Which graphics card to buy 970/390/290x. Going to buy one tomorrow

dpac712

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
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10,530
Hello everyone.

I'm going to build my first gaming pc. I need help deciding on which graphics card to get.

So start off, I haven't decided between getting a r9 390 or a gtx 970. They both seem pretty good to me, I like that Nvidia is more efficient, but there is the 3.5gb ram issue.

Tomorrow there is going to be a flash sale on the MSI gaming gtx 970 4 gb. It's going for 350€ (about 395$). It was 50€ (about 56$) more expensive before sale.

There are other option, though not on sale, they're not that much more expensive:
MSI GTX970 Armor 4GD5T OC - 360€ (407$)
Asus STRIX-GTX970-DC2-4GD5 - 370€ (418$)

On the AMD side I have:
Gigabyte R9 390 8GB GDDR5 - 370€ (418$)
Asus R9 290X-DC2-4GD5 - 370€ (418$)


Which one of these might be a better choice? gtx 970, r9 390 or the 290x?
And which versions?

Please help a fellow gamer trying to stop playing on laptop and start playing on a real machine! :D
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Solution


For 1080p, I'd go with the 970 then.


Just don't get Corsair. I advise that you get a high quality power supply. If you are getting a 970, a 550W-600W will be ideal. If you go AMD, you should buy a quality 700-750W power supply.

Seasonic, XFX, and EVGA make good units (some EVGA units are fantastic, others not as good). Do not get Corsair CX power supply. As I said, you cannot go wrong with Seasonic.

I recommend you buy the 390. At higher resolutions, it performs better than the 970, and has 4.5GB more vRAM (because the 970 is actually 3.5). If you ever plan to Crossfire, the 390 is much better suited by having all that vRAM. Just in general, it'll be able to load higher resolution textures than the 970 and overall has more raw performance.
 

dpac712

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
32
0
10,530


Yeah, I'm just going to play at 1080p max. The games I intend on playing the most are: Attila Total war, witcher 3 and BF4. The thing is, I want this card to last me about 2/3 years before having to upgrade it again.
 


For 1080p, I'd go with the 970 then.
 
Solution