AMD R9 390 or GTX 970 for Planet Coaster?

aDOLPHINjoy18

aDOLPHINjoy18
I'm considering getting a gaming desktop so I can play this game (and The Sims 4, and Cities Skylines) in smooth 30+fps on High Settings at 1920x1080.
I am considering getting a PC with 6th gen Intel Core i7 6700 CPU (quad core, 3.4-4Ghz, 8MB cache) with 16GB DDR4 RAM.
I've seen several options one of them familiar. Alienware/Dell NZ is selling the alienware x51 for NZ$2800 which has Nvidia GTX 970 4GB vRAM (@ 224GB/s memory bandwidth). However if you use more than 3.5GB, the GPU bottlenecks. I looked up on Wikipedia or something and someone classed a legal law suit about how they advertised at 4GB card but only like 3.5GB of it is fast vRAM.
However I'm keen on a cheaper system which is cheaper by roughly NZ$800 which has the 6th gen Intel i7 CPU but AMD R9 390 8GB vRAM. I found it off trade me nz. The group of people selling it aren't a big retailer though in NZ. They're only like a small business with only one address in NZ.

I'd just like to post this thread to get everyone's opinions if you thing it would be better to go with either the GTX 970 or the R9 390. The GTX 970 uses less power but I've heard several people mention alienware isn't a good brand. Where as the R9 390 has full Directx12 support which should help since Microsoft's Windows 10 OS has Directx12. I've watched YouTube videos of both video cards and people playing Planet Coaster with the R9 and GTX GPU's and both look good though the GTX looks slightly better maybe. But the AMD R9 390 has a whopping 8GB GDDR5 vRAM, not restricted to 3.5GB with the GTX 970.

So which out of the two graphics cards would you think would be better?
A. Nvidia GTX 970 4GB vRAM (or should I say 3.5GB), or
B. AMD R9 390 8GB vRAM (pros: much more GDDR5 vRAM, full Directx12 support).
Does the GTX 980 suffer from the 3.5GB vRAM issue which GTX 970 does? Does anyone know the bandwidth of the R9 390? I might look it up.

I thought I'd ask on here since there are quite a few PC techies on here. Thanks for any helpful replies.
 

aDOLPHINjoy18

aDOLPHINjoy18
I was really keen on getting the alienware x51, but it's NZ$2800 and only 3.5GB of the vRAM on the 4GB GTX970 is fast. But I'm getting it from a proper worldwide manufacturer who has offices in NZ/Australia.
There are some other systems which are several hundred dollars cheaper, which has the AMD R9 390 graphics in it selling for around NZ$1900. But it's by a small company in NZ who probably custom build their own PC's and sell them to the NZ market and they only have one address in NZ they're a small NZ company only. I have been googling and have come across gpuboss several times and notebookcheck. I just wanted to get some opinions maybe some people on here already play this game with these GPU's or know a bit more about them. I
I actually want a new PC as my laptop can only play this game in 1920x1080 low settings with at times terrible frame rate. And on Cities Skylines too once the population in that game hits 80,000 the R7 graphics can handle it better but the Intel HD 520 (in my Intel Core i5 6200u) frame rate drops to like 10fps. I found out that the R7 M370 2GB graphics on my laptop only has a bandwidth of like 16GB/s, that's worse than Xbox One's DDR3 bandwidth of 68.2GB/s and GTX 970'S 224GB/s bandwidth. Even the Intel HD 520 can only play this game on 1920x1080 low settings at 1-2fps.
I think the environment graphics for this game from a video I watched looked really good slightly better than the GTX. And the R9 390 has 8GB vRAM much more than the 3.5/4GB vRAM GTX 970 has. Both have GDDR5 graphics. I saw Nvidia has a lot of features. But the R9 has like FULL Directx12 support more so than maybe GTX 970. I don't think there's like a HUGE difference between the two GPU's (besides the systems I'm looking to buy. Dell has 3.5/4GB GTX 970 where as a seller in NZ is selling a system with the same specs but with an AMD R9 390 at a much cheaper option). Dell NZ doesn't have the custom option R9 390, but they do for one of their more expensive models I think 4GB AMD R9 Fury X but it's not an option on the alienware x51 and the Fury GPU option is +NZ$801 for the more expensive like NZ$3,500 model which has a bigger desktop case rather than the slim'ish case which the alienware x51 comes in.
 
