Price Being Equal MSI R9 290 or EVGA GTX 780 a Coin Flip/Personal Choice?

[Topper]

If the price is equal on both of these cards does it come down to personal choice as far as which to purchase? Gaming at 1920 x 1080.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127774

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130918

I understand each has a handful of games they excel in over the other card.

Will the extra GB Vram and extra memory interface on the AMD card make a difference in games in the future over the 3GB and 384 interface on the GTX ?

Thanks for your input.

Topper

 

[Termie]

The price is not equal. The R9 290 is currently a lot cheaper.

All things being equal, the 780. Just as fast if not faster as shipped, better overclocking headroom, lower power use, and excellent support from EVGA.

At 1080p, 4GB of VRAM will hold no advantage for the foreseeable future. Perhaps in five years, when these cards are long retired.

 

[Topper]

Thanks for the feedback Termie.

I can actually get both for approx. the same price from Amazon based upon a 15% discount I can receive which puts them within ~$13 of each other after rebate.

 

[CropDuster]

I went with the 290 simply because I wanted to take advantage of Mantle in BF4, which is about the only game I have time for nowadays. I believe the 290 performs a little better than the 780 at higher resolutions or when more AA is used to take advantage of its higher VRAM and bus.

Nvidia's software seems a bit more polished (this is my first AMD card, I've had nvidias back to the GF3, and Voodoos before that). A custom fan profile on my XFX is required, otherwise it will run at 95*. Afterburner's default profile keeps it 65-70*.

 

[tviceman]

Pros for the 780:
Generally better performance once overclocked on air.
Lower power consumption. (much lower when comparing overclock vs. overclock)
Lower temps.
Lower noise.
Physx.
Shadowplay.

Pros for the r 290:
Better performance if overclocked on water.
If you play BF4 or want to play Thief, then Mantle. (Mantle is going to be in other games too, but with DX12 looming the Mantle advantage will dissipate)
Better performance at 4k resolution / triple monitor setup.

 

[wand3r3r]

^ The 290 gaming isn't loud.

My take on those pros/cons

Pros for the 780:
Generally better performance once overclocked on air.
Lower power consumption.
Lower temps.
Physx.
Shadowplay.

Pros for the r 290:
++++ Mining ++++
Better performance if overclocked on water.
Mantle
Trueaudio (who knows but since "features" are on the list)
High resolution 4k/eyefinity
More memory


Personally at an equal or lower price point I would go aftermarket 290. The only way the 780 may be better is overclocking, but the aftermarket 290's should overclock too. The possibility to mine is my highest priority, and if the crypto world starts to skyrocket again you can hop aboard.

I wouldn't consider the reference 290 unless it's waaay cheaper or if you want to mine. Then it would be the 780 hands down imo. Take away that flaw and it's a great card.

Either way, you can't go wrong on this choice. EVGA and MSI are the two best brands for warranties etc. If you can't decide then flip a coin.

 

[MrK6]

Excellent summary wand3r3r. :thumbsup:

The 290 being cheaper and a better miner is clearly the winner for now. The GTX 780 is an excellent card, but for the higher price (both initially and mining) it really doesn't offer anything exciting to justify it. If you go to a higher resolution the 290 comes further ahead.

 

[justin4pack]

For me (I don't mine) is amd support. I have had far too many amd cards with problems. Tired of waiting for drivers to be realeased just fix something and something else breaks. Always something it seems. I have never once had a driver issue with nvidia. My last amd card was a 7870,and while it performed good it would overheat and I would have driver crashes. I just don't have time to deal with those things any longer.

 

[TreVader]

Evga classified or FTW/etc?


@ the same price the 290 is (slightly) faster stock, categorically faster at 4k and multi monitor, and faster under water. They are about the same on air, unless you have a Classified/Lightning/HOF.


I would go with a an MSI Lightning or Classified 780 over a reference or even Gaming 290 at the same price, however anything less I'd go 290.


At current prices, with the HIS 290 @ 409.99 and the MSI lightning 780 @ 550 it's no contest. 290 all the way, actually at these prices I'd go with the cheapest 290X (~550)

 

[Subyman]

I'd choose the 780 all things equal. I had an R9 290 that I purchased when they first came out for $399. I sold it a few weeks ago at peak price and purchased a 780 plus pocketed some extra profit. The 780's are beastly when over clocked. I was able to hit 1400mhz on water with the custom bios. I use 1250mhz daily at a low voltage. Plenty of juice for me. Plus I noticed a difference in the drivers. The R9 290 had strange tearing in wow even with V sync, but the 780 doesn't. Trine 2's color palette was messed up with the 290, but looks fine on the 780. Small differences like that.

Also I wanted to get ready for g-sync. I'll be picking up the Asus Swift monitor when it launches.

