GTX 970 or AMD R9 390 for Video Editing and Gaming at 2560x1080

[dobo9401]

I know, I know, there has been probably a million posts regarding this same question, but my situation is a little different. I just bought a LG 29" 2560x1080 monitor, and I am wondering which graphics card would do better. Both cards (supposedly) run well at 1440p so I know that they will be able to push 2560x1080. I'm playing a lot of GTA so will the 4GB (or 3.5) of VRAM vs the 8GB really make a difference at this kinda low resolution? The other thin is that I do some video editing using Adobe Premiere Pro so I kinda want the CUDA cores that the NVIDIA card offers for that. Do the CUDA cores really make that big of a difference, or should I just go for the AMD? Don't really care that the AMD costs less or more, or that one runs hotter or draws more power, just want to know performance wise.

[007agentHP]

CUDA?

get the 970

itll be worth it 

[thekeemo]

video editing 390

the opencl (which adobe supports) power of that card is INSANE

they are also getting CUDA

[Guest]

video editing 390

the opencl (which adobe supports) power of that card is INSANE

they are also getting CUDA

What do you mean by CUDA?

[thekeemo]

What do you mean by CUDA?

API used in professional programs

[Guest]

API used in professional programs

-.- I know that...

But on a 390?

[thekeemo]

-.- I know that...

But on a 390?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9792/amd-sc15-boltzmann-initiative-announced-c-and-cuda-compilers-for-amd-gpus

[alanz25]

i game on ultrawide, with a 970

[Trey222]

They will both perform very well. The best way to pick is to simply flip a coin. 

[Guest]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9792/amd-sc15-boltzmann-initiative-announced-c-and-cuda-compilers-for-amd-gpus

HOLY SHIT!

If they crack the code for phyX as well...

[dobo9401]

What about for gaming? Does the extra VRAM make a difference at higher than 1080 resolutions?

[Guest]

What about for gaming? Does the extra VRAM make a difference at higher than 1080 resolutions?

Only at 4k or 1440p very high.

Also good if you plan to Xfire as ram is copied not added.

[DominicNikon]

What about for gaming? Does the extra VRAM make a difference at higher than 1080 resolutions?

yes if your doing 4k not 4k then 6 or less i fine

[dobo9401]

video editing 390

the opencl (which adobe supports) power of that card is INSANE

they are also getting CUDA

Didn't realize that Adobe supported OpenCL. Is there a performance difference between OpenCL and CUDA when rendering?

[thekeemo]

Didn't realize that Adobe supported OpenCL. Is there a performance difference between OpenCL and CUDA when rendering?

just a different API

[dobo9401]

Now I'm thinking that my decision is really going to boil down to the VRAM. Is 8GB going to make a huge difference today, and maybe going into the future?

[ivan134]

Now I'm thinking that my decision is really going to boil down to the VRAM. Is 8GB going to make a huge difference today, and maybe going into the future?

Today? Not really below 4k and neither of these are 4k cards. The future? That's up in the air. GCN is showing some nice gains though in dx12 in preliminary benchmarks and Ashes of the Singularity which is already out. There are a few dx 12 games releasing in the 1st half of next year too.

[SteveGrabowski0]

What about for gaming? Does the extra VRAM make a difference at higher than 1080 resolutions?

 

It's not so much the VRAM as it is the raw horsepower of the R9 390 that makes it pull ahead of the GTX 970 when you're GPU bound. And at 2560x1080 you should almost always be GPU bound, so the R9 390 should be a much better gaming card at that resolution.

[dobo9401]

It's not so much the VRAM as it is the raw horsepower of the R9 390 that makes it pull ahead of the GTX 970 when you're GPU bound. And at 2560x1080 you should almost always be GPU bound, so the R9 390 should be a much better gaming card at that resolution.

According to your system you have a GTX 970. Is there a certain reason you're recommending the 390 as compared to the 970?

[SteveGrabowski0]

According to your system you have a GTX 970. Is there a certain reason you're recommending the 390 as compared to the 970?

 

At 1080p the 390 is usually better in GPU bound games (SW Battlefront, MSG V Phantom Pain, Shadow of Mordor), the 970 in CPU bound games (GTA V, Witcher 3, Fallout 4). At 2560x1080 you're almost always going to be GPU bound, so the 390 is easily better for that use case. 1080p is where the 970 and 390 trade blows. The 390 wasn't out in 2014 when I bought my 970. I really enjoy my 970 and I'd probably still buy a 970 today since I play at 1080p and it wins there in the games I like most, but at your resolution I would no doubt buy the 390, at least for gaming (I have no experience in Adobe Premiere so I can't offer advice there).

[dobo9401]

At 1080p the 390 is usually better in GPU bound games (SW Battlefront, MSG V Phantom Pain, Shadow of Mordor), the 970 in CPU bound games (GTA V, Witcher 3, Fallout 4). At 2560x1080 you're almost always going to be GPU bound, so the 390 is easily better for that use case. 1080p is where the 970 and 390 trade blows. The 390 wasn't out in 2014 when I bought my 970. I really enjoy my 970 and I'd probably still buy a 970 today since I play at 1080p and it wins there in the games I like most, but at your resolution I would no doubt buy the 390, at least for gaming (I have no experience in Adobe Premiere so I can't offer advice there).

You say that at 1920x1080, the 970 will win in CPU bound games, why does the added resolution make the game GPU bound?

[SteveGrabowski0]

You say that at 1920x1080, the 970 will win in CPU bound games, why does the added resolution make the game GPU bound?

 

You're pushing 33% more pixels at 2560x1080 than you are at 1920x1080 while the CPU load is resolution independent. So the GPU load goes up with resolution, the CPU load stays constant. 

[paradonym]

install a GTX 980 for gaming next to a R9 390 for video editing - should work...

[Nena Trinity]

390 seems to be better at anything over 1080p also the OpenCL stuff sounds nice!

[WynLore]

You... can't really go wrong with either one.