After reading 970 reviews I still want a 290.

[MetroP]

I'm waiting for more GTX 970 reviews from sites I trust like anandtech and hardwarecanucks but after looking around I've come to the conclusion that I still want an R9 290.

The 290 seems to have more overclocking headroom on the core and especially on the memory thanks to the sexy 512bit buss. I compared 290 reviews with 970 reviews and overclocked 290s even with the older drivers consistently beat the overclocked 970s.
The GTX 970 is very cool but I don't see myself dropping 500$ on a g-sync monitor to go with it. Would rather get a freesync monitor instead. GTA V is also going to support Mantle according to various sites.
Unreal engine 3 games in general really seem to favor Nvidia and a lot of review sites seem to benchmark unreal 3 games which I feel is a bit stupid considering all future Unreal games will use the Unreal 4 engine.
Right now just waiting for AMD to cut prices. I'm eyeing the 290 vapor-x, such a sexy card.
 

[APatientGuy]

No problem with that, but to be honest the 970 has around 780 ti performance at stock. Once it's overclocked it will be a beast. The 290 doesn't overclock much compared to this. And if you really just prefer AMD I would try to wait for the r9 390 or 390x or whatever comes out.

[SAV1OUR]

THANK GOD SOMEONE FINALLY NOT FREAKING OUT OVER THE 900 SERIES 

[BookerDeWitt]

Well in 1080p the larger memory buss won't really show much benefit. The 970 is cheaper as of right now although I definitely see AMD cutting prices to compete.
970 SLI would be easier to manage than 290 CrossfireX as well because of the lower power and heat. Your other arguments still stand though.

[Freaky_spider]

finaly someone who gets that powerconsumption really doesnt matter that much

[Archangel1994]

More overclocking headroom? True yes but only relatively because the cards are already clocked really high. Especially on the memory? They got it to 8GHz, if you don't think that is fast enough then you need to adjust your standards .

[Interfectorem]

I'm waiting for more GTX 970 reviews from sites I trust like anandtech and hardwarecanucks but after looking around I've come to the conclusion that I still want an R9 290.

The 290 seems to have more overclocking headroom on the core and especially on the memory thanks to the sexy 512bit buss. I compared 290 reviews with 970 reviews and overclocked 290s even with the older drivers consistently beat the overclocked 970s.

The GTX 970 is very cool but I don't see myself dropping 500$ on a g-sync monitor to go with it. Would rather get a freesync monitor instead. GTA V is also going to support Mantle according to various sites.

Unreal engine 3 games in general really seem to favor Nvidia and a lot of review sites seem to benchmark unreal 3 games which I feel is a bit stupid considering all future Unreal games will use the Unreal 4 engine.

Right now just waiting for AMD to cut prices. I'm eyeing the 290 vapor-x, such a sexy card.

 

But the 970 has much lower power consumption and I assume it's cooler. I saw a benchmark video of the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 from JayzTwoCents, and the 290 and the 970 were neck to neck. He said he was able to get his 970 a 200 MHz overclock! What makes you think FreeSync monitors are going to be cheaper though? But either one is good, Although I think the 970 is cheaper. However I'm sure AMD will cut prices to compete.

[nj4ck]

the 970 has around 780 ti performance at stock

you're mixing up the 970 and 980, I think

[Freaky_spider]

you're mixing up the 970 and 980, I think

yea he is

[StealthArsenal]

The 980 is comparable to 780ti while the 970 is comparable to 780. 

[APatientGuy]

you're mixing up the 970 and 980, I think

Well it's somewhat close and it's alot cheaper. I don't think the 980 is worth it for me.

[TechFan@ic]

I'd agree with the notion that the 290 has more overclocking headroom but remember you'll need a good cooler to realize that overclocking potential.
If both cards were to cost the same I'd recommend the 970s in SLI over 290s in CrossfireX, less heat in your case means less noise and higher clock speeds unless we're talking water-cooling.

 

For a single card I'd consider both to be on-par depending on the game they'll trade blows.

 

 

http://www.bit-tech....x-970-review/12
http://www.bit-tech....r-x-oc-review/9

[EpicGeekonFire]

THANK GOD SOMEONE FINALLY NOT FREAKING OUT OVER THE 900 SERIES 

 

Bby I'm not freaking out either. Its sooo boring. Makes turtles more interesting. Just look at this cute thing.

 

[Sauron]

No problem with that, but to be honest the 970 has around 780 ti performance at stock.

 

That's the 980 and it's almost twice the price lol.

 

@MetroP I hope the prices drop soon, so i can get my SECOND r9 290 so juicy!

[TechFan@ic]

Bby I'm not freaking out either. Its sooo boring. Makes turtles more interesting. Just look at this cute thing.

 

How many FPS does it get ?!

[Modzy]

I'm waiting for more GTX 970 reviews from sites I trust like anandtech and hardwarecanucks but after looking around I've come to the conclusion that I still want an R9 290.

