Why should I not get an R9 295x2?

[tential]

So my question to you is why would anyone bother with inferior brand like Asus, Gigabyte, PNY, and Zotac? Though I know that Gigabyte is pretty good with the 970 unless I'm confusing the G4 and G1 with MSI instead.

Asus and gigabyte are not inferior brands. EVGA step up is useless if there is no gpu to step up to. Not everyone buys lightning and classified cards as its a huge increase in money for little increase in performance.

 

[thehotsung8701A]

Asus and gigabyte are not inferior brands. EVGA step up is useless if there is no gpu to step up to. Not everyone buys lightning and classified cards as its a huge increase in money for little increase in performance.

I know this is a forum so I hope you don't mind me asking.

Can you give me an overview of all 6 Nvidia brand and what their warrantly and customer service is like? Obviously everything would be biases if I went on their site.

I know that Sapphire is #1 when it come to AMD card though.

 

[sxr7171]

Pretty simple. If you are someone who can deal with dual GPU or if you are not. I'm in the latter category. Granted I used SLI not crossfire. But for me personally I would not go dual GPU ever again until most of its issues are solved.

PC gaming is already hard enough with adjusting overclocks, figuring out settings, finding workarounds for game issues etc. Adding dual GPU issues to that is not for me. Although playing games properly at 4k 60fps is tempting, micro stuttering and slowdowns negate the benefits of having a clean 60fps. Might as well just play at 45fps with triple buffering. The experience would be similar, possibly better.

 

[iiiankiii]

I wouldn't touch an r9 295x2 right now. The GTX 980 TI is a much better solution. It consumes less power, and most importantly, it doesn't have multi-gpu related problems. Plus, once overclocked, it will match/beat an r9 295x2 in raw performance. No brainer. GTX 980TI > R9 295x2.

 

[Headfoot]

It was a good value when it first hit $600. I bet you we'll see used 295x2s as low as $450 soon. That will be a fantastic value.

 

[n0x1ous]

So my question to you is why would anyone bother with inferior brand like Asus, Gigabyte, PNY, and Zotac? Though I know that Gigabyte is pretty good with the 970 unless I'm confusing the G4 and G1 with MSI instead.

They are not inferior brands. They all have similar higher end overclock models and since you sound like you are new to all of this I wouldn't recommend a model like that anyway.

Normal MSI gaming, Asus DCU, Gigabyte Windforce all good choices. Enthusiasts like to see how far the top end cards can overclock though so its exciting to see what the classified,lightnings of the world can do

 

[thehotsung8701A]

They are not inferior brands. They all have similar higher end overclock models and since you sound like you are new to all of this I wouldn't recommend a model like that anyway.

Normal MSI gaming, Asus DCU, Gigabyte Windforce all good choices. Enthusiasts like to see how far the top end cards can overclock though so its exciting to see what the classified,lightnings of the world can do

I thought Windforce, Astrix, and G4 gaming were top card? Man, I got lot to learn, and yeah I haven't research computers parts since I last build my computers in the summer of 09.

 

[poofyhairguy]

This is what Witcher 3 looks like maxed with HairWorks + Tessellation Override:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1011-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti/page6.html

That 280x trading blows with a 780 TI blows my mind.

 

[IEC]

Radeon 290X or GTX 970 as a stopgap if you must.

Then wait for cards on 14nm or 16nm or whatever the next die shrink is going to be. That's where the huge gains will be compared to these 28nm cards. A $300 card on a new process will likely outperform the 980 Ti/Titan X/Fury or whatever AMD releases by a fair margin. Unless you NEED flagship level performance today it just doesn't make sense to spend the extra money chasing that last bit of performance.

 

[rchunter]

I wouldn't touch an r9 295x2 right now. The GTX 980 TI is a much better solution. It consumes less power, and most importantly, it doesn't have multi-gpu related problems. Plus, once overclocked, it will match/beat an r9 295x2 in raw performance. No brainer. GTX 980TI > R9 295x2.

I agree, I almost went gtx 770 sli a while back. I just couldn't justify it. Seems most games I play have some kind of problems running sli. I'd much rather have a really good single card. I plan on getting a 980ti when they release the 980ti ACX cards.

 

[tential]

I know this is a forum so I hope you don't mind me asking.

Can you give me an overview of all 6 Nvidia brand and what their warrantly and customer service is like? Obviously everything would be biases if I went on their site.

