Hi all
i need to upgrade from a 560 ti SC DC with a broken fan and i'm not sure what to buy:
i could buy an evga 950 FTW for some 170 euros
or an evga 960 SC for 195 euros
or an evga 960 SSC for some 200 euros
what would you advice to do?
what is actually the performance difference between the 950 and the 960?
has 950 some feature which 960 has not, or viceversa?
thank you

malato
thank you both bsmegreg and jasonkresge
i think i'll go for the 960 SSC and place the order on monday
 
EDIT
maybe this is not the right place to ask:
what is the better flavour? EVGA SSC, Gigabyte G1, or something else? (INNO3d is already too much expensive.. hehe)
and why do most forums suggest to buy a 280x radeon? for the same prices i could buy a Club3D card, but i'm totally ignorant about AMD/Radeon
 
@jasonkresge:
what do you mean by "through 9/8"?

EVGA has better costumer service than GIGABYTE in ways and also it looks a lot better. But it's in your computer so I'm not sure if looks really matter. EVGA is usually recognized as one of the better GPU manufactures for armatures and 'professional' over clockers too. Why the 280x is suggested I'm not sure and AMD has there own thing going on. Usually NVIDIA and Intel are seen more for quality gaming whereas AMD is used more for budget gaming. That's theirs CPU's though, so maybe their GPU's are better.

But Jasonkresge means that you get a free game if you buy the card before September 8th (9/8).

Muezick
and if you can manage to save 45 bucks a month, you'll be able to upgrade to a sexy 970 if you buy your 960 with EVGA.

 
alas i've already risen the budget from 170 to 200 euros, and i outta hurry buying it before my girl is back!!! (actually if my video card didnt break i would have ventured to a mechanic keyboards world...)
would evga allow me to buy a 960 ftw with 4 gb ram as well?
 

Muezick
They recommend a 280x because of this sweet sweet price/performance.

actually what puzzles me is that in some reviews 960 kicks 280x in some other reviews 960 looks like a beggar graphic card
 
 

Oh yeah, one more thing.
 
It also very much depends on the games you want to play. If it's going to be all MMOs and Mobas and things like that, you'll be totally safe with a 950. If you're going to be playing a lot of AAA titles like Assasins creed, you might want to look at getting some more power.
 

I checked Euronics.it, saturn electronics in italy, Media World and Unieuro and didn't really find any GPUs for sale.
 
Just http://www.amazon.it/ had the GPUs we were talking about and the prices seemed pretty rubish but they do include VAT.
 
http://www.amazon.it/Sapphire-11221-20-20G-Radeon-scheda-video/dp/B00OH51YPE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441468621&sr=8-2&keywords=280x
 
This used one here seems like a good deal (209 Euro). But for the price, the 960 might actually be better, they're all priced much lower and would be brand new (Buying used electronics is always a risk), and the difference you'd be seeing initially would be very slight, and the supposed improvement with dx12 isn't really confirmed yet, it's just speculation.
 
http://www.amazon.it/EVGA-02G-P4-2966-KR-NVIDIA-GeForce-SuperSC/dp/B00SL2TQ2C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441468772&sr=8-2&keywords=evga+GTX+960
 
Also I just noticed, the regular R9 280 is slightly cheaper than the 960 and has relatively even performance, but there would be no step up option, so you would not be able to later get a GTX 960 FTW, which would be about equal to the 280x. So if you bought the lower end 960 now, you would be able to save and so long as you do it before 3 months after your purchase, you could upgrade to the 960 FTW.
 
I have friends that own a 960 and say its good for games so long as you don't care about having max graphics, which you don't. so the choice is yours. 
 
280 2gb (180~ Euro) = 960 2gb (200~ Euro) > 280x 3gb (250~ Euro) => 960 FTW+ 4gb (250~ Euro)
 
It really sucks that there aren't places like Microcenter in Italy. Where you can just walk in and buy any part of a PC you need, that price match any where in the country. People like to complain that the United States Economy is bad, but we do have some pretty sweet things going on, I guess.
 

yup thats one downside to the 280x, it is older hardware, first released in late 2013, it is almost 3 years old. However, it is based on the 7970 architecture, which I mentioned earlier as being very rock solid, which it is. It does suck down more power, and it is louder, and hotter, and support will be limited.
 
As for the Metal Gear Promo, I would be mad if Nvidia did not honor it, but it is per retailer, I believe, and so whether or not the retailer will make good on it is up to that retailer. 
 
It's a really weird place right now in the video game performance world. DX12 is on the horizon, and certain benchmarks have everybody upset about Nvidia performance. Formerly, Nvidia was sure to be a good buy, no matter what, it's been like that for around 3 years now, since the 7900 series (Last good cards AMD made IMO). 

But recently, in DX12 benchmarks, almost all AMD cards are getting huge performance gains, because they use a technology called Async Compute, which Nvidia has yet to demonstrate full capacity in. Things are a little shady though, because Nvidia has been very quiet and AMD has been loud mouthed about it. One questionable thing about the benchmarks were, that yes older AMD cards were brought up to the same performance level as the 980 Ti, but the 980 Ti's performance did not improve or suffer, it stayed the same. Even more questionable is that the Fury X, AMD's current flagship, also exhibited similar results. It was behind the 980 Ti, but only improved a little. So those DX12 benchmarks may be nothing but FUD by AMD Marketing.
 
