Get a R9 290X now and wait for Pascal (2016) ?

[zappian]

The Sapphire Tri-X R9 290/290x is really quiet and runs cool.

 

Are saphire cards so good?

 

A friend of mine said they sucked and i picked a MSI one.

[I/O]

Can you even find a 4GB Vapor-X now? I figured they were discontinued and Sapphire only used that cooler on the 8GB model now, as the only Vapor-X R9 290x newegg carries is the 8GB version.

Ya the seem to have sold out. The Tri X, Lightning, Windforce, Msi are all great cards though but I think the Vapor X was the best.

[I/O]

Are saphire cards so good?

 

A friend of mine said they sucked and i picked a MSI one.

Sapphire is perhaps the best brand for AMD cards ... the 290X Vapor X was amazing.

[zappian]

Sapphire is perhaps the best brand for AMD cards ... the 290X Vapor X was amazing.

 

Crap i was duped then.

I still enjoy my MSI however.

[I/O]

Crap i was duped then.

I still enjoy my MSI however.

The Msi is a great card and it was allot cheaper to boot so you still won ;-)

[Suika]

They all dump a lot of heat; the heat coming off the GPU has to go somewhere, as there is no way to create cold. But yeah, cards like the Tri-X R9 290/290x are both cool and quiet. They're quieter under load than many 970s.

The card still emits the same amount of heat, if not more due to higher clocks, the Tri-X just does arguably the best job of dispersing the heat.

 

The Tri-X is still louder or as loud as most GTX 970's. MSI's Gaming 970 is a fair 7DB quieter, ASUS' Strix is 8DB quieter, NVIDIA's reference is about as loud as the Tri-X. In fact, the loudest 970 I found in my short search is only loud as the Tri-X lol.

 

Are saphire cards so good?

 

A friend of mine said they sucked and i picked a MSI one.

My Sapphire 7870 Ghz was a solid card, I got at least a 200-300Mhz core overclock on mine before deciding to back it down from my paranoia of damaging cards.

[SteveGrabowski]

NVIDIA's reference is about as loud as the Tri-X. In fact, the loudest 970 I found in my short search is only loud as the Tri-X lol.

 

I'm not sure that's accurate. Here is a result from Anandtech on the Tri-X R9 290. They didn't measure the Tri-X 290x though

 

 

And here is the result from the GTX 970 with the same system

 

[Tacitus]

For 1080p? Just get a 290.

[SteveGrabowski]

Are saphire cards so good?

 

A friend of mine said they sucked and i picked a MSI one.

 

Sapphire used to have a really bad reputation. My brother hated his a few years ago (I don't know which card it was). But now they're widely regarded as making the best coolers for AMD cards. To be able to get a 290 to run quiet at 71C under full load is an incredible accomplishment.

[Suika]

I'm not sure that's accurate. Here is a result from Anandtech on the Tri-X R9 290. They didn't measure the Tri-X 290x though

 

-

 

And here is the result from the GTX 970 with the same system

 

-

I'm honestly curious how two different sources are so radically different.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I'm honestly curious how two different sources are so radically different.

 

Crysis 3 might be a tougher load, and I guess the silicon lottery plays a part too.

[Suika]

Crysis 3 might be a tougher load, and I guess the silicon lottery plays a part too.

It may also have to do with the distance the mic sat from card itself, I haven't seen how Anandtech typically conducts their tests, but techpowerup gave a detailed description on how and with what they do theirs with.

 

In past years, gamers would accept everything for a little bit more performance. Nowadays, users are more aware of their graphics card's fan noise and power consumption.

In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits, we use a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound-level meter (~$4,000). It has the measurement range and the accuracy we are looking for.

The tested graphics card is installed in a system that does not emit any noise on its own, using a passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard, and a solid state drive. Noise results of other cards on this page are measurements of the respective reference design.

This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified), the measurement is conducted at a distance of 100 cm and 160 cm off the floor. Ambient background noise inside the room was well below 20 dBA for all measurements. Please note that the dBA scale is not linear but logarithmic. 40 dBA is not twice as loud as 20 dBA, as a 3 dBA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing perception is a bit different, and it is generally accepted that a 10 dBA increase doubles the perceived sound level. 3D load noise levels are tested with a stressful game, not with Furmark.

[LarsReviews]

Sapphire is perhaps the best brand for AMD cards ... the 290X Vapor X was amazing.

 

Holly Balls, what a card!

 

I was just playing and it is quiet nice how quite my 970 stays. After reading so much and watch all these video, I do not know what to do. Have I noticed any performance drop, no. This is a hard decision. The coil whine is only when Folding Core 15, so I can life with that. 

[I/O]

Holly Balls, what a card!

 

I was just playing and it is quiet nice how quite my 970 stays. After reading so much and watch all these video, I do not know what to do. Have I noticed any performance drop, no. This is a hard decision. The coil whine is only when Folding Core 15, so I can life with that. 

I don't see the value you are trying to present ?

[LarsReviews]

I don't see the value you are trying to present ?

 

The Holly Balls thing goes to the Sapphire card. 

 

I value backplates, silence, overclocking and overall performance, so kind of everything. Sorry, I am just really confused about what would be the right decision. The Return isn't by Nvidia, but buy the online retailer. Maybe a official Nvidia response would be better.

[I/O]

The Holly Balls thing goes to the Sapphire card. 

 

I value backplates, silence, overclocking and overall performance, so kind of everything. Sorry, I am just really confused about what would be the right decision. The Return isn't by Nvidia, but buy the online retailer. Maybe a official Nvidia response would be better.

I still don't see the value you are trying to present ?

[LarsReviews]

I still don't see the value you are trying to present ?

 

Sorry, I don't seem to understand the question. 

[ProdigyzMined]

I would say that the lies and coil whine is plenty enuff to warrant a return. The Vram Gate is just the deal sealer.

This goes past that though, as I said he was the one who started the thread with the change.org page. I understand that he wants to return it because of coil whine, and thats cool, but I don consider listing "VRAM-Gate" as a valid reason.

[I/O]

This goes past that though, as I said he was the one who started the thread with the change.org page. I understand that he wants to return it because of coil whine, and thats cool, but I don consider listing "VRAM-Gate" as a valid reason.

I would because at a minimum between the lies from nvidia the Vram Gate and the coil whine issue that is plenty of reasons to warrant a consumer to be pissed.