R9 380 Or GTX 960?

Avenged7Fold · 28 Oct 2015 at 10:36

Tropicocity said:
I know it'll sound like a broken record but the 290x really does run ridiculously hot and loud. Are you sure you don't want to go nvidia?

How hot did your 290x get?

Both my reference ones never went above 85 before they had blocks put on them and the after-market cooler ones are far better.

The Tri-X is an excellent card. The cooler is hefty and the PCB is reference so you have the option of watercooling or replacing the cooler if you want to (although there is no need with the tri-x)

Ignore that KoM guy, he is just trolling every thread with the same post. From the looks of things, he either has no idea on GPUs or is just provoking reactions. What happened to the three strikes rule Mods?

Casterina · 28 Oct 2015 at 11:18

davida76 said:
Not that I'm supposed to do this but again if you go to a certain site named after a jungle they have the r9 290 tri-x used for £186, 30 days to return the card and a full 12 month guarantee'd refund should it go pop. Also to the business of a 970 gtx being better, its simply not, look at the latest reviews on new drivers.

It's also no noisier than the majority of cards:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290X_Tri-X_OC/23.html

It's £196 now which is quite expensive consider I can buy R9 390 for £50-60 more

Avenged7Fold said:
How hot did your 290x get?

Both my reference ones never went above 85 before they had blocks put on them and the after-market cooler ones are far better.

The Tri-X is an excellent card. The cooler is hefty and the PCB is reference so you have the option of watercooling or replacing the cooler if you want to (although there is no need with the tri-x)

Ignore that KoM guy, he is just trolling every thread with the same post. From the looks of things, he either has no idea on GPUs or is just provoking reactions. What happened to the three strikes rule Mods?

How much would you say the Sapphire 290 and 290X Tri-X is worth?

Avenged7Fold · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:30

A second hand one is probably 160-180 for the 290x probably a score or two lower if you get lucky for the 290. If it was much more then i would just spend the extra cash for one of the new 390s

Casterina · 28 Oct 2015 at 16:22

Avenged7Fold said:
A second hand one is probably 160-180 for the 290x probably a score or two lower if you get lucky for the 290. If it was much more then i would just spend the extra cash for one of the new 390s

What's the best option?

1. £175-180 for Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X

2. £160-165 for Gigabyte Windforce R9 290

3. £160-170 for Reference R9 290X (Install aftermarket cooler after)

Avenged7Fold · 28 Oct 2015 at 16:36

Are these second hand prices?

1. If you plan on doing some benching on air, as i believe it uses Samsung memory. Though wouldn't pay that price second hand atm

2. if you are short on cash or not bothered about the tri-x cooler or cant fit it

3. no point in doing this unless you are interested in watercooling. For the cash to get an after-market and a reference 290x, you would be better off just going new and getting a 390. Also if this is second hand, chances are it was used for mining and its probably had a lot of hours under load.

Casterina · 28 Oct 2015 at 17:34

Avenged7Fold said:
Are these second hand prices?

1. If you plan on doing some benching on air, as i believe it uses Samsung memory. Though wouldn't pay that price second hand atm

2. if you are short on cash or not bothered about the tri-x cooler or cant fit it

3. no point in doing this unless you are interested in watercooling. For the cash to get an after-market and a reference 290x, you would be better off just going new and getting a 390. Also if this is second hand, chances are it was used for mining and its probably had a lot of hours under load.

Yes, they are second hand prices. I've looked at R9 390 but I doubt they will drop to under £220-230 with a good brand cooler like Sapphire/MSI in 3-6 months time and R9 290 prices will probably remain the same due to the performance.

I'm not a heavy gamer as I have a gaming console as well but I causally play FPS and Sport games at 1080p 60FPS (High settings) on a 23" LCD monitor and don't plan on having dual monitors or playing in higher than 1920x1080 resolution, for my budget of around £160-170, which graphics card (New) am I looking at which is bang for money and performance?

Casterina · 28 Oct 2015 at 20:09

Anyone?

LtMatt · 29 Oct 2015 at 07:38

Casterina said:
Yes, they are second hand prices. I've looked at R9 390 but I doubt they will drop to under £220-230 with a good brand cooler like Sapphire/MSI in 3-6 months time and R9 290 prices will probably remain the same due to the performance.

I'm not a heavy gamer as I have a gaming console as well but I causally play FPS and Sport games at 1080p 60FPS (High settings) on a 23" LCD monitor and don't plan on having dual monitors or playing in higher than 1920x1080 resolution, for my budget of around £160-170, which graphics card (New) am I looking at which is bang for money and performance?

In your situation and with your budget, i would go with an R9 380 Sapphire Nitro. It will fit your needs perfectly and will run all games at 1080P at high to ultra settings with ease. Why risk getting a second hand GPU that could break and where would you be then? No warranty and no replacement. I don't see the need to get a faster GPU unless you absolutely need every setting cranked to the highest x4-x8AA etc. That's my two cents.

