380 or 960 STRIX?

Nessaja

New member
I've managed to sell off one of my zenbooks, so spare cash will be available soon. Being unemployed has its drawbacks but enough about that!

I'm looking at the 380 STRIX 2/4GB (20-30€ difference) or the 960 STRIX 2/4GB that comes at a similar price point. I want something that is similar to or better than my old GTX 770 that now sits on one of my retro shelves.

Figuring 380 will be unlockable to 380X with the whole fiasco of the new card (6950>6970 dilemma all over again?). I figured I might get another card come Xmas and keep both for mining later on. I've decided to skip on 4K until 2017 at best, so anything really goes at this point.
 
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I dont understand, if you have a 770 then why buy a 960??? I would go 970+ and if cash is a problem then hold off for now with your 770.

I bought a 780 classified hydro copper the other day for 150 euros! I all ready have 1 but for 150 euros with a full water block then its a steal. Look for deals.
 
Heyyo,

second hand 290x! otherwise yeah go with the 380

Indeed! Check prices on used R9 290 / 290X as they can run pretty cheap and will net you a lot better performance. Just don't get the ones on the reference blowers as they run into thermal throttling issues. Non-reference coolers don't suffer the same issues.

Otherwise if you want new? AMD R9 380 (if you can though look for a new AMD R9 280 since it'll run slightly faster). It's a refreshed AMD R9 285 so it'll get better performance than a GTX 960.
 
The 960 is a pretty weak card for its price point tbh. It is also slower than a 770 as it uses a cut down core. The 380 has much more grunt and more in line to your old 770.

But as others are saying, buying a 290x second hand is a great way to get an extreme amount of performance for the money.
 
I would go with GTX 770 if it was an option. Since it is not than I would pick AMD R9 380 @ 2GB. As far as I know you don't need more memory than that if you are not going to use higher rez than 1080. GTX 960 is the slowest of them all but the difference should be less than 10% between fastest and slowest.

My recommendations are based mostly on synthetic benchmarks scores and some reviews from other people. Anyway I am a noob in hardware stuff so you should keep that in mind when considering my recommendation.
 
I would go with GTX 770 if it was an option. Since it is not than I would pick AMD R9 380 @ 2GB. As far as I know you don't need more memory than that if you are not going to use higher rez than 1080. GTX 960 is the slowest of them all but the difference should be less than 10% between fastest and slowest.

My recommendations are based mostly on synthetic benchmarks scores and some reviews from other people. Anyway I am a noob in hardware stuff so you should keep that in mind when considering my recommendation.

You do know you can buy a AMD R9 380 4GB
 
Hey hey! I managed to get a 2nd hand 290X, so all is well! Any mod feel free to close or delete this thread. Meanwhile I'll be doing some benchmarking come weekend ^^
 
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I would not buy 2 gb gpu or even 4 gb it will be obsolete as soon dx12 games come to market..i am pretty sure that dx12 games and UE4 will eat tons of vram,,at least 8 gb gpu should be your choice. r9 390x 8 gb monster here in my God forgotten serbia 310 dollar not bad.
 
Bugger... The 290X was faulty which I returned and got a 290 (last one avail) for instead. Whoever had used the card prior to me had probably fried the memory chips on it. It doesn't appear until you push the card to max.

However this card is pretty decent and clocks well. +125mhz Core and +140mhz Mem so far with +38mV. My real question is why VRAM 1/2 is so hot? 86 and 97C is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I do plan on getting a EK-FC R9-290X DCII (fits both 290/290X) come Xmas and start building a loop with a EK-XLC Predator 240 at some point. I do some Litecon mining when I'm not gaming so the temps are pretty worrisome.
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Figuring instead of making a new thread I thought I'd continue here. In Afterburner, there is no option for temp limit (I assume it's locked). Card stays stable at 80-81C but I really wanna put a hardlock at 80C.
 
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Only way to lower temps are by reducing voltage/clocks/increasing fan speed/ and making the ambient temp lower. Although those memory temps seem normal for that Asus card. Asus weren't exactly the best AIBs for the 290 series.
 
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