GTX 960 or R9 380?

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Sankar Narayan

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Mar 18, 2013
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Hello guys!

I know this question has been asked and answered a lot but I still can't decide which card I want because both the cards have their own pros and cons.So it would really mean a lot if you guys can help me out with this one.Right now I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 7750(OC Edition with 1GB VRAM GDDR5) which I think is pretty outdated and old(I bought it 4 years ago).Compared to the above mentioned card I definitely know the GTX 960 AND the R9 380 will be way better but which one?Here are the things I've learned so far.

R9 380

Pros

1.Benchmarks reveal the R9 380 outperforms the GTX 960
2.Both cards are around the same price range
3.Some people say AMD produces more vibrant colors(I don't know why...please enlighten me)
4.256-bit bus(?)

Cons

1.No PhysX
2.No Hairworks(TressFX or Hairworks?)
3.I've seen some people(including my friends)say that the AMD drivers are not up-to-date and are unstable(I can't remember if I have encountered these problems)
4.Needs more power
5.Runs hotter(?)

GTX 960

Pros

1.nVidia PhysX
2.Hairworks
3.Better and up-to-date drivers(?)
4.Maxwell architecture efficiently uses power and runs cooler
5.MFAA(?)

Cons

1.128-bit bus(?)(Does that even matter?)
2.Can't outperform the R9 380(From benchmarks)

Despite of what I mentioned above,when I went to my friend's place,I noticed his games compared to mine were a little more...nicer(my idea of vibrant and fluid)(He owns a ZOTAC nVidia GT640 2GB).I don't know what caused it to look nicer.Plus when I compared the texts on his monitor to mine,mine looked awful(blurry and jagged).This,I think,is because of the GPU because we both own the same monitors and we're both using VGA(I will get a new monitor anyways).

I would really love to see how PhysX works because I've never seen it in action in real life.My first nVidia GPU was my first GPU(GeForce 9400GT).Also,what is MFAA?Does it help to increase my frame-rate compared to other anti-aliasing methods(MSAA,FXAA,TXAA...).Is the MFAA nVidia exclusive like PhysX or Hairworks?Are PhysX and other nVidia features worth giving up for a few more frames?Or does AMD have anything exclusive to counter nVidia's?Whose side are the current and forthcoming games on?Power consumption won't be a problem but is it worth AMD's performance compared to nVidia's features?

So I would really appreciate it if you guys can help me out.It would really mean a lot!

Thanks in advance!

P.S

I was originally going for the GTX 970 but I couldn't because I don't have the money :(
So the GTX 970 is not an option in case that was going to be a suggestion...sorry.

tl;dr:R9 380 or GTX 960?
 
Solution
Rogue Leader
Neither card is powerful enough to run tressFX or hairworks playably so don't worry about those. PhysiX is emulated on AMD PC's so games that use it can still use it, just not as well, there are few games that this makes a difference, but the raw performance of the R9 380 over the GTX 960 makes up for it.

Anyone who says AMD drivers are buggy and don't keep up is a Nvidia fanboy, they work just as well and are updated just as much. The 380 is newer, has a higher implementation of DX12, and is faster. Yes it needs more power, but its not going to make some sort of huge difference in your electric bill, unless you're bitcoin mining.

At this point both companies essentially produce the same thing, and you need to look for the better...
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basroil

basroil

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Oct 19, 2013
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Who ever said the two produce different colors was lying to you. Given a properly programmed game and settings with a proper color calibrated monitor, the two companies should look identical.

Neither card will handle MSAA all that well in modern games, and neither is all that different.

If electrical cost is an issue, 960 all the way
 
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Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
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Dec 22, 2014
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Neither card is powerful enough to run tressFX or hairworks playably so don't worry about those. PhysiX is emulated on AMD PC's so games that use it can still use it, just not as well, there are few games that this makes a difference, but the raw performance of the R9 380 over the GTX 960 makes up for it.

Anyone who says AMD drivers are buggy and don't keep up is a Nvidia fanboy, they work just as well and are updated just as much. The 380 is newer, has a higher implementation of DX12, and is faster. Yes it needs more power, but its not going to make some sort of huge difference in your electric bill, unless you're bitcoin mining.

At this point both companies essentially produce the same thing, and you need to look for the better performance deal at its price point. At this price point the 380 is a much better deal.
 
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Solution
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Sankar Narayan

Honorable
Mar 18, 2013
28
0
10,530




Power consumption won't be an issue.And since you say PhysX can be emulated that's good enough for me since I get the extra performance as well from the R9 380.So the R9 380 it is then.Also about the driver thing,I haven't noticed any problems myself with AMD so that clears that.And finally I just found out that my monitor is older(in age as well as model) than my friend's monitor so that might explain the blurry text issue.

Thanks for the quick reply! :D
 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
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PhysX is NOT "emulated", PhysX runs primarily on CPU anyway. PhysX Hairworks and ParticleFX are disabled on AMD hardware (though there are ways around it). As mentioned before though, neither is strong enough to bother with those features unless it's an old game (Batman AC made heavy use of it and would run quite well)
 
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