Looking for a new card.. AMD vs Nvidia

Hey, i have a gtx 670 2gb right now, and looking to upgrade a bit.

What do you guys think, should i go for a gtx 970 or a R9 390? The 390 looks tempting because of the 8gb though..

Go Nvidia. Life will be simpler.

IMHO, of course.

Not sure why life would be simpler with nvidia. Are you talking about buggy drivers? The AMD drivers have been great the last few years, especially this year. I know some people think the AMD driver is buggy but I'm pretty sure their opinions were forged many years ago and they haven't tried the red team lately.

The 390X is slightly faster on average. It's right in the middle of a 970 and 980 performance wise. The only real downside it has is higher power consumption (around 290W at full load), but for most people that shouldn't be a problem.

I have the msi 970 and I love it. it is easy to overclock and so far has taken every thing have thrown at it

it's also well priced.

The 390 alone is a better card than the 970. You are comparing different classes of cards. The 390x goes against the 980. If you can get the 390x for 970 money, always go for the 390x.

Also, if you can find the 390 for 970 money, go for the 390. I think they're underselling the 970 right now to hit the AMD cards, since they have started to sell well the last couple of months.

Nvidia's cards have driver problems in win10 right now, which also means that any advantage they had in stability over AMD is null.

The 390 alone is a better card than the 970. You are comparing different classes of cards. The 390x goes against the 980. If you can get the 390x for 970 money, always go for the 390x.

 

Also, if you can find the 390 for 970 money, go for the 390. I think they're underselling the 970 right now to hit the AMD cards, since they have started to sell well the last couple of months.

 

Nvidia's cards have driver problems in win10 right now, which also means that any advantage they had in stability over AMD is null.

Yes, sorry.. I got it mixed up.. It is not the "x" version :)

Im pretty much sold (depending on black friday sales) to the r9 390, but is there any problems with amd regarding physx and drivers? Im pretty much just playing dcs, arma, x-plane etc.. Will the lack of physx make a difference in games?

any problems with amd regarding physx and drivers?

Absolutely no problems there. Almost no games worth mentioning on a flight sim forum run physx on the GPU anyway. None of those you mention does. Arma3 uses physx but it runs it on the CPU regardless of what GPU you have so it doesn't favour either Nvidia or AMD.

And sorry for mixing up the 390 with 390X in my previous post. The 390 without X is closer to 970 in performance, but I still think it does have a very slight advantage.

Don't forget to go for a card with a good cooler/heatsink. The cheaper cards tend to run hot and sound like hair dryers. Currently, I'd say that Saphire and Asus makes the most appealing AMD cards. If I were going to buy an Nvidia card I would look at Asus and EVGA, with a slight preference for the latter.

Just looked at benchmark for the new driver overhaul coming.. And im pretty much convinced that i will get the 390, just seems a bit more future proof with the memory an all.. In adittion to the fact that the msi 390 is cheaper than the 970 version here..

Should i be worried for cpu bottleneck? I currently have an i5 3570 at 4.2 as you can see..

Thanks for the help.

In addition to the fact that the msi 390 is cheaper than the 970 version here..

If it is significantly cheaper, then it's a no brainer.

Should i be worried for cpu bottleneck? I currently have an i5 3570 at 4.2 as you can see..

No I wouldn't worry, although it's a difficult question to answer since results vary so much depending on what games you play and at what resolution and settings.

Just looked at benchmark for the new driver overhaul coming.. And im pretty much convinced that i will get the 390, just seems a bit more future proof with the memory an all.. In adittion to the fact that the msi 390 is cheaper than the 970 version here..

 

Should i be worried for cpu bottleneck? I currently have an i5 3570 at 4.2 as you can see..

Thanks for the help.

I got to ask though, do you really need to upgrade your card right now? The next generation cards shouldn't be too late, and they should be a huge improvement over this generation.

ATI has better performance per dollar, nvidia has better performance, and drivers, and heat management, and are often quieter, especially with OEM coolers, if price isn't an issue nvidia is really better, ati is just better per dollar.

basically anything better than a 970 is better than anything ati has.

ATI has better performance per dollar, nvidia has better performance, and drivers, and heat management, and are often quieter, especially with OEM coolers, if price isn't an issue nvidia is really better, ati is just better per dollar.

 

basically anything better than a 970 is better than anything ati has.

