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R9 290

wazza1212

The MSI Lightning.

^This

 

Either that or the one that says EVGA GTX 780 Classified :P

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I like the reference one otherwise I would choose one with Gigabyte's Windforce

Please become a member of the Linus Tech Tips forum, keep writing smug remarks & let us love you. Peace out.


<| Project M13 & Silverstream. Other DIY projects |>

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If you want to guarantee Hynix memory, then I would almost certain go with the Sapphire Tri-X or even MSI Lightning.

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.7GHz, 1.3v with Corsair H100i - Motherboard: MSI MPOWER Z97 MAX AC - RAM: 2x4GB G.Skill Ares @ 2133 - GPU1: Sapphire Radeon R9-290X BF4 Edition with NZXT Kraken G10 with a Corsair H55 AIO @ 1140/1650 GPU2: PowerColor Radeon R9-290X OC Edition with NZXT Kraken G10 with a Corsair H55 AIO @ 1140/1650 - SSD: 256GB OCZ Agility 4 - HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103SJ- PSU: SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1300w  - Case: NZXT Switch 810 (White) - Case fans: NZXT Blue LED Fans- Keyboard: Steelseries Apex Gaming Keyboard - Mouse: Logitech G600 - Heaphones: Logitech G930 - Monitors: ASUS PB287Q and Acer G246HYLbd -  Phone: Sony Xperia Z1

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^This

 

Either that or the one that says EVGA GTX 780 Classified 

I like how you'd subtly brought up a GTX780 when the TS had asked for the best R9 290....... -_-

 

To TS, there's no best per se, but MSI Lightning, Asus DCU II, Sapphire Tri-X, PowerColor TurboDuo, GB WF3 and basically all good 3rd party cooled R9 290's are good imo. For OC'ing, you'd want to look at something like MSI Lightning since I believe they have higher binned chips. 

Main Rig: AMD AM4 R9 5900X (12C/24T) + Tt Water 3.0 ARGB 360 AIO | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600C16 | XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX | 256GB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 (OS) | 4TB Lexar NM790 NVMe M.2 PCIe4x4 | 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SATA SSD | 6TB WD Black HDD | CoolerMaster H500M | Corsair HX1000 Platinum | Topre Type Heaven + Seenda Ergonomic W/L Vertical Mouse + 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G | iFi Micro iDSD Black Label | Philips Fidelio B97 | C49HG90DME 49" 32:9 144Hz Freesync 2 | Omnidesk Pro 2020 48" | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

2nd Rig: AMD AM4 R9 3900X + TR PA 120 SE | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Elite AX | 2x 16GB Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 4000MHz | Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT | 500GB Crucial P2 Plus NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0 (OS)2TB Adata Legend 850 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 |  2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Leven JS600 SATA SSD | 2TB Seagate HDD | Keychron K2 + Logitech G703 | SOLDAM XR-1 Black Knight | Enermax MAXREVO 1500 | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I like how you'd subtly brought up a GTX780 when the TS had asked for the best R9 290....... -_-

 

To TS, there's no best per se, but MSI Lightning, Asus DCU II, Sapphire Tri-X, PowerColor TurboDuo, GB WF3 and basically all good 3rd party cooled R9 290's archerry picked e good imo. For OC'ing, you'd want to look at something like MSI Lightning since I believe they have higher binned chips. 

It was meant as a joke, because R9 290's are a joke

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It was meant as a joke, because R9 290's are a joke

Please expound....why is the R9 290 a joke?

Main Rig: AMD AM4 R9 5900X (12C/24T) + Tt Water 3.0 ARGB 360 AIO | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600C16 | XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX | 256GB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 (OS) | 4TB Lexar NM790 NVMe M.2 PCIe4x4 | 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SATA SSD | 6TB WD Black HDD | CoolerMaster H500M | Corsair HX1000 Platinum | Topre Type Heaven + Seenda Ergonomic W/L Vertical Mouse + 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G | iFi Micro iDSD Black Label | Philips Fidelio B97 | C49HG90DME 49" 32:9 144Hz Freesync 2 | Omnidesk Pro 2020 48" | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

2nd Rig: AMD AM4 R9 3900X + TR PA 120 SE | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Elite AX | 2x 16GB Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 4000MHz | Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT | 500GB Crucial P2 Plus NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0 (OS)2TB Adata Legend 850 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 |  2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Leven JS600 SATA SSD | 2TB Seagate HDD | Keychron K2 + Logitech G703 | SOLDAM XR-1 Black Knight | Enermax MAXREVO 1500 | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Please expound....why is the R9 290 a joke?

