How's the 290x holding up these days?

[Tacitus]

Hey everyone

 

I was curious how the 290x is holding up these days - I've got one, a 290x PCS+, I used to have 2, but I sold the second one. I'm now thinking of getting another one with a Kraken G10 as 4k monitors are coming down in price so much that it's looking doable in the next few months. Either that, or 1440p.

 

I've got quite a backlog of games still to get through from the last couple of years (TW3, TW: Attila, GTA V, Dark Souls 2 & 3, to name a few).

 

So, my questions more or less are as follows:-

 

• Is 290x Crossfire still a good choice for 4k?
• Would I need a second 290x for a fluid 1440p experience?
• Is it likely AMD will continue to support the 290x for a while in terms of driver updates etc?

Thanks in advance.

[abhigyan001]

4K?? Nope.

[desertcomputer]

I would sell that card and get a newer card ... SLI/Crossfire has too much problems and much better to have better single card anyways. Well driver support is hard to say but i can say this what type of games are you playing? Do they need crossfire/do they even supported crossfire/how much performance increase. 290x. At 1400p, It should be fine at 4K? No

 

 

[Dobbsjr]

Sell the 290x and use the money to get a better card. Something like a GTX 1060 or gtx 970 would be better. 

[Tacitus]

1 minute ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

I would sell that card and get a newer card ... SLI/Crossfire has too much problems and much better to have better single card anyways. Well driver support is hard to say but i can say this what type of games are you playing? Do they need crossfire/do they even supported crossfire/how much performance increase. 290x. At 1400p, It should be fine at 4K? No

 

 

I did have 2 290xs for a while, but no monitor worth using them for. Playing at 3200x1600 I found the cards scaled very well and Crossfire issues were minimal. This was slightly over a year ago, however.

[refinedskillz]

2 minutes ago, Dobbsjr said:

Sell the 290x and use the money to get a better card. Something like a GTX 1060 or gtx 970 would be better. 

Not a 970. RX 480.

[comicsansms]

The R9 290x is still a very good card, and you should have a good experience with one at 1440p.

 

Honestly I'd buy the display you want and if the R9 290x can output at the setting and the framerate you want, cool. If not, sell it and buy a newer card.

 

Also note that you can crossfire a R9 290x with a R9 290, R9 290x, R9 390, R9 390x or R9 295x2

[Dobbsjr]

Just now, refinedskillz said:

Not a 970. RX 480.

Of course.  

[Tacitus]

Just now, refinedskillz said:

Not a 970. RX 480.

I agree not a 970 either, but surely a 480 is more or less just a sidestep?

[Dobbsjr]

Just now, Tacitus said:

I agree not a 970 either, but surely a 480 is more or less just a sidestep?

If you're willing to pay a bit more R9 390 is also a good choice. 

[Tacitus]

Just now, Dobbsjr said:

If you're willing to pay a bit more R9 390 is also a good choice. 

That's the same chip but in its cut down form...

[Dobbsjr]

1 minute ago, Tacitus said:

That's the same chip but in its cut down form...

Woops, yeah I meant R9 390x

[comicsansms]

6 minutes ago, Dobbsjr said:

Sell the 290x and use the money to get a better card. Something like a GTX 1060 or gtx 970 would be better. 

1 minute ago, Dobbsjr said:

If you're willing to pay a bit more R9 390 is also a good choice. 

3 minutes ago, Tacitus said:

I agree not a 970 either, but surely a 480 is more or less just a sidestep?

 

RX 480 is in between the R9 390 and GTX 970.

The R9 390x is a slightly beefed up R9 290x,

The R9 290x is about the same as a R9 390.

 

None of them are "Upgrades" or worth while upgrades from a R9 290x.

 

[Tacitus]

1 minute ago, Dobbsjr said:

Woops, yeah I meant R9 390x

I think a Fury would actually be cheaper here (390xs are dear). But even so, to judge from benchmarks it only seems to make a difference of a few FPS. Hardly worth the hassle and cost (probably £140-150).

[xAcid9]

290x is doing fine at 1080p or even 1440p in some popular games, not really a 4K card and i'm against putting it in CFX.

 

You can buy Fury for 300 quid at OcUK, probably grab that instead for 1440p or mid 4k, else the 980 Ti cost 380 quid and perform on par with 1070.

[harrynowl]

They're OK for 4K.. we're only just getting cards that deliver good framerates in demanding titles with good settings at 4K now.

[NaixNyx]

1 hour ago, Tacitus said:

Would I need a second 290x for a fluid 1440p experience?

My R9 280 can play some games 1440p, Gta runs about 35-60 FPS in 1440, medium/high settings and 2xmsaa, A 290x should be able to do 1440p on, most games quite well, depends what you play, you'll probably have to crank down some settings, but it holds its ground, in 4K you may be able to run CSGO, LoL, Dota2, stuff like that, I base what I need off how many fps i get in 1080p, if i can play a game 120fps in 1080p then i should run it 30fps at 4k, obviously this is not the case 100% of the time but its close most of the time

[Tacitus]

14 minutes ago, NaixNyx said:

My R9 280 can play some games 1440p, Gta runs about 35-60 FPS in 1440, medium/high settings and 2xmsaa, A 290x should be able to do 1440p on, most games quite well, depends what you play, you'll probably have to crank down some settings, but it holds its ground, in 4K you may be able to run CSGO, LoL, Dota2, stuff like that, I base what I need off how many fps i get in 1080p, if i can play a game 120fps in 1080p then i should run it 30fps at 4k, obviously this is not the case 100% of the time but its close most of the time

I get the logic, but I'm thinking of getting a second graphics card and a 4k monitor, so more than one variable.

[Illumination]

well ur best bet is buying a gtx 1080 or 2 of them for 4k gaming. all others are peasant cards for tech newbies like rx 480 and gtx 1070

[Carclis]

4k is still a dream for any non - crossfire setup and crossfire support isn't good enough to warrant the purchase of a second card. You might as well stick with 1440p which should be fine for the most part if you turn down some settings. Alternatively you could upgrade to a 1070 or a Fury which seem to be going for extremely cheap these days.

[thekeemo]

Basically a 980 in performance (with modified bios)

crossfire should be able to handle 4k with some drops and only when the game supports it (forcing CF seems to work well though)

and not long

 

[NaixNyx]

2 hours ago, Tacitus said:

second graphics card and a 4k monitor

Personally I wouldn't Sli/Xfire, I would just get one good GPU, like a 1080, Titan XP/Pro duo if you really have some cash, 4K is very demanding, then again I could be underselling some of the weaker cards