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aDOLPHINjoy18

aDOLPHINjoy18
"In addition, memory clock speeds have been increased from 5000MHz to 6000MHz, equivalent to a sizeable 20% boost over the previous generation. AMD made a conscious decision on the original Hawaii GPU to stick to wide and slow memory controllers in order to maintain better power consumption figures. However, it has abandoned this entirely now by ramping up the memory clock speeds by quite a significant amount, consequently increasing the available memory bandwidth on both cards to 384GB/s, compared to 320GB/s previously.
This is actually quite a lot of bandwidth to work with. To put things in perspective, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X – the undisputed single-GPU performance champion – has just 336.5GB/s of memory bandwidth. At 384GB/s, the Radeon R9 390 series of cards have the highest memory bandwidth available to any GDDR5 graphics card today."
http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/feature-amd-radeon-r9-390x-and-390-reviewed-hawaii-rebooted

Several people on here mentioned to find a cheaper alternative to alienware x51 with the GTX GPU. I actually found a few today on trade me nz which has good specs and only around NZ$1999 with the R9 from a small PC retail group thankfully they're a registered NZ company, instead of $2900 from Dell. GTX 970 and R9 390 are not the best GPU's today, but they're good enough to handle this game in 1920x1080 High settings.
 
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Kenneth1

K
The difference between 970 and 390 is very small. It all comes down to which resolution you play at. The 970 is won't have any issues at all running at 1080p. No game will use that much vram, to make it bottleneck. The 390 can however handle 1440p and 4k better, since its got 8GB vram
 

cerealfruitcakes

cerealfruitcakes
I could build a crazy beast of a computer with a $3000 budget! [woah][woah]

I've been building/upgrading my PC over the years and the total cost of everything I have in it is around $1300; PCPartPicker part list

I run Planet Coaster in 1080p on a 24inch 144hz monitor with an i5.4460 and a gtx970. The game runs buttery smooth with the high frame rate even when hitting the current 3000 peep limit. I'm not suggesting that you build your own computer but either NZ prices are that crazy high or you're looking to get something that might be a little overkill just to play/record Planet Coaster in 1080p.
 
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TheLighterDark

TheLighterDark
Kenneth said:
The difference between 970 and 390 is very small. It all comes down to which resolution you play at. The 970 is won't have any issues at all running at 1080p. No game will use that much vram, to make it bottleneck. The 390 can however handle 1440p and 4k better, since its got 8GB vram
Click to expand...

Actually, I have a GTX 970 and Grand Theft Auto V gives me trouble as every setting cranked all the way up puts it around 3,800mb VRAM.

OP, go with the 390. It's a solid card.
 

CMD_Woodchip

CMD_Woodchip
Kia ora, Skywaterbird. I'm a fellow kiwi, and bought a new PC this time last year.

Rough specs are below
EVGA GTX 970
Intel i5-4690K
16GB RAM
500GB SSD
3TB HDD

Had I not purchased a lot of other toys I'd have had change out of NZ$2,300.

I'm currently running Planet Coaster on High settings and it floats between 50 and 60FPS (although my park is pretty bare at the moment)
 
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aDOLPHINjoy18

aDOLPHINjoy18
I'm thinking of getting this one.

Do you have a system without the SSD (just want the HDD), but with Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS and Wi-Fi ac and just an Intel Core i7-6700 (3.4Ghz up to 4Ghz)? I like the AMD R9 390 8GB GPU. How heavy approx. is it and dimensions? I want to set the budget for $2300 preferably as less a possible and New system. Thanks.
12:20 pm, Sun 17 Apr
39 positive feedback

A. Yes, can do even cheaper. Pls check from below link: http://1stwave.co.nz/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&
cPath=5_6_10&products_id=507 . ($1879+166+29=$2074)
Case information can be found from here: http://1stwave.co.nz/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&
cPath=14&products_id=724 . Pls feel free to contact us if you have any other questions.
[hehe]
It looks like a great buy. NZ currency.
- 6th gen Intel Core i7 6700 (4 cores, 8 threads, base speed 3.4Ghz, turbo boost to 4Ghz, 8MB Cache) [squeeeeee]
I know it's powerful, but this should make the CPU more future proof for a while.
- 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz RAM [yesnod]
- AMD Asus/Gigabyte/Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 OC Edition
[uhh]I'm confused, is this the official AMD made AMD Radeon R9 390 8GB graphics card since it mentions the Asus/gigabyte/sapphire brand. I don't get it.[uhh]
- 1TB 7200RPM HDD. I know it's HDD slow but the quad core CPU is fast.
- Windows 10 Home 64 bit. The OS has Directx12 support.
- Wi-Fi ac
 
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cerealfruitcakes

cerealfruitcakes
Are you planning on overclocking? A k series processor is kind of pointless and a waste of money if you're not overclocking it. I'm not really sure you understand what you're buying and you're just chasing after what sounds the best.

