AMD R9 290/X GPU Decision

[Valkyrieone]

I'm purchasing the new Samsung U28D590 4K monitor but of course, for 4K I require a good GPU set up.

I have found the Sapphire R9 290 VAPOR-X OC 4GB on Ebuyer for £339. But Amazon are selling the Sapphire AMD R9 290 TRI-X OC for £284. I'm looking to Crossfire either cards in the next few months, but for a single GPU solution for now which of the two would be best to use until I can afford another card?

Another quick question: What are the main differences between a Sapphire AMD R9 290 and a 290X to justify the extra £100 price point? Or can I buy a 290X and Crossfire it with a 290?

Thank you all very much in advance.

 

[Kenmitch]

The Vapor-X is more geared towards a overclocker due to the custom pcb and upgraded cooler. If you don't plan on overclocking to some crazy clocks then the Tri-X would be the better deal.

The 290 to 290x jump doesn't get you much as far as performance goes. Maybe 5-7% or so.

Best bang for buck is crossfire 290's

 

[Valkyrieone]

Thank you, Ken! Recently purchased the MSI 787 G45 motherboard to Crossfire/SLI as I found my current motherboard only supports CF but with 1 PCI 3.0 slot, despite being a 'Gaming' Motherboard. How would two 290's in CF handle 4K Gaming?

 

[Kenmitch]

It would depend on the game and what settings you run.

This review is a little dated and using a slower r9 290 than the Tri-X but it should give you somewhat of an idea.

http://www.legitreviews.com/xfx-radeon-r9-290-crossfire-video-card-review-at-4k-ultra-hd_139418

 

[Valkyrieone]

I used this to decide my choice of GPU

http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...r9-290x-tri-x-oc-review-1600p-ultra-hd-4k/21/

 

[Valkyrieone]

I do see what you mean in terms of little FPS difference between the 290 and the 290X. While the 290X would be desirable, to pay another £100 for it just isn't worth it.

 

[Kenmitch]

I used this to decide my choice of GPU

http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...r9-290x-tri-x-oc-review-1600p-ultra-hd-4k/21/

I do see what you mean in terms of little FPS difference between the 290 and the 290X. While the 290X would be desirable, to pay another £100 for it just isn't worth it.

Yep....The 290x isn't worth the xtra cost.

 

[Attic]

The 290 Tri-x is nearly as good as the vapor-x. If buying 2 I'd take 2x the savings and go Tri-x.

If buying single card and sticking with it I'd look to vapor-x or even 290x.

 

[wand3r3r]

The tri-x is an amazing card. One of the best values in the high end.

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/sapphireR9290trix.php

 

[blastingcap]

Sapphire is garbage, Tri-X included, due to early fan failures. Their Dual-X and Vapor-X fans have failed me repeatedly since the 7xxx series and continues to disappoint, I had to send back a R9 280X recently after only a few months of service.

 

[el etro]

ASUS is good. Windforce and Tfrzr are worse than DCU. XFX is better built than the last two, but is weaker. Powercolor is good as ASUS or better. Sappphire is the best. Club 3D is good as Powercolor.

 

[blastingcap]

ASUS is good. Windforce and Tfrzr are worse than DCU. XFX is better built than the last two, but is weaker. Powercolor is good as ASUS or better. Sappphire is the best. Club 3D is good as Powercolor.

From my personal experience with dozens of AMD cards from 5xxx to R9 2xx:

DirectCU II ASUS and the R9 DD (BUT NOT THE 7xxx DD!) XFX fans are good. MSI Twin Frozr has had issues with early batches of R9 2xx cards... oil leakage.

Sapphire is garbage, Tri-X included, due to early fan failures. Their Dual-X and Vapor-X fans have failed me repeatedly since the 7xxx series and continues to disappoint, I had to send back a R9 280X recently after only a few months of service.

Windforce and the rest I have no comment on.