This

ATI has better performance per dollar, nvidia has better performance

It's AMD unless you are living in the past, like pre 2006. That's almost ten years ago. Also, I would say performance per dollar is what matters, because otherwise you could start comparing low end cards to high end cards which obviously isn't useful in any way. Everyone has a budget. AMD does currently have a card that matches the 980ti which is all the way up there in the high end market segment.

and drivers, and heat management, and are often quieter, especially with OEM coolers, if price isn't an issue nvidia is really better, ati is just better per dollar.

Again, you are living in the past. The AMD driver has been great the last two years, especially since Windows 10 came out. I hear Nvidia are still having problems in Windows 10 though. AMD was working well from day one after Win10 release. Also, AMD has stopped selling their cards with the OEM cooler. Most are now after-market coolers similar to what you get if you buy an Nvidia card with after-market cooler. There are exceptions, like the Fury X which comes with an OEM closed loop water cooler which is nothing like the OEM cooler you are thinking of.

basically anything better than a 970 is better than anything ati has.

I know I'm nagging, but your living in the past. You clearly haven't heard about the AMD Radeon Fury X which matches the 980ti. The 390X is really close to the GTX980, even beating the 980 in certain games, but it's slightly slower on average calculated from benchmarking many games.

Well I currently own a 970 which is great, but the drivers are not that good on Windows 10 for quite some time now. Driver reinstall every time Windows starts, crashes other annoying stuff. It is getting better now, but still some issues.

I have had AMD before and never had a issue with drivers (5870).

Don't get me wrong. I still think my purchase was a good one, but I bought it when the card was just out. If you can buy a 390 for around the same money and benchmarks show that it runs the games you play well then go for the 390.

I however would probably wait for the new graphics cards. I like to buy my cards when it is still hot out the oven.

I like to buy my cards when it is still hot out the oven.

You mean when they are overpriced? :)

Don't get me wrong. The current cards are so old, it might be a good idea to wait, but to buy a card hot out of the oven is not great either. You usually want to wait a few months after the release so that price stabilizes. If you go for the high end segment, that can save you hundreds of dollars actually.

Now that DCS World has finally left DX9 behind, I would suggest an AMD card because they deliver more fps for your money. Only if money is no issue and every last percentage of graphic power is needed, go with Nvidia.

I see a trend here...

Anyways, thanks! i think i will follow the suggestions and wait for the next line of cards coming out (i have heard early 2016 for nvidia maybe).

But looking at it, i think the R9 390 really is better than the 970 right now. Beating it in most games, and with 4.5 gig more vram

I see a trend here...

 

Anyways, thanks! i think i will follow the suggestions and wait for the next line of cards coming out (i have heard early 2016 for nvidia maybe).

 

But looking at it, i think the R9 390 really is better than the 970 right now. Beating it in most games, and with 4.5 gig more vram

The problem will be that the drivers will still come from AMD.

The problem will be that the drivers will still come from AMD.

Which isn't a problem. Perhaps it was five years ago.

You mean when they are overpriced? :)

 

Don't get me wrong. The current cards are so old, it might be a good idea to wait, but to buy a card hot out of the oven is not great either. You usually want to wait a few months after the release so that price stabilizes. If you go for the high end segment, that can save you hundreds of dollars actually.

Nope, I got my 970 cheaper than it was not that long ago. The 970 actually increased in price after the first few weeks here. I got a really good deal on the gigabyte G1 gaming version. Just use a good website to compare prices.

ATI has better performance per dollar, nvidia has better performance, and drivers, and heat management, and are often quieter, especially with OEM coolers, if price isn't an issue nvidia is really better, ati is just better per dollar.

 

basically anything better than a 970 is better than anything ati has.

Nope, AMD wins every price point, except the highest performance, where 980ti beats the Fury X. Everything else, AMD is better. The 980 loses to 390x/Fury(non X). It's not about performance/$.

From the Steam Hardware & Software Survey

PC Video card usage:

Nvidia 54%

ATI 27%

Intel 19%

There certainly must be good reasons why Nvidia is preferred by a 2:1 margin.

Benchmarks are one thing, real world performance another. If DCS performance is something you feel is very important, go for Nvidia. You will not regret it. (former ATI/AMD user here).

I would wait for Pascal to release next year. It went into production a couple of months ago so it shouldn't be too much longer.

Nvidia claims that it will be 10x faster than their current offering.

If you can't afford it you still benefit from waiting. The current boards will likely drop in price at release.

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-gpu-gtc-2015/