I know that Sapphire is #1 when it come to AMD card though.

No. I can't do that because I don't have experience with all 6 vendors in a short time period. Things change so if I said my experience with xyz vendor was good 3 years ago it might be terrible now.
I think you put too much stock in branding of the card. I bought a sapphire card but it was pretty cheap compared to my alternative choices (within 20 dollars).
Buy a card with a good cooler design at a good price. Otherwise it's usually not worth it to spend tons extra just to get some slightly better chip unless you're very into this hobby from a benchmarking perspective. If you're a gamer, it may make a small fps difference but nothing you could actually perceive.

So example, is I'm going to buy a gtx 980 ti right now, I wait for the aftermarket cooling solutions first. Then I look for nice designs that keep a card cool(I like bigger coolers because I have the space in my case). Then I look for high stock clocks. Then I'll look to ensure its a bigger brand (so I today away from PNY, Zotac, his, these brands aren't poor enough that I would t buy, I just spend the 20-30 extra for the peace of mind).

Then I'll purchase.

Going back from the beginning though, I usually won't even step through this process unless it's a decent deal on the card overall to begin with or if there is a slick deal. But I wouldn't buy a lightning/classified card usually ever since the price difference is never worth the small performance bump. It's usually gaming forums who care about brand like neogaf or something.

 

[tential]

Radeon 290X or GTX 970 as a stopgap if you must.

Then wait for cards on 14nm or 16nm or whatever the next die shrink is going to be. That's where the huge gains will be compared to these 28nm cards. A $300 card on a new process will likely outperform the 980 Ti/Titan X/Fury or whatever AMD releases by a fair margin. Unless you NEED flagship level performance today it just doesn't make sense to spend the extra money chasing that last bit of performance.

I really like want the perf for 4k gaming but you're right I should just get a stop gap card until the real fun begins next year and save my cash. If fiji is that unreal though it may be too good to pass up. This is a large expenditure though since if I make the jump I want 4k gaming card and a 2000 dollar 4k HDTV to play on.

 

[TemjinGold]

(never mind, didn't realize how quickly thread moves.)

 

[thehotsung8701A]

No. I can't do that because I don't have experience with all 6 vendors in a short time period. Things change so if I said my experience with xyz vendor was good 3 years ago it might be terrible now.
I think you put too much stock in branding of the card. I bought a sapphire card but it was pretty cheap compared to my alternative choices (within 20 dollars).
Buy a card with a good cooler design at a good price. Otherwise it's usually not worth it to spend tons extra just to get some slightly better chip unless you're very into this hobby from a benchmarking perspective. If you're a gamer, it may make a small fps difference but nothing you could actually perceive.

So example, is I'm going to buy a gtx 980 ti right now, I wait for the aftermarket cooling solutions first. Then I look for nice designs that keep a card cool(I like bigger coolers because I have the space in my case). Then I look for high stock clocks. Then I'll look to ensure its a bigger brand (so I today away from PNY, Zotac, his, these brands aren't poor enough that I would t buy, I just spend the 20-30 extra for the peace of mind).

Then I'll purchase.

Going back from the beginning though, I usually won't even step through this process unless it's a decent deal on the card overall to begin with or if there is a slick deal. But I wouldn't buy a lightning/classified card usually ever since the price difference is never worth the small performance bump. It's usually gaming forums who care about brand like neogaf or something.

Thanks for the advice! What about warrantly, is that another thing you look at? Whether it previous Ati or Nvidia, I never had a gpu that die on me. Even my old 12 year old GPU 7600 GT still work to this day.

 

[tential]

Thanks for the advice! What about warrantly, is that another thing you look at? Whether it previous Ati or Nvidia, I never had a gpu that die on me. Even my old 12 year old GPU 7600 GT still work to this day.

No like you said no gpu has died on me. On top of that, I feel almost every company you gives a warranty to make customers feel safe while ensuring the vast majority of products fail well outside of that range. I don't worry about it.

Hope that helps and you find this info useful in your next gpu purchase. Russian sensation of course is a stupid invaluable resource you'd pretty dumb to ignore his posts.

Edit
Especially for purchasing gpus you plan on holding for awhile rs is a great resource

 

[Actaeon]

I have 2x 290X setup (basically a 295x2) and it has worked great. I got a great deal on them last year where they were on fire sale. They were around $300/ea and included 4 free games each. $600~ for 2x 290Xs and 8 free games was a steal.

