Upgrading GPU AMD or NVIDIA?

[GoDziLLa]

Hello guys i was wondering if you guys could help me decide which GPU i should go for. Right now i am deciding between the MSI GTX 970 and the MSI R9 390. As of now the R9 390 is 20$ cheaper than the 970. So I ask which would be the best choice? What would you choose and why?

[Das_Qrow]

I have a 970 It's reliable and does what you want for 1080p gaming and 1440p as well. As for team reds recent entry just look at contrasting reviews and decide for yourself as I believe at this time they're similar. Apparently driver support is an ongoing issue with AMD in general but that shouldn't stop you, some games handle better one brand over the other.

[Grady666]

I have a 970 It's reliable and does what you want for 1080p gaming and 1440p as well. As for team reds recent entry just look at contrasting reviews and decide for yourself as I believe at this time they're similar. Apparently driver support is an ongoing issue with AMD in general but that shouldn't stop you, some games handle better one brand over the other.

The new AMD 300 series cards are rebrands, exluding the Fiji XT(I think, correct me if im wrong), the 390 offers minor improvements over the R9 290 card(s); And he's right about the Drivers, I have (recently, meaning since launch) seen a ton of reviews stating major driver issues, as well as owners of 300 series cards; Im not for AMD or Nvidia, but I will pick whichever is best at the time.

* In my personal opinion, go for the 970, its worth the extra $20-

[Das_Qrow]

Yeah all but the Fury/FuryX are a refresh of the rx-2xx series which still utilize GDDR5 like the Nvidia 700 > 900 series refresh. Next gen for both camps should have HBM2.

[Grady666]

Yeah all but the Fury/FuryX are a refresh of the rx-2xx series which still utilize GDDR5 like the Nvidia 700 > 900 series refresh. Next gen for both camps should have HBM2.

AMD acquired exclusive access to HBM memory from Hynix, I dont think Nvidia will be using HBM on their next-gen cards, its a possibility though.

[Das_Qrow]

They will. Current AMD cards have the first gen of HBM, that may have been exclusive access as seen with only 2 cards currently using this technology. Nvidia and AMD will both be using HBM 2 for next gen cards

http://wccftech.com/nvidias-gp100-pa...hi-hbm-stacks/

Also unlike Nvidia, AMD has a much more powerful incentive to launch its next generation of FinFET GPUs first. This is because the company has priority to HBM2 capacity – which is going to be limited initially – as a result of co-inventing the technology with Hynix.

[AOD_Silencer77]

Commercializing a product that uses CUDA processing, we've studied all of the factors a gamer would be interested in and a few extra. It's a sad day when you see a machine learning programmer melt a Titan Z. Nvidia doesn't like supercomputing companies to use their retail cards. They are not friendly about telling CUDA folks to buy their TESLA series cards instead at 4x the cost because they have trouble keeping up inventory when we buy 50 or more at a time. We ignore them and after all of the analysis was over, cost/benefit chose the EVGA (manufacturer matters) 970 over every other card - including Titan and Titan Z. Those 970s outlast the TESLA series when we hit them hard and are $350 vs $4500.

Recently we made the decision to switch to the 980ti as it leads the 970 in our second round of cost/benefit from a CUDA perspective.

If you say those three letters that begin with A and end with D around these devs, they'll throw you out. There isn't a comparison and the market knows it: http://investorplace.com/2015/07/amd-stock-nintendo/

Nvidia
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=N...tacking":true}

AMD
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=A...tacking":true}

Sorry guys. I know some of you loved them. Now, back to deep neural networks...

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvi...ate,29523.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/fli...iew,29621.html

/spamoff

[GoDziLLa]

I have a 970 It's reliable and does what you want for 1080p gaming and 1440p as well. As for team reds recent entry just look at contrasting reviews and decide for yourself as I believe at this time they're similar. Apparently driver support is an ongoing issue with AMD in general but that shouldn't stop you, some games handle better one brand over the other.

The 970 can handle 1440p? One thing that i don't understand quite well if itll impact gaming with lets says battlefront. I hear so much about the 970s false vram of 3.5 instead of 4 does that actually impact gaming to like lets says game like only battlefield or battlefront games? cause to be honest thats all i think i will be playing with my PC.

[AOD_Silencer77]

No, the reviewer performance of the 970 is inclusive of the slower 500mb of vram so the post launch performance benchmarks you see factor in this aspect. The short story is that it's a 4GB card. It would have only been a 3GB card, but Maxwell architecture brought some tricks up it's sleeve and this allowed them to get to 4GB, though with a .5GB partition of the total block operating at a slower clock - though still faster than your bus.

In the end, the value of a card's performance beyond 60fps starts to depend on many things, such as the speed, in pixels, of the item moving, the refresh rate of your monitor, the amount of light entering your eye and whether it is direct or coming in more from your periphery. If you happen to still use a 60hz monitor, any FPS above 60 is not producible by your monitor. Program may be reporting it, but your monitor isn't showing it as it is not capable of refreshing faster.

TLDR, better cards and performance require better monitor refresh rates. If you SLI or run a 980 or 980ti, get yourself at least a 120hz LCD. Or better yet: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236294

Consider that before you get bent out of shape over 4-6% drop "sometimes" for games that utilize more than 3GB of vram.

If it bothers you, skip the 970 and go for the 980.

Just my advice.

[Xerxes]

Lol does it really matter.

[Das_Qrow]

Lol does it really matter.

When it comes to getting new hardware getting what's best for your needs does matter. Given the message under your name and your comment you probably should reconsider looking at these kind of threads if you have nothing productive to add

[Tetsuo]

I love my 970. Can run BF4 maxed.(I over clock like crazy)

[DW]

I've actually got the MSI 970, bought it mid-June. I'm loving it, and I haven't even overclocked it yet. It's got a lot of bang for its buck.
I don't have any experience with the 390, however, so I can't advise you on that one.

[AOD_Warlon]

I've had almost 0 Problems with my 290X Vapor-X. I play on a 1440p monitor with freesync. Drivers have also been a non-issue for me. It comes down to price/performance. I stick to AMD because it drives competition in the GPU market. There's almost no downside, MAYBE shadow play and gameworks games. It's way too early to tell with DX12 games not being out yet for future proofing. You will have a good time with either card though.

[Travo]

I have 2 R9 290X's and the only issue I have is not being able to run, or having difficulty running certain games in crossfire. Battlefield runs excelent in xfire however H1Z1 has a lot of flicker and runs better on a single card. Honestly I should have just stuck to the one R9 290X as it can run everything on ultra on its own with little to no issues. Just my 2c.