You don't need an i7 or a k series to run this game to the max.

To address your question about graphics cards; Asus, gigabyte, saphire, EVGA, etc are all companies that make graphics cards for NVidia and AMD. Different people have different opinions about each brand. You're not building your own computer, so I don't think it matters all that much.
 
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Kenneth1

K
Why not just buy parts from Amazon or likewise and build it yourself? Its cheaper and you get the components you want and usually at better quality. Its really easy, especially if you have some friend to help out
 
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PretzL

P
I'd personally go for a 970, However If you are thinking about purchasing one of those two graphics cards you could easily spend a little more money on a NVIDIA GTX 1070 or 1080. I only suggest this because GTX 980 are pricey alone and those two new graphics cards and 3-4 times better as less the price.

I currently use a GTX 980 Ti and I was unfortunate to find out the 1080 was released just months after I purchased my 980.
 

techen

techen
Dont listen t anyone.

Wait and buy the 1060, this card is better than a stock 980 and is looking to be priced around 260$ its also 15% faster than a 480. Sorted.
 

BrittMcGoo

B
Techen said:
Dont listen t anyone.

Wait and buy the 1060, this card is better than a stock 980 and is looking to be priced around 260$ its also 15% faster than a 480. Sorted.
Click to expand...

Two RX480's in Crossfire assumes the same power as a R390 @ $500 investment.
You will be at 52% utilization on the 480 than 1 Nvidia 1080 at 98% utilization and with about 5 fps difference.......

The 1060 is a Nvidia "Oh Crap" Price Point Card because AMD has decided to step up their game and bring hyper inflation of video cards to a stop......
Never just jump on an new technology until proven it is worth the investment thru many proven reviews.......

I have a R9 390. Paid $375 last ear for it and a little over a year I could of got better single card performance @ 50% power usage @ $239.....
Crossfire Configuration making the 980Ti look not so great for the expense........

Personall, hold off till the AMD 490's are close to release with dual core GPU's as suggested may be in the near future.
 

TheMagicianThing

T
Techen said:
Dont listen t anyone.

Wait and buy the 1060, this card is better than a stock 980 and is looking to be priced around 260$ its also 15% faster than a 480. Sorted.
Click to expand...

the 1060 is a pretty rushed out card from nvidia so far as a response to the RX 480 (as sapphirePR ED said in his livestream of july 10th, AMD has really shook nvidia). looking at the pcb shows sloppy last minute ideas with only 6 out of 8 memory slots used and a weird 6 pin pcie connector).personally I'd never go for reference and I'd still say the custom RX 480's will be a viable option.

about the price, you don't see any 1080 or 1070 in major stock, or at the promised MSRP even going above founders edition price (which is reference)...
won't surprise me if the 1060 would be just a paper launch and hard to get a hold of

personally have a msi R9 390x getting 70~110 FPS in overwatch at 1440P ultra.
we shouldn't recommend graphics cards for this game yet as it is mostly CPU intensive

@PretzL a good factory overclocked 980 Ti is only 2~5% slower than a 1080 (founders edition, not sure about custom) even a titan X running at 1500Mhz is 9% faster than a 1080
 
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aDOLPHINjoy18

aDOLPHINjoy18
This thread is kinda old. I went for the sapphire nitro back plate version overclocked AMD R9 390. According to GPUBoss it is rated above the GTX 970 cuz it has 8GB vRAM a higher bandwidth than the GTX 970 and a bigger 512 bit bus. The GTX 980 is a bit better than the R9 390.

I went for the i7-6700k cuz its 6th gen a newer technology than previous gen processors and it has a higher base speed than the i7-6700HQ and i7-6700. The R9 390 also has a higher bandwidth 384GB per sec than the GTX 980.
 
