290x vs 970

[Justhavocman]

Hello everyone , i've been wanting to upgrade for a few months now ever since my 670 has failed to deliver the best gaming experience for me ,i live in Greece and have a budget of 400€ , the Asus DC2 r9 290x costs 380€ whereas the 970 counterpart 390 . Is the extra power consumption\heat\noise worth the extra horsepower of the 290x or should i just go for the 970? Thank you all in advance. ( 1080p currently , 1440p by the end of the year)

[Archangel1994]

The R9 290x does not have extra horsepower. A 970 with an OC (Take mine for example of 1500/7800) often beats out the R9 290x by a few frames with less power draw, less heat, etc. Go with the 970

[TheDigitalRealm]

Considering you'll be moving up to 1440p, and games are using more VRAM due to being console ports, I'd go with the 290X. At 1440p it's going to perform on par if not slightly better than the GTX 970, and as time goes on, my guess is that gap will only increase due to the 290X being able to better use it's 4GB of memory thanks to it's 512bit memory bus. 

[eelnico09]

They are very similar, i'd say the 970 oc'd performs a bit better, the difference probably would be like, 4-6fps, maybe 10 in some games.

[Justhavocman]

The R9 290x does not have extra horsepower. A 970 with an OC (Take mine for example of 1500/7800) often beats out the R9 290x by a few frames with less power draw, less heat, etc. Go with the 970

 

 

Considering you'll be moving up to 1440p, and games are using more VRAM due to being console ports, I'd go with the 290X. At 1440p it's going to perform on par if not slightly better than the GTX 970, and as time goes on, my guess is that gap will only increase due to the 290X being able to better use it's 4GB of memory thanks to it's 512bit memory bus. 

 

 

They are very similar, i'd say the 970 oc'd performs a bit better, the difference probably would be like, 4-6fps, maybe 10 in some games.

 Thank you for your feedback , i forgot to mention i won't be overclocking any of the cards so that would be both at stock.

[MasterRaceFanBoy]

Hello everyone , i've been wanting to upgrade for a few months now ever since my 670 has failed to deliver the best gaming experience for me ,i live in Greece and have a budget of 400€ , the Asus DC2 r9 290x costs 380€ whereas the 970 counterpart 390 . Is the extra power consumption\heat\noise worth the extra horsepower of the 290x or should i just go for the 970? Thank you all in advance. ( 1080p currently , 1440p by the end of the year)

the n970 is definitely better and so close the price.. really nice. Only on 4k the r290x will gain few more fps. but 1080/1440p the n970 it's perfect. go for it.

[Archangel1994]

 Thank you for your feedback , i forgot to mention i won't be overclocking any of the cards so that would be both at stock.

Even so the GPU boost 2.0 on the 970 often puts it around 1400Mhz core. I would just do a quick and dirty OC like mine and you won't have to worry about it at all. Go with the 970

 

Considering you'll be moving up to 1440p, and games are using more VRAM due to being console ports, I'd go with the 290X.  

I hope you are aware that BOTH cards have 4GB of VRAM right? Don't look at the R9 290x 8GB (the 8GB is massive overkill anyway for 1080p/1440p)

[-TesseracT-]

970 for sure, more quiet and draws less power

[TheDigitalRealm]

 Thank you for your feedback , i forgot to mention i won't be overclocking any of the cards so that would be both at stock.

 

Ah, in that case I would opt for the GTX 970. GPU boost will bump it up to 1300-1400 depending on the GPU you buy, while the 290X has no such feature. 

[Mush Brain]

Bus width matters very little on the Maxwell cards, i thought people knew this? 

 

 

980 will be better or faster thanks to no compression, the GPU is able to shift everything through memory faster.

