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Is this a good 290X?

Hi-Fi Man

Hi-Fi Man

Senior member
There's a new Radeon 290X on ebay for $337 which seems like a good deal to me. Since GCN seems to be doing well due to the console effect I've been considering getting this card from my 780, however I don't know if I should wait until GDC Tuesday just in case NVIDIA announces Pascal or something.

Is $337 for an XFX double dissipation 290x a good deal? Is it worth moving from my 780 to the 290x if I were to sell the 780 for close to what I paid for it (~$200)?
 
price too high. You can get new 390 cards for under $300 too btw. I just like the idea of having extra cores.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwaresw...x_dd_4gb_with_custom_v1tech/?ref=search_posts

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwareswap/search?q=290x&sort=new&restrict_sr=on

https://hardforum.com/threads/fs-r9-290x-tri-x-oc.1895357/

you want under $300.

it should be worth moving to a 290x from a 780. They often are worlds apart now. the question is whether its worth waiting for new GPUs. If you get something under $300 it should be good buy.
 
Personally I'm waiting, but I'd still stick with a new 390 for that kind of money. The Sapphire R9 390 Nitro is available on Amazon for $345 NIB ($339 on Newegg). The risk of buying a used video card off ebay isn't worth a few dollars savings to me.
 
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So what makes the 390 better than the 290x? I was under the impression that if they are both clocked the same (in this case they are 1GHz) then the 290x would be faster due to being the fully enabled chip, unless the faster memory is actually more important.
 
Hi-Fi Man said:
So what makes the 390 better than the 290x? I was under the impression that if they are both clocked the same (in this case they are 1GHz) then the 290x would be faster due to being the fully enabled chip, unless the faster memory is actually more important.
Click to expand...

If clocked the same (core and memory) you'll get identical performance from the 290x/390x and 290/390. But the newer 390/390x chips seem to clock better on average and I like the new bios that spins down the fans at idle. I love my 290x but for that price I'd go for a new 390 with a warranty. You can overclock to make up the difference
 
If you have a GTX 780 I would just wait a little bit. New generation releases are close and its not like you're hurting for a decent GPU.
 
Question now is should I wait for Pascal or go 390? I'm not sure what price range these new cards are going to be and if they'll have an effect on current card prices. I don't want spend over $350 for a card because I usually upgrade cards every year. I honestly prefer NVIDIA cards due to their drivers and better performance in lesser known games but GCN is kicking butt right now...
 
The 390 has 500MHz (effectively) more memory speed, and therefore more bandwidth. It gives you a few percent performance. You lose some performance from the smaller shader count, the memory off sets it some, but the 290X is probably just a hair faster yet. But you can see from the benches it's quite close.

With all that being said, I'd probably wait unless you want to get into mining now.
 
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Leyawiin said:
If you have a GTX 780 I would just wait a little bit. New generation releases are close and its not like you're hurting for a decent GPU.
Click to expand...

Agree with this tbh.i wouldnt bother with a 290x over a 780 at the moment.new cards s coming through etc.
 
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The sapphire nitro 390 is about the same price new. If the card was new it would be decent, but used it should be under $275 USD IMO.
 
Shmee said:
The sapphire nitro 390 is about the same price new. If the card was new it would be decent, but used it should be under $275 USD IMO.
Click to expand...

It is new but it looks like the faster RAM is more important. GCN is pretty bandwidth hungry I guess.

So it seems most of you say to wait but what price do you think these new cards will be?
 
Hi-Fi Man said:
How?!?
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For a while 290X reference models weren't highly regarded.

My local Microcenter was selling refurbished 290X Diamond ref models for as low as $190. Friend who works there dropped me a line they had a return and it was going to be sold as open box. Wrung up $165 at the register. I had no complaints. And after a few benches it had no issues (minus that ref blower, woof). Next stop to Microcenter got the open box HG-A10 they had on the shelf (I jokingly said it was the one I bought almost a year ago but returned it.)

All in all for <$200 I got a water cooled 290X that is whisper quiet. (Note: I had a spare Corsair H60 I was going to use with my 980 Ti project but that fell apart, glad I got to use it some where else.)
 
I bet that was game stable😛.i kid.all the 290/290x i played around with seemed stable at 1100.all needed extra juice after that though.
 
I would wait, but if you have to do it now then buy used. I just bought a used Sapphire ref 290 for $175 and there are better deals out there if you take your time.
 
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