Which GPU r9 290 or GTX 780 or CF R9 270x

[1Xtra]

Hello, im looking into buying a new GPU as my GTX260 is now pretty much obsolete. It still does the job for DOTA2 or the occasional Indie titles, but now that Star Citizen is slowly coming to life and BF4 is available for a reasonable price, im ready to get something better. I also have intetion to use it for mining at least thru night time, if it comes out viable, than mostly all of the time.

My PC: Asus p8p67 pro, i7 2600k, Corsair XMS 8gb 1600mhz, Crucial m4 128gb, WD 1TB, Corsair TX650, Dell U2711(2560x1440)

Looking to play: Star Citizen, BF4

My opitons are:
CF Sapphire R9 270X for 332€
CF MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G for 335€
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 WindForce 3X for 355€
XFX Radeon R9 290 - Double Dissipation Edition 376€
MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming 4G for 383€
Sapphire Radeon R9 290 TRI-X for 399€
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 780 OC for 419€
ASUS GTX780 DC2 OC 3GD5 for 428

If i skip the fact that im waiting to buy this from november because i couldn't get my hands on non reference 290 cards till now, i am still inclined toward AMD because of the mining, while im more of an Nvidia fan, because of the drivers/reliabilty.

Anyways i would like to get some input because the more i look harder it is to choose something.

 

[Gloomy]

I'd go with the Windforce R9 290. Star Citizen will support Mantle, and BF4 is coming along great. The R9 290 will run much better with your CPU in BF4 because of Mantle.

Since you picked out those two games as being important, and are also mining, there is no reason not to go with the AMD card.

At 70 pounds cheaper than the cheapest 780 you were looking at, it's really a no-brainer even if Mantle didn't enter into the equation-- the 780 is faster usually, sure... but not 70 pounds faster

 

[cmdrdredd]

AMD's cards are overpriced at the present time due to miners. I would advise against them at the moment if you are looking for a gaming GPU. That's my opinion on that. Maybe overpriced is not the right word. Retailers are taking advantage of buyers anyway.

 

[realibrad]

Personally, I would get the 290 WindForce. The next step would be the 780. Dont spend your time mining, its not worth the electricity and wear on the card.

780 is a great card. 290 is a great card. I dont know if the 780 would be worth the extra money for the res you are at, but if you have the money, 780 is cooler, more stable of a card so either choice is great.

 

[Face2Face]

+ 1

Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 WindForce 3X for 355€

 

[Jodell88]

AMD's cards are overpriced at the present time due to miners. I would advise against them at the moment if you are looking for a gaming GPU. That's my opinion on that. Maybe overpriced is not the right word. Retailers are taking advantage of buyers anyway.

If you looked at the prices the OP listed, the 780 cards are priced higher than the 290 cards.

 

[3DVagabond]

Gaming performance between the 290 and 780 is virtually identical (depending on game, of course). You're going 1440p and planning on playing games that support Mantle. The extra gig of RAM could come in handy. Seems silly to pay more for a 780 anyway, but especially in your situation with the games you are planning on playing.

 

[Headfoot]

290 every day of the week given your application

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you looked at the prices the OP listed, the 780 cards are priced higher than the 290 cards.

I didn't see the prices there as I didn't see any dollar signs lol. My bad

 

[nwo]

Another vote for Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 WindForce 3X for 355€

You would be a fool to get a 270X for 20€ less since the 290 has at least 50% better performance than a 270x, especially when it comes to mining. Wondering if that is a typo though and if it should be in the 200s and not 300s. I can't believe those crazy Euro prices if they really do have 270X's going for 300+ and 290s only a few euros more... Doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Despoiler]

+1 for Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 WindForce 3X

As others have said, the games you want to play will best be served by that card. As a side note, I have one. It has performed flawlessly. The temps stay nice and cool so it hits target max boost the entire time.

 

[Attic]

at those prices the gigabyte 290 makes sense

use it to mine when you're not gaming and save the coinange or sell it out to work towards recouping purchase price.