That being said, both cards are currently around TWICE as good as your old 560 Ti. So no matter which one you buy, you will probably be very pleased with the performance. Given EVGa's track record with customer support, option to buy extended warranty and upgrade from the SSC model to the FTW model, I think it is your best bet to buy the 960. I know I originally recommended you look at the 280 or 280x, but after doing research with you, looking at prices and considering all the factors in your situation, the 960 SSC Upgraded later to a 960 FTW will probably be a really good deal for you.
 
<3

It's already released. With Windows 10.
 
We wont start seeing a lot of games use DX12 until around 6 months from now, and then it will probably be a year before the majority of games use DX12.

If you don't run windows 10, then it does not matter any way, because DX12 is only on windows 10.

If they are, then those cards should probably be RMA'd. The ACX 2.0+ cooler does not even turn on until 60c temperature. 60c is well within operational range for that card. It shouldn't start throttling until 90c+. 

To further backup my assertion in regards to point 2 above, here's some unbiased research (as in, not cherry picked).
 
First, I Googled "R9 380 review." I'm taking the first 3 reviews that compared it to a 960 with same VRAM config, because I'm pressed for time. You can do more or less. I'm going top to bottom and not skipping anyone unless for a legitimate reason. Page results here: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=r9+380+review
 
Why the 380? It's the newest card of the 280X/285/380 often compared to the 960. It's a rebadged ever-so-lightly overclocked 285. It's still slower than the 280X.
 
1st link - http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-nitro-r9-380-4gb-graphics-card-review/
*Compared 4GB 380 to 2GB 960, which wasn't fair. However, 2GB 285 is in the mix, and since it's essentially the same card but slightly slower, let's take a look. (games only)
-Arkham Origins: 285 wins in 1080/1440p
-BattleField 4: near tie (285 wins by 1 fps) @ 1080p, 285 wins at 1440p
-Bioshock Infinite: 285 wins 1080/1440p
-GTA V: 285 not tested
-Hitman Absolution: 960 wins in 1080p/1440p (blowout win in 1080p)
-Metro Last Light: 960 demolishes in 1080p/1440p, more than doubling the 285
-Tomb Raider: 960 wins 1080p, tie @ 1440p
Overall: split (3-3) in 1080, but the 285 wins close whereas the 960 wins in blowouts. 285 wins 1440p (3-2-1), but again, close wins vs. blowout for 960
 
2nd link - http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-radeon-r9-380-strix-review,1.html
*Compared 2GB 380 to 2GB 960, apples to apples
*I'm just doing the first 5 games, I'm getting tired. Top to bottom, no cherry picking.
*All games in 1600p or 1440p
-GTA V: 380 wins
-Thief 2014: 380 wins (blowout)
-Witcher 3: 380 wins (1 fps)
-Shadows of Mordor: 380 2GB beats both 940 4GB and 2GB (1 fps)
-Tomb Raider: 380 wins
Overall: 380 wins the sweep (5-0), with 2 close and 1 blowout
 
3rd link - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/07/20/xfx_r9_380_double_dissipation_4gb_video_card_review#.VewFF_lVhBc
*Gotta love HardOCP's testing methods
*Both cards are 4GB
*GTX 960 is "unbranded" and run at reference clocks (50-100mhz slower than most OC models)
*I'm comparing their non-OC 380 to the non-OC 960, and ignoring the max OC results for the 380
*Only doing the first 3 games with both methodology (best playable and apples to apples(A2A)), 6 total results
-Witcher 3: 380 wins by 0.9fps, but was run at higher settings (SSAO vs. AO off)
-Witcher 3 (A2A): 380 wins by 3.2 fps
-GTA V: 380 wins by 2.1 fps, had higher settings (grass)
-GTA V (A2A): 380 wins by 1.5fps
-Dying Light: 380 wins at same settings
-Dying Light (A2A): 380 "wins" by 0.2fps, an essential tie.
Overall: 380 wins (5-0-1) all very close.
 
CONCLUSION: 280X not tested, but is known to be faster than the 380/285. Last two links show 380 consistently beating the 960 by marginal to 10% amounts. First link shows 285 and 960 pretty close, the 285 winning more games, but the 960 slaughtering in the games it wins.
 
So, I was wrong, and my revised rankings are: 280X > 380 > 960 = 285 (raw performance, not counting features, efficiency, etc.)
 
 

bsmegreg
560ti to a 960 would be a better improent for 1920x1080p. For $20 euros you can expect quite the performance over the 950. The 960 will also future proof your investment so you don't need to buy a new one in a few years.

I will agree that the 960 is a good investment from a 560ti, bsmegreg, but I would not agree with the fact it will "future proof" for future applications. Some apps are already requiring 3gb minimum VRAM. And, the gaming industry has already set 1080p as the standards, which is how games are specced.
 
Edit : my suggestion, put down another $150, and get the 970.