Just swapped from 390x to a 970.

[Vegetable]

Hi all. If you're a frequent browser you've probably seen some of my rants about my old 390x. Ran too hot, too loud, made my electricity bill cry. Anyways, I desperately tried to just sell the thing or trade it, which nobody would do. So I got super lucky on craigslist and found a guy who would give me his MSI GTX 970 4G for my MSI R9 390X 8G. Yes, I downgraded. I accept that. It happened, hate me all you want. I don't really care though tbh, the 970 runs cool asf (it actually idles cool enough to USE the 0% fan feature than was also on my 390x, but the 390x idled at 62*C.) It overclocks decently, not a dirt card, but no competition winner for sure. Got it stable at 1428mhz boost, and I wasn't gaining hardly anything from memory overclocking, so I just put the memory at +250 for a memory clock of 1878mhz.

 

Here it is up against my 390x: http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/9505685/fs/7117723

 

Honestly I wasn't expecting it to get near that close to the 390x. The rest of my PC is unchanged as well, so the only variable is the graphics card(s). I'm totally pleased and, yeah, I lost a bit, but for what I do mostly, it's fine. I play CS:GO, GTA V, and DayZ, so it's plenty of power for me. Hell when I was running my Gtx 570 (2.5gb edition) and playing GTA, I was fine with the graphics and fps I was getting then (mostly everything on high with textures and grass on very high 50-60fps steady.) 

 

To sum it up, it's not a race war out there between these 2 companies guys. The 390x is a superior card, with a superior price tag. It runs hotter, a bit louder, and pulls more power than a gtx 970. However it does provide x2 the VRAM and more performance. It doesn't matter which company your card is, it's about you being happy with the experience you're getting from whatever card you may have. 

[RuLeZ]

3dmark is not good to show a real scenario, test in games, and you will see a massive drop in frame rates.

[Brian McKee]

I'm sorry.

[Renton577]

I've had both of these cards, honestly the 970 should be about 15% to 20% slower than the 390x, the 390x is more on par with the GTX 980 which I have had as well.

[LabRat]

okay, we hate you. what else you got?

I would have worked on aftermarket cooling solutions for the 390........

[dragoon20005]

if you were to swapped the 390X for a RX 480

 

 

ppl here wont bat an eyelid

 

but you do know the 970 is now a bad value card and if you plan to sell it off

 

you are going to lose more than your downgrade from the 390X

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Why on uranus would you do that and "made my electricity bill cry" seriously you wouldn't even be able to notice that unless you literally ran it 24/7 

[HKZeroFive]

TBH, you're not going to save that much money in your electricity bills by downgrading. Whoever got the R9 390X is a lucky guy.

[catzambia]

Actually the 390x has 2.28 times the vram. You got a bad deal man. Should have stuck with the 390x. It performs better in DX11 games, and MILES better in DX12.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Why not just sell it off and get a GTX 980 for cheap price that's its been going for?

[App4that]

What? No. This is one of those things you don't just erase your browser after thinking about doing, You find the largest god damn magnet you can find and stick it up you PC's ass like a new guy who forgot the soap on a rope.

 

Erase this and tell NO ONE you thought of doing this.

 

NO ONE

 

 

 

[RyGuy99]

1 hour ago, catzambia said:

Actually the 390x has 2.28 times the vram. You got a bad deal man. Should have stuck with the 390x. It performs better in DX11 games, and MILES better in DX12.

The 970 has a full 4GB. 

 

And OP I wish you had got a better 970! I can get mine to 1580 mhz without voltage added and even 1610mhz with voltage added. If you did get one around that overclock (not too uncommon considering how good the 970 OCs) it would be up to a 980!

[Purgent]

Tl;Dr = OP fucked up today 

[catzambia]

22 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

The 970 has a full 4GB. 

 

And OP I wish you had got a better 970! I can get mine to 1580 mhz without voltage added and even 1610mhz with voltage added. If you did get one around that overclock (not too uncommon considering how good the 970 OCs) it would be up to a 980!

No, it has 3.5gb.

[RyGuy99]

2 hours ago, catzambia said:

No, it has 3.5gb.

No it has 4.0GB.

[catzambia]

Just now, RyGuy99 said:

No it has 4.0GB.

3.5gb of fast gddr5. 512mb of slow stuff

[RyGuy99]

20 minutes ago, catzambia said:

3.5gb of fast gddr5. 512mb of slow stuff

The last 512MB don't slow down performance. 

[catzambia]

4 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

The last 512MB don't slow down performance. 

Umm, yes it does. It is much slower memory, and going over 3.5 gb on a 970 means a huge framerate drop.

[EarthboundHero]

5 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

The last 512MB don't slow down performance. 

It won't show up in tests, but it causes stuttering if all 4GB are being used. And before you say nothing will use all 4GB, yes games are starting to.

[ace_cheaply]

Bad move, op.  Even worse move going forward...But if you're happy getting the losing end of a deal then...Ok.  