 

[OCGuy]

Wait are you saying you are buying in November?

Edit: Sorry, waiting since November.

I would wait another couple months if possible before buying a bleeding edge card, if your upgrade cycle is as long as the GTX260. I couldn't imagine rushing into a end-of-life 28nm card when we should get details about the next-gen in the next couple months.

 

[3DVagabond]

Wait are you saying you are buying in November?

Edit: Sorry, waiting since November.

I would wait another couple months if possible before buying a bleeding edge card, if your upgrade cycle is as long as the GTX260. I couldn't imagine rushing into a end-of-life 28nm card when we should get details about the next-gen in the next couple months.

What's going to change in the next couple of months?

 

[1Xtra]

AMD's cards are overpriced at the present time due to miners. I would advise against them at the moment if you are looking for a gaming GPU. That's my opinion on that. Maybe overpriced is not the right word. Retailers are taking advantage of buyers anyway.

Yeah i was looking into pricing but 355€ is 488$ while msrp of the reference card was supposed to be 400$, so i think they're just priced at european prices.

Another vote for Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 WindForce 3X for 355€

You would be a fool to get a 270X for 20€ less since the 290 has at least 50% better performance than a 270x, especially when it comes to mining. Wondering if that is a typo though and if it should be in the 200s and not 300s. I can't believe those crazy Euro prices if they really do have 270X's going for 300+ and 290s only a few euros more... Doesn't make any sense to me.

Its CrossFire 270x, so 2x 270x is 20€ cheaper than the GB 290 WF3. I should've wrote CrossFire, CF hides nicely in all those codes.

Wait are you saying you are buying in November?

Edit: Sorry, waiting since November.

I would wait another couple months if possible before buying a bleeding edge card, if your upgrade cycle is as long as the GTX260. I couldn't imagine rushing into a end-of-life 28nm card when we should get details about the next-gen in the next couple months.

I kinda agree with you, but theres a problem, the non reference 290s r just avalible now, so i could maybe get them 3 weeks ago, if i d just take the random first that came in stock, but thats it. AMD and/or the vendors totaly screwed this lunch up, but i dont have any hope they will do that better in the future, they just like to get ahead of theyrself. On the other hand i think this cards have amazing price/performance, thou that should only get better, i dont think they ll improve that much into the next gen, especialy if they ll go to a new process line.
BTW if they d get really good, chances are my PC wouldn't hold it up, i think 290s pretty much what pcie2.0 can handle?




Im kinda surprised noone went for the MSI, since the cooling should work better, thou it probably doesn't work 30€ better.
Anyways thanks to everyone for makin it a bit easyer for me, im more or less sold on GB 290 WF3.

 

[CropDuster]

Im kinda surprised noone went for the MSI, since the cooling should work better, thou it probably doesn't work 30€ better.
Anyways thanks to everyone for makin it a bit easyer for me, im more or less sold on GB 290 WF3.

IIRC the MSI and Asus 290s reused coolers from the 780 and don't fit the 290 die properly. I went with the XFX 290 DD simply because it was the cheapest and quickest that came in stock that I found. I've been perfectly happy with it.

 

[Gloomy]

IIRC the MSI and Asus 290s reused coolers from the 780 and don't fit the 290 die properly. I went with the XFX 290 DD simply because it was the cheapest and quickest that came in stock that I found. I've been perfectly happy with it.

MSI Gaming R9 290/X have a contact plate, so there shouldn't be a problem with GPU contact:

Question to those who have this card: is the backplate functional or cosmetic? Does it come with thermal pads for cooling the PCB from the back?

 

[el etro]

R9 290 Tri-X.

Se here why: http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2014/6-grafikkarten-in-5-gehaeusen-im-test/10/

Top-End cases with R9 290 cards. The only custom AMD card that operates closer to off-case operational conditions(temp, noise and clocks) while inside the case is Tri-X version. Tri-X version is not the quieter or cooler card, but works the same inside or outside the box and maintaining temperatures below 80°C while maintaining clocks at the max.




