So, Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 280x

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msarg77

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Apr 1, 2015
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So let me start by stating that I've never been much of a fan of ATi/AMD, so I need a bit of convincing if this blows the second option's way.

My initial research was of course the GTX, but a friend brought to my notice (ugh!) the 280x, and upon further research I see a lot of people recommending the AMD card. But why? Being a two year old card, how can it compare to a freshly launched one?

So, this is the rig I'm putting together, just to give a little bit of background:
CPU: Intel i5 4690K
MOBA: Asus Z97-PRO Gamer
PSU: Seasonic S12-650
RAM: 16GB Kingston HyperX Fury (or is it 8GB enough)
Storage: 120GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD + 1TB WD Blue Caviar HD
Case: Antec X1-T

So for the GPU...
EVGA/Gigabyte/Asus Nvidia GTX 960 (read a lot of complaints about coil noise of the latest two, so was leaning towards the EVGA).
or
Asus/Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 280X
?

Any related suggestions and recommendations are of course welcome !
 
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definitely the r9 280x. so much better in all the ways. 960 for 2gb?? naaah. i lost faith in the 960 just when i heard this. plus the 128bit memory bus. thats not good. and the 4gb version doesn't worth it. r9 280x all the way. i have the sapphire r9 280x vapor-x and is very good. totaly suggest it to anyone who is looking to buy a gpu for 250$.
for 1080p the 960 is fine, but for how many years? even the skyrim needs more than 2gb of vram in 1080p. i would never buy a 960 and believe it or not i am nvidia fan boy. i had 3 gpus in my life all nvidia and now i bought the r9 280x and it's very good.
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nikos_gevre

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Jan 7, 2014
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definitely the r9 280x. so much better in all the ways. 960 for 2gb?? naaah. i lost faith in the 960 just when i heard this. plus the 128bit memory bus. thats not good. and the 4gb version doesn't worth it. r9 280x all the way. i have the sapphire r9 280x vapor-x and is very good. totaly suggest it to anyone who is looking to buy a gpu for 250$.
for 1080p the 960 is fine, but for how many years? even the skyrim needs more than 2gb of vram in 1080p. i would never buy a 960 and believe it or not i am nvidia fan boy. i had 3 gpus in my life all nvidia and now i bought the r9 280x and it's very good.
 
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Silverbear

Silverbear

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Feb 24, 2015
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The r9 280x isn't that much faster than the GTX 960, in some games the 960 actually pulls ahead:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/68817-nvidia-gtx-960-5-way-roundup.html

On average though, the 280x will be faster, like in the review it gets 14 more fps in Shadow of Mordor, but struggles with Metro Last Light.

The advantages to getting a 960 is that it's much more energy efficient, you only need a 430 watt PSU compared to 600 to 750 watt for the 280x. It also produces much less heat with some models like the MSI Gaming and Asus STRIX using passive cooling when the card is not under load.
 
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nikos_gevre

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960 doesn't worth it. maybe now is equal or behind the r9 280x but what about in 2 years lets say? the 3gb vram and 384 bit memory will be a very big advantage for 280x.as i said skyrim needs more than 2gb vram, shadow of mordor too (i think watchdogs too but i am not sure). imagine how many games will need more than 2gb of ram next year. i really don't like the work nvidia made with the 960. i totally suggest the r9 280x over the 960. the advantages about the power consumption and heat come second in my opinion, right after performance. and performance wise the r9 280x is better.
you can always w8 for new 3xx sereies of amd if you want.
 
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