MSI R9 390 vs EVGA GTX 970 SSC

Alright power users, titles says most of it but Iet me break it down. I recently upgraded my CPU to a 6th gen Intel 6600k series from the AMD FX6300 and thus my motherboard and RAM as well. For the sole purpose of better performance in BNG. Though mostly balanced the fx6300 slightly bottlenecked my first system. So I opted for that upgrade first.
It's going to be interesting to see the release of new architectures and how they compare. Personally I haven't looked back. My four core i5 at stock 3.5ghz STOMPS on my old fx6300 overclocked to 4.2ghz. I have the 6600k overclocked to 4.1ghz now, it's really no contest. Even with an 8 core AMD chip its a struggle to MATCH the raw power, and even then the single thread performance is 100+% worse. I have prime95 benchmarks for both CPU's if anyone is interested. I digress, I do hope that with Zen AMD will be competitive as I've always been an advocate of healthy competition. It's a win win for the consumer.
Now onto GPU's, the new bottleneck in my system and the true reason I have graciously summoned you hear. I currently have an MSI R9 280x and while I have seen awesome performance increases with the first upgrade which hooked me, I want more. That is where the title comes in, I've seen these two cards PITTED against each other plenty but I have no comparison in regards to this game. What do you guy's think? Anyone have one of these two GPU's? Or both lol

 

neither, next gen cards are out in a few months

 

Sure, there's thats however here is the thing, it's unlikely the first iterations of the next gen consumer grade gaming cards will have HBM and still GDDR5. I think I want to upgrade now so I can stop gaming on this 280x and add it to my mining rig. Then I'll wait for when they bring HBM.

 

Next gen will still have massive performance and efficiency improvements. Just wait for it, will be out in 2-3 months. 280x isn't a bad card at all, it's not like you're stuck on integrated graphics.

 

I know this but you aren't hearing me. I need to repurpose my 280x. I could go triple SLI with 280x if I wanted. My point is this is a matter of R9 390 vs GTX 970 not whether or not I should wait.

 

You should wait. Polaris/Pascal will be much more powerful than current cards.

 

Right so I've clearly expressed to you that I'd much rather upgrade now, yet you repeat yourself. Why are you so against the grain? You don't think I know what's coming out? This exactly why I've waited until now. Hear me out man I'll try and explain it. Basically I can add the card in my gaming computer to my Cryptocurrency mining rig to essentially get a turn around of investment of about the same time the next gen graphics cards come out. At which point I will have made my money back and I can either sell and invest in next gen if I choose or wait for HBM.

 

That's implying you can mine $300+ worth of any somewhat stable/relevant cryptocurrency, in 2 months, with a 280X.
Nope, not gonna happen. Just wait, Polaris and Pascal will be out soon. Buying a high end GPU right now is fucking stupid.

 

Hey I'm happy to be that guy figured I'd put those riser cables to use some how lol. Adding a 5th will get me to ~100MH/s on that rig so I'm not worried about ROI. Not sure why you're so against the idea, it's quite bizarre. Anyhow, we know how this dude feels. Anyone else want to offer a few words, on topic preferably. Which would you choose given the choice?

 

Wait. As @BlueScreen said, Polaris and Pascal are going to be out within the year. It will be well worth the wait.

 

Ok guys so what the hell do you expect me to game on? I'm putting this 280x to work regardless.

 

Have fun playing on an iGPU then, not sure why you'd even want to mine cryptocurrencies, it's a waste of hardware, power and time. On top of that buying a high end GPU right now would be a waste of money.

 

390 has more vram so if you game at larger than 1080p, it could be useful. otherwise i believe they're very similar in performance. If you're dead set on not waiting, I'd say get whichever you can get a better deal on. Might also be worth researching games you play most and see which GPU they prefer.

 

Everyone has their opinions. I've had success in the past so that's what I base my decisions off of. Besides I couldn't possibly utilize over a dozen GPU's, might as well have them work for me. Thanks for your input though.

 

I think the issue he's getting at is that, if you pay your own electric bills, you actually end up spending more on electricity than what you make on mining.

 

You might actually earn some money, but it's not much. It takes a long time to make even a small profit over hardware cost, and even then it's in an unstable 'currency' of questionable usefulness. Honestly the best thing you can do is sell the cards for a fraction of market price while they still work.

 

I can't disagree with that statement. There is an inherent risk factor involved. I've managed, the hardware paid for itself and then some. Then ASIC bumped GPU's and I stopped. Now there are some decent currencies with good distribution and ASIC resistance. So far so good, bills are paid

 

Hell I'm goin' Polaris most likely on my next card... if it has better performance/watt simply because I can get more outta my power supply that way.