Please Recommend a New Card

[wanderica]

Currently I'm running 2 HD6950s in Crossfire (rest of rig is in sig), and they're starting to show some age. This is especially so since I upgraded to 1440p. The launch of the 970s and 980s seemed like an ideal time to upgrade, but now I'm a bit torn since AMD dropped the price on the 290x.

I have 2 monitors and an Oculus Rift (which acts as a 3rd monitor @ 1080p). I game exclusively on my primary monitor at 1440p, though. I really like it when I can play in windowed mode as it makes multitasking so much easier. This isn't really an issue on the rift since there's nothing that really taxes my system yet, but for what it's worth, it seems to work best when run in extended mode (essentially windowed mode) with most programs. For these reasons, I'd like to stick to a single card if possible instead of SLi or CF.

Power and heat really don't concern me too much, but noise does. Currently, this machine is pretty quiet despite an aggressive OC on the processor and 2 GPUs. I'd like to keep it that way. I would expect the 970s to be a bit more quiet since they are cooler and more efficient, but the 290x has been out a while and has some nice aftermarket options.

Lastly, budget. I have until Christmas to make up my mind, and likely won't do anything until late November (Hate spending money ). I will also be buying a new 256GB SSD to replace this old 128GB intel drive from like 8 years ago. I would like for both together to be ~$500.

 

[SoulWager]

You could get a gtx 970 and a 256GB MX100 for ~440. You can probably do better if you wait for sales.

 

[wanderica]

You could get a gtx 970 and a 256GB MX100 for ~440. You can probably do better if you wait for sales.

Not a bad suggestion. newegg seems to be out of stock right now on the 970s anyway, so waiting for sales might be the best option.

On the other hand there is a nice bundle with the 290x now. gah! why'd they have to lower the price? This was easy a week ago.

 

[SlickR12345]

I'd wait until March when AMD new GPS's come out. They will have stacked memory, full DX 12 support, and be about twice as fast as the current top gpu's.

 

[3DVagabond]

It's hard to say what's going to be the best deal in late Nov.

 

[raghu78]

OP a R9 290X is a very good option at current prices. In recent titles like Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor , Ryse Son of Rome, Civilization Beyond Earth and Alien Isolation the R9 290X is easily faster than the GTX 970 as seen from multiple reviews.

Get a Samsung 840 256 GB SSD and a XFX R9 290X DD and you should be pretty happy with the performance. The game bundle is a good value add.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150696
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147193

In fact pcper has updated their hardware leaderboard with the XFX R9 290X DD for the dream and high end system.

http://www.pcper.com/hwlb

"If you picked up a G-SYNC display already then the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX2 @ $330 is a good deal. On the other hand the R9 290X is undisputably faster and with the current sale price of $300 after rebate is a far better buy! The XFX Double D R9 290X will not be on sale at this price long nor will supplies last so grab it now if you can."

the XFX DD cooler fans are quiet.

http://techreport.com/review/26092/custom-cooled-radeon-r9-290x-cards-from-asus-and-xfx-reviewed/3

"Welp. Both of the cards are nearly whisper-quiet under load, registering fewer decibels on our meter than the reference GeForce GTX 780 Ti—and pretty much embarrassing the reference-cooled HIS 290X. All the while, the custom-cooled 290X cards are able to keep GPU temperatures relatively low, as well. This is a major improvement. "

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/xfx_r9_290x_dd/16.htm

"Overclocking shows that when the fan speed is maxed out, the reference cooler is actually the better performer based purely on the thermals. That's a good thing, but when you add the noise generated to the equation, while the XFX R9 290X is 10 °C warmer, it's in another league altogether. By comparison, the Double Dissipation equipped card is quiet. Even when the fans are maxed out, the XFX R9 290X is, by definition, a quiet card."

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...tion_edition_crossfire_review/10#.VE4tB3utHhB

"The XFX Double Dissipation fans are the quietest fans we’ve ever encountered at high RPM speeds. These fans are definitely quieter than the ASUS DirectCU II fans when the RPMs and fan speed are increased. We experienced the XFX fans running at 93% fan speed, but, we did not hear them at that level. Whereas, 93% fan speed on the ASUS DirectCU II video cards is extremely loud. On the ASUS cards we wouldn’t go over 75% fan speed because the noise is too loud. However, on the XFX Double Dissipation Edition video cards the fans were literally quiet, even at near maximum fan speed. While playing games, we never noticed fan noise at all. There was no ramping up of fan speed heard while starting to game and leaving the system on all day. "

 

[wanderica]

Slick,

I thought about waiting, but the truth is if I keep waiting then I'll never buy anything. While there's wisdom in your advice, I've always been served best buy purchasing based on my needs at the time, and upgrading every 2 years. Time-wise, I should be upgrading my mobo and processor too, but this 2500k has been a beast. Can't really justify the expense there for what Intel has out ATM.


Raghu,

Thanks for all the links. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on the 290x DD and the 840 pro.

