Gtx 970 or r9 390 8gb for modded skyrim

[Jc93]

Alright so i played the hell out of skyrim on the ps3 and now i have built my first pc as of right now all i have is a 7870 which i got for $100 but will be upgrading in a month or two . Im planning on modding skyrim to the moon, and i mean every graphics mod i can possibly squeeze in there but still keeping smooth gameplay, when i do and would rather get the 970 due to it power usage cause i only have a 500w psu what i want to know is a) can u exceed the 3.5 "full speed" vram with a ton of mods and b) if it can at that point will an r9 390 or a 970 even be powerful enough to keep the fps at 60 regardless of the vram if i pump that much eye candy in there i hope thats a clear enough question. Id appreciate real experiences with one of these cards and not just speculations i know u will rarely need more vram than the 970 offers at 1080p which ill be playing at by the way but i want the best experience i can get.

 

[Francisco Costa]

Normally I'd say an R9 390 but since you only have a 500W PSU your best option is a GTX 970: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=102345&vpn=STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1378

Unless you want to upgrade your PSU also.

 

[Jc93]

Ya i know im really kickin myself for only goin 500 but it was on sale $20 off for $35 so i went with it with that said im plannin on getting a new one eventually anyway because i really want at least a semi modular psu cause the mess of cords kinda drive me nuts but if i wont see any significant performance increase in the 390 with its vram id rather wait til later i still need to get 4690k as well rockin a g3258 at the moment lol

 

[Francisco Costa]

What's the model of the PSU?

500W may be enough but a quite tight.

The R9 390 beats the GTX 970 but not by much, and although right now the 8GB are a bit overkill, in the future it might not be the same case. But the GTX 970 is an excellent card and if you don't want any trouble with your PSU go with a GTX 970: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=102345&vpn=STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1378

 

[Jc93]

Its an evga w1 500 i believe kind of a cheapy and also depending on if the new pascal or arctic islands gpus live up to the hype ive been reading about ill probly sell whatever i get within a year or so depending on how the reviews go ill prolly just go with the 970 i mean ive been a console gamer up until about a month ago im sure itll pack plenty of punch for me

 

[Francisco Costa]

Yeah, that PSU won't handle an R9 390, get the GTX 970 and don't worry, you'll definitely notice the difference vs a console