[TheDigitalRealm]

Even so the GPU boost 2.0 on the 970 often puts it around 1400Mhz core. I would just do a quick and dirty OC like mine and you won't have to worry about it at all. Go with the 970

 

I hope you are aware that BOTH cards have 4GB of VRAM right? Don't look at the R9 290x 8GB (the 8GB is massive overkill anyway for 1080p/1440p)

 

Yes, I am aware, but the 970 has a fairly mid-range 256bit bus and some optimisation features to make the most of it, while the 290X has a 512bit bus which should be able to better take advantage of the 4GB of VRAM as I stated earlier. It doesn't matter now anyway as he's said he wont be overclocking, so the GTX 970 makes far more sense for the OP. 

[Mush Brain]

Bus width matters very little on the Maxwell cards, i thought people knew this? 

 

 

980 will be better or faster thanks to no compression, the GPU is able to shift everything through memory faster.

 

Yes, I am aware, but the 970 has a fairly mid-range 256bit bus and some optimisation features to make the most of it, while the 290X has a 512bit bus which should be able to better take advantage of the 4GB of VRAM as I stated earlier. It doesn't matter now anyway as he's said he wont be overclocking, so the GTX 970 makes far more sense for the OP. 

[Justhavocman]

Alright guys , i guess i'll be going with  the 970 , thank you everyone for your feedback

[TheDigitalRealm]

 

 

It doesn't matter much, no. When comparing it to a GPU with double the bus size it does, especially at 4K, which is why the 290X hasn't really been de-throned at 4K, it still sits at the top of the graphs with the 980 and 780 Ti. Nvidia has developed some nice optimisations for its cards to more efficiently use that 256bit bus, and it's obviously helping a lot.

[D3MON]

290= 275 Eur, done.

[Mush Brain]

It doesn't matter much, no. When comparing it to a GPU with double the bus size it does, especially at 4K, which is why the 290X hasn't really been de-throned at 4K, it still sits at the top of the graphs with the 980 and 780 Ti. Nvidia has developed some nice optimisations for its cards to more efficiently use that 256bit bus, and it's obviously helping a lot.

Maxwell is still on early drivers.

[Profquast]

Seeing that you live in Greece, I would go with the 970 unless you have really good AC. PC's are really efficient spaceheaters, I can get my attic room to 25 degrees with only my PC while gaming with an outside temperature of 12 degrees.

[SuperPug]

Definitely GTX 970! The R9 290X runs incredibly hot and has close to no overclocking potential since AMD is already squeezing everything its got out of the chip. Whereas the 970 runs cool and quiet - its also faster.

[vlado88]

Go for the 970.

I know in Greece there is the option to go for the Palit 970 jetstream. Even though it has the best price/performance ratio I wouldn't recommend it. Go for other manufacturer.

[SeanAngelo]

970, oc a lil bit = DONE

 

Gigabyte or EVGA

 

draws less power, runs cooler, newer technology.

[Justhavocman]

970, oc a lil bit = DONE

 

Gigabyte or EVGA

 

draws less power, runs cooler, newer technology.

The Gigabyte G1 uses 2x8pin connectors whereas the Asus DC2 uses only one , taking into consideration the high ambient temps of my room , which would provide the best cooling solution? EVGA is out of the question because it costs 450 € and i'm on a really tight budget.

[Mush Brain]

The Gigabyte G1 uses 2x8pin connectors whereas the Asus DC2 uses only one , taking into consideration the high ambient temps of my room , which would provide the best cooling solution? EVGA is out of the question because it costs 450 € and i'm on a really tight budget.

Go for the cheaper one.

[SeanAngelo]

The Gigabyte G1 uses 2x8pin connectors whereas the Asus DC2 uses only one , taking into consideration the high ambient temps of my room , which would provide the best cooling solution? EVGA is out of the question because it costs 450 € and i'm on a really tight budget.

go for the cheapest one if you're on a tight budget. 

 

how much are the gigabyte and asus cards?

[Justhavocman]

go for the cheapest one if you're on a tight budget. 

 

how much are the gigabyte and asus cards?

The asus goes for 380-390€ whereas the Gigabyte G1 for 420+

[Mush Brain]

EDIT wrong thread.