GTX780 features vs R9 290 series?

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Z15CAM

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Nov 20, 2010
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Yep I see an emanate Battlefield between the AIB R9 290 Vs the AIB GTX 780 Ti for OC'g Enthusiasts.

Even if the 780 was the same price as the 290 - It's a no brainier to get the 290 if you have either a 1440p or 1600p Display.

If the AIB 290's are priced around $460 CDN with a few games thrown in - I'm All In for one.
 
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Roland00Address

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2008
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If you aren't water-cooling then just get the 290, both the 290X and the 290 throttle to around the same performance. When temps are no longer a factor, then the 290X should be comfortably faster. However, the 780 is a great overclocker, so enthusiasts that over clock or run water have a harder choice to make.

If you arer water cooling then the megahertz of the original card do not matter because you're going to change them anyway. The r290x has 10 percent more calculation units yet it cost 150 more
 

Z15CAM

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Nov 20, 2010
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The r290x has 10 percent more calculation units yet it cost 150 more
The Reference R9 290X is approx same price as the present AIB GTX 280's, both are equal to a Titan which cost $1000, and an $430 AIB R9 290 OC'd should run close to the same speed and CF 290 @ $800 gives us oblivion.

Hum - It appears, if they want to be competitive, the Green Team had better Price the Reference GTX 780 Ti below $400 considering the 290 does best with 1440p and 1660p Displays.

Not only is the GTX 780 being challenged but the $1000 Titan has been obliterated by the Red Team.

There will an interesting Price War come Xmas for the Last and the Best of the 28nm die GPU's.

With my 2560x1440 PLS Display I'm waiting for an AIB R9 290 for approx $450 CDN, perhaps with an incentive Game Bundle, come Xmas ;o)

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i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO (running @ .996v/1600Mhz to 1.376v/4600Mhz 24/7 between 36 to 67C), 4 x's 4GB sticks of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 running at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 sluff and negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition modular PSU, EVGA e-GeForce GTX 280, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 case, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1400 res display at 120Hz.
 
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Aithos

Member
Oct 9, 2013
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I personally am not even considering AMDs latest offerings this time around. I don't see the AIB cards significantly addressing the heat/noise issue without going to water (which I'm not willing to do at this time). The nVidia cards even with the awful reference cooling run MUCH cooler and use less power by far. Add in the aftermarket cooler and the high overclocking capabilities and any performance advantage is wiped out.

Does the 290 beat the reference 780 when it doesn't throttle? Sure. Does it beat an EVGA 780GTX that's been overclocked in a mid tower case without water? Not likely. Then throw in the noise/heat and general throttling you'll get even with an OCed 290 or 290x and I think the $500 price for a 780 is a no brainer if that's your aproximate budget.

It's possible the aftermarket cards will really surprise everyone, but generally reference cards give you an indication of overclocking capabilities and the latest AMDs don't look good in that respect. The fact a 290 can match or equal a 290x is *not* awesome because it means the heat is a HUGE issue and that throttling is nullifying a $150 difference. I would stay far, far away from AMD right now until the aftermarket cards are out and have been significantly tested.

So I guess it comes down to your timeframe. If you're buying RIGHT NOW, I'd say get a EVGA 780 and don't look back. If you're buying a month or two from now, wait and see how it pans out and then get whatever seems to be the best when the chips are all down and the holiday sales are in full effect.
 

Z15CAM

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2010
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Depends what you have under the hood right now, as for me I'm presently running an eVGA GeForce GTX 280 - Suppose I could keep it for Physic's-X Daughter Card or Cuda, which I don't use and I'm a Video Encoder thinking about doing some GAMING.

Of course I will install Games to the SSD or perhaps my Favorite Game to RamDisk.

If you presently have a 28nm Die Card now, I suggest you wait for 20nm die GPU's come mid summer, but I believe you will have more of a Performance/Heat Issue with the Smaller Die, comparable to what Intel had with the SB Vs IB CPU's and pricing will no doubt be higher.

PS: That old eVGA GeForce GTX 280 plays 4100x2300 Res 35 Mbps 4k Flics beautifully as if you're looking out of a clean window. It's amazing, on a $300 Korean QNIX 2560x1440 Res Samsung PLS Display at 120Hz or even 60Hz for that matter.

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i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO (running @ .996v/1600Mhz to 1.376v/4600Mhz 24/7 between 36 to 67C), 4 x's 4GB sticks of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 running at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 sluff and negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition modular PSU, eVGA e-GeForce GTX 280, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 case, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 res display at 120Hz.

