The Best Graphics Cards for the Money: Nvidia & AMD GPUs tested and compared

[dividebyzero]

Totally disagree with your view on drivers being mainly for multi-GPU setups. Of course games are on a case by case basis. I read release notes.

So what single GTX 970/980 *non-gaming* performance improvements are you expecting from future drivers then?

I'm curious to see how future drivers affect performance on the new Maxwell cards.

As for gaming, it has been proven in many comparisons that overall, single GPU performance doesn't really improve over the course of the product maturation (see the then-new Kepler driver comparison for example)

Those are sales not the new price drops.

I didn't say otherwise. If you read what I wrote rather than ascribe a non-existent assumption to my post it would be apparent.

 

[Guest]

Not really, even if you buy two GTX 980 on SLI, the costs would be around $500 more than the R9 290X on CF. While is true that the R9 290X CF uses more power, look at this:

3 hours of gaming /day (borderline unhealthy)
* 300 w/hour more for 290x crossfire
*30 days/mo
=27 kWh /mo
*$0.10 /kWh
= $2.70 /mo
over 2 years = $65

for a $500 cost savings up front, 8% compounding monthly for 2 years = $586.
gee, seems like the cost savings offsets the power useage, even for a heavy gamer. So suddenly the R9 290X looks like a better buy, specially for 4K users.

 

[Guest]

Love my GTX 970. I started looking at benchmarks and pricepoints, and figured I'd rather be done with it and get one that I won't be looking to upgrade for a long while.

$329 when I got it at the time, now varying all sorts of prices due to demand. Took a week and a half to get mine, then Amazon starts saying 1-2 months wait for new orders. Couldn't be happier honestly!

As for the lower end, call me biased all you want, you're probably right. AMD made me this way though, and I say that as someone who used to be a big fan some time ago.

 

[Guest]

Excellent article

 

[DanUK]

Bought a GTX 970 recently and love it! Runs so cool and quiet

 

[Nobina]

I was waiting for an article like this. Good job. Intel vs. AMD would be great too.

 

[mosu]

Good piece of work, I was waiting for this kind of stuff.Keep on the good track, Steve!

 

[Jad Chaar]

Steve Nice review/article once again!

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the support guys and glad you enjoyed the article.

 

[amstech]

Great hot potato article to see how things stack up now.
So... the same as always?
Want the best hardware and software? Nvidia.
Want awesome performance for the money? AMD.

Still though they all suck at 4K when pushed, even in pair's!

 

[hahahanoobs]

So what single GTX 970/980 *non-gaming* performance improvements are you expecting from future drivers then?

What part of performance do you not understand?

As for gaming, it has been proven in many comparisons that overall, single GPU performance doesn't really improve over the course of the product maturation (see the then-new Kepler driver comparison for example)

I beg to differ. Took me a whole 2 seconds to find this example (please note the up to 64% improvement on SINGLE GPU's):
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-337.50-driver-benchmarks,26473.html

I didn't say otherwise. If you read what I wrote rather than ascribe a non-existent assumption to my post it would be apparent.

The fact you even gave me a link to prices and an EVGA gfx card recommendation and where to buy it was insulting at best. I made a comment, not a request for help, so thanks, but no thanks.

 

[dividebyzero]

What part of performance do you not understand?

The bit where you said you disagreed with my contention that drivers don't bring tangible performance gains, but did agree with my point regarding games on a game-by game basis.
So on what part of performance do you disagree if games are taken out of the equation?

I beg to differ. Took me a whole 2 seconds to find this example (please note the up to 64% improvement on SINGLE GPU's):
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-337.50-driver-benchmarks,26473.html

Well done on wasting two seconds. At 1080, the performance difference is a whopping 2.44%, and at 1440p is 3.36% -margin of error territory. And just for the record, the reason that Star Swarm (the ONLY title (demo) to show any tangible improvement) shows an increase is because 337.50b was the FIRST Nvidia driver to have Star Swarm profile support. Don't believe me? Check the release notes for 334.89 and 335.23 - the two drivers released between Star Swarm's launch and 337.50.

Anandtech actually compared 337.50b to a twelve month old 331 series. The only two games to show an improvement were M:LL and Bioshock Infinite - both of which shockingly enough were new releases at the time ²

The fact you even gave me a link to prices and an EVGA gfx card recommendation and where to buy it was insulting at best.

Well, it was more of a pricing comparison than anything else since the thread is likely being read by a reasonable cross section of people. I'd also note that judging the knowledge base (and emotional sensitivity ) level of randoms on the forum is an inexact process at best. Judging by your THW link and its flawed argumentation I don't think I need reassess, but you have my best wishes on a full and speedy recovery. Causing you emotional stress wasn't my intention.

