Hey. Just want to know which is the better overall choice. If I was to pick a GTX 960 which brand would be better?
GAMING RESOLTUION/SETTINGS
I'll be gaming at 1080p for now and in a few months get a 1440p monitor. Keep that in mind.
I don't mind dialing some settings down for some games, but I will at least want to stay on a Medium-High balance setting.
PROS AND CONS/FEATURES
The GTX 960 has more features, runs cooler, quieter, draws a lot less power than AMD, and has full support for DX12 as well as DX12.1. It also overclocks like a champ. There is also G Sync.
The R9 290x is louder, hotter, is sort of an older card (But still a great one) and doesnt have much room for overclocking. It supports DX12 and is a tier 3 card compared to Maxwell's Tier 2, but it doesnt support DX12.1. However, apparently with DX12 there should be an enormous increase in performance with AMD, and they are introducing some sort of shader technique. Also, the 290 has a 512-bit bus that dominates the 960's 128 bit bus. The 290 also supports Mantle and will also support the Vulkan API as well. Oh yeah, and Freesync.
THOUGHTS ON THE 960
What really throws me away from the 960 is simple. The R9 290 is a monster with performance compared to the 960. Like anywhere from 35-55% better in some games. Also, the 960 is a bust in SLI, totally not worth it. As well as Maxwell being made with cheaper parts which tend to produce coil whine on alot of their cards. These things are pretty important. I'll most likely want to Crossfire/SLI in the future and the 290 CF is much more appealing than the 960 SLI.
What I love about the 960 is that temps stay lower than 60C, it is dead silent (Unless coil whine described above is present), it overclocks pretty nicely, and NVIDIA's drivers are apparently more mature than AMD's. Also, NVIDIA has way more AA technique's, and apparently something is coming out with DX12 that should give the appearance of 32x SMAA at a cost of 2x SMAA. AMD doesnt have much AA options.
THOUGHTS ON THE R9 290
AMD's Crossfire is also much better than NVIDIA's SLI ever since getting rid of Crossfire bridges which can be a pain in the neck. AMD gives much more performance and because of a high bit bus can game at 4K which I plan on doing in the future. Apparently, with the implementation of DX12, AMD can finally use all of the cores in their GPU unlike before which some were left fully unutilized. AMD also plans to add Asynchronous Shading, which I said above.
However, AMD's cards are old, run hot, are sort of loud, and NVIDIA is also bringing performance to the table with DX12. AMD also doesnt have much features as the 960, such as VXGI, Shadowplay, and advanced AA methods to name a few. AMD also sucks up TONS of power and can't OC well.
COST
Both cards cost the same. $240. Also, the reason I'm not considering the 970 is because it's nearly $100 more and isn't withing budget. Also, the GTX 960 comes with the Witcher 3 for free.
WATERCOOLING
I'll be purchasing a Swiftech H240-X which can expand to other parts of your system. If I purchase the 290 then would it be a better choice than the 960 if I water cool it with a Kraken G10? It should work wonders with the 290(X) apparently.
CONCLUSION
So guys, which is the better option. NVIDIA has more features, but AMD has more performance. And a lot of it. I'll mainly be playing Skyrim modded like hell so a card that can handle 300+ mods and a ENB is appreciated. Thanks...
