Does the GTX 960 have anything on the R9 380?

[slmckay73]

I'm putting together a list for my first build, and I was originally going with the 960. But, from what I've read on the forums here the 380 pretty soundly outperforms it. There was also something about the 4GB versions of the 960 not being able to utilize all 4 gigs of vRAM... could someone clarify?

 

Anyway, my main question is whether there are any additional features the 960 has by virtue of being newer hardware than the 380 (which is apparently made from an older gpu?) that would make it worth considering over the 380. 

 

p.s. I'm new to the site; is there a place here to have the community look over my build? 

[Aytex]

Geforce Experience

Some games the 960 outperforms the 380

And yes the 960 utilizes the 4gb of vram, its just some of the random BS that floats around the fourms

 

Just post your build here and we can have a look

[Atmos]

The 960 is bottlenecked by the 128bit bus for 4gbs. 

It can use all 4gbs, but not to its full effect as say, a card with a 256bit bus can.

 

The 380 is all around a better card, get your moneys worth and get the 380, or throw a couple more and get a 380X which is very solidly faster than both, and cheaper than a 390/970.

 

Also, the 380 is based on the 285, which is only a last gen architecture, one being newer than the other is meaningless if performance is better on the older card.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

The GTX 960 and the R9 380 are pretty much the exact same card, and each card is only slightly better in certain titles. Go with whichever one you like most honestly- NVIDIA and AMD did a damn good job of making two really competitive cards.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

The 960 is bottlenecked by the 128bit bus for 4gbs. 

It can use all 4gbs, but not to its full effect as say, a card with a 256bit bus can.

It's not bottlenecked due to delta color compression which effectively increases the memory bus allowing it to fully utilize the 4GB's of VRAM.

[Clear17Mud]

Geforce Experience

Some games the 960 outperforms the 380

And yes the 960 utilizes the 4gb of vram, its just some of the random BS that floats around the fourms

Just post your build here and we can have a look

No the 4gb is because old 128 bit bandwidth use to not utilize it all, but its not a problem on this card. Either or will be good I just like the 380, because I wanted a 285 which is what the cards based off of.

Edit f auto correct.

[Aytex]

No the 4gb is because old 128 bit bandwidth use to not utilize it all, but its not a problem on this card. Either or will be good I just like the 380, because I wanted a 285 which is what the cards based off of.

Edit f auto correct.

k.

[Atmos]

It's not bottlenecked due to delta color compression which effectively increases the memory bus allowing it to fully utilize the 4GB's of VRAM.

 

Still would perform better with a 256bit bus. There was no excuse for a 128bit bus, if even the last fucking gen 760 had a 256bit bus. Plainly in 2015 there is no excuse to run dependencies on 3 generation old tech and have to develop ways around them, instead of just implementing the standard hardware in the first place.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Still would perform better with a 256bit bus. There was no excuse for a 128bit bus, if even the last fucking gen 760 had a 256bit bus. Plainly in 2015 there is no excuse to run dependencies on 3 generation old tech and have to develop ways around them, instead of just implementing the standard hardware in the first place.

It's because the GTX 960 has delta color compression that it doesn't need a 256bit bus, the GTX 960 performs better and draws less power because it is more optimized. Bigger numbers don't always mean more performance, and if you knew that you would've gotten a GTX 980ti over a Fury X- just because it has faster memory speeds does not mean it'll perform better.

[slmckay73]

Alrighty, here's my list. If I'm correct, the GPU should bottleneck before the processor ever does, and a Digital Foundry article found that faster RAM increases performance when performance is cpu-bound, thus the 2666 memory. How's it look?

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($66.98 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($215.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($75.98 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $738.90

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

 

Alrighty, here's my list. If I'm correct, the GPU should bottleneck before the processor ever does, and a Digital Foundry article found that faster RAM increases performance when performance is cpu-bound, thus the 2666 memory. How's it look?

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($66.98 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($215.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($75.98 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $738.90

 

That build looks great however since you're using a locked CPU you could get a lower end motherboard for almost half the price, and then you could get some slower ram and overclock (my rams at 2133Mhz, but is stock 1600Mhz.) it to save a few bucks. Also I personally recommend the GTX 960 for Geforce Experience, Driver Release Speed, and NVIDIA Gameworks.

[YT2002]

I'm putting together a list for my first build, and I was originally going with the 960. But, from what I've read on the forums here the 380 pretty soundly outperforms it. There was also something about the 4GB versions of the 960 not being able to utilize all 4 gigs of vRAM... could someone clarify?