 

[raghu78]

Slick,

I thought about waiting, but the truth is if I keep waiting then I'll never buy anything. While there's wisdom in your advice, I've always been served best buy purchasing based on my needs at the time, and upgrading every 2 years. Time-wise, I should be upgrading my mobo and processor too, but this 2500k has been a beast. Can't really justify the expense there for what Intel has out ATM.


Raghu,

Thanks for all the links. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on the 290x DD and the 840 pro.

wanderica
The XFX R9 290X stock fan speeds are conservatively set. So make sure to ramp it up to 60 - 70% and monitor VRM temps in game and when you benchmark with a utility like gpu-z or hwinfo to make sure there is no throttling.

 

[wanderica]

Update:

So I procrastinated on the purchase, and as luck would have it the Saphire Tri-x 290x dropped to 299.99. Was able to pick up that and an 850 pro for 489.99 AR. Thanks for all the help. Should be here Tuesday!

 

[lukart]

Update:

So I procrastinated on the purchase, and as luck would have it the Saphire Tri-x 290x dropped to 299.99. Was able to pick up that and an 850 pro for 489.99 AR. Thanks for all the help. Should be here Tuesday!

Great choice, the 290X has plenty of performance and its more capable for 4K than 970. The Tri-x will make sure it runs cool and quiet

 

[raghu78]

Update:

So I procrastinated on the purchase, and as luck would have it the Saphire Tri-x 290x dropped to 299.99. Was able to pick up that and an 850 pro for 489.99 AR. Thanks for all the help. Should be here Tuesday!

excellent deal. the Tri-X is probably the best R9 290 / R9 290X cooler behind only the Vapor-X in cooling efficiency, noise and temps.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290X_Tri-X_OC/23.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/4

"At 41.1dB the 290 Tri-X OC beats a number of Tahiti based cards, including our 7970GE and Sapphire’s own 280X Toxic, and it even edges out Asus’s impressive 280X DirectCU II. This not only makes Sapphire’s 290 the quietest high-end card we have, but it also means we’re seeing Sapphire dissipate an estimated 250W of heat while only generating a very, very limited amount of noise while doing so. Or to put this another way, Sapphire’s 290 is 16dB quieter than the reference 290, nullifying our earlier noise concerns and then-some"

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/928-8/bruit-temperatures.html

 

[Shmee]

Awesome buys! Have fun.

 

[schmuckley]

Update:

So I procrastinated on the purchase, and as luck would have it the Saphire Tri-x 290x dropped to 299.99. Was able to pick up that and an 850 pro for 489.99 AR. Thanks for all the help. Should be here Tuesday!

:thumbsup:

 

[guskline]

Update:

So I procrastinated on the purchase, and as luck would have it the Saphire Tri-x 290x dropped to 299.99. Was able to pick up that and an 850 pro for 489.99 AR. Thanks for all the help. Should be here Tuesday!

OMG are you going to be a happy camper! What monitor are you using?

 

[wanderica]

OMG are you going to be a happy camper! What monitor are you using?

It's a Dell U2711, I think.

 

[Z15CAM]

Awesome buys! Have fun.

Only in the USA . Canadians have a better prices with China.

What's with your American Free trade. I'm sick an tired of the USA milking Canada.

We are all North American. - Race, Creed Colour or Religion ... etc. Land of the Free over the almighty US Dollar - Really!!!!!!

We are all Slaves to the dollar and some day - It's got to end.

 

[3DVagabond]

Only in the USA . Canadians have a better prices with China.

What's with your American Free trade. I'm sick an tired of the USA milking Canada.

We are all North American. - Race, Creed Colour or Religion ... etc. Land of the Free over the almighty US Dollar - Really!!!!!!

We are all Slaves to the dollar and some day - It's got to end.

What?

 

[Z15CAM]

What?

Take your "WHAT" and SHOVE IT!

Compare the prices on Newegg.US Vs Newegg.CA for Video Cards or any Card regarding PC dominance.

Personalty, as a Canadian, I would sooner shop in Korea or China.

CDA made a deal with US on Free Trade and - "WHAT" a Fiasco.


Personal attacks will not be tolerated here.

-Moderator Rvenger

 

[Ryanrenesis]

I agree. We Canadians pay ridiculous prices compared to our American counterparts. Our "sale" prices are equal to your American retail prices. It's so upsetting that I was tempted to purchase a PO Box in the US just to enable access to the US PC market.

 

[tweakboy]

Grab 290 ATI or 560 Ti and you should be good if you can SLI or xfire it.

 

[Z15CAM]

agree. We Canadians pay ridiculous prices compared to our American counterparts. Our "sale" prices are equal to your American retail prices. It's so upsetting that I was tempted to purchase a PO Box in the US just to enable access to the US PC market.

And try to escape "BROKERAGE FEE's" - The CDN/USA Free Deal is FLAWED and an US Rip Off Co. like Amazon has no business in CDA.

As a Canadian, it make s me SICK buying an item for lots less from a Communists Country - Where shipping is FREE with no Brokerage Charges - compared to buying from my Brother's and Sister's in North America, considering our own CDN Prices for the item is absurd.

No doubt Canadian Consumers are pissed off with the North American Free Trade Act, commonly referenced as NAFTA, which stands for Not Affordable For The Allie's - Whatever ;o)