POST 327 - Magic # for me - Loved the Old Chevy 327 - LOL

Another PS: While Posting this Thread I encoded a 704Mb 608Kps 854X358 23.976 AVC Web FLV Flic to a 857Mb 770Kps 856x358 23.976fps XviD 2 Pass Advance Simple @5 BVOP2/128 Kbps, 44.1 Khz, Joint Stereo mPeg4/mp3.avi for uploading to StageVu in the Back Ground.
 
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Subyman

Moderator <br> VC&G Forum
Mar 18, 2005
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I personally am not even considering AMDs latest offerings this time around. I don't see the AIB cards significantly addressing the heat/noise issue without going to water (which I'm not willing to do at this time). The nVidia cards even with the awful reference cooling run MUCH cooler and use less power by far. Add in the aftermarket cooler and the high overclocking capabilities and any performance advantage is wiped out.

AIB's will most certainly address the heat/noise issue. Tom's strapped an aftermarket cooler on the 290 and it ran great.
 

x3sphere

Senior member
Jul 22, 2009
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I personally am not even considering AMDs latest offerings this time around. I don't see the AIB cards significantly addressing the heat/noise issue without going to water (which I'm not willing to do at this time). The nVidia cards even with the awful reference cooling run MUCH cooler and use less power by far. Add in the aftermarket cooler and the high overclocking capabilities and any performance advantage is wiped out.

Does the 290 beat the reference 780 when it doesn't throttle? Sure. Does it beat an EVGA 780GTX that's been overclocked in a mid tower case without water? Not likely. Then throw in the noise/heat and general throttling you'll get even with an OCed 290 or 290x and I think the $500 price for a 780 is a no brainer if that's your aproximate budget.

It's possible the aftermarket cards will really surprise everyone, but generally reference cards give you an indication of overclocking capabilities and the latest AMDs don't look good in that respect. The fact a 290 can match or equal a 290x is *not* awesome because it means the heat is a HUGE issue and that throttling is nullifying a $150 difference. I would stay far, far away from AMD right now until the aftermarket cards are out and have been significantly tested.

So I guess it comes down to your timeframe. If you're buying RIGHT NOW, I'd say get a EVGA 780 and don't look back. If you're buying a month or two from now, wait and see how it pans out and then get whatever seems to be the best when the chips are all down and the holiday sales are in full effect.

Yeah I just went for 2 780s in SLI. Been with AMD for the past 5 years, but Nvidia has been doing some great things on the software side, plus the 780 runs far cooler and quieter than AMD's flagship. I live in AZ and don't think I could deal with the 290x dumping almost 700w of heat in Crossfire come summertime. Plan on keeping these cards for a year or more.

I feel like the difference in price is negligible when we're already talking about cards that cost several hundred dollars. I'm willing to pay a premium for a better overall experience, and I'm sure many others are as well. This is where AMD's ref design misses the mark. I'm sure the non-ref cards will be nice but I don't feel like waiting.
 

Z15CAM

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Nov 20, 2010
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Not getting into Drivers but 28nm Dies put out the Same Heat in regards to Voltage/Performance, no matter who makes them.

Price/Performance is another matter for me plus I'm an Old Over-Clocker - LOL.

In the long run "Drivers" eventually get sorted out for Single GPU Cards.

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i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO (running @ .996v/1600Mhz to 1.376v/4600Mhz 24/7 between 36 to 67C), 4 x's 4GB sticks of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 running at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 64 Bit sluff and negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition modular PSU, eVGA e-GeForce GTX 280, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 case, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 res display at 120Hz.
 
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zlatan

Senior member
Mar 15, 2011
580
291
136
... R9 290 / GTX780
Direct3D feature_level_: 11_2 / 11_0
Direct3D SAD4 support: yes / no
Direct3D conservative depth output support: yes / no
Direct3D dedicated atomic counters: yes / no
Direct3D command lists support: inactive / active
Direct3D tiled resources support: TIER_2 / TIER_1
OpenCL support: 1.2 / 1.1
AMD Mantle support: yes / no
AMD TrueAudio support: yes / no
NVIDIA CUDA support: no / yes
NVIDIA GPU PhysX support: no / yes
Stereo3D support: HD3D / 3D Vision
Multimonitor support: Eyefinity / Surround
NVIDIA G-Sync support: no / yes
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
... R9 290 / GTX780
Direct3D feature_level_: 11_2 / 11_0
Direct3D SAD4 support: yes / no
Direct3D conservative depth output support: yes / no
Direct3D dedicated atomic counters: yes / no
Direct3D command lists support: inactive / active
Direct3D tiled resources support: TIER_2 / TIER_1
OpenCL support: 1.2 / 1.1
AMD Mantle support: yes / no
AMD TrueAudio support: yes / no
NVIDIA CUDA support: no / yes
NVIDIA GPU PhysX support: no / yes
Stereo3D support: HD3D / 3D Vision
Multimonitor support: Eyefinity / Surround
NVIDIA G-Sync support: no / yes