Because that thing has a 300 watt TDP with what Nvidia can do with 250 watts.

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Because that thing has a 300 watt TDP with what Nvidia can do with 250 watts.

You base your argument/observation/opinion just on that? TDP? It trades wins against the GTX780, is better at higher res gaming (1440P and higher), 4GB of VRAM.......and, depending on where you live, is generally cheaper than the GTX780. In my neck of the woods, the GTX780 is usually 70USD or more (local currency to USD) with most GTX780 at around an R9 290X price range. Perhaps your idea of what constitutes a joke differs greatly from mine....

Main Rig: AMD AM4 R9 5900X (12C/24T) + Tt Water 3.0 ARGB 360 AIO | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600C16 | XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX | 256GB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 (OS) | 4TB Lexar NM790 NVMe M.2 PCIe4x4 | 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SATA SSD | 6TB WD Black HDD | CoolerMaster H500M | Corsair HX1000 Platinum | Topre Type Heaven + Seenda Ergonomic W/L Vertical Mouse + 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G | iFi Micro iDSD Black Label | Philips Fidelio B97 | C49HG90DME 49" 32:9 144Hz Freesync 2 | Omnidesk Pro 2020 48" | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

2nd Rig: AMD AM4 R9 3900X + TR PA 120 SE | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Elite AX | 2x 16GB Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 4000MHz | Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT | 500GB Crucial P2 Plus NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0 (OS)2TB Adata Legend 850 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 |  2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Leven JS600 SATA SSD | 2TB Seagate HDD | Keychron K2 + Logitech G703 | SOLDAM XR-1 Black Knight | Enermax MAXREVO 1500 | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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@wazza1212

As predicted it turns out the new 290 vapor-x is the coolest out there, great cooling on the VRMs too so this should be a good overclockers card. Kitguru has done a review

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-r9-280x-vapor-x-oc-and-r9-290-vapor-x-oc-review/27/

 

It also makes the 290x look redundant by offering the same performance for less money.

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Because that thing has a 300 watt TDP with what Nvidia can do with 250 watts.

 

Your statement doesn't make any sense.

 

The TDP of the Radeon R9 290 is 275 Watts, 780 is 250 Watts

 

1440p gaming ?

 

290-versus-GTX-780.png

I can smell the jelly.

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^^Also most of us who buy high end GPUs like the 780 / 290 have good PSUs anyway. 290 takes a little bit more power but it's nothing scary.

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Your statement doesn't make any sense.

 

The TDP of the Radeon R9 290 is 275 Watts, 780 is 250 Watts

 

1440p gaming ?

 

 

I can smell the jelly.

Still. Similar performance for horrible reference coolers and high power consumption.

 

How many people do you see with 780's in SLI vs. 290's in xFire? 

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@wazza1212

As predicted it turns out the new 290 vapor-x is the coolest out there, great cooling on the VRMs too so this should be a good overclockers card. Kitguru has done a review

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-r9-280x-vapor-x-oc-and-r9-290-vapor-x-oc-review/27/

 

It also makes the 290x look redundant by offering the same performance for less money.

 

I second this. It looks amazing too! :D

 

Still. Similar performance for horrible reference coolers and high power consumption.

 

How many people do you see with 780's in SLI vs. 290's in xFire? 

 

Lets be honest here dude, when has anyone actually bought a reference cooler for actual cooling until those good looking titan/780/780ti reference coolers came out? IIRC most cards with reference coolers were only bought because they were cheap and/or because they were going to water cool them.

 

NVidia might have a better solution for dual (or more) graphics, but it's still plagued with the same problems as Crossfire. I think that a lot of people buy two (or more) graphics cards just for the bling and the "OMG I've got two graphics cards!" factor if they know of the problems it causes.

waffle waffle waffle on and on and on

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I second this. It looks amazing too! :D

 

 

Lets be honest here dude, when has anyone actually bought a reference cooler for actual cooling until those good looking titan/780/780ti reference coolers came out? IIRC most cards with reference coolers were only bought because they were cheap and/or because they were going to water cool them.

 

NVidia might have a better solution for dual (or more) graphics, but it's still plagued with the same problems as Crossfire. I think that a lot of people buy two (or more) graphics cards just for the bling and the "OMG I've got two graphics cards!" factor if they know of the problems it causes.

