R9 280 or Gtx 960 FAN BOYS STOP lol

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

Hello guys! Im having some real inner fight going on now, im building my system allways to a budget and it's allways AMD kinda, and somehow i love team red, but now my faith is shaked XD.. Gtx 960 is offering really nice performance for a 200$ card.. I'd buy r9 280 because i think i'd get better performance, and i want to try out that Mantle that risen so much dust. Yet gtx 960 will fully support dx12.. HMMM... I even researched it a bit on GPUBOSS.com and alot of fanboys are arguing there, on every god damn site people arguing. I have faith only in Tom's Hardware xD..R9 280 is more hungry (Watts) and produce more heat, but my system is well cooled, and i bought trusted 800w psu.. Im in love with my 1080p monitor and won't go to 1440p gaming, want to get best performance/quality i can get.
SO, tell me, should i buy Sapphire R9 280 3GB GDDR5 DualX OC OR Gigabyte GV-N960WF2OC-2GD GTX960 2GB GDD.. Please help guys XD

Links to gpu's :

GTX 960 : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5373#ov

R9 280 : http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?pid=2022&lid=1

My spec is :

AMD FX 6300 3.5 Ghz 6-core (didn't overclock nothing yet)
2x4Gb 1600Mhz Kingston
random (lol) 500Gb Hdd 7200rpm
psu 800W 80 gold+ modular
Really well cooled air system in general 8+ fans..

herrwizo · Jun 4, 2015

They are about equal in terms of performance. 280 is slightly faster onm higher resolutions (1440p) due to having more VRAM, but since you will be gaming at 1080p anyway, that doesn't matter and you can get 960 for its lower power consumption, better drivers and you also get Witcher 3 as a free bonus I believe

If the bonus game and lower power requirements don't matter anything to you, just get whichever you can find cheaper. Can't go wrong here.

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

If you were talking about a 280"X" it would bhe a tough call.

As you compare the 280 to a 960 there is no call or compeition. GPU Boss is not a ood site for references.

The 960 is far and away the better card in terms of value, features, efficiency, heat, noise and performance. You'll be hard pressed to find a title in which the 280 NON x will match it, let alone beat it.

At the price point too, the decision should be very simple here.

1080p gaming is where the card is at home and it would make your PC complete.

(Why on earth do you have an 800wq PSU!? You need no more than a bronze 80+ model of 500w)

whassup · Jun 4, 2015

Performance wise both GPU's are almost similar. GTX 960 is better because of these reasons.

1. GTX 960 have lower power consumption and heat output.

2. Better CPU multi threading capable nVidia driver a must since you are using an FX 6300.

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

I took high psu because i was thinking about adding some more touch display controllers for my fans in front adding some hungry GPU as well as some sdd's/hdd So i figure, let me overkill psu

So my head won't hurt in future. Anyway, Im no need in lower power requirements due to my psu. I already bought The Witcher 3 and im watching some reviews, head to head gpu tests, and im completely confused. :I For example Witcher 3 lean more to a Intel/GeForce build.. And 960 getting more framerate overall. So, is 960 (that exact model i posted here in link) is faster overall? I see faster clock speed and oc out of the box, but 2 Gb is bugging me, if im to run some texture packs 2 gb wont be enough. Im totally..rekt. xD

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

"Performance wise both GPU's are almost similar. GTX 960 is better because of these reasons.

1. GTX 960 have lower power consumption and heat output.

2. Better CPU multi threading capable nVidia driver a must since you are using an FX 6300."

- Power consumption and heat output aren't problems in my case. Problem is i don't know whom to trust, people are total fanboys XD Best would be if someone who has cards in their home would answer me. But possibilities for that are equal to none. So, if you were me, would you go for gtx 960 ? If you don't care for W requirements and heat output? Or for 280?

kwa-e · Jun 4, 2015

whassup :

Power consumption really isn't something to base a GPU purchase on considering the difference is only a neglible 5USD in most cases, and since he has good airflow the heat isn't a problem.

Better CPU Multi-Wha? Please elaborate more.

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

K thank you DasHotShot, I also have one more question, will my CPU and GTX 960 gpu work well with each other? I allways wanted to ask that, is there any performance issues when u put together intel/amd cpu/gpu together in system ?

Noob question, i know.

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

I'm not a fanboy and always try to give the most accurate answer.

My choice would be the 960 for the resons mentioned above. I think it would be silly to get a non DX12 card right now.

kwa-e · Jun 4, 2015

Right the only sensible options are these

-Go with the R9 280 or 280X
-Wait for the R9 300 series
-Save up for an R9 290.
-Avoid the 960 and go with any of the above.
(Don't get me wrong, It's still a great card but the performance you get for the price isn't the best. There are much better choices out there.)

