GTX 780 (vs AMD 290x): Did I goof?

[The Alias]

for quiet mode. get the 780 instead. 780 faster at tessellation and better at frame pacing (if you ever go multi-gpu in future).
.

Times have changed, bro http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/01/amd_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_video_card_review
r9 290x is definitely the way to go for mgpu

 

[caswow]

so much misinformation about the 290x it hurts reading all this. anyways the 780 is a good card you dont need to change to a 290x

 

[el etro]

Techpowerup results are heavily influenced by blizzard engine games. Blizzard games heavily favors Nvidia. If you take off Wow, Diablo3 and Starcraft you will found 290x 4-6% faster(in uber mode and still not at constant 1000Mhz) than Titan at 1080p, as Computer Base states it.

For the ones that are remind the greatest CPU dependency of Radeons, see Dota 2 results.

For the ones that will asking about my implication my techpowerup results: it's the number two tech site and they have the most influential review on the web.

 

[TidusZ]

Firstly, thank you very much for the response.



I purchased this EVGA model.

I play at 1920x1080 resolution, which based on what I understand is a fairly low (or average) resolution these days.

at that resolution you could probably pop a 7 year old geforce 4 in there and get solid fps so 780 vs 290x doesnt matter. I get 60 fps in almost everything at 2560x1600 with a 680.

 

[UaVaj]

Times have changed, bro http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/01/amd_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_video_card_review
r9 290x is definitely the way to go for mgpu

crossfire on the 290 is now acceptable. however the results still shows NVidia is be smoother. go see the frame pacing graph for yourself.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing/Battlefield-
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...90X-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing/Crysis-3
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,9.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,10.html

for some of us. who runs 3+ gpu and higher resolution. compounding that frame pacing and nvida is clearly the best choice.

does not goes without saying. if frame pacing does NOT bother you. 7970 quad fire offer the best performance (fps) per price ratio.

 

[The Alias]

crossfire on the 290 is now acceptable. however the results still shows NVidia is be smoother. go see the frame pacing graph for yourself.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing/Battlefield-
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...90X-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing/Crysis-3
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,9.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,10.html

for some of us. who runs 3+ gpu and higher resolution. compounding that frame pacing and nvida is clearly the best choice.

does not goes without saying. if frame pacing does NOT bother you. 7970 quad fire offer the best performance (fps) per price ratio.

playing the games, however, [H] said the games feel SMOOTHER on the 290x than titan and 780 despite the graphs . Also the benches you posted are older than the ones [H] used .

 

[Ieat]

Well, I think the GPU would make a bigger difference at 1080p depending on what type of game is being played, but with that being said - i've upgraded many lynnfield 870 systems to Haswell and the speed difference is tremendous. Like, so tremendous that it's immediately noticeable in CPU limited games/applications - I don't have my napkin math handy (heh) but i'd say the IPC difference is 40% or so, it's very large and will be extremely noticeable in CPU limited games.

As much as the newer AAA titles are GPU limited, there are tons of CPU limited games as well. Definitely something to look into with an i7-860 - it's a pretty dated chip. A 4770k may make sense in tandem with the newly acquired GTX 780.

Have any links to back up these "tremendous" and "extremely" claims for games? Of the few comparisons I've seen of overclocked nehalem/lynnfield vs haswell the first gen chips hold up very well at the 3.8 to 4ghz zone. Remember you are suggesting a $450 upgrade (essentially the cost of a 2nd gtx 780 once games are sold) over spending 30 minutes to learn how to overclock a chip. I also wouldn't say there are a ton of cpu limited games.

 

[JBT]

$500 3 games, and from eVGA. Sounds like a fine deal to me. I would say if you didn't play at 1080p maybe it wasn't a great decision, but eVGA is a GREAT brand. AMD doesn't have a manufacturer who is equivalent IMO.

 

[Rvenger]

$500 3 games, and from eVGA. Sounds like a fine deal to me. I would say if you didn't play at 1080p maybe it wasn't a great decision, but eVGA is a GREAT brand. AMD doesn't have a manufacturer who is equivalent IMO.

