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Used R9 290 vs GTX 970

C

ChuckFx

Member
I am looking for a GPU for a friend right now. I have an option to get a EVGA GTX 970 FTW fpr 452$ CAD or go in the used market for a R9 290 going around 220 CAD. My friend plays 1080p games BF4, SC II, WOW... He always wants to be over 60 fps and somewhat future proof.

EVGA is pretty much the top class for Nvidia and is as future proof as it gets but the pricing is really not the same. What would you guys suggest?
The rest of his rig is identical to mine.
 
My personal experience with AMD make me go toward Nvidia whenever I can. I also always recommend quality over price. In the long term, I assume the 970 is the better option, no?
 
ChuckFx said:
My personal experience with AMD make me go toward Nvidia whenever I can. I also always recommend quality over price. In the long term, I assume the 970 is the better option, no?
Click to expand...

That has been my experience as well. NVIDIA cards have just worked for me, whereas AMD stuff, while solid performers, tended to have more issues for me.

Of course others' mileage may vary.
 
I like my XFX R9 290 a lot, but I do have to use the built in frame rate limiter in MSI Afterburner to control the "60 FPS stutter" in a number of my games that in-game vertical sync doesn't take care of. A GTX 970 I sent back for coil whine didn't need it - smooth all the time. One of them is WoW's new expansion. The R9 290 is quiet, cool and has no coil whine though.
 
60FPS for SC2 and WoW might not be easy to achieve.

I personally would go with the 290, the 970 is clearly a better card, but not worth 2x the money.
 
Why not two used R9 290s? Costs around the same as the single 970.

I personally went the used 290 route about a month ago.

Edit: I'm assuming he doesn't care about saving money where possible
 
Well since I am purchasing for him, I don't want to be held accountable if anything happens. Build quality is very important.
 
If it's worth that much to him then sure. Personally I pay a little more for GPUs to get a little performance, but I'm never brand specific. They have always had similar annoyances whether they were AMD or Nvidia. In this case, I don't believe 5-10% better performance is worth 200% of the price. On the other hand, I think I would spend $50 to get a new R9. Neither should last your friend longer than the other, assuming that the used card wasn't abused, and 50 extra watts during most games with a good cooler won't be all that noticeable to anyone.
 
Most of the reputable sellers here will be upfront with you on whether or not it was used to mine. If it concerns you/him that much, he'll be a lot happier just buying new.

In terms of raw cooling power it's hard to beat Sapphire's line of 290s (Tri-X, Vapor-X). Gigabyte and Asus DCU II models use coolers originally designed for the GTX 780, and two of the heatpipes don't make direct contact with the GPU die at all. That said, they're still miles ahead of the reference cooler.

IIRC the Asus is the only one out of the four mentioned above to use a custom PCB. All the others use reference PCBs.

Again, if it's worrying to buy used, just spend the extra and spring for new. Otherwise, I'd suggest sticking to the FS forums here (or elsewhere) since there's more transparency.
 
ChuckFx said:
I am looking for a GPU for a friend right now. I have an option to get a EVGA GTX 970 FTW fpr 452$ CAD or go in the used market for a R9 290 going around 220 CAD. My friend plays 1080p games BF4, SC II, WOW... He always wants to be over 60 fps and somewhat future proof.

EVGA is pretty much the top class for Nvidia and is as future proof as it gets but the pricing is really not the same. What would you guys suggest?
The rest of his rig is identical to mine.
Click to expand...
I would get the 290/290X. And if it turns out to be loud and hot, I would just change the stock cooler to this. 970 is way too crippled, and even a decent OC won't cover the deficit in extra units. The 980 Reference is the card I would get today, if price is no objection.

