970 or 290x

[Guest]

 

Is that the cheapest 290x you can find?

 

Nope, Scan have an XFX Double Dissipation R9 290x for £230 and Overclockers UK have an Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II for £230. 

 

EDIT: Or, Amazon have the Sapphire R9 290x Vapour-x 4GB for just under £280. 

[xAcid9]

Nope, Scan have an XFX Double Dissipation R9 290x for £230 and Overclockers UK have an Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II for £230. 

 

EDIT: Or, Amazon have the Sapphire R9 290x Vapour-x 4GB for just under £280. 

 

Grab the DD 290x, the cooler is better than the DCU and arguably the Matrix too though the Matrix was built for LN2/WC in mind. The DCU does clock 50mhz higher btw.  

I'm not sure about XFX customer service in UK though, hopefully not as bad as Asus here in Malaysia. lel

 

Hardware Canucks:

290x Double D = 72c

 

290x DCU = 78c

 

HardOCP

290x Double D = 72c

 

290x DCU = 82c

[Guest]

The cooler is silent at idle, I can't hear it over case fans and my 212 evo even at load, and my temps do not exceed 55 running unigine heaven in a loop for 30 mins.

In my judgment an even better perk to the noise is that is has special capacitors and other features to prevent or reduce coil whine which is a bit of a problem with other 970's.

 

How about the noise with a heavy load? Would love a reference cooler, just concerned about noise and temps. 

[FairladyZ]

290X. It's much cheaper, and you can find versions with up to 8GB of memory. And you don't have the 3.5+.5GB issue that is present on the 970.

[Bouzoo]

Don't (almost) all gaming/windforce cards look the same...? And yes, I know it's the same manufacturer

[Weirdybeardyman]

How about the noise with a heavy load? Would love a reference cooler, just concerned about noise and temps.

The temps are absolutely fine, the max it got to was 55 on unigine heaven and I could barely hear it, to the point that I couldn't tell if I was hearing it or just my CPU cooler.

[Weirdybeardyman]

The main selling points of the reference 970 from ocuk to me is the amasing solid build quality, the stunning looks, the blower type cooler and the anti coil whine capacitors.

[othertomperson]

Of course I know the Mexican thing is fake. lol Dude's laugh is hilarious.

 

Now that would be an awesome GPU to own... raw power!

 

All jokes aside, all reference cards from both companies are like a fighter jet taking off.

 

 

All GPU fans are obnoxious at 100%. At 100% my MSI Twin Frozr is much louder than my old Palit 580s. The difference is that because the GPU is a lot cooler and the cooler itself is a lot better the fans don't need to even spin most of the time, let alone spin fast.

 

I would go for two 980s over a Titan X any day because of the reference cooler alone.

 

 

The Asus 290x is not loud at all. If you want the perfect 290x, the Lightning is hands down the best 290x.

 

I'd say save the cash and pick up the 290x, you wont be disappointed. I jumped all over the G1-970 and it was a good card, when I switched to the 290x Lightning, I was truly blown away. My benchmarks all picked up 5-10fps, Valley, Heaven, and Fire Strike picked up 2000 overall points. In game, I range from 2-10 fps better than I did with the G1-970. I did, however, prefer Nvidia features over AMD's. But I', a big brute, play as a big brute in every game I play, and prefer raw power over features. 290x is a more powerful card.

 

 

You may as well just go 980 over 290X Lightning, the Lightning is still over £300 in the UK.

[Monarch]

Holy crap, I'd say the Lightning is superior. My highest temp of all time is 72c during Heaven Benchmark with a nasty overclock on it. Well, nasty-ish: 1225/1575 on MSi Afterburner. (AKA: 1225mhz/6300mhz)

 

Actually caught my highest temp of all time in a screenshot:

 

The heck? There's no way you can keep a 290X at ~70 C on air with those clocks... 

[Sam Z Man]

Don't (almost) all gaming/windforce cards look the same...? And yes, I know it's the same manufacturer

There are some sutle differences in the fans or logo or backplate or no backplate

[xAcid9]

The heck? There's no way you can keep a 290X at ~70 C on air with those clocks... 

 

You can if you won silicone lottery and your room temperature is really low.

[Vexzarium]

You can if you won silicone lottery and your room temperature is really low.

My room temps are around 21c. And I'm sure my case cooling is a big help as well.

 

72c is the highest I've ever seen. It sits around 50-60c while gaming.

