AMD RX 480 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980?

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

Hello,

my gaming pc is doing fine now, it's working perfectly, thank you everybody for the help!
Now, all my components are up to date except my graphics card, I have a GTX 260 which can't really handle games such as H1Z1, GTA V, ...
So, I'm looking for a new card around €300-350.

What games do I play?
GTA V, H1Z1, F1 2015, 2016, FIFA 16, 17, CS:GO, Overwatch, Black Ops 3, Far Cry, etc...

I will play on full hd, 1080p so I'm not in need of a high-end card which needs to handle 4K, I'll stay with 1080p for the moment.

I saw the new AMD RX 480 and it's a good looking card, if I'd go for that one, I'll wait MSI and ASUS to place their own coolers on the card.

I also saw a GTX 980 in second hand for about €320-350.

I really don't know if the AMD RX 480 will be a better choice.. at benchmarks I think the GTX 980 is better, but AMD has a new technology, no?

What is your advice?

Kind Regards,
Tony

JustifyHerko · Jul 1, 2016

Well the GTX 980 is a better card no doubt!

Yes the rx 480 does have new technology DX12 support and new drivers.

I would although wait untill other providers bring out their model and maybe a higher clock speed if your going for the rx 480. I have the 480 and I love it. I didn't need a card as powerfull as the 980 for what I play as the 480 handles it with ease.

Dustybin · Jul 1, 2016

If your PSU can handle it I would buy the 980 over the RX 480, it is unlikely even with driver improvements the RX 480 will ever match the 980. However you do decide to go for the RX 480 I would wait for one of the custom models to be released, the stock cooler isn't great on the reference board and by the time they're released there should be firm news on the 1060 which could offer you a 3rd option.

The RX480 is a decent card and performs about as well as I was expecting it to (would have been nice if it had been a bit better vs a 970) but it offers an excellent upgrade for anyone running anything up to a 380/960. It doesn't however improve upon last generations top tier cards and it was unrealistic to expect it to.

Seeking_Gamer_2 · Jul 1, 2016

No doubts, the gtx 980 is better and rx 480 is also good, but I don't like AMD much, i'm all with NVidia. I suggest waiting for 1060, it is going to be faster than an RX 480 and cheaper than gtx 980!

-SG

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

Mhm, thanks for the advice. Well I have a Corsair CS650M, that can handle a GTX 980 right?

Sakkura · Jul 1, 2016

The GTX 980 is a little bit faster than the RX 480, but the RX 480 is far cheaper and has a more modern feature set and better driver support. It's a much better buy.

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

And yeah I don't think that the GTX 1060 will be a good choice. I won't handle it so long with my GTX 260 if you know what I mean

But can the RX 480 play every game on ultra settings that I stated above?

Dustybin · Jul 1, 2016

The 1060 is an interesting case, the pricing rumour puts it quite a bit more expensive than the RX 480. With the stock shortages driving the price of the 1070 and 1080 up they probably can afford to overcharge on the 1060 too, especially if it a fair bit faster than the RX 480. It might be quite a wait for the 1060 to arrive in sufficient quantity to drop the price close to RX 480 levels.

j3ster · Jul 1, 2016

how much does the GTX 1070 cost around there? wouldnt that be a better buy? and id personally go for the RX 480 since, along the line when drivers gets better i really expect it to be better than what it is now though

spdragoo · Jul 1, 2016

The GTX 980 is a very good card, no doubt about it. However, it's overkill for you -- prior to the release of the 1070/1080 & the RX 480, Tom's recommendation for "maxed-out" 1080p gameplay was the GTX 970.

For what you're looking at, the RX is going to be more than enough to meet your needs, and will still be a lot cheaper than a GTX 980. If you really just prefer nVidia over AMD, then get a GTX 970 instead of the 980, as it should be cheaper.

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

The 1070 costs about €550

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

Alright, what'd you guys do, GTX 970 or RX 480?

Sakkura · Jul 1, 2016

If you need to buy now, 480 for sure. The 1060 would be an interesting option if you could wait, but that's not fun if you're stuck with a bad card in the meantime.

ema21del9 · Jul 1, 2016

Sakkura :

Please provide some information to backup that argument, because I think exactly the opposite.

