Hi all,

I realise that GFX vendor choices are sometimes a very emotional debate and come down to personal camp preference. Still, can't hurt to ask for opinions.

I'm getting my machine a full upgrade (new CPU, RAM, GFX) but plan to keep the Win 7 installation. Currently using Catalyst 14.4

For the same money I can get a GTX 970 4GB, or a R9 390 8GB, which are almost equally fast (depending on game).

I'm not perfectly happy with the AMD since to me it feels like a "brute force" approach to performance (almost double the watts, means likely more heat/noise), the 8GB are oversized and useless, and it's only been on the market for two months. But to get it going I'd only need to ugrade my Catalyst drivers.

The GTX 970 has been out for a year, plenty of time to iron out kinks, uses less energy (less heath), and has a better performance in Witcher 3 (main game I'm upgrading for). It feels like a more refined package.

But to swap an exsisting windows installation from AMD to NVidia drivers might be a proper mess and cause all kinds of weird stuff later on?

The bolded part hould seal the deal. Shouldn't be an issue. Uninstall the old drivers (use something like ccleaner if you want to be sure they're all gone), then do a clean install of the nVidia drivers. I can't see any reason you'd experience weird stuff down the road. I never had any problems when I switched frm nVidia to AMD and back.

You should be fine. Use DDU to uninstall your current video drivers, turn off pc, swap graphic cards and start again.. That's it.

Thanks guys.

It's been a while since I changed vendors on the fly, on the same OS install... if it's no big deal then the GTX 970 should make the race.

I know I'm weird to not take 4GB Extra VRAM on the same pricepoint, but I like performance borne out of clever architecture, not out of more heat and power.

BTW, I swear this is the first time in 20 years of PC gaming where two vendors have the same benchmark for the same pricepoint. Interesting times we live in.

If you were still in the pre-purchase phase I'd say go with the card you think suits you the best, but since you already have the R9 390 better stick with it.

I wouldn't worry about powerconsumption and noise too much, you can only get a clear picture of the powerconsumption by measuring it to be honest, those numbers are just the max limits and might only mean you have more reserve.
As for noise, that is more dependent on the card manufactur than the GPU.

Theoretically you can swap out cards and drivers and Windows should work okay, though wether your games will change allong without a hitch is another matter.

I tried a friends 970 before buying my R9 390x. I personally would not go back to the GTX

Strijkbout, sorry for being confusing

I have neither the 390 or the GTX yet, but currently a HD6970. That's why I wrote "Switch back from AMD".

The games is what I'm a little worried about, for at least I know all my current titles work on AMD. OTOH...

Metro Redux - prefers NVidia
Far Cry 4 - should be fine either way
Tomb Raider 2013 - patched up for NVidia
Witcher 2 - no clue but I guess doesn't matter (old DX9)
Crysis 3 - fine either way
Witcher 3 - preference for NVidia

I guess I'll manage...

EDIT: Reaver, you're speaking of a 390X That's quite a different price point - what do you like better about it, performance or also driver support?