You can go with cheaper cards if you want to save money. Them go with TwinFrozr(MSI), DirectCU or Windforce versions.

 

[nwo]

Sorry, did not see the CF part. In gaming, you are probably going to get equivalent or better performance to the single 290. However, you may not get the same scaling crossfire performance in all games and you may get some CF related issues. Also, 290 is way more future proof since it has twice the VRAM. So in newer game titles which utilize more than 2GB of VRAM, 270X CF will start to lag behind the 290. As far as mining performance goes, you will get around 5-10% better hashrate with dual 270X's. Again, not a ground breaking difference.

I would rather have a single 290. But the choice is yours.

 

[1Xtra]

MSI Gaming R9 290/X have a contact plate, so there shouldn't be a problem with GPU contact:

Question to those who have this card: is the backplate functional or cosmetic? Does it come with thermal pads for cooling the PCB from the back?

Good question, i was wondering about the funcionality of the backplate as well. And yes all things i heard abot MSI were good(but nothing else than user forum opinions, which mostly claim closed box peak temps within 67-72C, if true tha should be great) and AFAIK only the ASUS DCII has the contact problems becouse of reusing GK110 coolers. Correct me if im wrong.

R9 290 Tri-X.

Se here why: http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2014/6-grafikkarten-in-5-gehaeusen-im-test/10/

Top-End cases with R9 290 cards. The only custom AMD card that operates closer to off-case operational conditions(temp, noise and clocks) while inside the case is Tri-X version. Tri-X version is not the quieter or cooler card, but works the same inside or outside the box and maintaining temperatures below 80°C while maintaining clocks at the max.

Tri X was my first choice, because till it got in stock it was listed at 350-370€, and the reviews were making it a favorite, but now that it came in stock its 395-415€(399€ atm at the store i would probably buy from) so its 45€(62$) more than the Gigabyte, its really hard to belive its worth much more, thou i like my PC cool and quiet, and i always like components that produce less heat, as that normaly correlates to wearing it down.

Sorry, did not see the CF part. In gaming, you are probably going to get equivalent or better performance to the single 290. However, you may not get the same scaling crossfire performance in all games and you may get some CF related issues. Also, 290 is way more future proof since it has twice the VRAM. So in newer game titles which utilize more than 2GB of VRAM, 270X CF will start to lag behind the 290. As far as mining performance goes, you will get around 5-10% better hashrate with dual 270X's. Again, not a ground breaking difference.

I would rather have a single 290. But the choice is yours.

Yeah im a bit cautious(afraid ) around CF as well, thou i did think of it as it offers a lot of theoretical performance. I've heard people saying that games supporting mantle will get the VRAM of both cards joined, and that mantle will boost CF performance by oh so much.. But in the end im especially cautious when AMD claims something that they don't yet have/sell, as it proves on and on that its a bit unreliable(to make it even better i haven't yet seen this claims made by AMD, only heard them from friends..).

 

[wand3r3r]

I'm on the fence between the MSI gaming, Sapphire TRI-X, and the XFX Double dissipation.

The dd is supposedly revamped from the last gen which was cut down too far IMO.

The TRI-X is good. It's a reference board though which has pros and cons.

The MSI seems solid, I'm just undecided. I'm very sold on MSI since they have great warranties and allow e.g. Tim replacement etc.

My main concern is running multiple cards but now I picked up an MSI gaming MB so I can have a couple empty slots between them. I like the 290x's but I'd like to reduce noise and have more thermal headroom for playing with overclocking. I have reference cards. The XDMA crossfire is awesome so you are not limited to bridge lengths apart. I may put my main cards on 16x risers in addition to the extra slots between them (3-4?).

Those 3 are my picks, but if price is a main concern then the WF3 should do. I thought there was some concerns about the cooler contact so check into that.