Personally for me, there are only 2 cons of the 290 family: first) is the lack of VGA output support (yeah, sometimes it's handy to have a connection to a small VGA display for testing purposes). But for the majority of the people, this is not a real issue. And the second) the increased power consumption which requires good ventilation inside your case for optimal performance and your components longevity (with the 980 Reference, most of the heat goes outside your case, for example). So yeah, the 980 reference seems like the best card at the moment. Wish it had an AMD's ZeroCore equivalent though. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

EDIT: Forgot, there is HDMI 2.0 in the 900 Geforce series. This is new tech, though.. and some people are experiencing issues with that. Can't say from my experience. But google is your friend 🙂
 
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I've had great luck with my 290s. There is no way I'd pay twice as much for 5-10% more performance. As long as you get one with a good cooler your friend will be fine.
 
Chuckfx, check your local craigslist and make sure the card is working before you purchase it. I managed to grab a sapphire r9 290x for $240 but made the seller show me it was working before purchase. Right now 290s are selling for $190-200 and 290x selling for $250 in Vancouver.
 
Insomniator said:
For half the price you'd have to be insane to get a 970.
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This.

I "upgraded" from a 290 to a 970 in order to get HDMI 2.0 for displaying/gaming 4K60 on my 4K TV (most HDTVs don't have DisplayPort). The irony, of course, is that the 290 is capable of better 4K gameplay, but 4K gameplay wasn't my only concern. All-in-all, I'm happy with my decision since the 290 could only do 4K30 over HDMI 1.4a.

But again, if you can get a 290 that cheap, do it.
 
Spending CAD 220 for a used R9 290 is a bad idea when new R9 290s with a 3 game bundle + civilization earth beyond earth are selling for CAD 270 - 300 (240 - 280 after rebate). Sell the game bundle to cut your costs.

http://www.ncix.com/detail/powercolor-radeon-r9-290-turbo-24-104017-1301.htm

http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-windforce-db-99167-1301.htm

http://www.ncix.com/detail/club3d-radeon-r9-290-royalking-c5-94192-1301.htm

The windforce for CAD 300 (280 after rebate) seems a reasonable choice. as said above the tri-x and vapor-x is the best and are costly. the wf is still a decent cooler and its price is very good.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728-8.html
 
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Since I have had a 970, 980 and also have a 290, for half the price the 290 is a hell of a deal as it is very close to 970 performance. I've had no more issues with AMD than I have had with Nvidia through well over a decade and a half of PC gaming and tons and tons of hardware turn around. My only DOA's were back to back EVGA GTX 260's a long time ago and I have never had a card die prematurely before or after that.

Like raghu78 mentioned, there have been some fantastic deals for 290's new the past couple months. Got my son's for USD $250 - $30 rebate and came with the two game codes which I sold for $60 making it essentially $160.
 
raghu78 said:
Spending CAD 220 for a used R9 290 is a bad idea when new R9 290s with a 3 game bundle + civilization earth beyond earth are selling for CAD 270 - 300 (240 - 280 after rebate). Sell the game bundle to cut your costs.

http://www.ncix.com/detail/powercolor-radeon-r9-290-turbo-24-104017-1301.htm

http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-windforce-db-99167-1301.htm

http://www.ncix.com/detail/club3d-radeon-r9-290-royalking-c5-94192-1301.htm

The windforce for CAD 300 (280 after rebate) seems a reasonable choice. as said above the tri-x and vapor-x is the best and are costly. the wf is still a decent cooler and its price is very good.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728-8.html
Click to expand...
All of this. If the 290 was $200CAD I'd say it'd be appropriate, but better off just to buy new and sell the bundle if you want to get near the same price. Also the GTX 970 seems expensive too, only $340 here (dinky cooler but it doesn't really matter much with a GTX 970): http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-oc-6d-103049-1301.htm . Are you trying to buy locally or something of that sort?
 
Yea, i'm generally much more in favor of the 970 if it's a few bucks more, but with the prices you are showing there's no way i'd pay that much for a 970 if I can get a 290 for about half the cost.


I'd go new 290 as posted above.

But why the 970 FTW?, why not just get the EVGA standard or superclocked model?
 
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