Gigabyte G1 Gaming Gtx 960 4gb or MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G

RayCal · Mar 14, 2016

Guys, just got my Gigabyte G1 Gaming Gtx 960 4gb 3days ago. And MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G has arrived today on the same store. Would it be worth it if i replace this to the R9 380? I asked the store,they're okay with it and i just need to add 13 dollars only.
G1 gaming 960 4gb = $262
MSI r9 380 4gb = $275

-i5 4460
-Seasonic M12 II Evo edition 500w
-1080p gaming

TJ Hooker · Mar 14, 2016

Which MSI model of R9 380?

The 380 usually performs a little better than a 960, but the G1 looks to be a fairly high-end model of the 960, with a pretty decent factory overclock. That, plus the fact that the 380 costs more, makes me lean towards sticking with your current card.

17seconds · Mar 15, 2016

You should decide based on the games you intend to play. Do you want the PhysX effects in Fallout 4? Or any of the other Nvidia exclusive settings in Gameworks titles? If so, then keep the 960. If not, then the choice is yours. The performance difference isn't as great as others would likely have you believe, and will vary depending on the game.

pubstomp19 · Mar 15, 2016

yes it is worth it. the 960 can not take advantage of 4gb's of vram its simply not a powerful enough chip. while the 380 maybe not use 4gb either but i believe it can use more than 2gb which the 960 would probably never surpass.

RayCal · Mar 15, 2016

TJ HOOKER

- MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G (4gb) the twin frozr face thingy. I'm thinking that also but the R9 380 have 256 bit. (i dont know if that matters alot.)

17 Seconds

-I don't play Fallout 4. My games are far cry, GTA V, AC Syndicate , BF 4/hardline, DYing light etc. I don't use shadowplay as well. What PhysX do by the way?

PUBSTOMP19

- well my g1 gaming 960 currently is 4gb version yet some says that 4gb won't be utilized fully coz it's 128bit bus only? correct me if im wrong.

TJ Hooker · Mar 15, 2016

pubstomp19 :

The R9 380 trades blows with the 960 and outperforms it by 10% at best, depending on the game. There's no reason a 380 would be better able to take better advantage of the extra VRAM than a 960.

And I just want to point out that I own a 380, so I'm obviously not biased towards the 960.

Edit: oops, looks like I've inadvertently brought back a deleted post by quoting it. If a mod wants to delete/edit this post as well, feel free.

TJ Hooker · Mar 15, 2016

PhysX is a physics engine owned by Nvidia that is used in some games. Having an Nvidia card allows physics calculations to be performed by the GPU rather than the CPU in games that support hardware-accelerated PhysX, increasing performance. That's not really all that common though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_hardware-accelerated_PhysX_support

The MSI Gaming 4G card also looks to be pretty good. You can try looking at specific benchmarks to see which card performs better in your favourite games, if you need more help deciding.

17seconds · Mar 15, 2016

No problem, undeleted since it was a topic of discussion. That whole thing about a GPU "not being powerful enough to handle 4GB of VRAM" is simply false. It's what I call a "forum myth" where people repeat things like that with no evidence, and pretty soon it gets accepted as fact.

Here's a GTX 960 4GB vs 2GB vs 380 in Dying Light.

Versus the 380 from that review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/08/04/msi_geforce_gtx_960_gaming_4g_video_card_review/6#.VueNIDbmqUk

And GTA V from the same review.

17seconds · Mar 15, 2016

(Ha ha, caught my mistake in that previous one.)

And then I had to bump over to TechPowerUp for the Battlefield 4 benchmark.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_380X_Strix/8.html

pubstomp19 · Mar 15, 2016

17seconds :

i wonder if thats dx or mantle?

maybe its just me but if the battlefield games are what your playing a lot of i would lean amd but im surprised by these charts. i never would have thought they were so close. i am mistaken

RayCal · Mar 16, 2016

in some Benchmarks though R9 380 is superior.

17seconds · Mar 16, 2016

RayCal :

Yep, that's why we ask what games you're playing. No sense in basing your choice on games you don't play.

Evoke186 · Mar 16, 2016

since you already have the 960, it's not really worth the time of switching it for the 380. the 380 usually performs slightly better but it's really not much. less than 5% most of the time.

RayCal · Mar 17, 2016

okay. so 380 and 960 dont have difference much.. so should i go to Zotac gtx 970 ZT-90101-10P?
Zotac is the cheapest here in our Country and i have limited budget though. the price is only $310. Should i get it or stick with my G1 gaming 960 4gb?
my only concern in zotac is the heat issues and there is no 0db technology, correct me if m wrong.

17seconds · Mar 18, 2016

RayCal :

Yeah, that Zotac card is a reference card with a custom heatsink on top. It even has that really small board size. Here's a review.
http://www.pcgameware.co.uk/reviews/graphics-cards/zotac-geforce-gtx-970-review/

Thing is though, the Zotac GTX 970 is still much faster by about~50% than even a custom factory overclocked top of the line Gigabyte GTX 960 G1. I would go for that GTX 970 and not look back, if it's in your budget.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_960_G1_Gaming/28.html

TJ Hooker · Mar 18, 2016

If a GTX 970 is only ~$40 more than a 380/960, I would go for it.

RayCal · Mar 18, 2016

Thanks guys for the response! if only i could choose you all as the solution

I'll go for zotac 970 then

God bless!

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