2 minutes ago, EarthboundHero said:

It won't show up in tests, but it causes stuttering if all 4GB are being used. And before you say nothing will use all 4GB, yes games are starting to.

GTA V uses ~4.6gb at 1080p with all settings maxed. 

[DXMember]

I'm sorry for your loss, move on

[RyGuy99]

12 minutes ago, catzambia said:

Umm, yes it does. It is much slower memory, and going over 3.5 gb on a 970 means a huge framerate drop.

 

9 minutes ago, EarthboundHero said:

It won't show up in tests, but it causes stuttering if all 4GB are being used. And before you say nothing will use all 4GB, yes games are starting to.

I have a 970 G1 and it hasn't experienced ANY slowdowns when using all 4GB of vram. Check out the G1 970 thread and they will tell you the same. In real world gaming it won't affects users unless you are shooting for 4K but this card was never really ment for 4K except for DOTA, TF2, CS GO, League etc. I can do 4K in Overwatch on epic settings with a steady 60 fps. No stuttering at all. Sure it's pretty well optimized but it still pushes cards. Others like JayzTwocents have shown if the last 0.5GB are in use they don't actually hurt performance. 

[Vegetable]

8 hours ago, RuLeZ said:

3dmark is not good to show a real scenario, test in games, and you will see a massive drop in frame rates.

This is true. It runs GTA V just as good as my 390x did. 1680x1050 all settings completely maxed out (no msaa or advanced graphics ofc) perfect 60fps. I'm ok with that.

8 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

I'm sorry.

Yeah I figured I'd get some hate. That's fine. I just weighed my options and it was the best choice imo. I will add some to all of this after I get this mess below me replied to.

8 hours ago, Renton577 said:

I've had both of these cards, honestly the 970 should be about 15% to 20% slower than the 390x, the 390x is more on par with the GTX 980 which I have had as well.

Yeah, at first I was trying to sell my 390x for $250 and just buy a used 980, which would have been better, but again I'm totally happy with what I have. 

8 hours ago, LabRat said:

okay, we hate you. what else you got?

I would have worked on aftermarket cooling solutions for the 390........

I looked into that actually. NEARLY (and I mean I was ab to whip out my debit card and just order it) got an NZXT Kraken G10 bracket thing and some dirt AIO (probably corsair h50/h55) BUT from what I found even with some little copper heatsinks and the fan the comes with the G10, my 390x's VRM's wouldn't have been very happy. 

8 hours ago, dragoon20005 said:

if you were to swapped the 390X for a RX 480

 

 

ppl here wont bat an eyelid

 

but you do know the 970 is now a bad value card and if you plan to sell it off

 

you are going to lose more than your downgrade from the 390X

Yeah it's a fucking race war out here and it sucks. 

8 hours ago, LeapFrogMasterRace said:

Why on uranus would you do that and "made my electricity bill cry" seriously you wouldn't even be able to notice that unless you literally ran it 24/7 

It was just an expression. I know it honestly wouldn't effect my electricity bill more than 10 cents a month. I just have an older, not particularly good PSU, and the 390x after long gaming loads would quite literally have the fan on my PSU cranked up, shitting hot air, which I don't like especially from a PSU.

8 hours ago, HKZeroFive said:

TBH, you're not going to save that much money in your electricity bills by downgrading. Whoever got the R9 390X is a lucky guy.

Read above. But yeah the guy I got the 970 from has a i7 6700k/1080 rig, he just wanted the 390x for a watercooling project, which I think is cool. I'm glad someone will be happy with it.

7 hours ago, catzambia said:

Actually the 390x has 2.28 times the vram. You got a bad deal man. Should have stuck with the 390x. It performs better in DX11 games, and MILES better in DX12.

Don't care ab vram. Most GPU intense game I play is GTA V. Look above for what settings I play at, but I literally couldn't even get it to use 3.5gb of VRAM to see the stuttering thing for myself. It's whatever, CS:GO is really all I play.

7 hours ago, Pohernori said:

Why not just sell it off and get a GTX 980 for cheap price that's its been going for?

I tried. Live in Nashville, lots of non techies and the ones that know anything are few and far between. There's 1080's going for $900 on my craigslist because they're "pre-launch-date cards that are rare and sold out everywhere." Only settled on this bc it was either the 970, or a PNY Gtx 780 (ehhhhhhh.)

7 hours ago, App4that said:

What? No. This is one of those things you don't just erase your browser after thinking about doing, You find the largest god damn magnet you can find and stick it up you PC's ass like a new guy who forgot the soap on a rope.

 

Erase this and tell NO ONE you thought of doing this.

 

NO ONE

 

 

 

Das fine. Thx papi. 

6 hours ago, Purgent said:

Tl;Dr = OP fucked up today 

Think what you want lad. I will explain more below.

3 hours ago, EarthboundHero said:

It won't show up in tests, but it causes stuttering if all 4GB are being used. And before you say nothing will use all 4GB, yes games are starting to.

