R9 290X or EVGA GTX 780

[Lepton87]

I think most people would still recommend the 290 and picking up another one in the future with its superior crossfire implementation.

Ever so slightly-superior CF. Fortunately AMD fixed frametimes for tahiti CF where it could,so if you're not exceeding CF-Finger bandwidth you should be fine with fingered CF. CF-Finger is good for 2560x1600 60Hz so in practice AMD fixed CF for tahiti. From what I remember frame times are similar between 290CF and 280CF and scaling is also very similar easily within 10%.

 

[KaRLiToS]

What is CF Finger Bandwidth?

Hawaii uses XDMA

 

[Madpacket]

280x vs 290x crossfire, there's a large difference with the microstutter. I upgraded from dual 280's to 290's and the stuttering is much improved, almost nothing to bitch about now.

 

[Mike Roch]

Yup, definitely the R9 290X. I heard the 290X competes wit hthe 780 Ti (the Ti actually has better performance than the R9 290X at 1440p, by 1-2 fps), but not worth the $200 price premium.

 

[Mike Roch]

How about this R9 290 Tri-X for $425?

 

[thilanliyan]

Who voted for the 780??!! Who!!!?? Tell us so we can burn you at the stake!!

 

[VulgarDisplay]

If you were at all worried about getting the nvidia card for shadowplay amd has the same feature now.

http://community.amd.com/community/...eatures-come-to-the-amd-gaming-evolved-client

 

[Silverforce11]

R290X is not worth the $ premium above the R290. The performance delta if you ran them both at 1ghz clock is minuscule.

 

[wbynum]

Gigabyte 290 for $320 currently after rebate. Not the best 290 by a long shot but that sure is cheap.

http://slickdeals.net/f/7027092-gig...eo-card-320-after-20-rebate-free-shipping?v=1

 

[Headfoot]

Don't waste your money getting the 290x. Get a 290 and a fancy steak dinner for the same price

 

[Gikaseixas]

Another vote for 290X or 290

 

[Lepton87]

What is CF Finger Bandwidth?

Hawaii uses XDMA

Those ribbons you use to connect the cards together. They have limited bandwidth that's why it's only good for 2560x1600X 60HZ

 

[Puffnstuff]

Buy which ever you feel is best for your purposes within your budget and be happy with your decision.

 

[RussianSensation]

Those ribbons you use to connect the cards together. They have limited bandwidth that's why it's only good for 2560x1600X 60HZ

This doesn't apply for R9 290/X or for OP's monitor setup.

 

[Mike Roch]

GTX 780 Pros:
Cooler
Quieter
Overclocks Better
A Tad Cheaper
Built link quality products, unlike plastic from the R9 290X

R9 290X Pros:
Extra 1GB of VRAM
Performs better by 1-2 fps

 

[jackstar7]

Buy which ever you feel is best for your purposes within your budget and be happy with your decision.

Wait... do any of us ever do that?!

 

[MeldarthX]

GTX 780 Pros:
Cooler
Quieter
Overclocks Better
A Tad Cheaper
Built link quality products, unlike plastic from the R9 290X

R9 290X Pros:
Extra 1GB of VRAM
Performs better by 1-2 fps

Wow someone didn't bother to read its aftermarket 290X - so 780 wouldn't be cooler or quieter; OC is subjective.....it might OC a little more; and might not; since 780 will have to OC quite a bit to even match 290X standard; once 290X is OC there is no match as its not just 1-2 frames faster.....

780 isn't a tad cheaper....more like a hair......as people pointed out - 290 is the one to get....as it will blow past 780 to 780 TI territory; and is a hell of a lot cheaper than all 3

 

[Kenmitch]

Wow someone didn't bother to read its aftermarket 290X - so 780 wouldn't be cooler or quieter; OC is subjective.....it might OC a little more; and might not; since 780 will have to OC quite a bit to even match 290X standard; once 290X is OC there is no match as its not just 1-2 frames faster.....

