UserBenchmark: AMD R9 290X vs Nvidia GTX 960

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 446,141 user samples

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411,263 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 36% MSI(1462 3202)
Worst Bench: 31% Gigabyte(1458 36D2) ≥ 4GB

Poor: 31% Great: 36%

SPEED RANK: 135^th / 681

34,878 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 57% Sapphire(174B E285)
Worst Bench: 48% Gigabyte(1458 2281) ≥ 4GB

Poor: 48% Great: 57%

SPEED RANK: 100^th / 681


Effective 3D Speed Effective 3D Gaming GPU Speed		33.7 %			52.8 %	Much faster effective speed. +57%


Lighting Avg. Locally-deformable PRT (Bat)	43 fps	67 fps	Much better lighting effects. +56%
Reflection Avg. High dynamic range lighting (Teapot)	47.1 fps	71.3 fps	Much better reflection handling. +51%
MRender Avg. Render target array GShader (Sphere)	36.9 fps	62.6 fps	Much faster multi rendering. +70%
Gravity Avg. NBody particle system (Galaxy)	40.8 fps	63.8 fps	Much faster NBody calculation. +56%


Lighting Locally-deformable PRT (Bat)	47.2 fps	73.9 fps	Much better peak lighting effects. +57%
Reflection High dynamic range lighting (Teapot)	63.6 fps	76.1 fps	Better peak reflection handling. +20%
MRender Render target array GShader (Sphere)	38.6 fps	66.7 fps	Much faster peak multi rendering. +73%
Gravity NBody particle system (Galaxy)	43.7 fps	68.1 fps	Much faster peak NBody calculation. +56%


CSGO Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	138 Fps		146 Fps	Slightly Better CSGO Fps. +6%
Fortnite Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	73 Fps		91 Fps	Better Fortnite Fps. +24%
GTAV Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	42 Fps		48 Fps	Better GTAV Fps. +15%
LoL Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	123 Fps		163 Fps	Much Better LoL Fps. +33%
Overwatch Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	70 Fps		91 Fps	Better Overwatch Fps. +30%
BF1 Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	49 Fps	+1%	48 Fps
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	37 Fps		47 Fps	Better The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Fps. +29%
DOTA 2 Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	81 Fps		145 Fps	Much Better DOTA 2 Fps. +78%
WoT Avg. Fps @ 1080p on Max	64 Fps		102 Fps	Much Better WoT Fps. +59%

Market Share

Based on 53,427,701 GPUs tested.

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Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.65 %	Insanely higher market share. +2,067%	0.03 %
Value Value For Money	40.2 %	Much better value. +76%	22.8 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	64 %	+3%	62 %
Price Price (score)	$198	Much cheaper. +64%	$549


Age Newest	90 Months	More recent. +14%	105 Months
Parallax Parallax occlusion mapping (Stones)	44.3 fps		99.3 fps	Hugely better peak texture detail. +124%
Splatting Force Splatted Flocking (Swarm)	38.1 fps		46.9 fps	Faster peak complex splatting. +23%
Parallax Avg. Parallax occlusion mapping (Stones)	40.6 fps		91.1 fps	Hugely better texture detail. +124%
Splatting Avg. Force Splatted Flocking (Swarm)	34.7 fps		44.3 fps	Faster complex splatting. +28%

The new GTX 960 is the third graphics card to feature Nvidia's Maxwell architecture. When the first two Maxwell cards were released back in September 2014 they completely re-shaped the GPU price/performance spectrum not only from Nvidia, but also AMD who were forced to slash prices by around 30%. Unfortunately the new GTX 960 isn't the game changer its predecessors were, and it's actually the weakest of the three Maxwell cards. Comparing the GTX 960 and 970 shows that the 970 is around 70% faster and a comparison of the GTX 960 and 980 shows that GTX 980 is almost exactly twice as fast as the 960. Of the three cards the GTX 970 offers the best bang for your buck, in-fact the GTX 970 is still one of best value cards available. That said, for gaming at 1080p or lower, the GTX 960 will allow decent frame rates at maximum settings for most games. ^{[Jan '15 GPUPro]}

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Graphics Card Rankings (Price vs Performance) July 2022 GPU Rankings.

We calculate effective 3D speed which estimates gaming performance for the top 12 games. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield value for money. Our figures are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top GPUs. ^[GPUPro]

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Best user rated - User sentiment trumps benchmarks for this comparison.
Best value for money - Value for money is based on real world performance.
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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-12600K $260	Nvidia RTX 3060-Ti $400	Crucial MX500 250GB $45
Intel Core i5-12400F $155	Nvidia RTX 3050 $250	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $118
Intel Core i7-12700K $350	Nvidia RTX 3070 $500	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $33	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $68	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $35	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $67	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $71	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $470	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16