Nvidia or AMD Upgrade?

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ExoSuitOne

Commendable
Apr 21, 2016
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I'm planning on upgrading my graphics card. I'm currently between an EVGA GeForce GT 740 4GB GDDR5 and a MSI R7 370 GAMING 4G Graphics Card. The price difference between the two does not concern me, just the performance. I was gonna wait for the new Pascal GPUs, but it is way more GPU than I need, and way out of my price range. I'm also uo for any other suggestions that you all my have, but I'm not willing to go too much higher than the MSI R7. Thanks for any help or suggestions! Also, I have the MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard. It's all red and black themed.
 
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A
SIMPLE ANSWER
1. IF your power supply or PSU supports 380 or 380x , BUY the 380x. far better than 960. AMD crimson drivers are far better than nvidia drivers at the moment.
2. in case your PSU is not enough , get the 4GB version of the 960 and enjoy :)

(a good 550w psu is needed for the 380, make sure your psu has adequate connectors to connect the card )
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a r9 380 is faster than the 960 but not by a huge amount now the r9 380x when overclocked can step into 970 territory but thats a different story now the pros with the 960 is better drivers and nvidia in this case more reliable
the pros with the 380 is faster in amd optimised games the 380 will beat the 960 by a good amount however in nvidia optimized games the 960 and 380 will be about the same. i personally would go for the 960 or a 380x but a 960 over a 380 (non x) also for the first cards a 370 for 720p gaming a great card however for 1080p not so much and for the gt 740 DO NOT GET IT it is really bad compared to a 750 ti for around 110$ which is another option but is not nearly as good at a 960 or 380
 
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Two Things: 1. I'm definitely going with the 4GB models of whichever one I choose, and 2. I'm not going to be doing 4K resolution. 1080p at most. If I'm going to do 4k, I will need to make a few other upgrades to my system first which are not high on my priority list. And about the whole R9 vs. GTX 960, this video's benchmarks seem to say that the GTX 960 has the more consistant frame rates. Not sure what the whole frame time thing in the bottom right corner is about, but whatever it is, the 960 seems to be pretty consistent there too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HzWW6mDno&list=PLWv-SN6Qo4WdDGcQUs6xyUUud7md75T1S&index=16

Here are some of the games I will be playing: GTA V, Hawken, Mech Warrior Online, Skyrim, Homeworld Remastered, Total War: Shogun 2.
 
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I should mention that I am running a 4.2 Ghz AMD Processor. I'm going to assume that the R9 will have better performance because the processor is AMD as well. Am I wrong?
 
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No that doesn't matter. There are a few of the AMD A series processors that work specifically with some lower end AMD cards in a function called "Dual Graphics". None of the cards you have would work with that (if you happened to have an AMD A-series), and they are far more powerful anyway.
 
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nope no change except in games made mainly for amd systems then you may have 1-3fps more
 
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Well... Damnit. I still have no idea which one I should go with. I can deal with 40-50 fps no problem. I've been using a 1gb Nvidia GeForce GT 420M for the last several years on my laptop with a 1st gen core i3 processor (let that sink in for a moment). My main concerns are this: I've only ever used Nvidia and intel, ever. I recently did a budget build with an MSI 970 Gaming Mobo with an AMD FX 4350 unlocked black edition processor. I have 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM, and currently using some 1gb Asus OC GeForce graphics card that a guy gave me for free with my case. I'm just so familiar with Nvidia, and some of my favorite games are optimized for Nvidia (namely Hawken. Not sure about Mech Warrior Online or GTA V). I just don't want to make a wrong decision by not going with a brand that is tried and true for me because I've used it for so long. I have nothing against AMD (currently loving my processor btw), but I've never ever EVER used it. And on top of all of this crap to figure out, I have to also figure out which OC model to go with, MSI or Gigabyte, with MSI not as OCed as Gigabyte, but MSI definitely runs cooler because of its massive fans and heat sink. The only problem is, MSI is way more expensive than Gigabyte, and I cannot figure out why. WHY? Is MSI just that much better? Not according to benchmarks, but I'm just not sure... Help...
 
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And to add onto all of this confusion, I have to figure out which VRAM amount to get. I plan on using lots of higher esolution texture packs with skyrim, and maybe mod a few other games, but so many articles I read have said otherwise. I mean, the card will be able to allocate everything it needs with room to spare, but is it worth it? Is 4gb even necessary for my purposes? I'm just gaming with it. So now that you all have heard my full story, it comes down to this: R9 380 or GTX 960, MSI or Gigabyte, and finally, 2GB or 4GB VRAM?
 
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Ok, so since I'm going to be running mods and such, 4gb looks to be essential. I got my conclusion from another Tom's Hardware forum question, and a linus tech tips video. So the two questions that remain are Gigabyte or MSI, and GTX 960 or R9 380
 
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 4GB NITRO Dual-X OC Video Card ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $174.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-23 03:07 EDT-0400

Power supply?




You will easily hit 60 FPS at 2560x1440 even, in Skyrim. At 1080p, with mods, you'll still hit 60 FPS, I'm sure.

The R9 380 is currently the best price/performance card on the market in the US.
 
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nah nvidia amd cards u run into issues after a year or 2 as they run so hot nvidia spec''ed cards are built far stronger i am running a paliat 260 gtx i paid $45 nz got for a joke but still goes as hard any any the new school cards model numbers usually change over time a lot of the time there isnt much between the cards just in sales pitch go for any nvidia card 2g gddr5 ram is best u wont have the issues msi gigabyte asus & most the brands all cards are made in the asus factory in Taiwan just a diffrent name & oc tool to suit i am not am amd fan an intel nvidia fan its more expensive but dont have to replace components all the time
 
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This right here, excellent price deal and the best performance you can get at that price point.

Don't know whats up with the guy above recommending a GTX 950 at $175, thats insane, I just bought an EVGA one thats slightly slower for $120. Either way its nowhere the performance of a GTX 960 or R9 380.
 
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SIMPLE ANSWER
1. IF your power supply or PSU supports 380 or 380x , BUY the 380x. far better than 960. AMD crimson drivers are far better than nvidia drivers at the moment.
2. in case your PSU is not enough , get the 4GB version of the 960 and enjoy :)

(a good 550w psu is needed for the 380, make sure your psu has adequate connectors to connect the card )
 
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