r9 390 or gtx 970

[fragment21]

I know this is a frequently asked question but I just read the details for the r9 390 and people said it overheats a lot and everything and I wanted to know which one is better for my rig right now (this is without the GPU) I plan on playing CS:GO and Blacklight:Retribution and everything like that, and those games, of course on a 144hz monitor and i Might play some more games and yeah... thank you guys.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.88 @ OutletPC) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI H170 Gaming M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($81.49 @ OutletPC) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.98 @ OutletPC) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor  ($249.00 @ B&H) 

Total: $874.30

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-02 12:37 EST-0500

[don_svetlio]

R9 390


EDIT: The only overheating 390 is the Gigabyte and Asus models

[Arwanell]

390

 

take Sapphire or MSI and you will never suffer from overheating

[IanDrexP]

Sapphire NITRO R9 390 

 

 

or the MSI R9 390 if you want red accents similar to your mobo 

[GeorgeKellow]

R9 390

EDIT: The only overheating 390 is the Gigabyte and Asus models

I always see you on this fucking subject. Are you a fan boy? I am getting it soon, please love me . However he has got a point

[App4that]

The 390 did just win rebrand of the year. So there's that.

[DrMacintosh]

The R9 390. Get a MSI card and you won't over heat.

[fragment21]

I always see you on this fucking subject. Are you a fan boy? I am getting it soon, please love me . However he has got a point

LOL TRUE HAHHAHAHAHA, but he has a point.

[fragment21]

Sapphire NITRO R9 390 

 

 

or the MSI R9 390 if you want red accents similar to your mobo 

if there's a r9 390 that's white i'd get it to match my case and everything, but I was thinking the sapphire one too because my friends said it performed like a r9 390x or a 980

[fragment21]

R9 390

EDIT: The only overheating 390 is the Gigabyte and Asus models

what about a r9 fury against a 980 ti?

[ThinkWithPortals]

if there's a r9 390 that's white i'd get it to match my case and everything, but I was thinking the sapphire one too because my friends said it performed like a r9 390x or a 980

The Sapphire one might match, or perhaps the XFX one. I don't think the Sapphire one will quite match a 390X/980 but it'll be one hell of a 390, arguably the best.

[IanDrexP]

The 390 did just win rebrand of the year. So there's that.

Its a refresh LOL :lol:, if it would have been just a rebrand then it should have the same power consumption, same temps and everything as a 290 with just a different name which in reality it isn't.

[DominicNikon]

i would say the GTX 970 because the maxwell core is cooler and can overclock higher. also the 390 only gets 1-5 fps better in some games 

Also the 8gb vram is kinda worthless because its not a 4k card its aimed at 1440p which does not use 8gb vram and the 970s 3.5gb vram is fine for 1080p and some 1440p

[App4that]

Its a refresh LOL :lol:, if it would have been just a rebrand then it should have the same power consumption, same temps and everything as a 290 with just a different name which in reality it isn't.

No seriously, check out the LTT awards for 2015. Rebrand, and since I've owned a 290 and a 390, I can back that up

[DrMacintosh]

I've got kinda the same thing, same CPU, same Mobo, same case but it's balck . (Off-Topic: For some reason my PC takes a lot to shut down and restart, the windows "Shutting Down" goes away, screen goes blank, and I still have to wait for it to finish it's thing, but I don't have a SSD so that may be something). I have a R9 390 from Sapphire with Backplate, exactly the same that IanDrexP posted images of. When it's idleing the fans stop and the PC gets really quiet. In my case, the fans go up to 40% after 6 hours of playing GTA V at mostly Very High settings. The card is fairly good, but i got to say the drivers are not the best. In Fallout 4 the compass is glitchy, and I've seen on other forums it's a driver thing. The game performance is really really good. 8GB might seem nice, but I didn't see any game that I played so far to use more than 3 GB so far(I'm playing at 1080p). The card is huge, and it hides the SATA cables very nicely. It has 3 Display Ports, 1 HDMI and 1 DVI. Again, the drivers aren't the best, and it does need improvement, but still, it's a good card. On the GTX 970 side of thing, I can't say much, around the same performance (I've heard R9 390's 8GB helps at higher resolutions), better drivers, Shadowplay if you want to record games. Tell me if you want some photos. Sorry for the (probably) bad English. Hope this helps.

