R9 380 or GTX 960 ?

[Heimanyip]

Its a good choice, MSI gaming cards are known for their low temps and high overclocks, it also have 3 years warranty compares to 2 years of some others.

*edit: 2016 is the year of LED

[Tekkul88]

Are you able to increase your budget at all? I recently upgraded from the exact same card (msi r9 270 2gb) to a 380x and it's soooo much better as I have a 1440p monitor.

If you're mainly gaming at 1080p and just want all the settings turned up I think a 380 is still a decent upgrade though!

[OilSheikh]

I am disappointed with the card.
During gaming, it sounds like a fighter jet whooshing past my ear. However, during regular usage, it is totally silent but it's difficult to do any gaming without headphones on! I should have gone for the cool-er GTX 960 even if performance was crapper.

The card also heats up a lot and reached 40C during gaming. My R9 270 OC reached 30C max.

And, the MSI Gaming app needs to be avoided. It increases the temps in idle mode. Using MSI Afterburner is a better way to go.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am disappointed with the card.
During gaming, it sounds like a fighter jet whooshing past my ear. However, during regular usage, it is totally silent but it's difficult to do any gaming without headphones on! I should have gone for the cool-er GTX 960 even if performance was crapper.

The card also heats up a lot and reached 40C during gaming. My R9 270 OC reached 30C max.

And, the MSI Gaming app needs to be avoided. It increases the temps in idle mode. Using MSI Afterburner is a better way to go.

I told you to get the Sapphire R9 380 Nitro which does not have that issue:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/gr...4gb-review/13/

Edit!!

Also,you honestly think 40C is hot ?? Goodness grief my GTX960 hits 60C in my rig and sounds like a rocket and lots of high end cards easily 60C to 90C and that includes plenty of Nvidia cards.

Reduce the fan speed down.

Most of my graphics cards have hit 60C to 70C in my rigs for years. Thats nothing.

Also, the GTX960 has one third less surface area than the chip in the R9 380,so don't expect it to run any cooler.

[DanceswithUnix]

90C is a bit hot. 40C is icy cold, frankly stupidly cold to the point I wouldn't expect the fans to be spinning at all at 40C.

Have you been messing with the fan profile, or did it come from the factory like that? It sounds messed up.

[malfunction]

(@OilSheikh) Are you talking about actual (absolute) temperatures or a delta vs system temp?

My cards (GTX 970 in my main PC, 290X in my living room PC) idle in the low to mid 40s and will easily get up to high 60s to low 70s (stock speed GTX 970) or high 70s to low 80s (mildly overclocked 290X) during an extending gaming session. And they both have 2 x 120mm intake fans pretty much facing the card, though they aren't fast fans - 2 x 1200 RPM facing the 970, 2 x 800 RPM facing the 290X (both of which drop to ~600 RPM when idle).

Is your 380 in the Zalman Z9 in your sig? Do you have fans on the lower intake? Might be worth adding them if not - may help reduce the RPMs at load - though the case feet look quite small so you might need to raise the case up to make the bottom intake effective... Though looking at reviews of the case it might not be best placed (might interfere with the PSU air flow).

[EndlessWaves]

The MSI is almost the noisiest 380 around so it wasn't the best choice if quietness was a priority:



And a 40°C load temperature does sound like there may be a problem. Even if that's degrees above ambient that's only mid-sixties where it should be more like mid-eighties using the fan profile it was designed for:

[OilSheikh]

(@OilSheikh) Are you talking about actual (absolute) temperatures or a delta vs system temp?

My cards (GTX 970 in my main PC, 290X in my living room PC) idle in the low to mid 40s and will easily get up to high 60s to low 70s (stock speed GTX 970) or high 70s to low 80s (mildly overclocked 290X) during an extending gaming session. And they both have 2 x 120mm intake fans pretty much facing the card, though they aren't fast fans - 2 x 1200 RPM facing the 970, 2 x 800 RPM facing the 290X (both of which drop to ~600 RPM when idle).

Is your 380 in the Zalman Z9 in your sig? Do you have fans on the lower intake? Might be worth adding them if not - may help reduce the RPMs at load - though the case feet look quite small so you might need to raise the case up to make the bottom intake effective... Though looking at reviews of the case it might not be best placed (might interfere with the PSU air flow).

I have left the front 12cm fan on my Z9. I do use the fan controller in my Z9 to turn it up to the max.That unit also has a temp reader. That's where I read my temps.
Currently, my PC is silent at 23C. I guess I will play around with the MSI Afterburner settings and do some testing.

[kalniel]

Ah, so chassis temperature, not card temperature?

[EndlessWaves]

I have left the front 12cm fan on my Z9. I do use the fan controller in my Z9 to turn it up to the max.That unit also has a temp reader. That's where I read my temps.

Where is its sensor placed?

[Bonebreaker777]

Wouldn't be easier to ask for the temps from Afterburner or a similar application? GPU-Z, drivers or even HWinfo can do that.

[OilSheikh]

I have tweaked my Afterburner settings so that

0-40C 5% Fan speed
40C-70C 50% fan speed
70C-100C 100% fan speed

These are my results :

Idle
Case temp 24C Fan speed - 487rpm MSIAFTB - 30C

30 mins. into Rainbow 6 Siege
Case temp 42 Fan speed - 1374rpm MSIAFTB - 60C , fan audible - loud whirr

[EndlessWaves]

Running at 60°C is still a really aggressive fan profile. Have you tried lower speeds?

[OilSheikh]

Running at 60°C is still a really aggressive fan profile. Have you tried lower speeds?

If I ramp up the fan speed, obviously the card will run cooler than 60C but then it will sound like a Harrier once again
I am beginning to think that high end cards run hot.

[kalniel]

If I ramp up the fan speed, obviously the card will run cooler than 60C but then it will sound like a Harrier once again
I am beginning to think that high end cards run hot.

60C is not hot. He's suggesting lowering the fan speed, not raising it.

[OilSheikh]

60C is not hot. He's suggesting lowering the fan speed, not raising it.

Ah .... my bad. What operating temp is safe for these cards ?