Only issue I ran into was in Alien Isolation where it needed some tweak in a setting to properly display the terminal screens. Other than that it has been very smooth and incredibly powerful. This is my 2nd Crossfire setup (previously had 2x 6950) and my experiences with both have been great. The biggest concern was power and temps, but my PSU and case were up to the task, so no problems for me.

For $600, I do not think you'll find a more capable setup. That includes the 980Ti.

 

[exar333]

I'm reading through the latest 980 Ti review and this thing is at the top of every chart. Yet the minimums don't look that great. I wish I could see a graph of FPS so I could get a better idea.
So tell me, as a person who rarely games and follows hardware, but finds time for a couple of big titles a year, why would I not get the R9 295x2? It's the CHEAPEST out of all the high end cards, it's the fastest out of all of them for the biggest games in the long run (I don't need to play any game at day 1 ever), why would I not buy this?

I don't play any game that wouldn't have crossfire support, I couldn't think of a single title that has come out right now that is a must play to me that doesn't have CF support.

Are there other problems with crossfire that I'm not accounting for? Will stuttering and other issues just kill me? Will flickering issues simply never ever get fixed and just aren't mentioned in reviews? etc.

Explain to me why I shouldn't get this card as it seems to be the best or high res gaming and that seems perfect for me to use for downsampling using VSR for my 1080p projector until the real game changers come along and it seems like the CHEAPEST option to do so.
Edit: Overclocking maybe? Powersupply?

Because Fury will be available in a week?

 

[tential]

So I'm back to the same thing of considering Crossfire. Again, for those who say "OMG xyz title won't support it."

Ok, I'll make this clear now. If a title is NEW moving forward from this date, I have 0 intention of playing it with these cards. ZERO. I don't play new games, I only play games that are mature releases so they'll all have crossfire support.

The titles I intend to play right now are:
AC Unity (Ugh I know.... I want to see it in the highest resolution possible. Carfax talked up how great this game looks, I still have to witness it myself).
Dragon Age Inquisition
The Witcher 3
GTA 5
Bioshock Infinite
Alien Isolation
Maybe a Batman title (All OLDER not the new one just coming out).
Maybe Final Fantasy titles that are getting PC releases.
WatchDogs
Farcry 4

Now keep in mind, chances are I may only beat 2-3 of those games. I may only play 40-50% of those games TOPS.

I have a local used R9 290 for $200 now. I can get 2 of them. DirectCU and a Gigabyte Windforce.
Even though I can't use them now (Too many components in my PC to use with Crossfire without worrying about heat), I think I can get them in working within 2 months. Either way, still can't think of a better deal than these cards right now and am racking my head to find a better option to play games until nodeshrink is mature and ready. Especially since I could probably get them for $380.

Anyway, worth it to get these 2 R9 290's on my 4770k/8gb/720w psu fractal design design 4 case with crossfire support mobo (Z87-A Pro asus mobo I think?).

I just don't think I can get that much performance at that level of price for any cheaper. That's GTX 980ti level performance in the games I'm playing for $400.

 

[tential]

and not sure why this is in the AMD section only as I consider either card. I just don't think an Nvidia card could offer me the level of performance the r9 290 can at that price level. Saw a similar deal, it was 2 GTX 980s, for 850. So not that I wouldn't consider Nvidia, I just don't think $400 vs $850 for similar level of performance, I'll take a $400 then.

 

[AntonioHG]

You might be cutting it close on the PSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omLtOyfqxpw


If I had my old, larger case, I would go for the el cheapo Crossfire route with my R9 290 and hold off on spending on a new card until next year. I can't with my Evolv and mATX board.


If you don't like the way it works out, just sell 'em for a few bucks less, lol.

 

[Kenmitch]

So I'm back to the same thing of considering Crossfire. Again, for those who say "OMG xyz title won't support it."

Ok, I'll make this clear now. If a title is NEW moving forward from this date, I have 0 intention of playing it with these cards. ZERO. I don't play new games, I only play games that are mature releases so they'll all have crossfire support.