I couldn't even get GTA V to use 3.5gb, because I myself have never seen a 970 do the stuttering thing, and wanted to see it myself. Couldn't get it to do so, almost seemed like it was trying NOT to go over 3.5gb tbh, like it would get to 3.4-3.5gb and just cap out there. Anyways I don't play any games newer or more demanding than that, and no games coming out have caught my eye, so I don't care much.

3 hours ago, ace_cheaply said:

Bad move, op.  Even worse move going forward...But if you're happy getting the losing end of a deal then...Ok.  

GTA V uses ~4.6gb at 1080p with all settings maxed. 

I'm totally happy with it. Will explain more below.

3 hours ago, DXMember said:

I'm sorry for your loss, move on

GG time to start cutting. Nah jk I will explain more below. 

3 hours ago, RyGuy99 said:

 

I have a 970 G1 and it hasn't experienced ANY slowdowns when using all 4GB of vram. Check out the G1 970 thread and they will tell you the same. In real world gaming it won't affects users unless you are shooting for 4K but this card was never really ment for 4K except for DOTA, TF2, CS GO, League etc. I can do 4K in Overwatch on epic settings with a steady 60 fps. No stuttering at all. Sure it's pretty well optimized but it still pushes cards. Others like JayzTwocents have shown if the last 0.5GB are in use they don't actually hurt performance. 

Yeah it's overly focused on. My buddy layne has a 1440p 60hz display, so in newer titles he can get it to the 3.5gb+ usage range, and I couldn't see anything stuttering honestly. I'm 1680x1050 pleb until I order my 1080p 144hz monitor in a week. Thanks for not flaming me or anything (not that your the first NOT to flame me) it's just you actually have some sense and aren't just talking shit. 

 

 

-----CONTINUING HERE-----

Welp, got 3 times the amount of hate that I expected. Whateva. Ok, lemme just give a backstory to all this. My 390x was a dirt fucking card. It was an MSI R9 390X 8G LE, LE being there to let you know it's a lower-binned chip. It's stock core clock was 1055mhz, the non LE has a base clock of 1100 or higher (don't feel like looking it up rn) and the non LE model's can easily hit 1200mhz core. That's awesome, so when I got this card I didn't know it was an LE, or what it mean't. The poor thing at stock speeds could get to like 90*C in my room upstairs in my hot ass house. So not only could I not overclock it at all, it wouldn't hit 1100mhz core at ALL. It probably should have been a 390, not a 390x, because the thing barely was a 390x to begin with. So I have this card that's too hot to run, even with a custom fan curve, it's powerful as shit, but it literally rebooted my PC on a number of occasions for overheating. It was a piece of shit. The thing had MSI's zero frozr crap, for 0% fan speed at idle. On the 390x cards, the fan would stay at 0% until 60*C by default, and ramp up from there. Well because I had 2 displays plugged into the thing, it never really idled, the card sat at the desktop with the core/memory clocks always ramped up. So obviously, it had to pull power to sustain those speeds, hence the temperature. My custom fan curve kept the fans on at all time, because noise doesn't bother me at all. At 80*C the fans would hit 100%, and the temperature wouldn't stop rising. One day on a long gaming session, I casually look over at GPU-Z on my other monitor to see the thing is at 93*C, and had to emergency alt-f4 to not have it reboot my PC. Basically it was probably the worst 390x LTT forums has EVER seen, and I just had a bad experience overall. After 1 single day with this 970, I know I made the right choice. It can downclock to save power at idle, even with multiple monitors plugged into it, which I didn't know any card did, I thought it was just a part of life. It overclocks plenty for my tastes, and it runs better than I honestly thought it would. It's plenty for me, and will be, for years to come. Don't shit in my cheerios guys, I did what I did and I knew the pros and cons of doing it. Yeah, the other guy made out like a bandit, but I needed a card I could use and enjoy, not worry and have to keep GPU-Z open on my spare monitor, not even focusing on the game, but the temp sensor instead. The guy wanted to watercool it, which will be good for it. I know my 390x is in a good home, and the 970 is too. I'm not saying the 390x is a bad card, I'm saying the one I had was bad. I'm not saying the 970 is a better card, from ANY performance aspect of it, it's 100% not. It's a slower card by a decent amount, but for my personal uses at 1080p, it's fine. 

 

Side note: Totally forgot to mention this, but I got the 970 AND $50 if that helps anyone rest easy tonight. TBH he still got a steal of a deal (hehe I rhymed) but again, I'm ok that.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Have you re applied your thermal paste once? 

[Vegetable]

Just now, Pohernori said:

Have you re applied your thermal paste once? 

On the 390x I did it the day I got it. Did DDU, slapped the 390x in there, fired up I think unigine valley (can't remember for sure but whatever, it was a demanding dx11 benchmark I can say that), and it jumped straight to like 85*C. So I looked at a few reviews, seeing NO other 390x's getting that hot, I just reapplied it myself with some AS5. The stock application was poor. It didn't cover the entire GPU core, and it was thin and patchy for where it was covered. That was 6 months ago, so it wasn't a matter of breaking in the TIM, it was just a hot card.