AMD R9 390 vs Nvidia Gtx 970 vs r9 290x vapour-x

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

I'm buying a new graphics card and these are the cards within my budget. The prices are virtually identical so pricing is not an issue at all.

I will be gaming on a 1080p 144hz monitor.

Which card should I get?

Which is more future proof?

Which model should I get?

davidarad02 · Jul 5, 2015

the 8GB with the 390 is not really needed for 1080p 144Hz, and it performs worse then the two other options at 1080p, so it's out of the question.
ok. if you value silence, low power consumption and updated features, go with the GTX 970. if you value haing the full 4GB of full-speed RAM, go for the 290x. the 290x is going to be louder, its going to draw more power, its going to have less features and its going to overclock worse.

my suggestion is to get the MSI GTX 970 gaming 4G. im running it myself in my system, and its very fast, quiet, and i have managed to overclock it way beyond 1500MHz.

just so you know, non of these options will be able to utilize the 144Hz refresh rate on your monitor in new AAA titles (for example, im running GTA V on almost max setting at around 60Hz, so get you prespective on point).

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

davidarad02 :

what benchmarks are you looking at? On the ones I've seen so far the 390 does better than the 290x and 970 in almost all titles at 1080p.

davidarad02 · Jul 5, 2015

thelethalhorker :

davidarad02 :

what benchmarks are you looking at? On the ones I've seen so far the 390 does better than the 290x and 970 in almost all titles at 1080p.

its all driver shananigens by amd. the 970 does have more horse power then both of those cards, especially when overclocked.

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

davidarad02 :

thelethalhorker :

its all driver shananigens by amd. the 970 does have more horse power then both of those cards, especially when overclocked.

the amount of vram is kind of a turn off though I'm just thinking about in the future where games may use more vram and I might even consider crossfiring/sli if I get the money and, from what I've heard, xfire r9 390's are better than sli 970's. But the only game I've seen the 970 beat the 390 in is witcher 3. And the 390 can be OC'd aswell

davidarad02 · Jul 5, 2015

thelethalhorker :

davidarad02 :

the amount of vram is kind of a turn off though I'm just thinking about in the future where games may use more vram and I might even consider crossfiring/sli if I get the money and, from what I've heard, xfire r9 390's are better than sli 970's. But the only game I've seen the 970 beat the 390 in is witcher 3. And the 390 can be OC'd aswell

while it true that the 8GB of the 390 will probably help it in the future, this is only 1080p, and by the time that the 8GB thing will kick in, the 390 will be just too old to play games at decent settings with decent frame rates.

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

davidarad02 :

thelethalhorker :

while it true that the 8GB of the 390 will probably help it in the future, this is only 1080p, and by the time that the 8GB thing will kick in, the 390 will be just too old to play games at decent settings with decent frame rates.

Games might not need 8gb of vram but the 970 only really has 3.5gb and it is likely that future games may exceed 3.5gb. There are already some that do.

davidarad02 · Jul 5, 2015

thelethalhorker :

davidarad02 :

thelethalhorker :

while it true that the 8GB of the 390 will probably help it in the future, this is only 1080p, and by the time that the 8GB thing will kick in, the 390 will be just too old to play games at decent settings with decent frame rates.

Games might not need 8gb of vram but the 970 only really has 3.5gb and it is likely that future games may exceed 3.5gb. There are already some that do.

what game (outside of GTAV, that game is a true memory hog) uses more than 3.5GB in 1080p these days?

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

davidarad02 :

thelethalhorker :

davidarad02 :

Games might not need 8gb of vram but the 970 only really has 3.5gb and it is likely that future games may exceed 3.5gb. There are already some that do.

what game (outside of GTAV, that game is a true memory hog) uses more than 3.5GB in 1080p these days?

shadow of mordor, but what I'm saying is this card will have to last me quite a while and if games are close to exceeding 3.5 now then in two or 3 years time then who knows.

endeavour37a · Jul 5, 2015

The 390 can be OCed as well, Really? The 290 was 800/947 base/boost with 1250Mhz on the memory, the 390 is based at 1000Mhz with 1500 on the memory as per reference specs. Just how much do you think this Hawaiian PRO can be pushed further and still run stable? The nice thing about the 390/390x re brands is you won't have to bother trying to OC them because your getting everything it's got out of the box.

Not convinced 8GB us even usefull on this GPU for a number of reasons, even in XFire the rendering power of this core does not really match that amount of memory. Case in point, the Fury X is doing just fine with 4GB of HBM at every screen level, makes me think. Would you say the 980 Ti is under RAMed at only 6GB?

coozie7 · Jul 5, 2015

In order slowest first: GTX970, R9 290X, R9 390: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/ and I can show other reviews that paint the same picture.

Biggest downside of all the current AMD lineup is their large power draw, which means plenty of heat and the demand for a large ( but seldom noisy) cooler and a very well ventilated case so bear these factors in mind.

Slowest of the group, the GTX970 has plenty of advantages: Lower power draw means less heat and a quieter overall system, better driver support and a few tweaks through the GameWorks collaborations with developers can give a little more 'wow' factor-at the cost of reduced frame rates. There has always been a feeling of better smoothness with the Nvidia cards I've had, it's hard to put into words but they seem to produce more fluid gameplay, regardless of actual frame rate.

If this is an upgrade to an existing system which is a couple of years old, I'll unhesitatingly recommend the GTX970, by the time it's struggling you'll be looking for a whole new rig anyway.

If it's an upgrade to a nearly new rig, or for a new build I'll also unhesitatingly recommend the R9 390, it'[s the fastest of the group has the largest memory and a few slight tweaks over the older R9 290X. If you can find the R9 290X for a good discount, though I'd be hard pressed to separate the two AMD parts.

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

coozie7 :

why exactly would you recommend an r9 390 for a new build, but a 970 for an older upgrade? The power draw and efficiency is not really a deal breaker for me at all. I just want the best gaming experience for current games such as GTAV, Witcher 3 and modded skyrim but I want to be able to play upcoming games too like fallout 4, battlefront and anything else for the next 2 or 3 years. Which GPU do you think will give me the best experience regarding this?

thelethalhorker · Jul 5, 2015

endeavour37a :

no I wouldn't but I was just concerned that the 3.5gb of vram (on the gtx 970) may be dated in a few years

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