NVIDIA ShadowPlay: no / yes
HBAO+: no / yes
Lightboost 2 blur reduction: yes (hackable)/ yes
NVIDIA CUDA: no / yes
 

zlatan

Senior member
Mar 15, 2011
580
291
136
NVIDIA ShadowPlay: no / yes
HBAO+: no / yes
Lightboost 2 blur reduction: yes (hackable)/ yes
NVIDIA CUDA: no / yes
- ShadowPlay is an app provided by NVIDIA. The AMD Gaming Evolved app has the same feature. Or you can use the new RadeonPro for this.
- HBAO+ is a standard HLSL code. Works on every DX10/11 GPU.
- Lightboost 2 is a monitor feature. Several 3D monitor use somekind of tech with the same result.
- on the list.
 

PrincessFrosty

Platinum Member
Feb 13, 2008
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Nvidia features:
PhysX - on a few games a year. It can be nice on some games.
3D Vision - has better support than HD3D, especially with the Helix mod community.
G-sync - will be new next year on select monitors, but may revolutionize how displays refresh. No tearing, no latency, no stuttering.

AMD features:
They really don't have exclusive features. Mantle is the closest thing that will be coming out soon, which may improve performance in a few games, by allowing dev's to more easily apply low level code into games. They also have a new way to handle crossfire, which shows big improvements on very large resolutions.

Pretty much this.

PhysX is a nice bonus from time to time when games support the more advanced GPU features, it's fairly limited deployment though. The 3D vision with the newer vision 2.0 glasses and a light boost monitor is seriously impressive. G-sync is an upcoming game changer and I think will make a massive difference so worth keeping an eye out for, although will require a Gsync supporting monitor. I find that on the whole with driver support and ease of use SLI with Nvidia is better than crossfire with AMD, much better frame spacing so less microstutter and had nothing but continuous issues with my 4870 Xfire and 5970 GPU setups, negative scaling in many games, more or less constant problems.

AMD have mantle coming up which in select titles may give a decent performance lead, although how many titles and to what degree is not yet to be seen. I also hear that Eyefinity is generally a bit easier to get working and all round better on AMD GPUs although I've never done multi-mon with either camp personally so I can't verify this.
 

24601

Golden Member
Jun 10, 2007
1,683
40
86
Quote:
Originally Posted by zlatan View Post
... R9 290 / GTX780
Direct3D feature_level_: 11_2 / 11_0
Direct3D SAD4 support: yes / no
Direct3D conservative depth output support: yes / no
Direct3D dedicated atomic counters: yes / no
Direct3D command lists support: inactive / active
Direct3D tiled resources support: TIER_2 / TIER_1
OpenCL support: 1.2 / 1.1
AMD Mantle support: yes / no
AMD TrueAudio support: yes / no
NVIDIA CUDA support: no / yes
NVIDIA GPU PhysX support: no / yes
Stereo3D support: HD3D / 3D Vision
Multimonitor support: Eyefinity / Surround
NVIDIA G-Sync support: no / yes
NVIDIA ShadowPlay: no / yes
HBAO+: no / yes
Lightboost 2 blur reduction: yes (hackable)/ yes
NVIDIA CUDA: no / yes

OpenGL: 4.3 / 4.4
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
R9 290 intrigues me. It is priced right. As a matter of fact, all the other video graphics cards' prices were wacky for the past couple of years. $350 mid-range? (HD 7870), $650 high-end that performs 15% better than last gen? ( HD 7970), and.. a $1K video cards (you-know-what)?

$400 seems to be the right spot behind the $500~$550 flagships. The reviews are favorable in general. Originally I was going to upgrade my aging HD 6870 to R7 260X or R9 270X, but between R9 270X and R9 290 the performance delta matches the price delta, which is rare for a high-end product. (i.e. R9 290) R9 290 is twice as faster than R9 270X, and it doesn't ask for more than twice the price - which is refreshing.

I will see what the AIBs will cook up with it in the future. But it looks like this card will have some lasting power at an affordable entry price.