Recently we've regarded returned on the GTX fiveeighty 980 Ti and the GTX 960, both famous GPUs from yesteryear. Those functions were warmly welcomed, but besides the overall high quality responses what we noticed in common in your comments become the request to test the GeForce GTX 970, which changed into the overall performance/cost supplying of the time and a GPU a number of you're nonetheless rocking in modern-day games with a few fulfillment.

So today we’ve got an old skool GPU war pitting the 580 Still 970 towards the Radeon R9 290. Whether you're seeking to improve or not, it need to be interesting to peer after 5 years which GPU is the ultimate winner...

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Quickly rewinding for a second, Nvidia revealed the GTX 970 for the first time in September 2014, a few ten months after the Radeon R9 290’s release. The GTX 970 was the more recent product and unsurprisingly it got here in offering a bit greater overall performance at a barely better price. AMD did respond with competitive R9 290 fee cuts but with the 970 usually 10-15% quicker on common and notably higher energy performance, it went directly to be a great dealer, despite the VRAM controversy.

Throughout 2015 the GTX 970 was generally the puncher GPU and with a slew of best AIB fashions to pick from, it easily outsold the R9 290. However a lot of individuals who purchased the R9 290 had been leaping up and down approximately how it'd be a higher funding down the music. At least nowadays we will settle which GPU offers the satisfactory performance in 2019.

For this test we've got 33 video games examined at 1080p, a appropriate resolution for those GPUs. We’ll look intently at the outcomes for thirteen of the titles before moving into some head to head evaluation graphs. As normal the take a look at system used is powered by way of a Core i9-9900K clocked at five GHz with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory. Let's see the ones blue bar graphs now...

Benchmarks

First up we have Apex Legends and proper away we’re seeing quite neck and neck performance between the GTX 970 and R9 290. This one’s too near to call and well in the margin of errors. It’s safe to mention overall performance is same the usage of either GPU. When compared to a modern-day GPU we’re looking at 1060 3GB 3GB-like overall performance.

The Division 2 is a title that works extraordinarily nicely with AMD hardware. As evidenced by way of Vega sixty four beating the GTX 1080 and RTX 2060, even as the RX 580 overwhelmed the 3GB . With those comparisons formerly set up it comes as no surprise that the R9 290 dusts the GTX 970 beating it by way of a 19% margin. The 970 does perform significantly higher than the 3GB 1060, however even so you’ll want to dial the excellent settings down a little.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is every other name that sees AMD GPUs doing quite well and here the GTX 970 changed into 12% slower than the R9 290. The GTX 970 mimicked the GTX 1060 3GB, or I wager you can say the 1060 mimics the 970, both manner performance turned into first rate in spite of trailing the R9 290.

We promise the order of the games wasn’t selected on reason but here we've got but another identify that works extraordinarily properly with AMD GPUs. Again, the GTX 970 become 12% slower than the R9 290, although despite that performance changed into nonetheless very playable. Still in 3 of the greater currently released titles we’ve seen the R9 290 doing well.

Finally a stable win for the GTX 970, this time trying out with Hitman 2 using the DirectX eleven API. The GeForce GPU changed into 12% quicker although I need to point out that allowing the brand new patched-in DX12 mode didn’t exchange things. The 970 turned into nonetheless the superior GPU in this name.

Honor:in Just Cause four turned into similar the use of either GPU. The GeForce pulled in advance in our take a look at when searching at the average body fee, however the 1% low result was identical with both dealing with 40 fps, so universal the enjoy became an awful lot the same.

Moving on we find a close battle whilst checking out with Resident Evil 2, here the R9 290 turned into simply 6fps quicker at 1080p and this supposed the 970 performed extra like a 3GB 1060, now not a bad result given the average frame charge changed into sixty six fps, however this one remains a win for the Radeon 290.

Fortnite is a sport that favors Nvidia GPUs thanks to its use of the Unreal Engine 4. This may be visible whilst evaluating the RX and RX 580 as an example, it could additionally be seen whilst comparing older GPUs consisting of the GTX 970 and R9 290. Here the 970 become 18% quicker, turning in 87 fps on common.

The GTX 970 additionally stacks up definitely properly in Metro Exodus with a median of forty eight fps at 1080p using the extremely pleasant settings. This supposed it became 23% quicker than the R9 290, placing it basically on par with 6GB GTX 1060 and RX 590. So a very stable end result for the old Maxwell GPU.

Next up we have Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and here the GTX 970 is greater aggressive than I changed into anticipating. I don't forget this being a totally smooth win for the R9 290 returned in the day, but here it changed into simply 5% on average. That said the 1% low performance changed into extra consistent, even though the experience became nevertheless extraordinarily smooth with the 970.

Frame fees had been enormously comparable while testing with Battlefield V, right here the GTX 970 turned into just 3 fps faster which involves be a five% margin. This is why we commonly call it a tie whilst the margin is five% or much less. The GTX 970 did well in this identify and as we’ve seen many times already, it’s frequently very similar to the 3GB GTX 1060.

Still Have 970 vs. RTX 2060

Now if you’ve been preserving out a lot of these years for a $three hundred-$400 upgrade, the GeForce RTX 2060 is probably of hobby.

Closing Remarks

There you've got it, the GTX 970 went from ~10-15% faster four years in the past to a percent faster in 2019 towards the Radeon R9 290 based totally on our 33 game test pattern that includes many newer titles.

Despite its 3.5GB of fast VRAM, the GTX 970 remains the greater reliable performer which may wonder a number of you, specially after you’ve no doubt heard over and over again how it’s doomed and might be completely vain before too lengthy. It's additionally the cooler GPU but most vital of all, both answer will can help you play video games at 1080p without problems a majority of these years later.

The doomsday situation nonetheless hasn’t came about and with some minor tweaks the GTX 970 can carve its manner through the latest and finest titles at 1080p with out an difficulty. To supply credit score where credit is due, the Radeon R9 290 is also extremely superb in 2019.

We’re absolutely attributing the R9 290’s comeback to AMD’s driving force improvement and no longer whatever to do with the partitioned VRAM buffer or Nvidia neglecting motive force help. The 'high-quality wine' right here is all about AMD getting on top of motive force optimization over the past few years.

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