R-290X and R-290 Non ref cooling are in stock

[Madpacket]

Get used to these new prices or go with a Geforce card. LTC mining will not slow down on Radeon GPU's until custom ASIC's arrive or unless it becomes unprofitable to mine (unlikely)

Also once custom ASIC'S arrive for LTC another alt currency will take its place like when BTC got specialized ASIC'S so these Radeons will continue to be in short supply.

 

[Z15CAM]

Guess I was lucky to get a Reference Gigabyte R9 290X for $549 CDN; of course, add 13% GST and another $12 for shipping it totaled approx $633. I think I got the last card at that price because the next day there where no more 290X's left in Canada and NewEgg.US pumped to the price to $669 USD. I clearly saved over $100 on that decision to buy at that time. With that money I bought a WB and Back-plate costing $130.

NCIX.CA is finally in the process of shipping a back ordered XSPC Razor WB and Back-plate. I hope it arrives before the 25th so I have something to play with on Xmas Day ;o)

Any AIB cooling solution 290X I see are all up and over $700 here with the GTX 780Ti at approx the price.

In lieu of this Crypto-Mining craze it appears the 290/290X Vs GTX 780/GTX 780Ti are priced on par at the moment with very similar performance cost per dollar.

 

[skipsneeky2]

$700 for a 290x at this point is insane, good luck selling me that one with a sexy as hell Msi lightning 780 going for $530 before rebate.

For a while i regretted buying my GTX 770 at $400 but waiting another 3 months would been one hell of a disaster as i would be pretty much looking at buying a 770 still with my original $400 budget but only cheaper.

 

[Z15CAM]

Geez - I'm low on them prices as I see the Gigabyte Windforce R9 290 on Newegg.CA and a MSI 290 Twin Frosr at NCIX CA for the insane prices of $700.

Go for the MSI Lightning GTX 780 for $530 but I did get that Ref-Gigabyte 290X for $549 CDN ;o)

Consider if the MSRP AMD prices return to normal. Both Newegg and NCIX are price gouging over this Mining Craze. It would cost me over $800 for a 290 taking HST and shipping into account right now.

 

[RussianSensation]

For a while i regretted buying my GTX 770 at $400 but waiting another 3 months would been one hell of a disaster as i would be pretty much looking at buying a 770 still with my original $400 budget but only cheaper.

When 770 2-4GB was going for $400-450, after-market HD7970 Ghz edition cards like MSI TwinFrozr were selling for $270-300. There were plenty of after-market 7970s on sale for $300-320 before R9 280X/290 dropped. Even after, there was a long enough period to buy after-market R9 280X for $299. Finally, people who are buying R9 290X for $600-700 are most likely going to put it towards LTC and in that case in a matter of months the card is free. So even with a $100-200 premium over MSRP, it's still "cheap." Of course if someone is buying a GPU for gaming only, GTX780/780Ti make more sense than R9 290/X, respectively.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

At the current diff/price it would take nearly a year mining 24/7 (impossible) to pay off a 290x with LTC.

 

[Peppered]

And to add not sure this goes for all of them but I did not see many good things said on reviews in Newegg from the anyone that bought the Saphier 290x.
most said it made there pc to crash all of the time.

The heat and noise was only brought up by teh few that had somthing good to say

 

[skipsneeky2]

And to add not sure this goes for all of them but I did not see many good things said on reviews in Newegg from the anyone that bought the Saphier 290x.
most said it made there pc to crash all of the time.

The heat and noise was only brought up by teh few that had somthing good to say

Always gonna be someone who has a bad experience with a brand while others have nothing but good, a old friend of mine hates Asus motherboards and prefers buying MSI branded boards but my experience has been a complete 360 with MSI boards being crap in my experience and nothing but good from Asus.....

 

[akahoovy]

I guess I'm going to use the 10% Masterpass discount and pick up one of the Gigabyte 290's. If prices fall in the near future I'll get the 2nd one I've been wanting for Crossfire. These prices suck ***.

I tried to psych myself up to go for it but I couldn't do it. I think my goal now is to wait about 2 weeks and see if there are any sales on some GTX 770's and see about picking up a pair for around $600. Nearly the same performance as 290's in Crossfire for $200 less.

If there are great sales on 4gb versions I would love to have those, but 2gb will be fine if they're cheap enough. I am not seeing the kind of perf/$ I want to yet from cards for 2560x1440 so maybe the next gen (Maxwell) will be able to do that.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I tried to psych myself up to go for it but I couldn't do it. I think my goal now is to wait about 2 weeks and see if there are any sales on some GTX 770's and see about picking up a pair for around $600. Nearly the same performance as 290's in Crossfire for $200 less.

If there are great sales on 4gb versions I would love to have those, but 2gb will be fine if they're cheap enough. I am not seeing the kind of perf/$ I want to yet from cards for 2560x1440 so maybe the next gen (Maxwell) will be able to do that.

If you were okay with spending 700 why not get a 780 aftermarket with the masterpass discount for around$450?

