Help with GPU upgrade

[facetman]

MY son is in need of a GPU upgrade- his 6870 is not cutting it anymore.

He/we are debating about the 290 or 970 or ?? Cost is a big factor...

Prices currently :290= $250 and the 970= $350

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202080

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814487076

Not sure the 970 is worth $100 extra. He games on a 1080P 24 inch monitor

Trying to determine cost vs performance, heat, PSU requirements, etc. he currently has a 650 watt PSU ( corsair Tx I think) - but we have an older Corsair 750 watt in another PC that does not need it that we could swap out the PSU's , if necessary.

So, performance- the 970 has the edge- but the 290 will run every game on high settings without an issue.

The 970 requires no change in the PSU= my time to switch the PSU's around, or buy a new PSU to use with the 290 = $100+.

The 970 is less hot - so the whole system will be cooler and not require any thoughts of new fans or adding a case fan.

Do you think the 970's will be a on sale for Black Friday ( around $300) or in general in the next few weeks or are they going to continue to go up? Will the 290's continue to go down?

Thanks for the help...

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Could get a used 290, might have a lot of milage on them due to mining, but they still have warranty, so who cares.

A 650W corsair will have no trouble with any single gpu.

 

[raghu78]

a R9 290 can easily run with a quality 500w PSU. if you already have a corsair 650TX then no worry. At 1080p the R9 290 performs about 10% slower on avg compared to a GTX 970. But no other card comes close to the price perf of a R9 290. You cannot beat a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X at USD 270 (250 after rebate). with 4 free games. :thumbsup:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202080

 

[Ryanrenesis]

If I didn't have a vendetta against AMD, I'd go with the R9 290.

Much better bang-for-your-buck, and still able to play the latest games on max settings.

970 is more future-proof and power-efficient, but honestly who really cares about power consumption when we pay something like 14 cents per kWh in North America (or 17.2 pence per kWh in Britain).

 

[Silverforce11]

He/we are debating about the 290 or 970 or ?? Cost is a big factor...

Prices currently :290= $250 and the 970= $350

No contest at those prices, especially with good custom cooled R290 (Go for the Sapphire TriX, runs very quiet and cool and ~5% faster than stock R290). Performance is very close so the 970 isn't worth paying 40% extra.

 

[facetman]

Ya - we were leaning that way..Thanks people. Confirming my thoughts give me confidence.

 

[RussianSensation]

That's one of the quietest 290s around. If you can sell the games your son doesn't plan in that bundle, that could also lower your cost. Also, if you have a friend in the military who could order for you, there is an additional 10% discount until Nov 21st:

http://www.newegg.com/militarydiscounts?NeweggOnsite

I would personally take the 290 and spend $80-100 on games for your son or put it aside for his next GPU upgrade assuming he doesn't game 6 hours a day every day and your electricity costs are reasonable. Just make sure his CPU is good enough (i5 2500K or better is recommended) for such as powerful GPU.

 

[facetman]

That's cool- did not know that Newegg did anything for the military. Do not think it would be right for me to take that discount- thanks for the offer though.

Ordered today. I peaked at pulled out his PSU= 550 not a 650- and it is not a corsair. Got the other sons PSU confused with this son's. So, I guess I will be pulling a switch with the third PC we have in the house that has the a older Corsair 750. Hopefully the no name 550 will be enough to push the 560 ti 448 core that is in that PC.