GTX 970 vs R9 390

[Seventy2]

Which card would work better for gaming and 3d rendering?

Also would a 390 have enough power with a pc with these specs
i7 4790k 4.5ghz
ssd
hdd
4 fans
cosair 500w psu

 

[TJ Hooker]

With a 500w PSU you should stick to the GTX 970. What's the model of your power supply?

 

[RCFProd]

No chance of running an R9 390 with a Corsair CX 500 watts. GTX 970 best chance, and even then It's on the short side.

 

[huvik]

No chance of running an R9 390 with a Corsair CX 500 watts. GTX 970 best chance, and even then It's on the short side.

+1 to this

 

[ZachyBeat]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

As others have said a CX probably isn't going to fair very well. What specific model is your PSU?

 

[Seventy2]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

Really?

 

[Seventy2]

So will I be loosing out on getting a GTX 970 over a 390?

 

[huvik]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

Really?

My system draws 602 watts from the wall, real life testing by me. FYI

 

[norseman4]

Which card would work better for gaming and 3d rendering?

Also would a 390 have enough power with a pc with these specs
i7 4790k 4.5ghz
ssd
hdd
4 fans
cosair 500w psu

The 390, depending upon the reviewer, trades victories or outright beats the 970 in most cases ... except for hear and power draw. It is better, also, at higher resolutions, though the 970 is still OK at 2560x1440.

However, as others rightly pointed out, 500W will not be adequate for a 390. Though a 970 would fit my minimum recommendation of 450W.

Of course, you also asked about rendering, and while your 3D suite probably has CUDA acceleration support, the 8GB of memory on the 390 would be very helpful and probably let the card render faster than the 970. (I'm sure there are side-by-side benches that include rendering, maybe at Anandtech)

So 1440p gaming (or higher) the 390 is a clear choice. Rendering would be a probable win for the 390 as well. You would have to go with at least a 600W PSU though, not a Corsair model starting with a C. (EVGA SuperNOVAs are very good)

* Disclaimer, I have an ASUS Strix R9 390 and an EVGA SuperNOVA 750 GS, and I really like both of them, though custom cables are very difficult to get for the GS version of the SuperNOVA PSUs *

 

[norseman4]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

Without knowing the details of the other power using components in his system, nobody can saw what the load power would be. I did a worst case build in PCPP and the estimated power was 506W with a 390. (376 with the 970)

My minimum PSU recommendations are based upon that PCPP number * 1.15 (rounded to the next 50) so:
600W w/ 390
450W w/ 970

(Though for each, I'd say that I would prefer to get a 750 and 600, respectively, if asked)

 

[norseman4]

So will I be loosing out on getting a GTX 970 over a 390?

It depends upon usage. The 970 is a good card, and for 1080 gaming it's as much as most people need. Rendering may be a different story. It'll still do it, of course, and the results will be just as good, it will just take more time per scene.

 

[Seventy2]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

Without knowing the details of the other power using components in his system, nobody can saw what the load power would be. I did a worst case build in PCPP and the estimated power was 506W with a 390. (376 with the 970)

My minimum PSU recommendations are based upon that PCPP number * 1.15 (rounded to the next 50) so:
600W w/ 390
450W w/ 970

(Though for each, I'd say that I would prefer to get a 750 and 600, respectively, if asked)

So will I be loosing out on getting a GTX 970 over a 390?

It depends upon usage. The 970 is a good card, and for 1080 gaming it's as much as most people need. Rendering may be a different story. It'll still do it, of course, and the results will be just as good, it will just take more time per scene.

So i can expect good fps at high settings with the 970 at 2560x1080?

 

[ZachyBeat]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

Without knowing the details of the other power using components in his system, nobody can saw what the load power would be. I did a worst case build in PCPP and the estimated power was 506W with a 390. (376 with the 970)

My minimum PSU recommendations are based upon that PCPP number * 1.15 (rounded to the next 50) so:
600W w/ 390
450W w/ 970

(Though for each, I'd say that I would prefer to get a 750 and 600, respectively, if asked)

If you're estimating a power usage of 506w that would be (at worst) a 420w of power usage with a wasted 86w, assuming that power supply is only 80% efficient and not a better quality one. Or are you not calculating that from the wall?