Sapphire used to be. MSI and Gigabyte are the best AIBs at this time for AMD. HIS has been improving with their aftermarket coolers.

 

[Slomo4shO]

eVGA is a GREAT brand.

EVGA isn't what it used to be from its days of lifetime warranties. I find that Galaxy currently provides the best solutions from nVidia's AIBs.

 

[UaVaj]

playing the games, however, [H] said the games feel SMOOTHER on the 290x than titan and 780 despite the graphs . Also the benches you posted are older than the ones [H] used .

I looked hard for [H]'s actual objective frame pacing. none to be found.

looks like [H] is on amd's payroll.

 

[Slomo4shO]

I looked hard for [H]'s actual objective frame pacing. none to be found.

looks like [H] is on amd's payroll.

How about Guru3D?

The small spikes are not noticeable in-game whatsoever. Crossfire is rendering so fast that we are almost closing on on the monitor latency already.

Or Toms?

A CrossFire'd configuration does incur higher variance, though. Here's the thing: it's subjectively really hard to tell the practical difference between two Titans and two R9 290X cards in this game.

Seems everyone is on AMD's payroll...

 

[blackened23]

I looked hard for [H]'s actual objective frame pacing. none to be found.

looks like [H] is on amd's payroll.

This, is actually hilarious. 12 months ago, people accused H of being on nvidias payroll. Because they consistently hammered AMD for having terrible "smoothness" in crossfire. HardOCP was the FIRST review website to really nail AMD about the smoothness perception in crossfire - they consistently brought it up in reviews and stated that SLI was superior.

But now? On AMD's payroll. hilarious. Just. Hilarious. Having seen the history of these accusations myself, I know BrentJ is somewhere laughing about this. It seems like the payroll accusations shift every 12 months.

 

[Kenmitch]

I looked hard for [H]'s actual objective frame pacing. none to be found.

looks like [H] is on amd's payroll.

So in the end the only reviews that matter are those that paint AMD's offerings as inferior?

Who's not currently on AMD's payroll in your eyes?

I can't wait to here you whine about the Mantle cheat in BF4.

 

[UaVaj]

no need to get all bent up over this.

some of us are very capable of interpreting those frame pacing graph.

graph does not lie nor sugar coat.

 

[Slomo4shO]

no need to get all bent up over this.

some of us are very capable of interpreting those frame pacing graph.

graph does not lie nor sugar coat.

Interestingly, the graphs reflect the conclusions of the reviewers, the real question is how accurate are your eyes?

 

[OCGuy]

Why would you think you goofed by saving $50 on the card, god knows how much on the cooler, and get a card that is just flat out better produced?

 

[MrK6]

Why would you think you goofed by saving $50 on the card, god knows how much on the cooler, and get a card that is just flat out better produced?

"Better produced?" What kind of non-argument is that? Honestly, the drivel some of you produce.

 

[OCGuy]

"Better produced?" What kind of non-argument is that? Honestly, the drivel some of you produce.

Meaning you have a guaranteed base clock without cranking the fan up to Dreamliner mode. One that if you feel like OCing, you don't have to spend money on a loop or custom cooler. One that isn't going to degrade itself more rapidly by operating near 95c all of the time.

Seems like fairly obvious stuff that nobody is denying.

 

[OCGuy]

"Better produced?" What kind of non-argument is that? Honestly, the drivel some of you produce.

Meaning you have a guaranteed base clock without cranking the fan up to Dreamliner mode. One that if you feel like OCing, you don't have to spend money on a loop or custom cooler. One that isn't going to degrade itself more rapidly be operating near 95c all of the time.

The 290x is the most power-hungry single GPU card of all time when you set it to run how it is supposed to. "Fuzzy Math" is used in more than one review when commenting on 290x claimed speeds.


Seems like fairly obvious stuff that nobody is denying.