 

[UaVaj]

Pros for the 780:
Generally better performance once overclocked on air.
Lower power consumption. (much lower when comparing overclock vs. overclock)
Lower temps.
Lower noise.
Physx.
Shadowplay.

Pros for the r 290:
Better performance if overclocked on water.
If you play BF4 or want to play Thief, then Mantle. (Mantle is going to be in other games too, but with DX12 looming the Mantle advantage will dissipate)
Better performance at 4k resolution / triple monitor setup.

put the 780 under water likewise and it will blow the 290 out of the water.
once dx12 hits, mantle will be moot.
unless you are planning to go 2+ gpu for 1080p surround or 3+ gpu for 4k or 4 gpu for 1440p surround - the extra vram is moot. (does this appy to you?)

the only exclusive thing 290 has going is - if you are mining. 780 simple cannot touch this.

another thing to consider. nvidia simply has better driver support.



so same price? nvidia all day any day.
your money so spend it as you see fit.

 

[TreVader]

put the 780 under water likewise and it will blow the 290 out of the water.
once dx12 hits, mantle will be moot.
unless you are planning to go 2+ gpu for 1080p surround or 3+ gpu for 4k or 4 gpu for 1440p surround - the extra vram is moot. (does this appy to you?)

the only exclusive thing 290 has going is - if you are mining. 780 simple cannot touch this.

another thing to consider. nvidia simply has better driver support.



so same price? nvidia all day any day.
your money so spend it as you see fit.

The 780 simply can't touch the 290 on any resolution higher than 1600p regardless of clocks. And unless you're hitting 1400mhz you're not touching a 290 at 1150


Also you're not getting DX12 unless you buy windows 9, and DX12 is not an "advantage" for nvidia. The 780 doesn't even support DX 11.1

 

[wand3r3r]

put the 780 under water likewise and it will blow the 290 out of the water.
once dx12 hits, mantle will be moot.
unless you are planning to go 2+ gpu for 1080p surround or 3+ gpu for 4k or 4 gpu for 1440p surround - the extra vram is moot. (does this appy to you?)

the only exclusive thing 290 has going is - if you are mining. 780 simple cannot touch this.

another thing to consider. nvidia simply has better driver support.



so same price? nvidia all day any day.
your money so spend it as you see fit.

What driver issues? What AMD cards have you used lately to form this opinion on?

It sounds like you are simply downplaying the 290 due to it's not being nvidia all day any day. :whiste:

 

[Kenmitch]

OP....Based on the arguements so far I'm gonna say flip a coin. If it lands on edge it's integrated graphics for you.

 

[IEC]

If the games you are playing and plan to play favor AMD, get the 290. The MSI Gaming 290 is a fantastic card and runs cool. Performance/watt differential between 290/X and 780/Ti is less than 10%, so it really shouldn't be a factor unless you pay exorbitant rates for power.

214W average for R9 290 reference vs 199W average 780 reference:
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/MSI/R9_290X_Gaming/images/power_average.gif

With the upgraded MSI cooler it'll be very close, as the R290/X consumes considerably less power if you can keep it cool. For example, my watercooled cards will not break 220W at the wall on stock voltages while mining. Undervolted I have them @ 185W each from the wall.

 

[Gloomy]

I've been on Beta drivers exclusively since I got my R9 290, and I've run into no issues.

 

[UaVaj]

op
stated 1920x1080.
no mention of bf4 or thief or star citizen or nitrous wanting mantle support or mining or overclock. (unless theses applies)

same price - definitely nvidia

 

[blackened23]

Performance wise both cards are fairly close at stock. So with that being the case, we're looking at a situation where both cards are similar in price. Let's see.

First, if you get the 290 do not get reference. IMO, the reference design leaves a lot to be desired. If you want a 290 get an aftermarket variety, they are the only reasonable choice for AMD 290 cards. And i'm sure some here will argue in favor of the reference 290 till they're blue in the face, but the card is not quiet. Maybe you don't care about quiet. I don't know. But keep that in mind. The aftermarket 290 cards fix the reference blower problems and perform quite well. Very well, actually.

With nvidia you can really get either or, although the aftermarket cards will be significantly faster with GPU boost 2.0 + overclocking. GK110 overclocks better than Hawaii from what i've seen. So if you go nvidia route I would suggest aftermarket if you want overclocking, as these cards are scaling 15-20% past stock reference with GPU Boost 2.0.

My opinion is also with both being the same price, get the 780. My opinion is NV offers better and more polished software as has been mentioned by a few others in this thread, and I do like their added features such as adaptive vsync, driver AO, downsampling, monitor overclocking, etc. This is just my opinion having used both AMD and NV extensively over the years. I'm sure some will get offended, disagree, whatever, but this is an opinion thread and this is mine. Generally speaking I haven't had a situation with NV where I had to wait months/years for a fix to a problem. That has occurred on the AMD side in recent times with eyefinity, and is quite frustrating if you're on the receiving end.