Hey the Crimson drivers are pretty damn good. The control panel legit opens as soon as you click it. Performance is also great with them

[don_svetlio]

i would say the GTX 970 because the maxwell core is cooler and can overclock higher. also the 390 only gets 1-5 fps better in some games 

Also the 8gb vram is kinda worthless because its not a 4k card its aimed at 1440p which does not use 8gb vram and the 970s 3.5gb vram is fine for 1080p and some 1440p

I used 3.5GB of VRAM on my 860M with Titanfall at max settings. Mordor crunches through 5GB with ease. Skyrim can use all 12GB on a Titan X. GTA V exceeds 6GB on a 980 Ti SLI config. 3.5GB not going to get you far in the future since 3GB is currently the bare minimum for 1080p.

EDTI: Not to mention you can't compare clockspeeds across different architectures. That's like saying a FX8350 at 4.5GHz is a lot faster than an i7 at 3.5GHz. A 1100MHz 390 is faster than a 1500MHz 970 because a 390 can do a lot more per MHz (instructions per clock) than a 970 as it has a lot more stream processors compared to CUDA cores. And that's making it simple.

Temps rely entirely on the cooler. A Sapphire 390 stays around 65*C during load whereas a Asus Strix 970 goes up to 75*C

[DominicNikon]

I used 3.5GB of VRAM on my 860M with Titanfall at max settings. Mordor crunches through 5GB with ease. Skyrim can use all 12GB on a Titan X. GTA V exceeds 6GB on a 980 Ti SLI config. 3.5GB not going to get you far in the future since 3GB is currently the bare minimum for 1080p.

im going to test titanfall at max settings right now and see how much vram it can use

[App4that]

Hey the Crimson drivers are pretty damn good. The control panel legit opens as soon as you click it. Performance is also great with them

The Crimson driver FUCKING suck. They break games, cause crashes, my GPU gets stuck at 100% with no load, and none of this hasn't been known for weeks by AMD yet they do nothing to fix it.

If you think the Crimson drivers are good, you need to spend more time gaming before you can comment.

[don_svetlio]

im going to test titanfall at max settings right now and see how much vram it can use

Do make sure to read the edit to my post

[don_svetlio]

The Crimson driver FUCKING suck. They break games, cause crashes, my GPU gets stuck at 100% with no load, and none of this hasn't been known for weeks by AMD yet they do nothing to fix it.

If you think the Crimson drivers are good, you need to spend more time gaming before you can comment.

Really? I've had 0 issues with Crimson.

[App4that]

Really? I've had 0 issues with Crimson.

As I said, game more. I've been begging for help for days with my topic and been ignored. GPU still locks up at 100% with 15.12.

You not having a problem doesn't negate mine, wish it did.

[DrMacintosh]

Really? I've had 0 issues with Crimson.

Maybe it's his card? My R9 380 4GB has been fine.

[VagabondWraith]

im going to test titanfall at max settings right now and see how much vram it can use

Hint: it will only use as much as you have.

@App4that can attest to VRAM usage between his 290/390.

[don_svetlio]

As I said, game more. I've been begging for help for days with my topic and been ignored. GPU still locks up at 100% with 15.12.

You not having a problem doesn't negate mine, wish it did.

Hmmm. I had a similar situation with my 860M drivers leading to whole system freezes. It went away after I reinstalled the OS.

[DrMacintosh]

As I said, game more. I've been begging for help for days with my topic and been ignored. GPU still locks up at 100% with 15.12.

You not having a problem doesn't negate mine, wish it did.

Then remove the damn drivers. Complaining isn't going to help. Go back to Catalyst. Be sure to uninstall your drivers though.