 

[blastingcap]

If you are truly so bullish on cryptocoins that you predict that you can mine for a year or more to subsidize the card, then you could be better off simply buying an equally-powerful NV card for less money (and possibly with better game bundle), and investing the difference by directly buying cryptocoins, if the price difference is significant. Historically, buying-and-holding coins has been 10 to 20 times more profitable than mining so it doesn't take very much direct investment to get results that would take a LOT of mining equipment.

Buying and holding $700 worth of Litecoins (LTC) in January 2013 would have netted you the same profit that would have taken ~$8000 in mining and electricity costs to generate over the course of a year, assuming average USA electricity prices.

Q: If LTC went to zero tomorrow, who would lose more?
A: The miner. The buyer-and-holder of LTC would lose $700, but the miner would lose about $5000-6000 ($8000 minus whatever he could recover from old, used hardware at back-to-earth prices--remember that 2 months ago, NEW 7950s went on sale for as low as $150). Electricity bills add up!

Thus, for larger mining operations where you buy more GPU than you would normally buy, mining is indeed risky. Even in situations where you would normally be in the market for a R9 290/X anyway for gaming, you still have heat/noise issues and are still paying for electricity and inflated prices up front.

Quite a few people have financial interests in AMD, either working directly for AMD and its AIBs and subcontractors, or holding AMD-related stocks and derivatives. They keep pushing people to buy AMD cards at inflated prices without mentioning other options that are just as good or better.

 

[IEC]

I need more 290X and 290 love, but am less than happy with the six phase power. Hoping for an MSI Lightning at some point

 

[skipsneeky2]

I need more 290X and 290 love, but am less than happy with the six phase power. Hoping for an MSI Lightning at some point

Oh yeah me too and when a 290x lightning is out,it should be very fun to see a 290x vs 780 lightning review. Could be the card to replace my 770 but at current prices the 780 lightning seems like the card for me but since i won't be buying for a while i could easily wait and see how things pan out.

 

[Sunburn74]

Are there any estimations as to when this mining bubble will burst? Do you think this will occur prior to march when Nvidia may be releasing their next set of cards?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Are there any estimations as to when this mining bubble will burst? Do you think this will occur prior to march when Nvidia may be releasing their next set of cards?

I'm doubtful it will anytime soon. I think it's a hobby for a lot of them now. I wish it would go away completely.

 

[akahoovy]

If you were okay with spending 700 why not get a 780 aftermarket with the masterpass discount for around$450?

For whatever reason, after a few days of people taking advantage of the Masterpass discount and the recent price drops on 780's, Newegg bundled all Nvidia cards with games and the Masterpass wouldn't work with that. Masterpass 10% discount expired yesterday as well.

I also decided I wasn't thrilled about having to get a ~$200 PSU to power two 780's or 290's so I could overclock the cards and my CPU.

edit: 770's SLI offer quite a bit more fps than a single 780 or 780 Ti, and can be had cheaper than a 780 Ti, so that's the appeal to me.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

For whatever reason, after a few days of people taking advantage of the Masterpass discount and the recent price drops on 780's, Newegg bundled all Nvidia cards with games and the Masterpass wouldn't work with that. Masterpass 10% discount expired yesterday as well.

I also decided I wasn't thrilled about having to get a ~$200 PSU to power two 780's or 290's so I could overclock the cards and my CPU.

edit: 770's SLI offer quite a bit more fps than a single 780 or 780 Ti, and can be had cheaper than a 780 Ti, so that's the appeal to me.

You sound like me. You'll torture yourself by not buying what you want to save that little bit of cash. Unfortunate trait to have.

 

[akahoovy]

You sound like me. You'll torture yourself by not buying what you want to save that little bit of cash. Unfortunate trait to have.

Unfortunately (to be much more fortunate at a later date) I'm signing up for online classes to go back to college this spring and only have so much cash left for play. Trying to make the most of it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Unfortunately (to be much more fortunate at a later date) I'm signing up for online classes to go back to college this spring and only have so much cash left for play. Trying to make the most of it.

Well you won't have time to play anyways. Good luck with the school. I'd definitely wait it out for the best deal in your situation.

 

[moonbogg]

So much for that for a good long while. Good thing i'm doing fine with 670SLI. I can wait this out for a long time. Looks like Maxwell + Haswell-E complete build for me unless this price issue clears up, like soon.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

I'll just wait for prices to fall. Its not like my 7970 has any problems with any game.

 

[guskline]

So much for that for a good long while. Good thing i'm doing fine with 670SLI. I can wait this out for a long time. Looks like Maxwell + Haswell-E complete build for me unless this price issue clears up, like soon.

Perfectly happy with my 670FTWs in SLI. Have them OC'd under water and they perform just fine. The R9 290 was a deal at $399 but $529?:$

 

[moonbogg]

Perfectly happy with my 670FTWs in SLI. Have them OC'd under water and they perform just fine. The R9 290 was a deal at $399 but $529?:$

Two reasons I like SLI. You get more power than you could from a single card for a while, and you have enough power to just wait things out for a while if you want to. I won't give up hope on the 290's yet though. We'll see. Funny how we have almost the exact same rig as well, although you are pushing a lot more pixels with yours.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

they were waiting for me to get bored of waiting and buy a 780 ti -_-

 

[ejjpi]

the current price/value ratio is just too high, it's better to wait until there will be reasonable prices..