If anyone could look someone straight in the eye and say that the 290x with a custom cooler is worth $100 more than a 780 with a custom cooler (can get a EVGA one for $499 in stock), I would shake their hand.

 

[wand3r3r]

Meaning you have a guaranteed base clock without cranking the fan up to Dreamliner mode. One that if you feel like OCing, you don't have to spend money on a loop or custom cooler. One that isn't going to degrade itself more rapidly be operating near 95c all of the time.

The 290x is the most power-hungry single GPU card of all time when you set it to run how it is supposed to. "Fuzzy Math" is used in more than one review when commenting on 290x claimed speeds.


Seems like fairly obvious stuff that nobody is denying.

Sounds more like obvious spin to me. (other than I agree the cooler's pretty weak, but that's an opinion)

Obviously AMD has done their calculations on lifetimes etc. and I'll take their word over a "random" forum poster. The 480 was apparently in the same ballpark with temperatures.

I await your opinion on the 780 ti which is rumored to use even more power than the 290x.

 

[MrK6]

Meaning you have a guaranteed base clock without cranking the fan up to Dreamliner mode. One that if you feel like OCing, you don't have to spend money on a loop or custom cooler. One that isn't going to degrade itself more rapidly be operating near 95c all of the time.

The ambiguous non-argument of "better produced" suggested you have no idea what you're talking about, but this confirms it. AMD tests and specifies it's hardware to run at certain parameters and they've sold the card as such. So you're smarter than all of AMD's engineers now?

The 290x is the most power-hungry single GPU card of all time when you set it to run how it is supposed to. "Fuzzy Math" is used in more than one review when commenting on 290x claimed speeds.

And yet it's faster than any one of nvidia's current single-GPU offerings, especially at the higher resolutions it's designed for. And for all the "power hungry" nonsense some of you are desperately clinging to to find anything to try to knock down the 290X, it's 6% less efficient

 

[UaVaj]

Interestingly, the graphs reflect the conclusions of the reviewers, the real question is how accurate are your eyes?

thanks for doing all the leg work in posting those graph. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

spin it however you want (my eyes or not) - every graph clearly show sli is on top.

 

[3DVagabond]

Techpowerup results are heavily influenced by blizzard engine games. Blizzard games heavily favors Nvidia. If you take off Wow, Diablo3 and Starcraft you will found 290x 4-6% faster(in uber mode and still not at constant 1000Mhz) than Titan at 1080p, as Computer Base states it.

For the ones that are remind the greatest CPU dependency of Radeons, see Dota 2 results.

For the ones that will asking about my implication my techpowerup results: it's the number two tech site and they have the most influential review on the web.

Not going to deny anything you've said, here. Just as a side comment though on the bold part. I read TPU's reviews for some of the figures, individual game performance is not one of them. W1zzard has been called out for doing reviews with old drivers, outdated versions of games, and reusing results from other reviews. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind.

Power usage, temps, noise, O/C performance with BF3 because you can reference it to O/C performance in the same game for lot's of cards he's reviewed, and photos and descriptions of cards are all good. For actual gaming performance though, I'll stick to [H] playing the latest games in real world conditions.

Just my 2¢.

 

[akugami]

at 500 bucks its fine overall when all factors are considered. and the 290x reviews actually convinced lots of people to go 780. high levels of heat and noise and ridiculous power consumption when ocing makes keeps the 290x from even being an option for me.

This.

Most on here know that I have support AMD and my last 3 video cards have been Radeons but ultimately, I make my decisions based on performance per dollar first, and other factors second. My monitor is a Dell 2713HM (2560x1440).

Overall, the 290X didn't really "wow" me that much. The 290X is not bad, just didn't wow me as much considering the thermal, noise, and power characteristics. I might as well pick up a 780 and overclock it.

Ultimately, I'm waiting until about Black Friday before purchasing a new video card but leaning Geforce 780. This also gives me a chance to possibly evaluate a few non-reference cooler designs on the 290X. I'll either get a 780 for hopefully below the $500 MSRP, or I'll get a non-reference 290X with better cooling and lower noise levels.