 

Anyway, my main question is whether there are any additional features the 960 has by virtue of being newer hardware than the 380 (which is apparently made from an older gpu?) that would make it worth considering over the 380. 

 

p.s. I'm new to the site; is there a place here to have the community look over my build? 

The 960 has lower TDP, has Nvidia features and has H.265 encoding and decoding

[slmckay73]

That build looks great however since you're using a locked CPU you could get a lower end motherboard for almost half the price, and then you could get some slower ram and overclock (my rams at 2133Mhz, but is stock 1600Mhz.) it to save a few bucks. Also I personally recommend the GTX 960 for Geforce Experience, Driver Release Speed, and NVIDIA Gameworks.

I would go cheaper on the motherboard, but I'm building for upgradeability so that I won't have to replace it if I wanted to upgrade to an unlocked processor down the road. I also want to keep the RAM, since that DF article/video showed a noteworthy performance increase even from 2133 to 2666. 

 

I'm not really familiar with those NVIDIA features; could you do like a brief rundown on what they are? 

[PlayStation 2]

The 960 has the advantage of lower power consumption-but barely.

The memory bus, while delta compression really helps, in the end, can prove detrimental for games that don't really work that way, ex. Battlefield 4.

The 380 has the advantage in raw computing power, where it even gives the 970 heavy competition. It also does better in higher resolutions, for some reason.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Hmm... A non crappy gigabyte g1 design?

[slmckay73]

Thanks, all. Probably going with the 380. 

[PlayStation 2]

It's because the GTX 960 has delta color compression that it doesn't need a 256bit bus, the GTX 960 performs better and draws less power because it is more optimized. Bigger numbers don't always mean more performance, and if you knew that you would've gotten a GTX 980ti over a Fury X- just because it has faster memory speeds does not mean it'll perform better.

I'm pretty damn sure the Fury X's memory is at 500MHz and not 7GHz. Like the 980 Ti.

Still, if the last gen card could have it, then there's no excuse that the current gen card couldn't, regardless of how well it does delta compression.

[Oskar94a]

Thanks, all. Probably going with the 380.

If I were you, I would have bought the following instead pcpartpicker.com/p/WM6YsY

[xAcid9]

Alrighty, here's my list. If I'm correct, the GPU should bottleneck before the processor ever does, and a Digital Foundry article found that faster RAM increases performance when performance is cpu-bound, thus the 2666 memory. How's it look?

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvTK8/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($66.98 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($215.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($75.98 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $738.90

Drop a notch or two with the mainboard if you hve no plan to upgrade to higher end K series CPU.

 

So far only one game actually benefit from faster RAM.

 

If I were you, I would have bought the following instead pcpartpicker.com/p/WM6YsY

That proc need better Mainboard and 380 will be better option imo.

[Lawliet93]

According to digitals foundry review, the r9 380 is about 10% faster compared to the gtx 960 4GB and the r9 380x adds like 10-15% more performance on top of that. The r9 380/380x are the go to cards.

[GangstaRas]

It's because the GTX 960 has delta color compression that it doesn't need a 256bit bus, the GTX 960 performs better and draws less power because it is more optimized. Bigger numbers don't always mean more performance, and if you knew that you would've gotten a GTX 980ti over a Fury X- just because it has faster memory speeds does not mean it'll perform better.

The 128 bit is too low no matter how you look at it. When memory bandwidth is enough for a particular GPU, an overclock will not give you a linear boost in performance. You could overclock the memory by 15% in some GPUs and only see 5% boost in performance depending on the card, because at that point, its the GPU core that's limiting, not the bandwidth available to be utilized. On my 960, I overclock the memory by 14% and I'm seeing a direct 13% performance improvement. I overclock my GPU core 20%, my return performance is just 9%. The 960 really could have utilized a higher bus and achieve much better performance just from being 256 bit alone, hell even 192 bit at least.

[don_svetlio]

Depending on the game the R9 380 is 10-15% more powerful. The 128-bit bus is a MAJOR bottleneck for the 960. Honestly - I don't see a reason to go with the 960 anymore

[slmckay73]

Drop a notch or two with the mainboard if you hve no plan to upgrade to higher end K series CPU.

 

So far only one game actually benefit from faster RAM.

 

That proc need better Mainboard and 380 will be better option imo.

I actually have that board so that I can upgrade to an unlocked CPU down the road, and the Digital Foundry article showed several games consistently benefitting from the faster memory.