The titles I intend to play right now are:
AC Unity (Ugh I know.... I want to see it in the highest resolution possible. Carfax talked up how great this game looks, I still have to witness it myself).
Dragon Age Inquisition
The Witcher 3
GTA 5
Bioshock Infinite
Alien Isolation
Maybe a Batman title (All OLDER not the new one just coming out).
Maybe Final Fantasy titles that are getting PC releases.
WatchDogs
Farcry 4

Now keep in mind, chances are I may only beat 2-3 of those games. I may only play 40-50% of those games TOPS.

I have a local used R9 290 for $200 now. I can get 2 of them. DirectCU and a Gigabyte Windforce.
Even though I can't use them now (Too many components in my PC to use with Crossfire without worrying about heat), I think I can get them in working within 2 months. Either way, still can't think of a better deal than these cards right now and am racking my head to find a better option to play games until nodeshrink is mature and ready. Especially since I could probably get them for $380.

Anyway, worth it to get these 2 R9 290's on my 4770k/8gb/720w psu fractal design design 4 case with crossfire support mobo (Z87-A Pro asus mobo I think?).

I just don't think I can get that much performance at that level of price for any cheaper. That's GTX 980ti level performance in the games I'm playing for $400.

For $400 290 crossfire seems like the best deal. 295x2 seems cool(literally) to me also....If you can find a good deal in one. 290 advantage would be resale or repurposing I'd imagine.

 

[tential]

For $400 290 crossfire seems like the best deal. 295x2 seems cool(literally) to me also....If you can find a good deal in one. 290 advantage would be resale or repurposing I'd imagine.

The largest problem is that it's a great deal at $400. But any video card purchase that's a crossfire purchase now puts me at high power consumption. I have 8 hard drives in the system too so I had originally wanted a single card solution.

But the solution is obvious. Use 1 card now. Use the 2nd card when I finish my server. It seems like a good deal. Will wait for a little bit more while I grab a bite to eat then place an offer if no one else has anything to say. I deserve to enjoy games in high res VSR!

1080p W1070 Projector, 80 inch Screen, 4770k, Crossfire R9 290s

That should let me play that list of games downsampled from 4K (Or 1600p where needed) at 60 FPS right?

I mean my only downside is the HDMI on my W1070 is full on retard and won't hold connection. Getting a new cable now to see if it's the current one I have that's messed up.

I'm not seeing a downside so ya I'm going to make an offer soon. On the Wii U, I was playing Smash and I can see the jagged edges like no other while playing on my projector. I'm VERY INSENSITIVE to this. I mean I don't ever use AA. EVER. I'll downsample (obviously does this), now that I have VSR but I've never worried about it but man with Smash I can see how some of you feel. I can't wait for Unity though. Lol....

 

[crashtech]

Eight HDDs? Where's your NAS?

 

[bystander36]

Another dirty secret rarely mentioned, is that when a CF/SLI setup has the same FPS as a single card, the CF/SLI setup has 2 times the latency. In a 3-way or 4-way setup, at the same FPS as a single card, you get 3 and 4 times the latency respectively.

So when single card delivers close to the same FPS, that multi-GPU setup is increasing your latency quite a bit.

 

[tential]

Eight HDDs? Where's your NAS?

Requires me to purchase a Norco 4224 case and all the necessary equipment to set that up. That's a lot of cash for me to sink down at once to get it up and running. Saving up for it, so I'll use only one card for now until I feel comfortable spending $1000 on the stuff necessary to setup a 24 bay server.
Edit: Which is hilarious to say since I'd have spent a lot more cash on other expenditures but basically it's because I can get away with it right now and since I can I do. I'll probably upgrade to this server in August/September when I fill up my next hard drive purchase. Was going to purchase an 8TB, but with a 24 bay server on the way, might as well get another 5TB, I'll have the bays after all.

Another dirty secret rarely mentioned, is that when a CF/SLI setup has the same FPS as a single card, the CF/SLI setup has 2 times the latency. In a 3-way or 4-way setup, at the same FPS as a single card, you get 3 and 4 times the latency respectively.

So when single card delivers close to the same FPS, that multi-GPU setup is increasing your latency quite a bit.

I never was a PC gamer who was hardcore worried about latency. In fact, never have I once thought about it beyond complaining about actual lag from the internet. Otherwise, latency below 100 ms is enough for my purposes. I'm willing to bet the HDTV I was playing on the last 3 months that is my roommates 32 inch had over 100ms the whole time. So unless it's a massive latency issue, I'd rather not bring it up as I'm using this on a projector and not a 1 ms response time monitor.