 

[Attic]

Are those fan issues presenting after mining duty? RS has also mentioned issues w/ fans on the sapphire 7970.

Honestly, i'd be tempted to still go with it. I mean I did go with it (before hearing about any fan issues), but were I buying today I think the 290 Tri-X still the card to beat given it's price/performance. And not ignoring what members here have to say about the fans, but it's quite limited AFAIK.

 

[blastingcap]

Are those fan issues presenting after mining duty? RS has also mentioned issues w/ fans on the sapphire 7970.

Honestly, i'd be tempted to still go with it. I mean I did go with it (before hearing about any fan issues), but were I buying today I think the 290 Tri-X still the card to beat given it's price/performance. And not ignoring what members here have to say about the fans, but it's quite limited AFAIK.

It's not a mining vs non-mining, thing, it's a Sapphire-fans-are-garbage thing. NO OTHER BRAND OF CARD has ever given me as many problems as Sapphire and they were all treated the same in well-cooled cases with tons of case fans, undervolted to the point where temperatures were under 70C.

You already bought a Tri-X Sapphire 290. I'm not trying to make you feel bad about your purchase or anything, but I'd get rid of it before your warranty expires. Have you ever had to resell a Sapphire card where one of the fans was going out? It sucks, there is almost no market for such cards, though the Sapphire Tri-X's are at least built off reference PCBs so at least you can sell them to watercoolers. Luckily my failing Sapphires were all still in warranty, but each RMA still ate up a month of time, and I paid for shipping and got some refurb card back, each time.

 

[Fastx]

I surf a lot of video card forums and for researching 290 cards and I haven't seen any abnormal (or high) fan failure rate on the Tri-X 290 vs. other makes, so for me this is a non issuse on this card at this time imo. But it wouldn't supprise me if we do see a possible higher fan failure rate rise some what to a degree across different brand AIB cards that were used for mining down the road imo. I just use my cards for gaming (buy new) and I am not seeing a abnormal or higher fan failure rate problem with the Tri-X 290 models at this time. So until I do I would have no problem recommending this card to a friend or family member.

 

[blastingcap]

I surf a lot of video card forums and for researching 290 cards

Real scientific there. Come on. It's no more scientific than my personal experiences.

Since you already own a Tri-X 290, you have every incentive to disbelieve what RS, me, and others have experienced with Dual-X/Vapor-X fans. I've probably bought way more Sapphire non-ref cards than most people, so I see patterns, whereas people who buy just 1-2 Sapphire cards may chalk up bad fans to bad luck. For me, it stretches credulity to the limit when three straight Sapphire cards of different vintage and models (so it's not just one bad batch) have fan issues within a few months of purchase. I sold the rest off ASAP so I'll never know if they developed problems either.

From my personal experience I will never buy non-reference Sapphire again unless I were going to resell it immediately or it was just too low of a price to pass up.

In fact, all of you Sapphire apologists, PLEASE buy Sapphire cards and only Sapphire cards, as that will drive demand down for the manufacturers that I like and thus hopefully drive down the price.

 

[Fastx]

Real scientific there. Come on. It's no more scientific than my personal experiences.

Since you already own a Tri-X 290, you have every incentive to disbelieve what RS, me, and others have experienced with Dual-X/Vapor-X fans. I've probably bought way more Sapphire non-ref cards than most people, so I see patterns, whereas people who buy just 1-2 Sapphire cards may chalk up bad fans to bad luck. For me, it stretches credulity to the limit when three straight Sapphire cards of different vintage and models (so it's not just one bad batch) have fan issues within a few months of purchase. I sold the rest off ASAP so I'll never know if they developed problems either.

From my personal experience I will never buy non-reference Sapphire again unless I were going to resell it immediately or it was just too low of a price to pass up.

In fact, all of you Sapphire apologists, PLEASE buy Sapphire cards and only Sapphire cards, as that will drive demand down for the manufacturers that I like and thus hopefully drive down the price.

