Wrap Up: Making Some Picks

Important to note, all the pricing information below comes from Newegg and excludes sales. If pricing in your country or region differs from the Newegg'due south pricing in the U.s.a., which it likely volition, then please draw your ain conclusions based on the performance data provided. At that place's a heap of information to break downwardly hither, with at least half a dozen comparisons to be made, and so allow'due south get into it starting with the big boys.

At the Acme of the Food Chain

Uber expensive Titan Ten aside, we detect the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Radeon R9 Fury X. Both are seriously fast, peculiarly at 2560x1600. The GTX 980 Ti is the faster of the two albeit past a slim margin, beating the Fury X on average past 4%. Of the eight games tested the GTX 980 Ti came on elevation in v of them.

Frame rate operation is not the only reason why we feel the GTX 980 Ti is the best buy. It'south also marginally cheaper than the Fury X, availability is meliorate, and there are plenty of custom examples to choose from, not to mention that it consumes a piffling less power and overclocks far better. Gamers should be able to squeeze out an additional 20% operation for free.

Priced betwixt the GTX 980 Ti and GTX 980 is the R9 Fury, an odd product that has suffered from poor availability for much of its short existence, and nonetheless we rather similar it. It finally looks as though major retailers are starting to get decent stock levels of the Fury and consumers are no longer limited to just Asus and Sapphire.

The $550 price tag means that the Fury has no directly competition, but more than crucially, for ~xv% less than the Fury Ten, the Fury is the better purchase considering information technology's just some v% slower. Compared to the GTX 980 Ti, the Fury was on average viii% slower, nevertheless it'south also 12% cheaper so you could go either way.

Next to the GTX 980, the Fury is 14% more expensive and coincidentally 14% faster on average, so over again it'll come up down to how much money y'all want to spend.

Smashing Performance for Less

The side by side head to caput battle takes place at $400 - $499 between the $480 GTX 980 and $420 R9 390X. The Radeon 390X is 13% cheaper but only iii% slower. The only disadvantage here is that the 390X uses a little more power, but nothing that should tip the scales. The 390X is our preferred choice.

Moving to the $300 range, we notice the highly pop GTX 970 forth with the R9 390. There was a small ~3% performance difference in favor of the Radeon R9 390 across eight titles and both delivered a similar gaming experience at 2560x1600. With pricing and performance so close to call this match is very much a tie. However, nosotros would invest in the more than efficient GTX 970.

There is of course the statement that the R9 390 will perform better in DX12 titles and finally exist able to make employ of that huge 8GB VRAM buffer. For at present that is pure speculation and we only like to make recommendations based on the facts at manus.

Mainstream GPUs

Slashing another $100 off the budget brings you downwards to the R9 380 and GTX 960 for around $200. AMD was the operation winner of this battle as the R9 380 was on average v% faster at 1080p and is slightly cheaper to boot. AMD is the logical choice.

Other more affordable choices are the $150 R7 370 and $160 GTX 950. The R7 370 was on average five% slower and is about five% cheaper, so this one's a draw. When nosotros reviewed the GTX 950 at launch it was 10% faster than the R7 370, only with a few driver updates AMD has been able to close that gap.

The R7 370 does have the advantage of being the more efficient GPU. If your priority is frame rate performance over power consumption then the GTX 950 is the best choice, but if you prefer a more efficient graphics card so the R7 370 is your best bet. We admit that there isn't a clear cut winner here, so for well-nigh gamers it volition come down to which GPU maker they adopt.

Finally, nosotros have the battle of the penny pushers, the GTX 750 Ti versus the R7 360. Both toll $110 and delivered about the same operation, so y'all could go either mode and still get the most blindside for your buck. Gamers will be best off researching how each GPU performs in the games they will be playing to brand the final conclusion. That said, the GTX 750 Ti did swallow considerably less power so nosotros would favor it over the R7 360.

In a Nutshell

The Best Graphics Cards at Every Price Range
Over $500 GeForce GTX 980 Ti $630
$400 - $500 Radeon R9 390X $420
$300 - $400 GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390 $300
$200 - $300 Radeon R9 380 $200
$150 - $200 Radeon R7 370 or GeForce GTX 950 $150
$100 - $150 Radeon R7 360 or GeForce GTX 750 Ti $110

The previous-gen R7 260X is the all-time $100-$149 solution, just as information technology was terminal yr. Once remaining 260X stock runs out gamers volition be only as happy with either the GTX 750 Ti or R7 360, simply we prefer the GTX 750 Ti for its superior efficiency.

The $150-$199 comparison is much the same, but we would become with the R7 370 over the GTX 950. The R9 380 is your best bet at $200-$249, and the GTX 970 is a smart pick at $300. If your GPU budget extends to $400-$499 nosotros recommend the R9 390X, and if you're going to drop $500 or more the GTX 980 Ti is your best bet.

The three definitive picks we've fabricated are the GTX 980 Ti over the Fury X, the R9 390X over the GTX 980 and the R9 380 over the GTX 960.