R9 390 vs GTX 970

[chrisp99]

Hey gusy whats your opinions on these two cards im gonna be upgradjng at xmas time im having troubke deciding

 

[rolli59]

GTX970 for 1080P if planning higher resolution than that the R9 390 http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/30.html

 

[dudeman509]

1440p resolution - 390 pulls ahead.
1080p - 970 has a slight advantage.

970 also eats less power, is [generally] less noisy, and runs cooler. Both are great cards, both excellent overclockers, but NVidia typically has better driver support for games that have just released.

 

[hiralovesgiita]

R9 390
More vram, similar performance, better performance @ 1440p.
3.5GB vram is sort of cutting the edge nowadays to be honest if you want to max out games even at 1080p

 

[chrisp99]

Teuw i mybe doing 1440p and 4k with virtual resolution technology VSR OR DSR. The thing that scares me about AMD is the bad drivers everyone talks about

 

[dudeman509]

Neither card can handle 4K in games on its own.

 

[chrisp99]

True but maybe 1440p?

 

[hiralovesgiita]

As mentioned @ 1440p R9 390 is better (vram and performance)
"Bad" AMD drivers haven't been a thing for quiet some time. They're not bad, it may take a few days for drivers to come out when a new game just comes out, but that's it. And that's not too often.

My Nvidia driver fails every now and then to be honest so i'd say they both work at the same level at the moment, with Nvidia putting up drivers faster most of the time.

 

[rolli59]

Either card handles 1080P fine, both start to have to lower settings at 1440P and neither is really good for 4K. The 390 pulls ahaed at 1440P because of the additional Vram but not until then.

 

[Bryce_5]

Also soon to be price reductions on the GTX 970 it goes to $299, so AMD would follow this move I would think.

 

[chrisp99]

I dont get games on the releAse day too often anyways lol. Youre right and that 8 gb vram will be nice to have in the future too. One thing, will the r9 390 run up my power bill?

 

[hiralovesgiita]

I dont get games on the releAse day too often anyways lol. Youre right and that 8 gb vram will be nice to have in the future too. One thing, will the r9 390 run up my power bill?

It is only 40-80w more under load. Not much for the exchange on performance at 1440p and vram.
So no, it's pretty much just as power efficient.

EDIT: A lot of reviews are different, some are 100w, some are 60, some are 40-80... So there's no true estimate unless you test yourself I guess.
http://www.techspot.com/review/1019-radeon-r9-390x-390-380/page7.html

 

[chrisp99]

Oh ok

 

[chrisp99]

Im probably gonna go r9 390

 

[hiralovesgiita]

Great choice especially at 1440p.
Im all for Nvidia but recently AMD made me happy with the 300 series.

 

[chrisp99]

Right im the same way love nivida but i figured id give nvidia a try, if any issues ill return it to best buy