The 290 seems to have more overclocking headroom on the core and especially on the memory thanks to the sexy 512bit buss. I compared 290 reviews with 970 reviews and overclocked 290s even with the older drivers consistently beat the overclocked 970s.

The GTX 970 is very cool but I don't see myself dropping 500$ on a g-sync monitor to go with it. Would rather get a freesync monitor instead. GTA V is also going to support Mantle according to various sites.

Unreal engine 3 games in general really seem to favor Nvidia and a lot of review sites seem to benchmark unreal 3 games which I feel is a bit stupid considering all future Unreal games will use the Unreal 4 engine.

Right now just waiting for AMD to cut prices. I'm eyeing the 290 vapor-x, such a sexy card.

 

remember most early reviewers have been stuck in very early drivers. From the reviews and even random you tubers benching the 970's it seems unless you looks at pure FPS numbers a 290 is a good alternative. But once you factor in thing like the greatly less power draw, much lower heat & almost silent coolers. the 290 kind of looks like a dinosaur. Not to mention the 970 has some brand new DX12 tech and nvidia tech like the MFAA. But i will agree that sapphire vapor-x 290 is a stunner for looks. 

Here is a good video of MSI's semi-passive cooled 970. Passive right up to 60 degrees. 

 

[nj4ck]

But the 970 has much lower power consumption and I assume it's cooler. I saw a benchmark video of the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 from JayzTwoCents, and the 290 and the 970 were neck to neck. He said he was able to get his 970 a 200 MHz overclock! What makes you think FreeSync monitors are going to be cheaper though? But either one is good, Although I think the 970 is cheaper. However I'm sure AMD will cut prices to compete.

I've been saying it 1000 times since yesterday, and I'll say it again. Power consumption IS NOT the holy grail of GPU development. The R9 290 consumes roughly 100W more than the 970, which sounds like a lot and really it is. However, the 290 still runs below 80°C with most coolers and dB levels aren't any higher than competing Nvidia cards. If you can deal with the extra heat output, which anybody with a decent case and good airflow should be able to, your using 100W = 0.1 kW more for lets say two hours a day. Thats 62 hours a month, = 6.2 kWh a month, assuming your in the US, where a kWh costs on average $0.12, thats $0.72 your paying extra on your monthly power bill for the R9 290. 

Assuming your not building inside a highly restrictive ITX case with no fans, power consumption should not be the main selling point for the 900 series. 

[Interfectorem]

I've been saying it 1000 times since yesterday, and I'll say it again. Power consumption IS NOT the holy grail of GPU development. The R9 290 consumes roughly 100W more than the 970, which sounds like a lot and really it is. However, the 290 still runs below 80°C with most coolers and dB levels aren't any higher than competing Nvidia cards. If you can deal with the extra heat output, which anybody with a decent case and good airflow should be able to, your using 100W = 0.1 kW more for lets say two hours a day. Thats 62 hours a month, = 6.2 kWh a month, assuming your in the US, where a kWh costs on average $0.12, thats $0.72 your paying extra on your monthly power bill for the R9 290. 

Assuming your not building inside a highly restrictive ITX case with no fans, power consumption should not be the main selling point for the 900 series. 

Jeez, I know this is true, I don't care about power consumption nor noise (I use headphones) either, I just felt like it was a "feature" to point out because it may matter to some really picky people.

[nj4ck]

Jeez, I know this is true, I don't care about power consumption nor noise (I use headphones) either, I just felt like it was a "feature" to point out because it may matter to some really picky people.

No hard feelings, I'm just putting that out there because people won't stop freaking out over power efficiency of the 900 series 

[EpicGeekonFire]

How many FPS does it get ?!

 

The turtle? Or the strawberry?

[TechFan@ic]

remember most early reviewers have been stuck in very early drivers. From the reviews and even random you tubers benching the 970's it seems unless you looks at pure FPS numbers a 290 is a good alternative. But once you factor in thing like the greatly less power draw, much lower heat & almost silent coolers. the 290 kind of looks like a dinosaur. Not to mention the 970 has some brand new DX12 tech and nvidia tech like the MFAA. But i will agree that sapphire vapor-x 290 is a stunner for looks. 

Here is a good video of MSI's semi-passive cooled 970. Passive right up to 60 degrees.

Most of the new DX features introduced were actually supposed to allow Nvidia to catch up to AMD in terms of feature parity.

 

This extended feature set also extends to Direct3D 11.2, which although it doesn’t have an official feature level of its own, does introduce some new (and otherwise optional) features that are accessed via cap bits. Key among these, Maxwell 2 will support the more advanced Tier 2 tiled resources, otherwise known as sparse textures or partially resident textures. Tier 2 was introduced into the specification to differentiate the more capable AMD implementation of this feature from NVIDIA’s hardware, and now as of Maxwell 2 NVIDIA can support the more advanced functionality required for Tier 2.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review/4