GPU Value Comparisons

Lethoric said:
Hi

I am currently in the market for a new GPU. I think/hope this is the right spot to post. My budget is roughly R5k. What is good value at that price point? Currently I see the options as:
GTX 970/ R9 390/R9 290
They seem to have similar performance at the same price range, but I want to know from guys who actually own them, or had experience with both. I only included the 9 290 because it's close to R4k.
I am flexible in price, but not more than 1k.

Also of note, I am upgrading from a Geforce 660 Superclocked EVGA. A part of me wants to wait till next year for newer GPUs, but my 660 likes to have its drivers crash and it felt slow in some games. I currently have 1080p screens. (planned upgrade sometime to one of those 34" ultrawide 1440p screens)

Edit: If anyone had to venture a guess, would the new Fury Nano card from AMD fall into a similar price category? (or is that wishful thinking?)
Click to expand...
R9 290 is great value for money. The new cards from AMD are rebrands.

GTX970 is a solid card, but value for money the R9 290 is king.

Wishful thinking on the Fury cards...
 
EmileS said:
R9 290 is great value for money. The new cards from AMD are rebrands.

GTX970 is a solid card, but value for money the R9 290 is king.

Wishful thinking on the Fury cards...
Click to expand...

Thanks Emile! Gonna pick a 290 up I think
 
Lethoric said:
Thanks Emile! Gonna pick a 290 up I think
Click to expand...

To compare,

PowerColor: R9 390 - R4,999.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

ASUS: R9 290 - R5,240.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-r929...ddr5-4gb-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

PowerColor: R9 390X - R6,599.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

ASUS: R9 290X - R5,483.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-r929...ddr5-4gb-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

You want a 290, rather pick the abovementioned R9 390. Also note that the 3xx have more RAM, however you need to take RAM utilisation into account as 4GB is hardly exceeded with what is available today. Ponder is correct, it's not an actual rebrand. This is when you want to go the AMD route... In regard with the RAM, the 970 is an excellent option pending on your budget.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
To compare,

PowerColor: R9 390 - R4,999.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

ASUS: R9 290 - R5,240.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-r929...ddr5-4gb-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

PowerColor: R9 390X - R6,599.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

ASUS: R9 290X - R5,483.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-r929...ddr5-4gb-pci-e-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

You want a 290, rather pick the abovementioned R9 390. Also note that the 3xx have more RAM, however you need to take RAM utilisation into account as 4GB is hardly exceeded with what is available today. Ponder is correct, it's not an actual rebrand. This is when you want to go the AMD route... In regard with the RAM, the 970 is an excellent option pending on your budget.
Click to expand...
Why did you leave out the Power color 290 for R4000?
 
To compare the PowerColor 9 290 and 9 390 available at Wootware,

PowerColor R9 290 - R4,299.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

Part Number: AXR9 290 4GBD5-TDHE/OC
Graphics Engine: RADEON R9 290
Video Memory: 4GB GDDR5
Engine Clock: 975MHz
Memory Clock: 1250MHz x 4 (5.0 Gbps)
Memory Interface: 512bit
DirectX® Support: 11.2
Bus Standard: PCIE 3.0
Display Connectors: DL DVI-D/ DL DVI-D/ HDMI/

PowerColor R9 390 - R4,999.00

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html

Part Number: R9 390 8GBD5-PPDHE
Graphics Engine: RADEON R9 390
Video Memory: 8GB GDDR5
Engine Clock: 1010MHz
Memory Clock: 1500MHz x4 (6.0 Gbps)
Memory Interface: 512bit
DirectX® Support: 12
Bus Standard: PCIE 3.0
Display Connectors: DL DVI-D/ DL DVI-D/ HDMI/

Spec source: http://www.powercolor.com/Global/Products_VGA.asp
 
I've been pondering between the Geforce 970 and the Radeon R9 390 8B, I've decided to go with the 970 but I've been hearing that there are all these new AMD cards coming out and I should just wait...I'm gonna buy at the end of the month, should I rather wait and see what happens with the AMD range of cards?
 
MeNeZ said:
I've been pondering between the Geforce 970 and the Radeon R9 390 8B, I've decided to go with the 970 but I've been hearing that there are all these new AMD cards coming out and I should just wait...I'm gonna buy at the end of the month, should I rather wait and see what happens with the AMD range of cards?
Click to expand...
I had to make a similar decision but ended up taking the R9 390.
The 970 is a great card but the 390 trumps it in most benchs.
In the end it was the 3.5gb vram issue that made me decide to get the 390.

AMD's new cards are already out, the only one left is the Fury Nano. The R9 300 series is AMD's new "refreshed" line up. The Fury range is running their new Fiji cores.
 
Gboss said:
I had to make a similar decision but ended up taking the R9 390.
Click to expand...

If I was in that boat I would also go with the R9 390.

You get a 8GB card which performs better & costs less than a 970.

Same goes for the 380 vs 960.

Only negative on the AMD side is higher power consumption but that's not really an issue.
 
ponder said:
If I was in that boat I would also go with the R9 390.

You get a 8GB card which performs better & costs less than a 970.

Same goes for the 380 vs 960.

Only negative on the AMD side is higher power consumption but that's not really an issue.
Click to expand...
+1

You gonna need at least a 600-650W PSU.

I upgraded to an Antec Gamers 750w 80+bronze and it's handling my 390 as well as an F 9590 without any issues. If you have a less greedy CPU you can get away with a smaller PSU.
 
Gboss said:
I had to make a similar decision but ended up taking the R9 390.
The 970 is a great card but the 390 trumps it in most benchs.
In the end it was the 3.5gb vram issue that made me decide to get the 390.

AMD's new cards are already out, the only one left is the Fury Nano. The R9 300 series is AMD's new "refreshed" line up. The Fury range is running their new Fiji cores.
Click to expand...

DX12 benchmarks is coming out with big improvements for AMD:
ashes-5960x.png
 
ponder said:
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...he-singularity-amd-and-nvidia-go-head-to-head

GTX980Ti vs R9FuryX
Click to expand...

Thank you ponder,

reading the article I can concur with the conclusion,

At first glance, these results may not seem impressive. The magnitude of AMD’s improvement from DX11 to DX12 is undercut by Nvidia’s stellar DX11 performance. The Fury X beats or ties Nvidia in both our benchmarks, and that’s definitely significant for AMD, considering that the Fury X normally lags the GTX 980 Ti, but Microsoft didn’t sell DirectX 12 as offering incremental, evolutionary performance improvements. Is the API a wash?

We don’t think so, but demonstrating why that’s the case will require more testing with lower-end CPUs and perhaps some power consumption profiling comparing DX11 to DX12. We expect DirectX 12 to deliver higher performance than anything DirectX 11 can match in the long run. It’s not just an API – it’s the beginning of a fundamental change within the GPU and gaming industry.
Click to expand...

It will be good to see testing on the lower-end CPUs and also the current generation APUs. Then we will still need to see what Khronos can put on the table and where NVidia and AMD will be standing with Vulkan on the charts.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Thank you ponder,

reading the article I can concur with the conclusion,



It will be good to see testing on the lower-end CPUs and also the current generation APUs. Then we will still need to see what Khronos can put on the table and where NVidia and AMD will be standing with Vulkan on the charts.
Click to expand...

I would also like to see what AMD managed to do with the new "Zen" CPU's, and how that will impact real life performance. It might just be worthwhile to hold of on any CPU upgrades until next year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X