I never said I don't believe you or RS had a problem (btw RS did not have a Tri X either), but no doubt fans can fail and you guys did mine with them I believe which could matter to a degree vs. cards that were not mine with imo. Also how do we know these Tri-X fans are the exact fans you (280 Dual X) and RS (7970 Dual X) had go bad your non Tri-X cards they could be different or improved?

If they are the same fans and Sapphire had a problem, how do we know they didn't make a design change to fix the problem like MSI did when they had a problem with their MSI 290? You see to many variables here to just say/post on forums the Tri -X cards are crap without knowing any of the above and is very misleading at this time imo. On the scientific part, let me just say that when the problem arose with the MSI 290 fans it was all over the forums and I am not seeing this with the Tri-X models.

I don't want to keep going back forth and derail this thread so we should just end it here.

 

[kawi6rr]

I have a saphire 7 series and an Ausus 8 series and have had no issues with fans and I've not read anywhere where there is an issue with saphire fans. You should at least give a reference to some proof other then you had some failures before you discredit saphire.

 

[el etro]

Want a good value experience go powercolor 290x, this round their card is sooo good...

 

[blastingcap]

I have a saphire 7 series and an Ausus 8 series and have had no issues with fans and I've not read anywhere where there is an issue with saphire fans. You should at least give a reference to some proof other then you had some failures before you discredit saphire.

ASUS 8 series huh? I'm talking about desktop video cards, not laptops.

Please read my previous post in this thread. I'm done with arguing with owners of sapphire cards like yourself. Obviously you have an interest in believing that you didn't get hoodwinked. You guys can buy up all the Sapphire cards if you want and drive up Sapphire prices and drive down prices on the better-quality cards that I want. I'm done with Sapphire and their crappy shorter-length, original-owner warranties and crappy fans.

 

[Z15CAM]

I highly recommend the Gigabyte Reference R9 290X (Elpida vRam) under a water & pumps with a rad and the XSPC Block - Easily runs at 1230 x 1500 Mhz's at +0.144mV Off-Set at 31C Idle and at most 50C under load and you can't hear it.

 

[guskline]

Just picked up a used Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X for my AMD 8350 rig and love it.

 

[kawi6rr]

ASUS 8 series huh? I'm talking about desktop video cards, not laptops.

Please read my previous post in this thread. I'm done with arguing with owners of sapphire cards like yourself. Obviously you have an interest in believing that you didn't get hoodwinked. You guys can buy up all the Sapphire cards if you want and drive up Sapphire prices and drive down prices on the better-quality cards that I want. I'm done with Sapphire and their crappy shorter-length, original-owner warranties and crappy fans.

Actually it’s an R9 280x and that’s an Asus card I miss spoke. I’m not a Saphire fanboy but just because you have had a bad experience doesn’t meant they have crap cards. Every card manufacturer will put out a few duds AMD/Nvidia and maybe you got those this doesn’t mean that particular manufacturer is crap.
At the op, get what you want I've had no issues with saphire cards.

 

[Despoiler]

To mirror what blastingcap has said about Sapphire fans. I've owned a 5850 and a 7970, both reference models. My 5850 started to develop some noise after a year of use. Almost like the fan was off center. I found that the bearings they used were not properly oiled. This was a known issue that some people had. I had to pull the fan and re-oil it. No issues after that. On my 7970 the fan abruptly died after 2 years. Zero warning. Took the card with it while I was at work. RMA'd it. The fixed/replacement card fully died after 3 years. That card was the first run of 7970s and always did act a little odd.

I'm currently running a Gigabyte Windforce 290. They released 2 new BIOS since their original. The first added a performance fan mode so it stays nice and cool. The second was unspecified stability improvements. I never noticed any issues with stability or any negative effects in games, but the card did seem to run a touch smoother post flash. I can recommend the Windforce cards although the 75mm fans are not whisper quiet if that is what you are looking for.