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Which Card - R9 390 vs GTX 980

izzop

izzop

izzop

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Hi,

Could do with some guidance in choosing an upgrade for my GPU.

Currently running as per my Sig, HSI HD 7950.

A reason for the upgrade is due to the recent upgrade to Elite: Horizons and in view of the changes made want to future proof the PC a bit.

I was thinking of the Radeon R9 390 Gaming Edition 8192MB but there's an on going issue with AMD and Elite, which doesn't seem to be getting resolved any time soon.

So I looked around for a Nvidia equivalent and came across the GeForce GTX 980 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB which also ticks all the boxes.

The question is, is it worth the additional £100, or should I look at a 970 if going down the Nvidia path?

Another question I have is how easy is it to swap from an AMD GPU to Nvidia regarding Windows and drivers and getting the cleanest install?

Thanks & Regards
 
390 is deffo the better option (unless you want gysnc over freesync) the 980 is epic but not worth the extra money for a small amount of performance if you want nvidia i would say save for the 980ti other than that amd in my opinion has the lower end cards on lock down (sub 400) and nvidia is smacking the **** out of amd in the high high end.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The 980Ti is certainly stretching things cost wise, more in justifying that price to myself :eek:
 
How much do you like Elite? I think it is worthwhile to consider the 970 if it means a lot to you but overall the 390 is the best choice; the 980 is simply not good value. Personally I wouldn't make a judgement based on Elite alone because it is an absolute mess of a game, in every way. I can sympathise with the situation though, I also have a game that I love which is a technical mess and makes some upgrade questions more difficult than they need to be (The Secret World), though in my case both Nvidia & AMD have their own individual issues so there's no choice which doesn't have a headache involved.
 
The 980 Ti is cracking but if not in budget then go 970 - the 980 isn't worth the extra. Or go AMD, the 390 is excellent and a better value proposition than the 970, though if it's got problems with a specific game you're really into then fair enough wanting to change brands. (Though Elite has quite a few ongoing issues :p)
 
Padraig said:
390 is deffo the better option (unless you want gysnc over freesync) the 980 is epic but not worth the extra money for a small amount of performance if you want nvidia i would say save for the 980ti other than that amd in my opinion has the lower end cards on lock down (sub 400) and nvidia is smacking the **** out of amd in the high high end.
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I would say edging the lead in the high end....Smacking the **** out of AMD in the high end is stretching it a bit don't you think? Also to do all this smashing, they had to take their £900 Titan X and slightly shave a bit off the top of it and drop the price point of the card (980Ti) approx £300 to do so. A bit of reality makes the world a better, more fairer place doesn't it?

3....2....1.... your'e back in the room.
;)
 
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Thanks all.

I'm aware of the Elite issues :D I'm happy to swap to Nvidia just so I can eliminate one of those, it's one less to have to worry about.

I'll have a much closer look at the 970 range considering the 980 isn't worth the difference. The 980Ti, unfortunately is just that bit too much to lay out at present.

Regards
 
The 970 you need to spend about £250-280 to get one that clocks in the 1550mhz region. When at 1550mhz+ and a good memory overclock you are approaching within a couple of fps of the 980, of course the 980 can then be clocked too. But for the money the 970 is a better buy than the 980.

Comparing the 970 to the 390 I'd say there are pro's and con's and it really comes down to your personal situations,ie noise, games you play, resolution, size of case. You can't go wrong with either a 390 or a 970. I'm rather pro Amd but I chose the 970 g1 a few months ago to replace my oc'd 7950. However the 970 for me is a stopgap card until Amd provide something better than a Fury.
 
Davedree said:
I'm rather pro Amd but I chose the 970 g1 a few months ago to replace my oc'd 7950. However the 970 for me is a stopgap card until Amd provide something better than a Fury.
Click to expand...

Pretty much same situation here as well. I want to give them money but the Fury cards look like such poor buys so we gotta wait even though there's this upgrade itch to scratch!
 
980 from me, yes its a premium over the 970 and on paper there is not much in it. But in game there is quite a lot in it. My 980 gets more fps in games than my wifes 390 and i game at 1440 and she is at 1080p. The 980 does perform better than a 970 by a noticeable ammount i know as i have owned a 970. I agree that the ti is also the way to go but they are quite costly. Personally i would get the 970 or 980 if your happy with the premium price. I run my 980 at 1550 core clock and it walks over my old 970. I never had my 970 when i have 1440p but now on 1440p my vram usuage in most games is 3.8 -3.9 gb so the 970 would be slowing things down at that point due to the vram limitations. The 390 simply does not have the grunt to use any where near its 8gb vram.

