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£200 Where to Go

Had a look around and can get the MSi (seeing as its a better version) of the R9 390 for around £205, after reading up some more it seems that benchmark wise it mostly outperforms a 970 on 1080p,1440p etc and most threads all over people seem to opt for the 390.
 
Had a look around and can get the MSi (seeing as its a better version) of the R9 390 for around £205, after reading up some more it seems that benchmark wise it mostly outperforms a 970 on 1080p,1440p etc and most threads all over people seem to opt for the 390.

I would recommend getting a new card for the warranty whichever card you get. The 390 8Gb will definitely last a while since it's GCN architecture which is what AMD uses for all their new cards too.
 
Wow this seems to be split 970/380 but listen guys i really appreciate all of your input is this Powercolor Radeon R9 390 8192MB GDDR5 one of the best 380's as i haven't got a clue which makes are best.

I'd advise against getting a Powercolor version based on personal experience. I'd also advise against going with AMD based on personal experience too but that's another story:p but in all seriousness I had a Powercolor 290 and the RMA procedure was a joke as they don't have a UK or EU support centre.
 
What about issues with the 390 like power consumption and heat problems etc ?

Heat isn't an issue on the 390 series - as they all have good coolers attached.

My MSI 390X gets to 81DC after a prolonged gaming experience. It's about the same volume as the 7950 it replaced.
 
Heat isn't an issue on the 390 series - as they all have good coolers attached.

My MSI 390X gets to 81DC after a prolonged gaming experience. It's about the same volume as the 7950 it replaced.

The 390X consumes nearly 500W whereas the GTX 970 consumes around 250W.

The GTX 970 stays at around 60C even while running Furmark.:D

In essence your electricity bill will be slashed in half in the long term.

Approximately £16 vs £8 per month if you game 8 hours per day for a month @ 14p per kWh (worst case scenario).
 
Strangely i have an Nvidia snob in my town and he suggests getting the 380 as it can do 1080p with reasonable settings at or close to 60fps and then at some point in the future getting another one for cheap as then total cost would be similar but obliterate the 970/390 out of the water.
 
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I'd advise against getting a Powercolor version based on personal experience. I'd also advise against going with AMD based on personal experience too but that's another story:p but in all seriousness I had a Powercolor 290 and the RMA procedure was a joke as they don't have a UK or EU support centre.

This, well the powercolor bit.

Warranty isn't worth a damn. Had a 5850 from them, fan starting to make an awful noise and it was basically "well it stills works". Had to sort my own solution.
 
The 390X consumes nearly 500W whereas the GTX 970 consumes around 250W.

The GTX 970 stays at around 60C even while running Furmark.:D

In essence your electricity bill will be slashed in half in the long term.

Approximately £16 vs £8 per month if you game 8 hours per day for a month @ 14p per kWh (worst case scenario).


Not sure where you got those consumption figures from. The following review shows the total system power consumption :

970 = 379W
390 = 442W

Not a huge difference as your figures make out.
(Skip to 4.50 for power usage chart)

 
Not sure where you got those consumption figures from. The following review shows the total system power consumption :

970 = 379W
390 = 442W

Not a huge difference as your figures make out.
(Skip to 4.50 for power usage chart)


Regardless, the GTX 970 is more architecturally efficient than the R9 390. Greater performance per watt.
 
The 390X consumes nearly 500W whereas the GTX 970 consumes around 250W.

The GTX 970 stays at around 60C even while running Furmark.:D

In essence your electricity bill will be slashed in half in the long term.

Approximately £16 vs £8 per month if you game 8 hours per day for a month @ 14p per kWh (worst case scenario).

We're talking about the 390, not the 390X. The 390 doesn't use 500W of power, though of course NVIDIA fans want potential buyers to think that.
 
Not sure where you got those consumption figures from. The following review shows the total system power consumption :

970 = 379W
390 = 442W

Not a huge difference as your figures make out.
(Skip to 4.50 for power usage chart)


+1, only natural for the 390 to use more power, since it's a more powerful card with double the VRAM.
 
We're talking about the 390, not the 390X. The 390 doesn't use 500W of power, though of course NVIDIA fans want potential buyers to think that.

Regardless, it's a fact that nVidia has the greater performance per watt here.

AMD had to rebadge their 290/x line and boost clocks in order to compete with nVidia's offerings.

Anyway, I would say AMD has the better value for money and nVidia has the better architecture. I'm not taking sides here ;)
 
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The 390X consumes nearly 500W whereas the GTX 970 consumes around 250W.

The GTX 970 stays at around 60C even while running Furmark.:D

In essence your electricity bill will be slashed in half in the long term.

Approximately £16 vs £8 per month if you game 8 hours per day for a month @ 14p per kWh (worst case scenario).

390X 500W? Just wow... what a huge overstatement.
Have a nice image that has the exact opposite evidence
http://imgur.com/ZNV9pgR

Nice "proof". PEAK power usage of the whole system, with the 390X being under your estimate and the 970 being over! Just reeks of misinformation.

Maybe you should take a look at the average power usage from an actual reputable website to see the real difference. Like here: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_390x_gaming_8g_oc_review,8.html
According to this much more realistic power draw, the site even states that it will cost €62 a year to run this card 4 hours a day 5 days a week, most people don't game that much, but even if they did and EVEN IF the 970 only used half the power (which is doesn't, at least according to this test, its around 100W less), it would save you a grand total of £20 a year or so.

WHAT A GREAT SAVING. Please, thats like 2 hours of work a year.

Yes, the 2/390/X uses more power than the 970, I don't think anyone is denying that. What people deny is that absolutely absurd numbers that people like to come up with like the 970 using 5W and the 2/390/Xs using 1000W.
 
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