 

[Steve]

To help put the driver question to rest, in the games we have tested we do not expect improvements from future drivers for the GTX 970 or GTX 980. The only games that will see noteworthy improvements will be those that don't already have proper driver support, aka new games as DBZ suggested.

 

[fimbles]

I haven't got the funds right now to throw around on upgrades so my GeForce RIVA TNT2 is going to have to suffice for AC Unity, I mean it's capped at 30 fps so it shouldn't be a problem, right?
Seriously though, I'll wait until AMD drops it's next crop of cards on us and nVidia throws it's mid range models in our faces then take another look see, until then my GTX 770 does just fine at 1080p, there's no hurry.

Its not capped at 30 fps.

 

[hahahanoobs]

The bit where you said you disagreed with my contention that drivers don't bring tangible performance gains, but did agree with my point regarding games on a game-by game basis.
So on what part of performance do you disagree if games are taken out of the equation?

Well done on wasting two seconds. At 1080, the performance difference is a whopping 2.44%, and at 1440p is 3.36% -margin of error territory. And just for the record, the reason that Star Swarm (the ONLY title (demo) to show any tangible improvement) shows an increase is because 337.50b was the FIRST Nvidia driver to have Star Swarm profile support. Don't believe me? Check the release notes for 334.89 and 335.23 - the two drivers released between Star Swarm's launch and 337.50.

Anandtech actually compared 337.50b to a twelve month old 331 series. The only two games to show an improvement were M:LL and Bioshock Infinite - both of which shockingly enough were new releases at the time ²

Well, it was more of a pricing comparison than anything else since the thread is likely being read by a reasonable cross section of people. I'd also note that judging the knowledge base (and emotional sensitivity ) level of randoms on the forum is an inexact process at best. Judging by your THW link and its flawed argumentation I don't think I need reassess, but you have my best wishes on a full and speedy recovery. Causing you emotional stress wasn't my intention.

You're right the pricing and performance. I knew the performance was there, but the price I didn't know how low it will go. The cheapest EVGA at CC right now is $379 so the 290X will be probably at or above that.

As for driver performance, I still strongly disagree, and this excerpt from your Anandtech link confirms it:

While every major driver branch includes its share of bug fixes and performance improvements, NVIDIA is promoting R337 as one of those rare and exceptional performance drivers that we always like to get, one that will significantly improve performance across a range of games.

 

[Savoz]

Well, I'd say AMD wins 300-400$ battle too cuz Gigabyte 290X is 330$ and Gigabyte GTX 970 is 370$ on newegg which makes 290X 11% cheaper and 4% faster and that is a fair advantage over 16% power consumption.

 

[LNCPapa]

I'm not sure I'd agree with this line of thinking... What about a car manufacturer that makes 2 different model cars - does the cheaper one automatically win? Usually it means the cheaper one is either the crappy line or for those who can't or won't afford the extra performance or comfort.

 

[ElShotte]

Hey guys, if the system power consumption for a single R9 270X card is just under 200 watts, will a Corsair CX600M PSU be enough to power these cards in Crossfire?

 

[Steve]

Hey guys, if the system power consumption for a single R9 270X card is just under 200 watts, will a Corsair CX600M PSU be enough to power these cards in Crossfire?

600w should have you covered depending on other system components, CPU and amount of hard drives.

 

[ElShotte]

Hmm, thanks Steve. Im just trying to figure out what to do. My first parts pick was for a mATX PC, with a small motherboard with just 1xPCIE3.0 slot, and then I went and changed to a regular ATX form factor, buying a motherboard that supports Crossfire/SLI and all, I just forgot to up the PSU. 600W is plenty for a single GPU system, but I shoulda grabbed an 800W to future-proof myself like I did with the rest. The problem now for me is I'm not sure if it makes sense to grab 2 R9 270X's and not spend more money on a better PSU, or just buy a 280X and swap PSU and add a card later. The problem with getting the dual 270X's now is that in the future, I would have to replace both, so I think it would be smarter now to go with a better performing card that will ultimately get me playable framerates as opposed to getting the dual 270X's which outperform the 290X. Meanwhile, in a few more months (probably like 2-3) the price on the 280X will drop so much, I will probably end up getting a solid PSU and another card for the same price I will pay for this 280X.

 

[John Lacey]

Great article, not being able to afford the top end what I tend to do is buy a decent card and then pick up another second hand. I bought an ASUS HD7970 Direct CUII and then because thatis getting a bit long in the tooth I picked up a second on ebay for £90, gonna run them in crossfire for a while and then sell them for around the £250 mark and put a little extra cash and get a GTX980