 

 

You've clearly never had SLI after the 400 series if you think it has problems, I've had both my 780's for a year now and never had an issue once besides beta drivers.  

( they're beta, OFC they're gonna have problems)

 

People I know with single cards have more issues than I do lol

Stuff:  i7 7700k @ (dat nibba succ) | ASRock Z170M OC Formula | G.Skill TridentZ 3600 c16 | EKWB 1080 @ 2100 mhz  |  Acer X34 Predator | R4 | EVGA 1000 P2 | 1080mm Radiator Custom Loop | HD800 + Audio-GD NFB-11 | 850 Evo 1TB | 840 Pro 256GB | 3TB WD Blue | 2TB Barracuda

Hwbot: http://hwbot.org/user/lays/ 

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Lets be honest here dude, when has anyone actually bought a reference cooler for actual cooling until those good looking titan/780/780ti reference coolers came out? IIRC most cards with reference coolers were only bought because they were cheap and/or because they were going to water cool them.

 

NVidia might have a better solution for dual (or more) graphics, but it's still plagued with the same problems as Crossfire. I think that a lot of people buy two (or more) graphics cards just for the bling and the "OMG I've got two graphics cards!" factor if they know of the problems it causes.

For one, SLI doesn't have issues anymore (or at least nothing game-breaking). Maybe when Fermi was cool SLI had issues but not anymore.

 

Nvidia reference coolers are a lot better than AMD's, and I know plenty of people who got reference 780's just for the aesthetics. 

 

People usually buy dual graphics for higher resolutions. @Lays and @MegaDave91 both have dual 780's for 1440p. That's what you NEED if you want to play 1440p at reasonable settings and frame rates.

 

Besides, Nvidia has better features for their cards;

PhysX (which doesn't make a huge difference,  but at least they have it) ShadowPlay which is HUGE. You can use ShadoPlay features in OBS thanks to Nvidia showing proper ways to use the H.264 encoder on board. GSync is huge.

 

What does AMD have?

Mantle... -_-

And TrueAudio 

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For one, SLI doesn't have issues anymore (or at least nothing game-breaking). Maybe when Fermi was cool SLI had issues but not anymore.

 

Nvidia reference coolers are a lot better than AMD's, and I know plenty of people who got reference 780's just for the aesthetics. 

 

People usually buy dual graphics for higher resolutions. @Lays and @MegaDave91 both have dual 780's for 1440p. That's what you NEED if you want to play 1440p at reasonable settings and frame rates.

 

Besides, Nvidia has better features for their cards;

PhysX (which doesn't make a huge difference,  but at least they have it) ShadowPlay which is HUGE. You can use ShadoPlay features in OBS thanks to Nvidia showing proper ways to use the H.264 encoder on board. GSync is huge.

 

What does AMD have?

Mantle... -_-

And TrueAudio 

 

That's not what I've heard, like, everywhere.

 

Is that an argument, or...? I was saying the only reason people ever actually bought reference coolers was because they were cheaper or they want to water cool them. This being before the Titan was released. Amd having a bad reference cooler is not a problem for me because, well, I'm used to not even considering them anyway.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't how much memory a graphics card has determine how well it does with higher resolutions? Also, doesn't Sli/Xfire not actually scale with memory, so you only really get, for example, 3gb if both individual cards only have 3gb, not 6gb? Wouldn't this mean that using a single graphics card with more memory is more efficient than getting two cards with less memory?

 

I don't have a source for this, but I heard somewhere that ShadowPlay is annoying to work with, something to do with the frames not pacing properly, like displaying them one at a time instead of having a consistent video feed, idk. I don't know many people that care about PhysX, I'll care when every game supports it. Gsync requires spending more money to get a monitor that supports it, something a lot of people are not prepared to do. That's a problem of mine with Nvidia. Money, money, money. Want good stuff? Pay more money.

 

Buuut on the other side of the coin, I don't care much for Mantle or TrueAudio unless they make a big difference. They are free though and they come with a relatively cheap brand, so there's that. Australia, remember.

 

Amd has always made more sense if you don't want to spend a lot.

waffle waffle waffle on and on and on

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The EVGA one :D

My rig: CPU: Intel core i5 4670K MoBo: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2x4GB 1600mhz CL9 GPU: EVGA GTX780 SC ACX SSD: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 256GBHDD: Western Digital RED 2TB PSU: FSP Aurum CM 750W Case: Cooler Master HAF XM OS: Windows 8 Pro

My Build log, the Snowbird (heavy WIP): http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/188011-snowbird-by-lachy/?hl=snowbird

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-snip-

 

God, this is ridiculous.

