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Get R9 290X or wait for 780Ti?

Peddeh

Member
As the title says, R9 290X or wait for 780Ti?

I'll be mainly playing BF4 and various other games, such as Batman, Counter-Strike etc. I really don't know which GPU to go for 😕 - money really isn't an issue, so I'll take what can offer me the best performance.

What would you do in my situation and why?

My system:
MSI Z77 MPower
i7-3770K @ 4.7GHz
16GB DDR3 2400MHz
2x 240GB SSDs (1 for OS/Apps other for Games)
 
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Well if money isn't an issue then get the 290X now and when the 780ti comes out you can look at it and if its faster get that as well. Then you can swap in the fastest card for the game or get another identical machine and run both cards and play the games that work best on the machine that runs the best for that one game. Simple solution.

Silliness aside (almost everyone is actually money limited realistically) What resolution and fps do you intend to game at?
 
As the title says, R9 290X or wait for 780Ti?

I'll be mainly playing BF4 and various other games, such as Batman, Counter-Strike etc. I really don't know which GPU to go for 😕 - money really isn't an issue, so I'll take what can offer me the best performance.

What would you do in my situation and why?

My system:
MSI Z77 MPower
i7-3770K @ 4.7GHz
16GB DDR3 2400MHz
2x 240GB SSDs (1 for OS/Apps other for Games)

I'd advise to wait for an aftermarket (possibly factory overclocked) version of the 290x with a better cooler. Especially for Battlefield 4 (or any other game using the Frostbite engine, for that matter). These are supposed to be released at the end of November.
 
Obviously GTX780Ti has a far superior reference cooler so if you must go reference go GTX780Ti. Though if you can wait until custom cooled versions of both are out you can get a better idea of how they compare in price/perf.

Even when money is really an issue it would be silly to pay $150 extra for a similar performing GPU.
 
So the GTX 780Ti is using similar amounts of power or even more than the 290X?

Something tells me that the talk about power hogs will disappear...
 
The current benchmarks show the Nvidia cards performing better at the lower resolutions than the 290X does. So I think its likely the 780ti will do a better job at that resolution.

I suspect since you play at 120hz you are also interested in gsync in the future and so I would wait and see what happens with the 780ti and whether its worth having and the 780.
 
Anyway, waiting a couple of weeks make sense.

The 290 should be out next week and apparently with some new drivers and the 780Ti shouldn't be far off that.
 
Well if money isn't an issue then just get the GTX 780ti without thinking twice. I'd be willing to "bet" it will give the best performance out there even if it's not a lot more
 
Couple questions.
1. What is your monitor?
2. How big is your case and what cooling do you have
3. What PSU?

I ask these because it pains me to see someone asking about monitor sioze and they want to buy a R9 290X or 780ti and run at 1650 x 900 resolution.

When you say money is no issue I respect that but will it include a new monitor to really benefit from the high end video cards?

From your specs it seems you have a pretty new and powerful system (I know a 3770k has been eclipsed by the Haswell but it is still a VERY powerful gaming chip)

I would be sure that my PSU is up to snuff. No sense putting a 290x in your rig and finding you have a marginal psu.

What video card do you have now ? I'm as guilty as the next guy in always wanting the latest and fastest. I have 2 GTX670ftws in sli in rig 1, a gtx680 in rig 2 and a GTX 660 in rig 3 not shown (AMD 8350 OC'd to 4,6Ghz). Sure it would be cool to go to a R9 290X or 780ti, but especially in rig 1, the performance gain won't warrant it. ONLY if I go CF or SLI with the newer cards will I see an appreciable gain (I think!). Even on rig 2 the gain won't be HUGE for a single card replacement.

The big hot topic is the amount of VRAM and I agree with the consensus that limiting yourself to 2 GB on a new higher end card is not the way to go. Personally I would go 4GB Vram and be done with it for awhile.
 
If you want to play BF4, go for the 290X. It's getting a Mantle backend for the renderer in December, which will improve performance on GCN cards.
 
So the GTX 780Ti is using similar amounts of power or even more than the 290X?

Something tells me that the talk about power hogs will disappear...



System power consumption is definitely higher than other cards. We are looking at 500 watts here, which is definitely more than R9 290X in this comparison. The leaker claims that the card is running at average 970 MHz, which is 50+ MHz overclock. The GTX 780 Ti is supposedly labeled with a maximum power draw at 275W, that’s without any clock manipulation. Rising the clock could led to rapid power increase. These numbers will require much more sophisticated review just to be sure.

http://videocardz.com/47552/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti-benchmarks-leaked

So no its more than the 290x according to leaksD:
 
I'd wait for the R9 290 to be released, wait for custom coolers, and then see how they perform in Crossfire. I suspect R9 290 CF is going to be the best deal versus the rest, assuming you either watercool them or there are custom coolers that mute them a bit.
 
You get the GTX 780 Ti of course. Haven`t you seen the latest leak? 780 Ti is ahead in almost anything they tested. Its even a bigger lead in 1080p if thats what you plan to game on
http://videocardz.com/47552/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti-benchmarks-leaked

Oh nice! Hadn't seen this, thanks for sharing!

Cloudfire overstates all things Nvidia. If you believe a leak that so far hasn't been verified then you would be very silly. Some things to take into account on that leak.


  1. The GTX 780Ti in the test was overclocked slightly by 50MHz. It is only a small amount but it does also translate to higher boost clocks and does skew results, even if it is only a small amount. Why overclock such a small amount at alll?
  2. It doesn't state if the R9 290X was run in Uber mode which could create ~6% performance difference either way. http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/63742-amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-review-18.html
  3. The games tested are hardly state of the art current releases. Wait until more recent and graphically intensive games are tested.
You have plenty of time until GTX780Ti is released and R9 290X custom cooled SKU appear. Wait until professional reviews are out before deciding what card to get.
 
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Chiphell has some benches on the Ti:

http://uk.hardware.info/news/37647/rumour-photos-and-benchmarks-of-gtx-780-ti

GTX780_Ti_01.jpg


GTX780_Ti_02.jpg


GTX780_Ti_03.jpg


GTX780_Ti_04.jpg


GTX780_Ti_05.jpg
 
Unless you game on 4k I see no reason to buy a 290x and then have to throw a cooler on it for even more $$. (Or even a Ti @ $699, for that matter).

I would buy a $499 780, or wait a couple weeks and grab a regular 290. Both are value monsters.

BTW, if those Chiphell benches are true, 780ti is a freakin' monster.
 
Buy the best deal that populates between Black Friday and Christmas. If the 290 comes in at $400 it may be the best option or a Classy, HOF, or Lightning 780 at or around $500 would also be a worthy buy. If nothing else, wait for non-reference 290 and 290X before you make your decision (AMD is expected to have a gaming bundle for the 290 series near the holidays).
 
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