Can't Decide: R9 290, R9 380, R9 380x, R9 280x, or gtx 960

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AlrightyThen

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Sep 20, 2015
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I've got a budget of $200-250 and I can't decide which one of these cards to get.

This is my first PC build, and I'm using an i5 4590 CPU with 8 GB RAM and I plan on getting Mass Effect Andromeda which comes out in 2016, which of these cards (and which brands of those cards) would be best for preformance?

I hear AMD cards are best for DirectX12 and I want a card that will last for another 3 years to play directx12 games at 1080p/1440p decently.


 
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Martell1977

Martell1977

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Oct 26, 2010
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From the ones you have listed here is the breakdown of performance (Fastest to slowest):
R9 290
R9 380X
R9 280X
R9 380 / GTX 960

If you want the most performance, the R9 290 is the top of your list. I put the 380X above the 280X as there are no benchmarks yet and the other 3XX series have been overclocked rebadges, which would make it a bit faster than the 280X. However, there are rumors that it's a fully enabled version of the 285/380.
 
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Martell1977

Martell1977

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The hot and loud ones are the ones with a reference cooler (single fan at one end that blows the heat out of the other).

Get one from ASUS, XFX or Sapphire...whichever of those has the best price.

And yes, they are the same as the 3XX series, the 3XX series are just overclocked versions on the 2XX series...except for the Fury models.
 
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Umair Shariff

Umair Shariff

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Apr 26, 2013
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R9 290 is hot, but it is limited to 95 degrees Celsius, and even when maxed it performs well.
Loud, I cant comment on it, cause I like a little noise in my system. If the loudness bothers you, you can get the triple fan setups, I think they call it DirectCu II from Asus.

I use the stock cause I wanna install a liquid cooled GPU later
 
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utroz

utroz

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Nov 9, 2010
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All of the AMD cards you listed support DX12, the 290 was tweaked into the 390 (they changed the firmware and upped clocks and increased the VRAM to 8GB). As has been said get a non reference model ASUS and Sapphire are some of the best, MSI is ok too. Gigabyte cards tend to have a high RMA rate.
 
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rwayne

rwayne

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I say the R9 380X which is scheduled to be released tomorrow. The MSRP is $249 and performance wise it is between a R9 380 and R9 390 however is closer to the 390 than it is the 380.

I would recommend XFX far as a vendor. Their customer support is great.

http://www.pcgamer.com/amds-radeon-r9-380x-reportedly-launching-very-soon/
 
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utroz

utroz

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If you can wait 6 months a whole new generation of cards will be out to choose from.. But it is an endless cycle because there will always be better hardware just around the corner. One good thing about the 380x is that is based on the GCN 1.2 (same as Fury, Fury X, Fury Nano, 285, and 380) The 290 is GCN 1.1 (still very modern and has more raw power than anything but Fury class cards and the 290X (also 390 and 390X because they are all based on the same chip as the 290 and 290X). Get the best card you can afford and if you update every year or so you can resell the card and recoup a good portion of what you paid..
 
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unknownofprob

unknownofprob

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Oct 3, 2013
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What is your current power supply, There are many units which I would never recommend in a lifetime for an R9 290.

"R9 290 is hot, but it is limited to 95 degrees Celsius"

It is limited to 94 degrees but getting your hands on a new reference cooled model now days is getting quite hard, so that temperature is pretty unlikely to get even close to, depending on overclocks applied.

"If the loudness bothers you, you can get the triple fan setups, I think they call it DirectCu II from Asus."

DCU II is a dual fan setup (taking note of the II, Triple fanned Asus coolers are DCU III), and the number of fans does not determine temperature/effectiveness of the cooler, it's the design of the cooler which plays the most significant difference.

"If you want a little extra performance and have the money to spare, I'd say go for the AMD Fury series."

The benefits for the cost of that is only worthwhile at 2160p or similar, and for that huge increase in price it's just a waste to even consider it as a worthy option.
 
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Umair Shariff

Umair Shariff

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Thanks for clearing up my errors :)

But, my R9 290 does hit 95 degree ceiling, and its a reference cooler
 
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E

eturk

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great question!

I'm debating the same question. What keeps getting me stuck is between AMD's seeming better support for DX12 (http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-290x-fast-titan-dx12-enabled-3dmark-33-faster-gtx-980/) vs so many transcoding applications that support using nVidia cuda (and nothing for AMD cards).

seems AMD was prepared for serious threading

I do a mix of some games and some video editing, thus the dilemma

(word on streets seems R9 380X could be soft released this week)

wait until nVIdia sorts out the DX12 issues, but it could be they have a hardware limitation?
expert read?
 
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B

Bem-xxx

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This is the latest performance GPUs review.
perfrel_2560_1440.png
 
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utroz

utroz

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Basically current Nvidia hardware seems to only have the potential of software Asynchronous Shaders while AMD has hardware Asynchronous Shaders on all GCN cards (different GCN cores have more or less Asynchronous Shader Engines as AMD calls them) . From what I have read Nvidia is working on a software solution to this issue but it is hard to know 100% without knowing every little detail of the Maxwell 2.0 design\designs if they can come up with a hardware solution on current Nvidia cards...
 
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