 

I'm sorry bro but you just sound like a huge fanboy. the R9 290 is a great card, despite it's reference cooler, heat & power consumption. It's still a beast, and you can't do much about that. I don't understand why you keep bashing on the card just because you're an nvidia fan ? Not everybody praises the 780 you know. Just deal with it.

 

OP came here to ask about the 290, and you've turned this thread to a 290 vs 780 never-ending argument. If it wasn't for the miners, i wouldn't be surprised to see more 290's in people's rigs. The main reason people went for 780's is because R9 series were too pricy. 

 

I'm a 290 owner and here is what i think :

 

  • Shadowplay ? I actually enjoy playing my games rather than record them. annd -cough- fraps -cough-
  • PhysX ? Lol how many games take advantage of that, 3 ?
  • 1440p ? I play at 1440p with a single 290. Why would i SLI two 780's when i can get decent performance out of a single card ?
  • Aesthetics ? Dude, it's your opinion, don't generalize. 
  • Heat ? Noise ? Watercooling. you know, waterblocks n shit
  • Power Consumption ? There are PSU's for that
  • Mantle ? Why not. A little competition make things change faster. 
  • Trueaudio ? Because some people may want to benefit from their useless monitor's speakers.

 

The only thing i can understand is the CUDA cores for rendering. But then again there is also something called OpenCL.

 

just because you own a 780 doesn't make you better than everyone else, there are other cards out there. Respect people's choices. 

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I don't get why some can't accept that people have their own preferences. Like many first adopters, I had gotten a couple of reference cooled R9 290X,,,,,but I knew I was going water cooling shortly later, besides, the price I'd paid for my R9 290X was in the similar price range as what it'd cost me if I had gotten two reference GTX780 (non Ti). Remember, not all of us are from the US, and in my neck of the woods, nVidia cards are always more expensive their their AMD equivalent. 

 

Even up till of now, nVidia guys still harp on the heat issue of the R9 290 series (an issue with reference cards I'll grant), conveniently ignoring the fact that many 3rd party cooled R9 290 series cards are running at acceptable temps. My nephew's Asus R9 290X DCU II hits about 70C after more than an hour of BF4. Heat is no longer an issue with 3rd party cooled cards, yet the harping of it still persists.

 

For higher res gaming, two other important factors to consider are these (other than the sheer rendering prowess of the GPU):

1. Memory interface, AMD R9 290 series have 512bit memory interface.

2. VRAM, unless you get a special version of the GTX780/780 Ti, you'd still have 3GB of VRAM vs the 4GB VRAM on the Hawaii GPU's.

 

As for 'cool' features by nVidia, not all of us bother to record our gameplay, so Shadowplay isn't something I'd miss. PhysX......GPU accelerated PhysX is available in so very few games, it's not a factor to me, and those of us who prefer AMD. Gsync? Possibly, but you have to buy more expensive Gsync monitors.....not all of us are keen to pay more for a Gsync monitor since we have perfectly good and working monitors already. GeForce Expereience? Please, it simply lower or dumb down ingame setting so that games run smoother, any monkey can do that. I'd rather tweak ingame setting myself for optimum image quality and fluidity of gameplay.

Main Rig: AMD AM4 R9 5900X (12C/24T) + Tt Water 3.0 ARGB 360 AIO | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600C16 | XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX | 256GB Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 (OS) | 4TB Lexar NM790 NVMe M.2 PCIe4x4 | 2TB TG Cardea Zero Z440 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SATA SSD | 6TB WD Black HDD | CoolerMaster H500M | Corsair HX1000 Platinum | Topre Type Heaven + Seenda Ergonomic W/L Vertical Mouse + 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G | iFi Micro iDSD Black Label | Philips Fidelio B97 | C49HG90DME 49" 32:9 144Hz Freesync 2 | Omnidesk Pro 2020 48" | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

2nd Rig: AMD AM4 R9 3900X + TR PA 120 SE | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Elite AX | 2x 16GB Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 4000MHz | Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT | 500GB Crucial P2 Plus NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0 (OS)2TB Adata Legend 850 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 |  2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 | 4TB Leven JS600 SATA SSD | 2TB Seagate HDD | Keychron K2 + Logitech G703 | SOLDAM XR-1 Black Knight | Enermax MAXREVO 1500 | 64bit Win11 Pro 23H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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