780 isn't a tad cheaper....more like a hair......as people pointed out - 290 is the one to get....as it will blow past 780 to 780 TI territory; and is a hell of a lot cheaper than all 3

Too me it looks like the OP wants the GTX 780. Not sure why he hasn't just pulled the plug yet.

The r9 290 is where all the value lies these days!

 

[Mike Roch]

Wow someone didn't bother to read its aftermarket 290X - so 780 wouldn't be cooler or quieter; OC is subjective.....it might OC a little more; and might not; since 780 will have to OC quite a bit to even match 290X standard; once 290X is OC there is no match as its not just 1-2 frames faster.....

780 isn't a tad cheaper....more like a hair......as people pointed out - 290 is the one to get....as it will blow past 780 to 780 TI territory; and is a hell of a lot cheaper than all 3

Too me it looks like the OP wants the GTX 780. Not sure why he hasn't just pulled the plug yet.

The r9 290 is where all the value lies these days!

VC%G saus the R9 290/290X is better.
GH is saying to buy the GTX 780.

 

[BrightCandle]

VC%G saus the R9 290/290X is better.
GH is saying to buy the GTX 780.

General hardware tends to represent the overall market, 2/3s of the VC&G group is AMD users, whereas the market generally is 1/3 AMD and 2/3 Nvidia. You will get different answers from each.

 

[Kenmitch]

General hardware tends to represent the overall market, 2/3s of the VC&G group is AMD users, whereas the market generally is 1/3 AMD and 2/3 Nvidia. You will get different answers from each.

Looking at the pole in this thread it's 83% AMD.

In reality it's more likely the VC&G users are more into bang for buck than company loyalty.

It's really hard to ignore the cost vs performance unless you are loyal to one company or another.

I know my last couple of video card purchases were based on price vs performance. No matter how I looked at it NVidia couldn't compete....Except during the mining craze that is.

 

[ocre]

General hardware tends to represent the overall market, 2/3s of the VC&G group is AMD users, whereas the market generally is 1/3 AMD and 2/3 Nvidia. You will get different answers from each.

I agree completely

 

[Mike Roch]

Update:

-As of now, I have a 24" 1080p monitor, but in the future (2-3 years) I will buy my 1440p monitor. I can always SLI the 780s for the 1440p.
-I heard Radeon has some "driver problems," while the 780's drivers update in 1-2 clicks.

 

[jackstar7]

Tales of AMD's driver issues are always overstated.

 

[BrightCandle]

This particular forum prioritises price/performance very strongly, even if the differences are relatively minor. My feeling is that general hardware looks at the overall package. They have a more honest assessment of driver quality and extra features and tend to associate value to Nvidia cards for those reasons.

Having owned recent AMD cards (7970's) I don't think AMD has its act together, the amount of poor performing games on release, the severe bugs and everything else just left me with that feeling that the drivers are still rubbish. Not as bad as they once were (early AMD cards I had didn't even install) but compared to Nvidia they are much worse. I experienced this difference myself having previously value only price/performance alone.

On price/performance I can't disagree with the 290 its the better buy on that aspect. But the question really is which card would I buy knowing what I do now and I would buy the Nvidia card even if its more expensive, the price difference would have to be pretty large for that not to be the case, because AMD's 7970's drove me to the point of madness. Because for that extra price I get something that works on release day, which is massively important to me and its cheaper to buy Nvidia first rather than a 290 and then a 780 after it. AMD needs to get their drivers sorted, they need to start fixing the bugs their customers raise and they need to take the software seriously, until they do that its hard to recommend them unless the difference is enormous and its just not big enough a difference for me to say get an AMD card. Its not brand loyalty, I am just still pissed with AMD and the way they treated the problems I had and how they still treat the bugs. Leaving the 7970 users to rot on frame pacing will have lost them a lot of customers in the future and I will need good proof in the future that they have fixed their problems before I even consider them again.