Sakkura · Jul 1, 2016

ema21del9 :

They have improved support for HDR, Freesync over HDMI, and improvements to GPU-accelerated video encoding/decoding. Nvidia have had more driver issues this past year than AMD, particularly in relation to Windows 10. And of course, we know the driver optimizations for the last-generation cards will gradually cease, whereas the RX 480 is brand-new and will have high priority for optimization for a long time.

ema21del9 · Jul 1, 2016

Sakkura :

While I agree in some points, you need a FreeSync Monitor to take advantage of that technology for example, but you also have the competition: PhysX, Shadowplay, adaptive Vsync, better OC capability, and others. So I think both have their list of features.

In the other hand, NVIDIA has proved over the years that even with similar technical specifications their cards have better performance, and this is because of good drivers, I can argue about the same you've just said about NVIDIA drivers not working properly for Windows 10, I have a desktop machine with a R9 270 and a lot of issues in Project CARS when my Windows was updated to version 10.

I think the discussion goes down to the price, GTX980 is better than RX480 so there's no chance in discussing that, but if we say GTX970 vs RX480 I guess I choose the cheaper one because they perform very similar.

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

Alright thanks guys. Should I now buy the reference card or wait for MSI to make their own cooler and place it on market? If yes, when will the MSI RX 480 come out?

ema21del9 · Jul 1, 2016

Don't buy reference card, custom models should be out in a few weeks.

Sakkura · Jul 1, 2016

ema21del9 :

PhysX is a gimmick.

AMD has their version of Shadowplay, and with the RX 480 it's more advanced than what the GTX 970 or 980 offers. Note that Nvidia is also improving this every generation, so it's not like a 480 is better than a GTX 1080 on this point.

Adaptive Vsync is marketing fluff. I'd rather just use FRTC if anything.

Better OC capability remains to be seen, and also has nothing to do with driver support.

Overall, the 480 clearly has a more modern feature set than the 970 or 980. But Nvidia isn't standing still, they've added plenty of features with their 10 series cards.

Project Cars is a game that's designed to run well on Nvidia hardware. It's comparable to Ashes of the Singularity, a game that's designed to run well on AMD hardware.

ema21del9 · Jul 1, 2016

Sakkura :

ema21del9 :

PhysX is a gimmick.

AMD has their version of Shadowplay, and with the RX 480 it's more advanced than what the GTX 970 or 980 offers. Note that Nvidia is also improving this every generation, so it's not like a 480 is better than a GTX 1080 on this point.

Adaptive Vsync is marketing fluff. I'd rather just use FRTC if anything.

Better OC capability remains to be seen, and also has nothing to do with driver support.

Overall, the 480 clearly has a more modern feature set than the 970 or 980. But Nvidia isn't standing still, they've added plenty of features with their 10 series cards.

Project Cars is a game that's designed to run well on Nvidia hardware. It's comparable to Ashes of the Singularity, a game that's designed to run well on AMD hardware.

What is the AMD "version" of shadowplay you say? because the advantage of shadowplay is it's hardware implementation which doesn't affect the performance while gaming, if you're talking about software you DO suffer of performance decrease.

I do not want to prejudge you but you sound like a bit fan of AMD. I own both AMD and NVIDIA stuff and believe me I know the advantages of each brand, I'm just saying RX480 isn't "that" great.

Sakkura · Jul 1, 2016

ema21del9 :

Nvidia introduced its NVENC hardware with the Geforce 600 series, and that's what Shadowplay utilizes. AMD introduced their VCE hardware with the Radeon 7000 series (just before the Geforce 600 series), and that can be utilized by their Gaming Evolved app or third-party software like OBS.

Zitheny · Jul 1, 2016

Actually, what about the R9 390? Ain't that a better card to get? it's better than the gtx 970 and the rx 480 no?

j3ster · Jul 1, 2016

Zitheny :

well RX 480 does have newer features that would make it faster in the long run but an R9 390 is not a bad choice, infact its a really good one.

Arcturus_Crow · Jul 1, 2016

Zitheny :

It's faster in some games such as far cry primal (which favors memory bandwidth) but the 480 is faster in others, and the 390 is not worth it's substantially higher heat output and power draw. I do believe it's still slightly higher priced than a 480 as well.

Seeking_Gamer_2 · Jul 1, 2016

Zitheny :

Most probably, YES. And i dunno what you mean?!

1060 really good tho...

AMD RX 480 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980?

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