Is there a real difference?

[RumuM]

So recently, I've been trying to decide between the R9-290 4GB or the GeForece GTX 770GB. And what im wondering is will i notice a real difference between the two? Obviously the R9-290 is more powerful, but if there is no difference that you can notice should i just go with the 770 so i can take advantage of all those extras Nvidia have.

[Coombzy]

R9 290/290x or 780 is the option you should be looking at 

[JAKEBAB]

nvidia card will consume less power be quieter and run cooler but if i was u i would get the 290 its got more vram better for high resolutions more horse power plus it will benefit more than nvidia card with mantle.

[helping]

The extras are beginning to sound gimmicky to me, I'm not particularly a fan of razerblade deals, just go for the 290/290X

[WoodenMarker]

Not even a competition. The 280x is already neck to neck with the 770. The 290's competitor is the 780. 

[Zeo2002]

According to many posts already through this forum, it really depends on what you want to do and what you want out of your case/card.

 

1) Gaming 1080p, single monitor - doesn't matter which you choose as both will blow gaming away (recommend cheaper unless you really want the Nvidia features).

2) Gaming with multiple monitors or high resolution - 290 is best price to performance ratio for higher resolutions (wait for non-reference coolers unless you plan to water cool).

2a) Need cooler/quieter options - go with 770. (I'd still wait until non-reference 290 is out to see if prices drop).

3) Personal opinion here - Mantle has a chance to increase 290 performance. Gsync has ability to make gaming seem smoother. None of them have been fully tested/vetted, so wait if you need to or can, but I wouldn't worry about it too much right now. It appears like there may be Mantle support on Nvidia cards if they have the appropriate GCN.

[delet my acc pls]

R9-290

-more v-ram

-bigger memory bus

-competitor with 780

-free Battlefield 4

-20-50% increase from mantle.

Cons

-loud refrence cooler.

Get a aftermarket cooler and this is damn near a perfect GPU IMO

Im getting it myself BTW

[nokturrduk84]

I wonder, why still there is no R9 290x with aftermaket cooling when there is already R9 270, which doesn't even need to have aftermaket cooler cause it's not as hot as R9 290x?

[Najuno]

Because AMD didn't allow the board partners to do that at launch of the R9 290/X cards. They wanted to sell the cards in reference design, which was in my opinion a very bad move, cause even in Siberia the cards run hotter than they should and it's cold as hell there...

[-rascal-]

Also becuase the R9-270X and R9-270 has been within us for a few years already.

They are basically HD 7870's with VERY minor tweaks. The aftermarket coolers on the existing 7870's pretty much just bolts right on.

 

Same goes for the R9-280X (7970 GHz Edition).

 

Well....pretty much also true for all the mainstream cards...R7-2##.

[Humbug]

1) Gaming 1080p, single monitor - doesn't matter which you choose as both will blow gaming away (recommend cheaper unless you really want the Nvidia features).

At 1080p maxed out with the most demanding games like Metro Last Light, Company of Heroes 2 and Crysis 3 there will be clear difference between a 290 and 770. The 290 will be much closer to maintaining 60fps. Of course with the 770 you could back off on the anti-aliasing and still improve your framerate- but there are advantages to having better cards than the 770 even at 1080p if you want a silky smooth experience at the highest settings.

 

The framerate increase as you move up from 770 to 290 is actually more than the cost increase. Which is something that almost never happens in the GPU world, normally price/performance falls of a cliff once you get into high end.

[nokturrduk84]

Because AMD didn't allow the board partners to do that at launch of the R9 290/X cards. They wanted to sell the cards in reference design, which was in my opinion a very bad move, cause even in Siberia the cards run hotter than they should and it's cold as hell there...

Totally agree. It was very bad marketing move for AMD unfortunately. If they could allow their partners to sell R9 290x with aftermarket cooling systems at the start, they could sell them far better than now. I'm sure lots of people want to buy it, but hesitate because of heat/noise issues.