I think that nvidia clinches it by a mile in terms of software/drivers, but don't take my word for it. Search around, do research, and look up what each card offers you in terms of features and software. You may not care about nvidia features or may be interested in Mantle...if you aren't interested in those NV features / software, weigh your purchase decision accordingly. Like I said, at stock both cards are close in performance. You will probably be happy with EITHER card in terms of framerate. They are both disgustingly fast for 1080p. So you'll need to weigh your purchase on software, features, and all that sort of thing. I have my opinion on software and features, yours may differ. Do some research, hit up google, and go from there.

 

[3DVagabond]

Same price = 290.

As far as O/C'ing goes people are forgetting the stock 290 frequency is ~947MHz. 20% O/C is easy with the 290 and it's a bit faster with more RAM, etc... stock for stock.

First, if you get the 290 do not get reference. IMO, the reference design leaves a lot to be desired. If you want a 290 get an aftermarket variety, they are the only reasonable choice for AMD 290 cards. And i'm sure some here will argue in favor of the reference 290 till they're blue in the face, but the card is not quiet. Maybe you don't care about quiet. I don't know. But keep that in mind. The aftermarket 290 cards fix the reference blower problems and perform quite well. Very well, actually.

After dozens (and I might be being kind here) of similar rants we get it, you hate the stock cooler. The OP isn't considering the reference design. The crusade can be left behind.

 

[blackened23]

I only saw the thread title [MSI R9-290 vs EVGA GTX 780], i'm not in the habit of clicking on links. So you stated your opinion and stated mine. That's fantastic. You go on having your opinions and i'll have mine. If you have an opinion that differs from my opinion, I really don't care. You're more than welcome to not see my posts, I think there are features for that in your user CP if it bothers you. There's really nothing left to say unless you're interested in a never ending circular nonsense debate, and i'm not interested. Like I said, you say your piece and i'll say mine. End of story, nothing else to say, no need to reply.

 

[IEC]

I only saw the thread title [MSI R9-290 vs EVGA GTX 780], i'm not in the habit of clicking on links. So you stated your opinion and stated mine. That's fantastic. You go on having your opinions and i'll have mine. If you have an opinion that differs from my opinion, I really don't care. You're more than welcome to not see my posts, I think there are features for that in your user CP if it bothers you. There's really nothing left to say unless you're interested in a never ending circular nonsense debate, and i'm not interested. Like I said, you say your piece and i'll say mine. End of story, nothing else to say, no need to reply.

MSI Gaming 290 is a non reference card, as is the eVGA GTX 780 Superclocked.

There is also a third option for the OP which is to wait and see what Maxwell big chip brings us. If it is anything like the 750 Ti indicates, it will be price cuts across the board AMD + nVidia, in which case everyone wins and OP can get more bang for his buck.

 

[f1sherman]

As far as mining goes, I don't see that as 290 advantage. Quite the contrary.
If anything mining is LOWERING 290 price because GPU mining is dead for lots of people, me including, and if not already, 2nd hand card will be hitting market very soon, therefore lowering 290 market value.

As for stock cooling... It's so bad that I'll admit, the thought has cross my mind - letting my 290 mine at stock settings and RMA if it dies.
Would that be immoral :hmm:
I've always kept it at 88 Celsius while mining, with undervolting and crazy fan speed. While having to put up with BSODs due to aggressive undervolting.

 

[DooKey]

If gaming I say go for the winner of a coin toss. This is assuming you are going to buy an aftermarket cooled 290. Or better yet buy the card that seems to favor the games you play at the res you play at.

 

[TreVader]

I only saw the thread title [MSI R9-290 vs EVGA GTX 780], i'm not in the habit of clicking on links. So you stated your opinion and stated mine. That's fantastic. You go on having your opinions and i'll have mine. If you have an opinion that differs from my opinion, I really don't care. You're more than welcome to not see my posts, I think there are features for that in your user CP if it bothers you. There's really nothing left to say unless you're interested in a never ending circular nonsense debate, and i'm not interested. Like I said, you say your piece and i'll say mine. End of story, nothing else to say, no need to reply.

When the 290 came out your argument was that "if they were the same price, and the 290 was aftermarket, the 290 would be the better option". Maybe you should make a decision and stick to it before you give advice? You seem confused.

 

[omeds]

780

Quieter, cooler, less power, better performer (unless you run 4k or eyefinity), more oc headroom and scaling, more IQ enhancements/tweaks, better drivers, Gsync, PhysX, shadowplay, better 3D if you care for it.

My 2 cents.