[H] PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X Video Card Review

[Techhog]

I still don't see myself buying PowerColor again. Terrible RMA service, and loud...

 

[Headfoot]

Check that 290, might just unlock.
Both of my ~$180 XFX 290 DDs did, much to my surprise

Wow -- recently purchased ones? That's crazy (awesome) if true

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I still don't see myself buying PowerColor again. Terrible RMA service, and loud...

I bought my first powercolor product in over a decade (x1550) in the R9 270X. That card is silent and overclocks well.

 

[Leyawiin]

It's interesting to see the system power consumption being almost the same between a 970 and a 290x, both OCed.

63 watts more at load - 17.25% higher power consumption. That's not "nearly the same".

 

[WT]

Bought my Powercolor PCS+ 290x card for $270 AR 2 months back - what an impressive performer ! It replaced another Powercolor card, a 7970 that performed equally well for the games I played at the time.

I don't game nearly as much as I used to, but what I now do is buy AAA titles from a few years back (currently addicted to Skyrim) and find that my dated hardware can play the hell out of those older titles. No need to upgrade my video card once a year anymore, which helps keep more $$ in my bank account.

Skyrim is an amazing game that continues to age well, with hundreds and hundreds of mods that make it look quite stunning compared to vanilla Skyrim. Those Steam $5 sales will keep me entertained for years at the rate I am going - over 200 hours into Skyrim and over 400 hours into CoH2.

 

[RussianSensation]

I don't game nearly as much as I used to, but what I now do is buy AAA titles from a few years back (currently addicted to Skyrim) and find that my dated hardware can play the hell out of those older titles. No need to upgrade my video card once a year anymore, which helps keep more $$ in my bank account.
...
Those Steam $5 sales will keep me entertained for years at the rate I am going - over 200 hours into Skyrim and over 400 hours into CoH2.

Oh oh, you just figured out the secret to affordable PC gaming. :thumbsup: With so many broken AAA and otherwise PC games that require patches for 6+ months, it's actually advantageous in many cases to not buy new AAA games because of how glitchy and unoptimized they are. Also, if you add all the DLC, a lot of $50-60 games end up costing $90-120 but once GOTY editions come out, they usually drop to $20-30.

 

[Headfoot]

Agreed. There are almost no franchises left that I play day one. And since at this rate we'll never have Half Life 3...

With the DLC plague I also just wait to get GOTY or "Master Edition" versions that cost the same $60 just with all the DLC a year later.

The only ones I day 1 now are multiplayer focused games where no one will be playing it a year from launch

 

[NomanA]

That 970 is junk. Many users reported poor overclocking on it and even thermal / power throttling.

No, it's a great 970. I used that MSI 970 for many months before returning it recently due to the 4GB issue. MSI released a BIOS about 2-3 months after releasing the card, which brought up the power limit and reduced the TDP as well in games at the same time. I used to get consistent 1460MHz+ GPU clock and TDP of 105-106% in Firestrike and Heaven benchmark runs.

If anyone is looking for a 970 for some reason, I'd wholeheartedly recommend MSI 4GD5T - one of the better 970s out there (and easily the best value, given its price)

 

[RussianSensation]

No, it's a great 970. I used that MSI 970 for many months before returning it recently due to the 4GB issue. MSI released a BIOS about 2-3 months after releasing the card, which brought up the power limit and reduced the TDP as well in games at the same time. I used to get consistent 1460MHz+ GPU clock and TDP of 105-106% in Firestrike and Heaven benchmark runs.

If anyone is looking for a 970 for some reason, I'd wholeheartedly recommend MSI 4GD5T - one of the better 970s out there (and easily the best value, given its price)

Good to know they made changes to the card because when it launched, it was rather mediocre. Right now though the MSI Gaming 970 or Gigabyte Windforce 970 are selling for $315-320. That makes the 4GD5T a hard sell.