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Which GPU ? 390 Or 970

tommybhoy said:
If the gpu wasn't to last for 3 years, I'd say either, both are cracking cards, BUT, history dictates 56/70's, 67/80's and 780/Ti's all got ditched because of vram with games like BF3/Wolfenstein/Watch Dogs/GTAV and it wasn't to do with grunt, they all hit the wall-hard...


The 390 will not run out of vram before the 970, that you can be guaranteed.:D

As soon as the 970 is replaced, I will be upgrading, I have that much faith in Nvidia making me.:p
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You've already had your upgrade, you went from a 290 to a 970 :p
 
4gb enough for 1080p nowa days? Or rather 3.5gb? If u beleive the vramgate. 390 has more performance and is on the heels of a 980 so it wins there. It gives peace of mind for games which eat vram. I remember the fury x arguments. And costs slightly less. Both are great cards but in this case the 390 is slightly better. And ignore drivers speel that gets spewed out cos single card performance is great obviously look at benches. And scaling and performance is great with xfire. Only prob is u may find odd game may not have xfire compatability which usually is cos of devs so wont have sli either or the most likley than that is cos Amd havnt released a profile. Drivers are much better than before.
 
wait, people ditched 780ti's because of vram? hmm

i got rid of my 7950 because it wasnt fast enough. ill be doing the same with my 970, nothing to do with vram.
 
faceman123 said:
390 - worst drivers EU.
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Worse drivers?

Why? For single cards the drivers are great and lately Nvidia has been the problem mongers when it comes too drivers.

james.miller said:
wait, people ditched 780ti's because of vram? hmm

i got rid of my 7950 because it wasnt fast enough. ill be doing the same with my 970, nothing to do with vram.
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Different people have different experiences, I mod games and my 3gb 780 was having issues at 1080p because some modded games used over 3gb's. I moved to a 4gb 290x which did not have a problem, Neither did the 4gb 770 I had before the 780 (I moved from a 4gb 770 to a 780 for the extra grunt thinking the ram would be fine but it wasn't).
 
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Geeman1979 said:
There's not been one card yet I've upgraded due to lack of Vram, it's always been lack of grunt which is the case for most people.
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Precisely. I still find it baffling that some people really believe the 390's vram will make it more future-proof than the 970. And it's the same regarding the supposed huge DX12 advantage.

You have to push a lot of settings to breach 4gb at 1080p, at which point both cards will be struggling. If you think a 390 is going to last 2 years more, fire up Crysis 3/GTA 5/Witcher 3 or other demanding games and try to max them at measly 1080p. Then observe vram usage and your framerates:p


And we've been through that 3.5gb cobblers time and again, it doesn't work like that:rolleyes: If I can't use up my "3.5gb" at 1440p in any game, even SoM with Ultra textures, but the card is clearly running out of grunt at times, then the conclusion is rather simple, isn't it?:p

390 is a good card but is still a rebranded 290. It's arguably a slightly better choice if it can be had for similar money as the 970, but it's neither significantly more powerful nor future-proof. I'd say it depends more on brand preference.

Benchmarks mean nothing, I've seen many where the 970 is slightly faster and many when the 390 comes out on top. In some games, the 970 is faster than a 390x (or very close) but it doesn't prove anything.

The 390 performing equally to a 980 is a rarity. I wouldn't consider it any faster than my 970 which I can run comfortably at 1506mhz 24/7:p

If I'm honest, I'd just get a used 290x or a 970, clock it to hell and back and sell it when something better arrives.
 
Depends on what games you play and what features you use. If you want things like Shadowplay and Gamestream, then 970. If you play AMD optimised games, then the 390. The other factor is heat/power/noise. If you get the right 970, that's heat/noise sorted, I don't know about the equivalent 390s though. If power is an issue, then 970 is a better bet, it uses a bit less power. If you want multi-GPU, 970 is slightly better due to lower power and better support for SLI than XF on AMD cards.

I delayed buying my GPU till the 390 released and ended up going for the 970 over the 390, especially since it was on a good deal here. I also ended up with a couple of free games due to an Nvidia promotion.

Oh and that's another factor: the free games. The 390 comes with a game called Civilization Beyond Earth and the 970 has a choice of either Assassin's Creed Syndicate or the Rainbow 6 Seige. These offers are subject to change, so grab them while you still can.
 
Thanx for all the input guys looks like either would do my needs for now, cannot afford to go any higher just yet as i need to buy everything for my build. So maybe in the future i can get a better card as long as my motherboard and cpu can handle it.
 
faceman123 said:
can you wait till Black friday? have you thought about the 780ti on offer - Offers 980 performance once OC'D.

970 - Less heat - Less power - Vram issue.

390 - Cheaper - Excellent performance on higher resolutions - higher power draw - more heat - worst drivers EU.
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Worst drivers EU, why?

AMD drivers for the last few years have vastly improved my 290X's performance.
 
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