r9 290X (non reference) vs GTX 970

[MatejAustria]

consider: Mantle, overclocking, price difference, TDP, TrueAudio

[othertomperson]

In terms of raw performance they're about the same.

 

The 970 will give you (usually) massive overclocking headroom, very low TDP, low power consumption.

 

Price varies constantly and is different geographically so it depends.

[Imakuni]

Mantle: little support right now. And if you have a great CPU, it's not even going to do THAT much for you.

 

TDP: "Hi, I'm Timmy, and I'm the head manager of AMD. My goal is to make sure that world gets destroyed by our power hungry cards. Yay for resources and power bills".

 

True Audio: Again, if you have a great CPU, and even else, a great MOBO, it really doesn't change much. In particular, some high end mobos have a "true audio"ish feature.

 

Price difference: Depends. Where I live, 290X cost as much as a gtx 980.

 

Now, onto what actually matters. Performance. At 1080p, the 970 is equal and sometimes even better than the 290x. So if you'll game at that res... yeah. However, at 1440p and above, the 290x tends to get the edge. Cooling is rough on AMD's part, though, due to the huge TDP. All in all, I'd give the Gtx the edge.