 

[norseman4]

If you're estimating a power usage of 506w that would be (at worst) a 420w of power usage with a wasted 86w, assuming that power supply is only 80% efficient and not a better quality one. Or are you not calculating that from the wall?

The 506 was the estimate from PCPartPicker with factory overclocked GPUs and some less efficient components. (AIO cpu cooler and 7200 rpm HDD as well as Kingston SSD) I give some overhead (+15% = 581.9W) then go to the next higher 50 (or 100 = 600W) The padding allows for some slight expansion or overclocks, but it's really just a safety margin, especially if the user insists on a lower quality PSU ... something about a camel and water here.

 

[norseman4]

So i can expect good fps at high settings with the 970 at 2560x1080?

1920x1080 absolutely, 2560x1080 almost assuredly. Max settings in the latter case would probably not be possible in many games, and truly it's dependent upon the games themselves.

I was playing a highly modded Skyrim on an R7 260X at all slider values at 80-90% with average framerates at just about, and sometimes slightly over 60fps. Other than the howling GPU fans it was quite enjoyable. With my 390 in my new build and many more mods added, I've never felt a desire to check.

 

[vinnie_febs]

You can go with either one. Your system will be drawing in the neighbourhood of 400w from the wall under load when paired with a 390.

As others have said a CX probably isn't going to fair very well. What specific model is your PSU?

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

 

[norseman4]

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

Manufacturers will always state a higher value than generally needed for their recommendations, just as PcPartPicker is also, usually, a bit high when measured from the wall. You cannot go wrong when using the recommended wattage, though.

 

[vinnie_febs]

Right, but to say you will be fine with 500W PSU is a ludicrous thing to advise someone. His system will be pulling like ~470W and who wants to be that closed to their max wattage. This means the PSU will be running at near 100% load almost all the time.

 

[Seventy2]

So if I get the R9 390, what's the cheapest power supply that would be sufficient?

 

[RCFProd]

Seasonic S12II 620w

 

[vinnie_febs]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438054&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

What is considered "cheapest" to you? Price range would help pointing you to a decent PSU with your budget.

 

[Seventy2]

And just to settle my mind, the R9 390 will offer more performance than the GTX 970 in gaming? And will the graphics card last for the next year or two?

 

[vinnie_febs]

And just to settle my mind, the R9 390 will offer more performance than the GTX 970 in gaming? And will the graphics card last for the next year or two?

390 has a small and I mean small edge over the 970 currently, specially with memory hungry games like GTA V. In the end they both perform about the same. You will not notice this huge difference between the two. 390 runs a bit warmer, sucks more juice too. Looking forward to 1-2 years from now, I would probably go with the 390, it will be able to hang a bit longer than the 970 with today's memory hungry games. Few months from now people will moving on to NVIDIA's pascal anyways.

 

[ZachyBeat]

Right, but to say you will be fine with 500W PSU is a ludicrous thing to advise someone. His system will be pulling like ~470W and who wants to be that closed to their max wattage. This means the PSU will be running at near 100% load almost all the time.

R9 390 300w, 4790k 88w, other stuff about 50w. I'm not saying he's going to have growing room but I'm saying it would be fine. A 500w power supply can supply a maximum of 500w. It's not like the link you posted means the R9 390 is actually pulling 600w itself. If he has a Corsair CX 500w then yes I think it's a bad idea to be using it in a gaming rig demanding 450w. Keep in mind the only time he's going to be pulling that much power is when the CPU and GPU are both maxed out.

 

[vinnie_febs]

Right, but to say you will be fine with 500W PSU is a ludicrous thing to advise someone. His system will be pulling like ~470W and who wants to be that closed to their max wattage. This means the PSU will be running at near 100% load almost all the time.

R9 390 300w, 4790k 88w, other stuff about 50w. I'm not saying he's going to have growing room but I'm saying it would be fine. A 500w power supply can supply a maximum of 500w. It's not like the link you posted means the R9 390 is actually pulling 600w itself. If he has a Corsair CX 500w then yes I think it's a bad idea to be using it in a gaming rig demanding 450w. Keep in mind the only time he's going to be pulling that much power is when the CPU and GPU are both maxed out.

Well, then why not say that in your original comment to the OP. In the end it is absolutely not recommended as yourself have now pointed out. Of course it will run it, but it is not optimum to do so, this is all we are saying; including yourself now sir. All this been said, what is the argument here?