx 970 in 1080p gaming! And tbh, its 60 euro more expensive in amazon uk than the 970 In america its more worth it cuz its even cheaper than the gtx 970

Because mordor has a lot of caching going on, and not all of the memory it requires is needed. Yes, it needs above 3GB for certain, but it doesn't really need all 6GB for 1080p.

 

nVidia isn't suffering from the R9 390. Nobody is buying R9 390s. Nobody is buying AMD. If I were Linus and JayZTwoCents I would tell everybody to run far and wide from the abomination and "fuck you" to consumers that is the 970. But OEMs don't give a shit, most consumers don't give a shit, /r/pcmasterrace don't give a shit, LTT don't give a shit. Nobody gives a shit because it works "most of the time", and nobody does anything until it is already riding them from behind, and then that's pretty much too late.

[Haruki Grayson]

Thank you everyone for your opinions and answers!

 

I am going with the MSI version of the GTX 970, and will be overclocking it. I know that the R9 390 does have a bit better of performance, and has a great amount of vram; but a lot of the games I play are geared towards Nvidia drivers and PhysX. I am also very familiar with the way Nvidia cards work, and how all of their software runs, so it's more efficient for me. 

[VagabondWraith]

Thank you everyone for your opinions and answers!

I am going with the MSI version of the GTX 970, and will be overclocking it. I know that the R9 390 does have a bit better of performance, and has a great amount of vram; but a lot of the games I play are geared towards Nvidia drivers and PhysX. I am also very familiar with the way Nvidia cards work, and how all of their software runs, so it's more efficient for me.

Enjoy your card.