EDIT

To give you an idea of the FPS you will get at Ultra Settings at 1080P, many months ago i video benched (small fps hit) a similar card with an overclock which should put it roughly on par with the R9 380. My card had Elpida memory, but i believe the Nitro has Hynix or Samsung.

Casterina · 29 Oct 2015 at 10:25

AMDMatt said:
In your situation and with your budget, i would go with an R9 380 Sapphire Nitro. It will fit your needs perfectly and will run all games at 1080P at high to ultra settings with ease. Why risk getting a second hand GPU that could break and where would you be then? No warranty and no replacement. I don't see the need to get a faster GPU unless you absolutely need every setting cranked to the highest x4-x8AA etc. That's my two cents.

EDIT

To give you an idea of the FPS you will get at Ultra Settings at 1080P, many months ago i video benched (small fps hit) a similar card with an overclock which should put it roughly on par with the R9 380. My card had Elpida memory, but i believe the Nitro has Hynix or Samsung.

Thanks for your information, that has cleared my mind on the R9 380 but would it last for 5+ years in games at High settings? Should I get the Sapphire Nitro or MSI, both is 4GB

Also, the R9 380X will be released in mid November or so, hard decision time

LtMatt · 29 Oct 2015 at 10:47

Casterina said:
Thanks for your information, that has cleared my mind on the R9 380 but would it last for 5+ years in games at High settings?

Also, the R9 380X will be released in mid November or so, hard decision time

I'm not sure any gpu would last five years with your budget, but it's not about to suffer a performance drop overnight. It should be fine at 1080P for years to come.

Casterina · 29 Oct 2015 at 10:58

AMDMatt said:
I'm not sure any gpu would last five years with your budget, but it's not about to suffer a performance drop overnight. It should be fine at 1080P for years to come.

Should I get the Sapphire Nitro or MSI, both is 4GB and same price?

Aretak · 29 Oct 2015 at 11:05

Casterina said:
Should I get the Sapphire Nitro or MSI, both is 4GB and same price?

You really can't go wrong with either. The MSI has a 3-year warranty versus Sapphire's 2 though, so I'd pick that given the choice, even though Sapphire's cards are just as good.

Amatsubu · 29 Oct 2015 at 11:40

I'd definity look for a second-hand 290/290x or a 780 etc. if you can. You'll be very happy with the performance compared to a 380/960.

Out of those two you mentioned, the 380 is probably the better option.

r7slayer · 29 Oct 2015 at 12:06

KoM said:
Go for the 970, so much better than the 290/290X. Nvidia hardware is superior in every way. Perfect drivers are a guarantee with Nvidia.

How much are you getting paid?

LtMatt · 29 Oct 2015 at 12:08

Casterina said:
Should I get the Sapphire Nitro or MSI, both is 4GB and same price?

MSI 4GB is £15 extra but has an extra years warranty. It may be marginally quieter.

The Sapphire card has a feature called Intelligent Fan Control which means at idle the fans stop spinning and will kick in at 65c.The Sapphire card is clocked slightly faster on the memory and core out of the box. Not much between them apart from what i mentioned.

MSI R9 380
Sapphire R9 380

pandem0nium · 29 Oct 2015 at 13:15

Avenged7Fold said:
Are these second hand prices?

1. If you plan on doing some benching on air, as i believe it uses Samsung memory. Though wouldn't pay that price second hand atm

They're hynix IIRC. Samsung chips are only present in the 290x lightning.

Casterina · 29 Oct 2015 at 13:24

I've decided to get the R9 380 Sapphire Nitro however what's the best software to monitor temperature and FPS in game as well as which driver version is the most stable?

LtMatt · 29 Oct 2015 at 15:12

Casterina said:
I've decided to get the R9 380 Sapphire Nitro however what's the best software to monitor temperature and FPS in game as well as which driver version is the most stable?

I like MSI Afterburner, or you can use HWINFO or GPU-Z. There are others, but those are my favourites.

All of the drivers are stable, so just go with the latest beta. Check the known issues section of each driver to see if there is anything that could affect you and if there is, pick a different version. 15.10 is currently the latest.

Mei · 29 Oct 2015 at 15:28

i rly like the 380 nitro
good looking card

r7slayer · 29 Oct 2015 at 15:45

Casterina said:
I've decided to get the R9 380 Sapphire Nitro however what's the best software to monitor temperature and FPS in game as well as which driver version is the most stable?

Afterburner with the rivertuner software. It may be confusing looking at it but it's incredibly easy to use and set up. I say this from experience so it may be best to watch a video first but afterburner with rivertuner is the best i have found so far for OSD when gaming etc.