-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
AMD Radeon R9 390 vs GeForce GTX 970
- Thread starter nwgilbert
- Start date
No. 290X is the full chip with lower memory clocks, 390 is a cut-down chip with higher memory clocks.
There have never been any Palit-branded reference cards available and the actual reference-design models, sold under the brand names Zotac, Manli and Inno3D, are anything but cheaper compared to their peers.
Having a blower-style cooler doesn't make a card "reference".
Used 970/290x and overclock. The 8gb vram on the 390 is useless. Get a cheaper card, treat it as a stopgap and save money to buy something truly new that can actually benefit from the memory it's been outfitted with.
At the moment, there's nothing better in terms of price/perf ratio than a second hand 970/290x.
At the moment, there's nothing better in terms of price/perf ratio than a second hand 970/290x.
A non ref gtx980 2nd hand i would say. Beats both 390/x and ofc the 970.
Are you talking 1440p or 1080p?
Also a good option but a bit pricier. An overclocked 970 won't be that far off a stock 980. Though if the OP managed to bag a cheap-ish 980 and OC it to hell and back then it'd be a completely different story.
Yep, 970 new are currently overpriced, IMO they should be £200 new.
Well that just shows that AMD's marketing budget wasn't completely wasted.
The 390 is actually exactly the same chip as the 290, but fitted to a board with higher density memory, hence 8GB instead of 4GB, this also runs at lower power than before but clocks higher, giving a card that runs faster than the 290 but with more memory and lower power.
Overall it is a good card, and a better bet than the 970 at 1440p.
The only thing that mars this card, is that the price is higher than the pervious 290's, but if you can forgive AMD that, these and the 390x's are good cards, in fact I reckon the 390 is the gem in AMD's current line up.
If 970s are overpriced, then so are 390s. AMD charges people more money for a rebrand with additional memory that will just sit unused. It's a clever marketing ploy, just as bru said. I don't have anything against this card but people hyping it to hell and back because of teh vram are just plain daft.
And to those blabbering about the "meager 3.5gb" on the 970: Do you have the card? Because I do and did everything to make games stutter but to no avail. It's a non-issue and by the time it becomes one you'll long have forgotten about the 970/390.
As things stand, neither the 970 or the 390 are long-term investments because let's be frank, there are already titles they struggle with even at 1080p and it's not vram that's the problem.
That's why buying a new 390 and thinking it's somehow going to be more "future-proof"
than a used 970 is just a pipe dream. You don't need more than 4gb vram on such weak cards. Just get what's cheaper and enjoy it while you can. If it has to be new, grab a 390. You should be happy either way.
Anyways, if I had a 1440p screen I'd just splash out on a 980Ti.
970 is overpriced, end of. Rebrand or not the 390 beats it and has way more memory for demanding games like gta5 and som, 390 is better suited for upcoming games with high memory requirements. More so when you crossfire it.
Sorry but you clearly don't understand what the problem is so let me explain.
Better suited for upcoming games? I'm nearly maxing GTA5 no problem. SoM runs with the so-called ultra textures without stuterring as well. So when will this vram benefit come in handy? The card is already strugging without even using a half of its vram so how can it use more that that and produce playable framerates at the same time? Think logically. Also, the cards perform almost identically depending on the game so I don't get how it beats the 970
As I've said, you can't max some games with a Titan X/980Ti and stay locked at 60fps all of the time. How then do you think the 390 will cope with it's mighty 8gb vram? Will you be able to use it before you get rid of the card? Honestly...
Let's give your crossfiring argument a whirl maybe? A 980Ti, which performs around 2x390, is not enough for 4k and not because of vram but because of lack of grunt. How's the magical 8gb on the 390 going to help then?
Besides, who in their right mind would bother with crossfiring 2-year old rebrands when they can have a 980Ti for somewhat similar money without any scaling issues?
Here, I provided some logical arguments against your "end of" and uneducated guesses on future vram requirements regarding cards that are already past their glory days;p
Stop spreading false information. No way is a 980Ti twice the performance of a 390.
Check out the following and you can see that at 4K, the 390 is roughly 2/3rd the performace of a 980ti so the truth is that 2x390 will in fact be 20-30% faster than a 980Ti for basically the same price. Crossfire 390's will be hitting 60fps in games where the 980ti may not.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_radeon_r9_390_pcs_8gb_review,24.html
Last edited:
Ive tried downscaling 4k recently and im running out of vmem before grunt on my 290x crossfire setup, but still i agree the 980ti is a better option as a single card looks smoother than crossfire at lower fps so you can get away with using it for longer before ya have to upgrade.
Yeah, assuming perfect scaling and no stuttering, which simply won't always be the case. Let's not forget about power consumption and temps. I'd always take a single card solution over xfire/sli. It's just a safer option, even if the 390x2 will end up being 20% faster in every scenario (and they won't).
Here is the build I have just purchased (just the graphics still to purchase) ;
Maybe after seeing this someone can help to make my decision easier for one reason or another.. I remain stuck at choosing between the 290X // 390 and I cannot afford to splash out on the 980Ti right now. There is no real conclusion to this debate and I am still undecided as to whether the 390 is the right decision for my build.
- Intel Quad-Core i7-4790K
- EVGA Super NOVA 850W PC Power Supply - Gold
- Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard (4x DDR3, 6x USB3.0, 6x USB2.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DSUB)
- Crucial BX100 250 GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive
- WD 1TB 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive - Caviar Blue
- Alpenfhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler 120 mm
- NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case with Side Window and 4 Quiet Fans for PC - White/Black
- Team Group TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01 - TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual
- Dell UltraSharp U2515H 25" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor
Maybe after seeing this someone can help to make my decision easier for one reason or another.. I remain stuck at choosing between the 290X // 390 and I cannot afford to splash out on the 980Ti right now. There is no real conclusion to this debate and I am still undecided as to whether the 390 is the right decision for my build.