The 970 is a belter of a card for the money and at 1080p is as good as the 390. However the 980 is better and i have to say now i hve a gsync monitor it has been the biggest single upgrade in pc gaming for years. Of course im sure the same can be said about freesync i have just not seen it yet but i have read reviews that some freesync monitors are naff due to amd not tieing manufacturers down like nvidia.
 
Never played Elite Dangerous but if the issue with AMD cards is the Supercruise slowdown issue then I heard that installing Windows 7 fixes the problem. This means the issue is fixable and AMD or the Devs may get round to it eventually.

The is also a potential fix posted on Reddit to try.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/3u2l5c/leaked_amd_crimson_driver_still_no_fix_for/?sort=new

[–]SharpSkarf 1 point 6 days ago

How to fix this evil problem (under Windows 10 and AMD graphics card) Step 1: Download this driver: http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/amd-catalyst-14-4-whql-(14-100-april-17)-download.html Step 2: Go to programs and Features, find anything AMD and uninstall it. Go to Device Manager, click Display adapters, right click your graphics card, click Properties, click Driver, click Uninstall. Step 3: RESTART! Very important or nothing will work, be aware it might boot you into a super low resolution, that's normal. Step 4: Go to your downloads and install your driver, after its done go back to Device Manager and your display adapter should now be listed as the correct one. Step 5: Another restart is a good idea here, but after that enjoy elite :D ps: if everything went to **** grab the latest driver here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
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This poster says to try driver version Catalyst 14.4 but I wonder if simply using the DLL's for 14.4 will work. You could try that by getting the DLL's from Guru3D AMD driver repository :

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=399547
 
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sand_dune said:
R9 Nano is down £100 to £399. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapp...ess-graphics-card-21249-00-40g-gx-371-sp.html
Definitely better than 980GTX. It's 390 or Nano. Just make sure Nano gets enough fresh air not to throttle.
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I saw this. Kind of a good deal but also kind of crazy money for a card with only 4GB VRAM. I mean most of the time it is enough but really, it is rapidly becoming "not quite enough" with some games. Weird that this card comes with 4gb VRAM and yet the 390 (almost half the price) comes with 8GB VRAM. Much more future proof.
 
beany_bot said:
I saw this. Kind of a good deal but also kind of crazy money for a card with only 4GB VRAM. I mean most of the time it is enough but really, it is rapidly becoming "not quite enough" with some games. Weird that this card comes with 4gb VRAM and yet the 390 (almost half the price) comes with 8GB VRAM. Much more future proof.
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Let's not forget that the Nano's memory is HBM with a memory bandwidth of 512 GB/s. You get a hell of a lot more data transfer than with GDDR5. I'd choose the Nano 4GB than the 390 8GB any day of the week.
 
good deal really, as amdjoe points out it is better bandwidth and can handle the vram better than other cards and part of the nano's charm is the form factor so it's not for everyone but at that price it's pretty good. Better positioned than the 980 or 970 for example which either is overpriced or gimped for vram rather than having benefit of HBM in 970's case.
 
I wish I had waited for the 980Ti. Only had a 560 at the time and was bored of waiting for NVidia to release it.

970 is better value if your budget won't stretch to a 980Ti and you are going with NVidia.
 
390 / 390X are immensely better value and likely to fair far better in the medium to long term, given both their more modern shader architecture and the fact that NVIDIA completely gimped Kepler with driver updates to spur Maxwell sales (I'd expect the same thing to happen to Maxwell once Pascal launches). Plus as others point out, £399 for a Nano is vastly better than a 980 anyway.
 
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pmc25 said:
390 / 390X are immensely better value and likely to fair far better in the medium to long term, given both their more modern shader architecture and the fact that NVIDIA completely gimped Kepler with driver updates to spur Maxwell sales (I'd expect the same thing to happen to Maxwell once Pascal launches). Plus as others point out, £399 for a Nano is vastly better than a 980 anyway.
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^^^

This - 390 cheaper than 970; and better value; with nano now 399......no brainer over the 980......
 
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