GTX 960

[ServerCollaps]

Don't get the GTX 960. You can get an R9 280x which is ~15% better for the same cost or less. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdfd

gtx 960 is 180$
R9 is 240$ (regarding you link) + double energy consumption

how is that less?

I also think the 960 still might be better because of better nvidia support

[KitanaiKoneko]

gtx 960 is 180$
R9 is 240$ (regarding you link) + double energy consumption

how is that less?

I also think the 960 still might be better because of better nvidia support

I stand corrected, however the card that OP listed bottoms out at $240 so I took that to be his budget.

[MyKotoShi]

1 or 2 780's are good, ideal in my opinion.

Don't buy AMD, buy NVIDIA.
But I'm biased here, NVIDIA has treated me well.

[Imoye]

Driver support is a thing of the past, and no longer relevant. If people actually bothered to do research before spitting out nonsense, we wouldn't see all the fanboyism rampant on these forums. AMD used to have somewhat lackluster driver support, but that hasn't been the case for many years now. People are beating a dead horse for no reason.

If we look at the history of the entrance high-end GPUs:

AMD 6950 > GTX 560; AMD 7950 > GTX 660; AMD 280 > GTX 760. The x950/x80 cards tend to be somewhat inbetween the x60 and x70 Nvidia cards. The 7950 was/is actually such a good overclocker that it reached GTX 680 speeds. AMD has pretty consistently been providing the best bang for the buck card.

More interesting is that AMD has yet to release their newest generation of cards to the Nvidia 9xx counterparts, yet the 280X trumps the GTX 960. The 960 only has 2GB of 128-bit memory which is actually on the verge of becoming too little. When you look back, a lot of Nvidia cards ran into memory issues at the end of their cycles, which was the case with the 560 especially. Now the 660, 760 and 960 all with 2GB memory is becoming too little for the most current games. 3GB should be the minimum for future proofing and if you care to try out newer games without turning down the settings because your card is memory choking.

You can get a 4GB version of the 960, but it costs more than it's worth without delivering more speed, so the 280X is a much better buy and provides better performance. Alternatively, you can wait for the next gen of AMD cards and see how they perform. Yes, the 960 does consume less power, but it is generally an inferior card. If you want to get Nvidia, I wouldn't go lower than 970.

Supporting AMD is also good for the enthusiast market because they're the only ones giving Intel and Nvidia competition, without them we would have monopoly. Nvidia has a higher market share for no good reason other than having a higher marketing budget, so go figure how many actually make an informed purchase.

[Vespar]

1 or 2 780's are good, ideal in my opinion.

Don't buy AMD, buy NVIDIA.
But I'm biased here, NVIDIA has treated me well.

I have to agree with this but only for driver support updates. In my time of owning nothing but AMD cards for years, I have noted that driver updates for AMD cards come at a pace of roughly 1 new driver update every 6 months.
However, I made the switch to Nvidia last year and Ive already had 4 or 5 new driver updates within an 8 month time frame. Everytime a popular new game hits the market they seem to provide an update.
Driver support is far more frequent on Nvidia.

This being said, that doesnt necessarily make one brand worse than the other, but it definitely shows me who supports their cards more.

[Hiraki]

I run a single GTX 760 with a fairly old CPU so a 960 should be pretty sufficient.

[Illya]

I would buy Nvidia over AMD. There isn't much reason to buy AMD these days, especially since the 960 apparently costs less than the 280X and is the latest Maxwell core. The 280X is a rebadge of an old GPU core, it's the same as the Radeon HD 7970.

The 960 should be fine for playing the game in 1080p. I have a 970 and it's pretty overkill for this game in 1080p TBH.

Driver support is a thing of the past, and no longer relevant. If people actually bothered to do research before spitting out nonsense, we wouldn't see all the fanboyism rampant on these forums. AMD used to have somewhat lackluster driver support, but that hasn't been the case for many years now. People are beating a dead horse for no reason.

If we look at the history of the entrance high-end GPUs:

AMD 6950 > GTX 560; AMD 7950 > GTX 660; AMD 280 > GTX 760. The x950/x80 cards tend to be somewhat inbetween the x60 and x70 Nvidia cards. The 7950 was/is actually such a good overclocker that it reached GTX 680 speeds. AMD has pretty consistently been providing the best bang for the buck card.

More interesting is that AMD has yet to release their newest generation of cards to the Nvidia 9xx counterparts, yet the 280X trumps the GTX 960. The 960 only has 2GB of 128-bit memory which is actually on the verge of becoming too little. When you look back, a lot of Nvidia cards ran into memory issues at the end of their cycles, which was the case with the 560 especially. Now the 660, 760 and 960 all with 2GB memory is becoming too little for the most current games. 3GB should be the minimum for future proofing and if you care to try out newer games without turning down the settings because your card is memory choking.

You can get a 4GB version of the 960, but it costs more than it's worth without delivering more speed, so the 280X is a much better buy and provides better performance. Alternatively, you can wait for the next gen of AMD cards and see how they perform. Yes, the 960 does consume less power, but it is generally an inferior card. If you want to get Nvidia, I wouldn't go lower than 970.

Supporting AMD is also good for the enthusiast market because they're the only ones giving Intel and Nvidia competition, without them we would have monopoly. Nvidia has a higher market share for no good reason other than having a higher marketing budget, so go figure how many actually make an informed purchase.

There's a great deal wrong with this whole post but the only thing I'll comment on is that Nvidia has generally been thrashing AMD for years in video cards. If AMD were really that amazing, more people would be buying AMD but over the last decade or so that simply has not been the case. Marketing can't carry you for a decade in technology, if your product fundamentally sucks, people will eventually stop buying it. And yet for more than 10 years, Nvidia has nearly always held (sometimes significantly) higher market share than AMD. 10 years isn't caused by marketing and people need to stop pretending that it is.

[Sunako_Nakahara]

Also take into consideration that FFXIV is adding Nvidia Gameworks into the game with the DX11 client which any game that has the features
from gameworks normaly runs horrible on AMD. Right now yes the Bench is optimized for Nvidia. AMD will get 5-10% gains out of driver optimizing
but wont come close to Nvidia. R9 290 and 290X's have had a problem with FFXIV since the game relaunched and can be out preformed by much lower
end cards.

Right now a GTX 960 is better then any AMD offering for 1080p. Its only when you start to go to higher Res that a few of their cards start to work a
tiny bit better but then at that price point you can step up to Some of the remaining GTX 780 ti's or a GTX 970 or up which hand AMD their behind.

[Sunako_Nakahara]

Also the Vram over 2 Gigs is not used in FFXIV @ 1080p not even @ 1440. It wasn't until running the Bench @ 4K and Simulated 5k that it rose above 3 gigs
of Vram being used. As for your term "Future Proofing" its been long known that there is no suck thing. You can only exstend the longevity of your parts by
getting the newest and best at the time. This person isnt looking for the very best they are looking for what is going to give them the best FFXIV exp. at a reasonable
price. And they Wont find that with AMD at this time.

[Ceodore]

I have the MSI version of this card, and it's great. I wanted something that would blast this game, and it does that with quadruple monitor support and sandboxing capabilities. For the price, it's a bargain. I'd personally avoid EVGA though, as they have low durability ratings. If you're going to pay a lot for a card, quality construction is worth it. And yeah, AMD sucks. Over heating problems, cheaply produced.