Not another 980ti vs. R9 Fury Thread...

jlfx64

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Jan 28, 2016
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...ok, maybe it is.

Story: I completed my first build about 3 months ago and made the switch from console to computer gaming. In that brief period, I have really embraced the computer experience and am having a great time. I used some birthday funds to purchase an R9 390 just under a month ago, and the card has done great. I also got one of the Korean 1440p monitors (amazing deal for $250) about 2 weeks later, so there are games that the 390 isn't going to keep up with a max settings. I found out yesterday that Uncle Sam is giving me back more of my money than I expected this year (tax return for those of you outside the US or too young to pay taxes) and I'm thinking about splurging a little and throwing a few bucks at my GPU again to keep up with the monitor. I don't consider the 980 an option and I would prefer not to crossfire 2 390's right now as I would have to upgrade my PSU. I think my only logical choices here are the 980ti or the R9 Fury/Furyx.

So, most of the comparisons I'm seeing at this point are from the 3rd or 4th quarter of last year which shows the 980ti to be pretty dominant in most situations. With the release of new drivers from AMD, Windows 10 updates, and the beginning stages of DX12 gaming, there has been a lot of chatter about the Fury not only making up ground on the 980ti, but surpassing it in many tests at 1440 or 4k. (My interest is only in 1440.) I ran into similar articles about the 970 vs 390 when I was researching that purchase, but I feel like they were already very close in performance before the new drivers, Windows 10, and DX12. That was a pretty easy decision for me (390). This one (980ti vs. Fury) doesn't seem as clear cut.

With whatever card I purchase here (if I do), my future expansion plans are to SLI/Crossfire whatever I get now and skip the upcoming releases of Pascal and Polaris. Thought process is I will be able to scoop up either one of these cards cheap once the next gen has been released and either of these cards doubled up should last me a good while.

Timing wise, I have 2 days to return my 390 to Amazon. As stated above, I'm not interested in waiting on the next gen cards, so if I'm going to make a move, it has to be soon.

So given all the driver updates and DX12 infancy, what is the better choice? Key factors:
-Running 1440p at 96hz, want to utilize this as much as possible.
-Want to be able to Crossfire/SLI in the future. Once complete, this needs to last me a while.
-I have a mid sized case (Corsair Carbide 200r). It has a good amount of room, but it is a limiting factor once I go for 2 gpu's. Would prefer not to upgrade the case if possible.
-I have not worked with liquid cooling to this point. Not sure if that's an issue or not. (Furyx)

*Bonus question: Like the 390 vs. 390x, should I consider the Fury over the FuryX? Is there a similar cost/performance ratio like this is with the 390?

Specs: i5-4690k (OC'ed to 4.5ghz), Gigabyte HD3 Mobo (Supports Crossfire, not sure about SLI), 8gb of RAM 1600, R9 390 (OC'ed to 1185/1685), Corsair CM650 PSU (54 amps on the 12v rail, handles the 390 just fine), Corsair 200r Case, WD 1tb HDD, Samsung 500gb SSD, Windows 10 (clean/not upgraded from a previous version)
 
Solution


That's really the hardware limitation of the 980 TI, it doesn't have the actual ACE engines for async compute. I suppose the argument comes down to how long do you keep the card. If its more than a couple years you're going to have a ton of D3D12 games that had been released.

(also the plain fury is appropriately priced for its performance spot)


nothing has changed, the 980 ti is still superior in every way
 
The superiority of the 980 Ti was exaggerated back then, and the changes since then have also been exaggerated. At 4K, the Fury X was already slightly better in most cases, now it's just slightly better in another handful of situations. At 1440p it was already back and forth, now there are just another handful of tiny advantages for the Fury X. And at 1080p, not only are they both still overkill, but the 980 Ti is still dominant.

Oh, and overclocking still favors the 980 Ti by exactly the same margin as before.

As for the non-X Fury, it's still the natural price/performance pick between the 980 and 980 Ti. It doesn't really have any competition, and offers solid performance for the price.
 
We need more DX12 games to make a serious comparison. Right now, the Fury X does handily beat the 980ti in Ashes of the singularity, but that's just one game.

With all current games, at 1440p, the 980ti tends to beat the Fury X. There are a few which the Fury ties or wins by a small margin.

One other consideration, if you think you might upgrade your monitor to an adaptive sync model somewhere down the road, the freesync (AMD) monitors are significantly cheaper than the Gsync ones; by $100 or more.

I actually just bought a fury (non X) because the Acer Acer XG270HU (27", 1440p, 144hz, freesync, 1ms latency) was up on slickdeals for $330 and I picked one up.

However, based solely on your current monitor and currently existing games (we can't infer what DX12 will do from one game), the 980ti is the better bet for you.

Cheers!
 
DX12 is still highly irrelevant for today. Too few games and in the future, you are already looking for better GPUs.
GTX980Ti is better in my opinion. It has more VRAM, etc.

The thing that disturbs me more is not the DX12 topic or anything...but the FreeSync and GSync monitors being tied to specific GPUs.
I hate it!
 
These are great answers, and honestly, I was leaning towards the 980ti. That being said, I do worry that the 980ti will not "last" as long as the Fury. I know there is very little data out there on DX12 and which one is more future proof. There is just too much speculation right now. However, I have found some articles, like the one linked below, that are supporting the claim that AMD may be more future proof.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/213519-asynchronous-shading-amd-nvidia-and-dx12-what-we-know-so-far

I'm trying to get smarter on why we expect DX12 to benefit AMD more than Nvidia (for existing platforms). I'm really looking for hardware limitations like what is being referenced in the article above. I agree that I can't make my decision based completely on DX12/future performance, but given that I want the SLI/Crossfire combo to last the next 3-4 years, it does need to be considered.

My immediate plans are to keep my monitor for at least 3 years. If my GPU(s) start falling behind, I may be forced to go with FreeSync/GSync, after that point, if not sometime slightly before. In that case, its a check for the Fury.

I'm going to keep digging. Please keep bringing answers and opinions, they are very helpful!
 
So, let's complicate things. With the recent price drops of the Nano and Fury (vanilla), how does the value factor in here? For example, the Gigabyte r9 Fury is only $470 right now while most 980ti's are still north of $600. Will I get, say "$150 worth" of performance between these two cards? Sorry, I just get kind of neurotic about decisions like this.
 


That's really the hardware limitation of the 980 TI, it doesn't have the actual ACE engines for async compute. I suppose the argument comes down to how long do you keep the card. If its more than a couple years you're going to have a ton of D3D12 games that had been released.

(also the plain fury is appropriately priced for its performance spot)
 
Solution
Well, this is what I ended up buying.

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-4096-Express-Graphics-GV-R9FURYWF3OC-4GD/dp/B017KI1JJU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458358828&sr=8-2&keywords=r9+fury

In the end, I only putting in an additional $150 to jump up from my R9 390. At this price vs. $300 to jump up to a 980ti or Fury X, I felt like the vanilla Fury made the most sense. It looks like there are some articles out there on how to unlock the vanilla Fury and get it more in line with the x. I'll see how that goes. For the record, had I gone with the 980ti vs Fury X, I would have gone for the 980ti. Like I said, just couldn't justify to myself shelling out twice as much to make the jump.

Thanks for all the posts and help. It's much appreciated.
 
I'm returning the R9 390 as I was still within a month. Got the Fury in already. As you noted, modest gains that I can see so far. It runs MUCH cooler in the same applications. So far, so good.