R9 380 or GTX 960 ?

[OilSheikh]

I have a budget of £150ish and am in the market for a 4GB decent card. I currently have a MSI R9 270 OC but it only has 2GB and it causes games to lag when I turn up AA or MSAA in games like rainbow 6.

Now, my PSU is a Seaonic 520w and I don't want to upgrade or have a power hungry card in my PC.

What should I go for and which makers also have a decent fan control software like MSI Afterburner ?

[MaddAussie]

I replaced my GTX 580 with a 4GB MSI R9 380 and I'm loving it

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have a Gigabyte GTX960 OC 4GB. IMHO,unless you are using a mini-ITX SFF PC like mine or the GTX960 is cheaper,I would get an R9 380 4GB as it is a faster card,and I get the feeling the hardware will be more futureproof in some ways.

I would get this card:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/amd-...ebuyer-2380246

[OilSheikh]

I have a Gigabyte GTX960 OC 4GB. IMHO,unless you are using a mini-ITX SFF PC like mine or the GTX960 is cheaper,I would get an R9 380 4GB as it is a faster card,and I get the feeling the hardware will be more futureproof in some ways.

I would get this card:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/amd-...ebuyer-2380246

Now, £197. But I now know what to buy.
Btw, the new AMD cards have a feature where the fan switches off during general PC usage. Does that mean the power consumption also drops during this time ?

[Bonebreaker777]

I think the AMD cards switch to ZeroCore mode in idle but the FAN speed on certain models is temperature dependant. Like the Gigabyte models (recently bought a 390 8GB from Gigabyte and even in a crammed ITX case the FANs stop in Windows. With a be quiet! PSU the 'thing' is silent).

[DanceswithUnix]

Novatech still have the 4GB 380 at a reasonable price (looks like shipping costs £6 though) http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...42-13-20g.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Novatech still have the 4GB 380 at a reasonable price (looks like shipping costs £6 though) http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...42-13-20g.html

CCL Computers is cheaper and has free postage:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/199...FaMSwwodqGwCtQ

[EndlessWaves]

Btw, the new AMD cards have a feature where the fan switches off during general PC usage. Does that mean the power consumption also drops during this time ?

Power consumption always has dropped during general use compared with gaming. They run at maybe 20-30W depending on your screen(s) and what you're doing.

AA is rather demanding so you want to turn it up you may have to look at a 390 instead of a 380.

[scaryjim]

Power consumption always has dropped during general use compared with gaming. ....

In the last 8 - 10 years, maybe: there used to be a time when GPUs didn't have idle states and really burned through the power at idle. Both GPUs and CPUs have got steadily better at lowering idle power over the last decade, to the point where even a decent gaming computer can sit idle at < 40W nowadays (a far cry from the 150W idle draw of my Q6600/8800GTX). That said, there was a long period of CPUs and GPUs steadily drawing more power at load, so it all balances out in the end. CPUs peaked at 140W/160W for mainstream processors but then settled down to around 100W on the whole; GPUs ramped up as high as 500W, but they seem to be settling back towards PCIe spec now. I have my suspicions that we won't see many PCIe spec-breaking monster cards anymore (based on the power draw for a single Nano, I reckon AMD's twin-Fiji card could be capped at 300W and still outperform everything currently on the market).

[OilSheikh]

Thanks everyone. I shall wait for an ASUS Strix or a MSI Gaming card to fall in price. They seem to go down in price and then back up every now and then. Will wait for the next dip.

[EndlessWaves]

In the last 8 - 10 years, maybe: there used to be a time when GPUs didn't have idle states and really burned through the power at idle.

It's been at least twelve years, see this xbitlabs article from 2004:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...r_9.html#sect0

It's difficult to find earlier power consumption tests. We can probably assume the 9700 Pro from 2003 behaved the same. I'm not sure what the situation was with the earlier nVidia and ATI cards, or 3dfx and Matrox before them. Although given the early cards were within the 25W limit for PCI, and later the 48W limit for AGP, they would have been similar power consumption in full load as current cards in general use.

CPUs peaked at 140W/160W for mainstream processors but then settled down to around 100W on the whole;

Closer to 60W these days.

Thanks everyone. I shall wait for an ASUS Strix or a MSI Gaming card to fall in price. They seem to go down in price and then back up every now and then. Will wait for the next dip.

Gigabyte's Windforce 380 is supposed to be pretty good.

[Bonebreaker777]

Seconding the Gigabyte choice! Great cards

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sapphire easily make the best AMD cards - they are one of the oldest partners and if you noticed both MSI and Gigabyte have had issues with their coolers for AMD cartds they have done,but Sapphire has not really had much problems.

[Bonebreaker777]

Sapphire easily make the best AMD cards - they are one of the oldest partners and if you noticed both MSI and Gigabyte have had issues with their coolers for AMD cartds they have done,but Sapphire has not really had much problems.

What problems? You don't mean the first 'crimson' driver release FAN problems, right? I installed XFX and Gigabyte AMD cards up till now but never an issue. Like the 'under 50 degrees no fan spinning' option with Gigabyte. Does Sapphire has the same?

EDIT: 50, 52 or 54 degrees. Something like that, if I remember correctly.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What problems? You don't mean the first 'crimson' driver release FAN problems, right? I installed XFX and Gigabyte AMD cards up till now but never an issue. Like the 'under 50 degrees no fan spinning' option with Gigabyte. Does Sapphire has the same?

EDIT: 50, 52 or 54 degrees. Something like that, if I remember correctly.

Some of their R9 390 cards had a hit and miss cooler IIRC. Sapphire has generally not had many if any issues.

[OilSheikh]

Amazon dropped the price and I have gone and ordered the MSI Gaming R9 380 for £157.
My last 3 cards have all been MSI and I feel quite at ease with the MSI Afterburner utility's fan speed control feature.

I am also looking forward to the LED bling of this card.
e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W5Rm8K-hcY