[kittsykat]

970 if its on sale for <$300

 

otherwise go with 290x

[Vexzarium]

You may as well just go 980 over 290X Lightning, the Lightning is still over £300 in the UK.

290x Lightning is 90 bucks less than the cheapest 980. So I suppose in your currency, it may be best to opt for a cheaper 290x or up to the 980. With the current trend of Nvidia paying for developer optimization, it may be best to switch to Nvida. Which is just sad. Considering there is not a 970 on the planet, other than custom cooled ones, that come close to my 290x Lightning. Yet in games like GTA:V, the 970 will be stronger due to paid off optimization.

[othertomperson]

290x Lightning is 90 bucks less than the cheapest 980. So I suppose in your currency, it may be best to opt for a cheaper 290x or up to the 980. With the current trend of Nvidia paying for developer optimization, it may be best to switch to Nvida. Which is just sad. Considering there is not a 970 on the planet, other than custom cooled ones, that come close to my 290x Lightning. Yet in games like GTA:V, the 970 will be stronger due to paid off optimization.

 

In the UK the 290X Lightning has pretty much not changed price since it was launched all that time ago. I would get a 970 or a different 290X, or make the small jump up to 980 instead. it might be the best 290X, but it's not so much better that it's better than a higher tier card.

[miagisan]

290x is a better card imho

[Guest]

290x is a better card imho

 

Reasons? (Not questioning your opinion, just curious)

[Mr.Tech.Qc]

I think the GTX 970 would fit you more, GIGABYTE G1 Gaming is a great GPU, nice cooler and have good overclocking capability.

Yeah, i have the same opinion

[miagisan]

Reasons? (Not questioning your opinion, just curious)

The temperature and sound issues on a non reference 290x are non existant. The 290x has a bit more horsepower (it does use a bit more power but like I said, no where near as bad as everyone would have you beleiv) than the 970 (though very close). And for higher resolutions, it runs better than the 970.

[Weirdybeardyman]

Ran hw monitor whilst playing GTA v on max setting for around 3 hours, the reference 970 peaked at 75 degrees celsius and with my headphones on I didn't notice that the fan was getting up to high speeds. It wasn't loud or obnoxious enough that I noticed it when not listening for it.

[Guest]

The temperature and sound issues on a non reference 290x are non existant. The 290x has a bit more horsepower (it does use a bit more power but like I said, no where near as bad as everyone would have you beleiv) than the 970 (though very close). And for higher resolutions, it runs better than the 970.

 

That's interesting. I mean i was looking at the temps for reference 290x's and at load they're like 90+ degrees Celsius, then for say the Vapour-X or Asus directcu ii they're in the 70's max. 

 

In terms of temps and noise alone, would you personally go with the Sapphire Vapour-X Tri-X or the Asus ROG Matrix? Or any other 290x for that matter. 

[Guest]

Ran hw monitor whilst playing GTA v on max setting for around 3 hours, the reference 970 peaked at 75 degrees celsius and with my headphones on I didn't notice that the fan was getting up to high speeds. It wasn't loud or obnoxious enough that I noticed it when not listening for it.

 

Noise is my biggest concern, and as it's a blower style I'm not that keen. Although, from the sounds of yours, it seems like it would be as loud as any other card at load... Time for more research. 

 

Thanks!

[miagisan]

That's interesting. I mean i was looking at the temps for reference 290x's and at load they're like 90+ degrees Celsius, then for say the Vapour-X or Asus directcu ii they're in the 70's max.

In terms of temps and noise alone, would you personally go with the Sapphire Vapour-X Tri-X or the Asus ROG Matrix? Or any other 290x for that matter.

I would go sapphire tri-x in the 290s

[lol1290]

I will be also ordering pc parts (im building a new PC) in june/july and I am wondering if it's worth waiting for amd r9 300 series to come out and if they will be in the same price-point as the asus r9 290x (right now I would order 290x with i5 4690k). Since you are talking here about that, I might just ask that...

[Sam Z Man]

I will be also ordering pc parts (im building a new PC) in june/july and I am wondering if it's worth waiting for amd r9 300 series to come out and if they will be in the same price-point as the asus r9 290x (right now I would order 290x with i5 4690k). Since you are talking here about that, I might just ask that...

The R9 290X is great unless you need to do triple 1440p then you might a R9 290X 8gb or one of the R9 300 series.