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

DasHotShot :

Yep, that's true, Mantle isn't in spotlight yet. Didn't heard any of people using it. Or im just informed as poop. xD And on the other hand having a dx12 with a card that's now 200~$ is awesome. K, you bought me with this, thx XD

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

kwa-e :

Im thinking also that, ONLY because of 2 Gb's 128bits. Only cuz of those two things. Even so im playing 1080p games, those two pluck my eye out. But I think i will buy gtx960 :S Because Im running a onboard gpu.. Can't live with this. And tomorrow i will have my paycheck and will be ready to spend it all on a gpu.

madmatt30 · Jun 4, 2015

Id take a 280x over a 960 in a heartbeat.
A 280 vs a 960 to me would depend purely on price - in the UK the 280x can be had cheaper - you can get a 290 for the price of a 4gb 960 & it then becomes a complete no-brainer.

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

kwa-e :

Obviously with price drops I would strongly recommend the 970 however not everyone has the money and the OP asked a specific question.

Your feedback doesn't help as I am sure he would buy bigger if he could afford it...

Also, there aren't really any solutions out there that are better for the money, or please enlighten us.

Try and stay on topic or look for threads where the question is more open.

kwa-e · Jun 4, 2015

The 960 can run pretty efficiently on the 128 bit bus due to the Color Compression technology Nvidia has going on right now, Still horrible for high resolutions though.

If you can wait for a good while I'd advise you to NOT jump your gun on any of the cards out right now, the R9 300 series is going to be announced mid june, and should be available near the end of the month with full DX12 support.

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

madmatt30 :

Except we aren't talking about the 4GB model, are we? Also, he doesn't seem to be in the UK as he states his budget in USD. My guess is Asia where prices are different.

So yeah OP, get a 980 Ti...seems that nobody cares about your question or budget.

madmatt30 · Jun 4, 2015

^ if he can hold out for a couple of weeks the prices on the 280/280x/290 are likely to drop through the floor when the 300 series hits.
I would consider it a definite personally - if the price drops carry through worldwide I honestly think a 280x or likely a 290 will be in his reach budget wise.

The op has already mentioned his concern regarding hi-res texture packs & a 960 can't handle them plain & simple.
Its a good card but its definitely not good value.

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

madmatt30 :

Yes, well i have option 1: r9 280 - 200euros 960gtx 200euros. That's why Im asking this.

For 280x i'd go with used gpu, and i don't like used stuff :S Can't wait month more without gpu for 5-10 fps more D:
And my case supports 10.5 cards, which means i couldn't get some nicely OC'd 280x tri x or something like that. So I tought of these 2 cards as my best options. Dunno. Maybe i made a mistake. If you do have some other cards in range of -> 220euros max. and up to "10.5 i'd likely hear you out :O

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

DasHotShot :

madmatt30 :

Except we aren't talking about the 4GB model, are we? Also, he doesn't seem to be in the UK as he states his budget in USD. My guess is Asia where prices are different.

So yeah OP, get a 980 Ti...seems that nobody cares about your question or budget.

lol. xD

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

madmatt30 :

I would agree with this and it is what I was saying on gtx 970 threads...however the drops may not be as stark as you think.
waiting can pay off....

If he needs to make a choice now, that choice for me is inevitably 960

kwa-e · Jun 4, 2015

I live in a third-world country and retailers unfortunately do not like to drop their prices like they do in the US, An R9 290 goes for 500USD here and the 970 at an average of 390USD.

If it's an Asian country that doesn't have the pricedrops that the UK and USA has then the 960 seems like the best choice.

The release of the 300 series might bring better value cards to the table, however.

madmatt30 · Jun 4, 2015

What makes it harder is that in theory the standard 280 is a more powerful card than the 960 - literally every game released in the last 12 months is very heavily biased towards nvidia (& in some cases the maxwell chipset) though.
Watching my gtx970 push more frames than my 280x cf setup in gta5 & dying light is just plain wrong.

SirBeast · Jun 4, 2015

kwa-e :

Same story here, it's unlikely that prices will drop here. r9 290x goes for like 490$ 500~euros at my country. And as u can see Sapphire's Dual x r9 280 is 200euros. And it's Sapphire. Cheapest brand. (Besides Powercolor that is hard to get here) Those brands are (sadly) most popular here. LOL

kwa-e · Jun 4, 2015

Sapphire's arguably one of the best AMD card manufacturers out there.

What's sad about their cards being the majority that's available, though?

DasHotShot · Jun 4, 2015

madmatt30 :

What? Are you kidding?

A 970 is a cut down 980 and VASTLY superior to a 280x.

Nothing wrong at all with that. You seem to be overestimating the 280x hugely.

R9 280 or Gtx 960 FAN BOYS STOP lol

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