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Bergenia Tanoak

Bergenia Tanoak
TheMagicianThing said:
the 1060 is a pretty rushed out card from nvidia so far as a response to the RX 480 (as sapphirePR ED said in his livestream of july 10th, AMD has really shook nvidia). looking at the pcb shows sloppy last minute ideas with only 6 out of 8 memory slots used and a weird 6 pin pcie connector).personally I'd never go for reference and I'd still say the custom RX 480's will be a viable option.

about the price, you don't see any 1080 or 1070 in major stock, or at the promised MSRP even going above founders edition price (which is reference)...
won't surprise me if the 1060 would be just a paper launch and hard to get a hold of

personally have a msi R9 390x getting 70~110 FPS in overwatch at 1440P ultra.
we shouldn't recommend graphics cards for this game yet as it is mostly CPU intensive

@PretzL a good factory overclocked 980 Ti is only 2~5% slower than a 1080 (founders edition, not sure about custom) even a titan X running at 1500Mhz is 9% faster than a 1080
Click to expand...

I just looked at a picture of the GTX 1060 pcb and it is odd that there are spots for 8 memory chips and they only used 6. The custom boards will clean that up, and really, if Nvidia knows that board design is tested and working fully, why spend the extra research money, and manufacturing money to remove the two memory spots.

What is not odd is the 6 pin power connector. The card is very energy efficient, so there is no need for an 8 pin power connector. My old ATI 4870 used two 6 pin connectors back in 2009. Graphics cards just got super power hungry the last few years(2 or 3 eight pin power connectos), so it is nice to see that the newest Nvidia cards are now more efficient and don't need all the extra power.

The 1060s are slated for availability on July 19th. We'll find out the stock levels then.

I got my EVGA 1080 FTW card in yesterday. So so nice. My power pull from the wall went from 220 watts at idle, down to 165 watts. Windows feels snappier, and programs open quicker, as crazy as that sounds. My old card was the ATI 4870 from 2009. Got a lot of use out of it. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade more often this time. Have only got a few minutes into Planet Coaster, but it feels fast....[up] I'm pretty confident I have the fastest single card setup, today, that will change in the future, just how technology works.

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Skywaterbirdx16m said:
This thread is kinda old. I went for the sapphire nitro back plate version overclocked AMD R9 390. According to GPUBoss it is rated above the GTX 970 cuz it has 8GB vRAM a higher bandwidth than the GTX 970 and a bigger 512 bit bus. The GTX 980 is a bit better than the R9 390.

I went for the i7-6700k cuz its 6th gen a newer technology than previous gen processors and it has a higher base speed than the i7-6700HQ and i7-6700. The R9 390 also has a higher bandwidth 384GB per sec than the GTX 980.
Click to expand...

You got an excellent computer. Great choices all around. Even the GPU was a sound choice, and the reviews I've read has it faster than the RX 480 that was just released.
 
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TheMagicianThing

T
Bergenia Tanoak said:
I just looked at a picture of the GTX 1060 pcb and it is odd that there are spots for 8 memory chips and they only used 6. The custom boards will clean that up, and really, if Nvidia knows that board design is tested and working fully, why spend the extra research money, and manufacturing money to remove the two memory spots.

What is not odd is the 6 pin power connector. The card is very energy efficient, so there is no need for an 8 pin power connector. My old ATI 4870 used two 6 pin connectors back in 2009. Graphics cards just got super power hungry the last few years(2 or 3 eight pin power connectos), so it is nice to see that the newest Nvidia cards are now more efficient and don't need all the extra power.

The 1060s are slated for availability on July 19th. We'll find out the stock levels then.

I got my EVGA 1080 FTW card in yesterday. So so nice. My power pull from the wall went from 220 watts at idle, down to 165 watts. Windows feels snappier, and programs open quicker, as crazy as that sounds. My old card was the ATI 4870 from 2009. Got a lot of use out of it. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade more often this time. Have only got a few minutes into Planet Coaster, but it feels fast....[up] I'm pretty confident I have the fastest single card setup, today, that will change in the future, just how technology works.

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You got a good computer. Great choices all around. Even the GPU was a good choice, and the reviews I've read has it faster than the RX 480 that was just released.
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfrAD3tRqGw&feature=youtu.be&t=24m34s sapphire ED who is pretty well informed.
I'm not saying nvidia is bad (besides their shady past/bussiness practices.) just saying the reference 1060 looks rushed out of fear.
also took nvidia a long time to go from paper launch to any kind of stock for people to buy. (which could be due to a fact that the factories had some nature problems)
 
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