Your opinion - dual 780 ti or R9 290x

[GBBnero]

ARVIND2050 asked me via PN for my opinion on buying a ASUS ROG ARES II. He suggested this card to his Friend who is using his PC purely for gaming and currently wants to 3 way Radeon HD 7950 on a ASUS p9x79 pro Motherboard. 

 

Arvind suggested to his Friend, instead of buying three Radeon HD 7950, he should buy a single ASUS ROG ARES II. In my opinion this is nonsense. The card performs worse then a GTX 780ti or R9 290x and as it came out as a limited edition (only 99 pieces @ 1500$) I feel like it's wayyyyy overpriced.

 

Instead, I suggested him to go with a 780ti but then he told me his friend wants to SLI the 780ti. 

 

My question is basically:

Since in the past, two way AMD cards have performed better at higher resolutions (his friend wants to play at 5760x1080) then Nvidia cards, would you suggest going with crossfire AMD R9 290x or SLI GTX 780ti? And this is just about the Performance, apparently price doesn't matter.

 

Thanks for your help guys

[MbV93]

Dual 780ti will give more performance.

[M-ursu]

Dual 290 for Max. price/performance

[91wow]

if he has the money dual 780TI's

 

If he wants a heater dual 290's 

[WoodenMarker]

if he has the money dual 780TI's

If he wants a heater dual 290's 

If you have the money for 2 780 Ti's, you have the money for 3 290's.

[Mooshi]

If you have the money for 2 780 Ti's, you have the money for 3 290's.

 

I'll do you one better.

 

If you have the money for 2 780 Ti's, you have the money to throw some 290's underwater.

[WoodenMarker]

I'll do you one better.

If you have the money for 2 780 Ti's, you have the money to throw some 290's underwater.

A Kraken G10 + Hydro H55 is less than $100. 

If you can get 2 780's, you can put 2 290's under water.

[CoolBeans]

Dual non reference 290s, he will probably need the VRAM

[joelthezombie15]

A Kraken G10 + Hydro H55 is less than $100. 

If you can get 2 780's, you can put 2 290's under water.

+1

[GBBnero]

Anyone have some benchmarks? I can't seem to find any....

 

btw. 3 way crossfire he will need water cooling as well

[91wow]

If you have the money for 2 780 Ti's, you have the money for 3 290's.

as many will tell you, triple or quad GPU's don't scale well and are not worth the money for the PSU needed and the cooling solution. it'd end up buying the same amount and still not really be worth it.

[WoodenMarker]

Anyone have some benchmarks? I can't seem to find any....

btw. 3 way crossfire he will need water cooling as well

Not if he can wait for aftermarket.

as many will tell you, triple or quad GPU's don't scale well and are not worth the money for the PSU needed and the cooling solution. it'd end up buying the same amount and still not really be worth it.

Whether it scales well doesn't really matter when it performs better for the same price. 

Non-reference coolers with decent case airflow shouldn't be that difficult. Also, the price for a psu for triple cf is likely around the same price as a psu for a 780 Ti sli. 

Either way, I was just saying. The 780 Ti is not a good value.

[ajoy39]

Not if he can wait for aftermarket.

Whether it scales well doesn't really matter when it performs better for the same price.

Non-reference coolers with decent case airflow shouldn't be that difficult. Also, the price for a psu for triple cf is likely around the same price as a psu for a 780 Ti sli.

Either way, I was just saying. The 780 Ti is not a good value.

To my knowledge triple and quad crossfire still have frame pacing issues.

[WoodenMarker]

To my knowledge triple and quad crossfire still have frame pacing issues.

I'm pretty sure they fixed most of that with 13.8. Frames pacing is more of an issue with eyefinity than crossfire.

[-rascal-]

@91wow

3-way and 4-way not scaling well?! What?

According to digitalnav's 1, 2, 3, and 4-way R9-290X CrossfireX testing, they scale very well (to the point that it blew my mind a bit).

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/78152-amd-r9-290x-2x-3x-4x-crossfire-4k-resolution-overclocking-benchmarks/#entry1072526

Frame pacing was suppose to be already fixed at a hardware level for the *New* R9-2XX cards (this excludes the R9-280X aka 7970 GHz). I remember Linus and Slick talked about this on the WAN show 1 or 2 months ago.

Clearly, if it's fixed at a hardware level, AMD had already knew about the issue MONTHS (maybe years) before nVidia spilled the beans. (if it takes several months to prepare a driver, how long does it take to implement in a new technology?)

[ajoy39]

I'm pretty sure they fixed most of that with 13.8. Frames pacing is more of an issue with eyefinity than crossfire.

13.8 fixed 2 way configs, but not 3 and 4 way. The new implementation of crossfire on 290 and 290x took care of most of the eyefinity problems but I haven't seen anyone report on 3 and 4 way configs yey

[91wow]

@91wow

3-way and 4-way not scaling well?! What?

According to digitalnav's 1, 2, 3, and 4-way R9-290X CrossfireX testing, they scale very well (to the point that it blew my mind a bit).

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/78152-amd-r9-290x-2x-3x-4x-crossfire-4k-resolution-overclocking-benchmarks/#entry1072526

Frame pacing was suppose to be already fixed at a hardware level for the *New* R9-2XX cards (this excludes the R9-280X aka 7970 GHz). I remember Linus and Slick talked about this on the WAN show 1 or 2 months ago.

Clearly, if it's fixed at a hardware level, AMD had already knew about the issue MONTHS (maybe years) before nVidia spilled the beans. (if it takes several months to prepare a driver, how long does it take to implement in a new technology?)

Does anyone on this forum have 4K? Most are at 1440P or 1600P. 

[MdX MaxX]

I see no reason to argue about price if price is no object for this guy.

 

I'd totally go with the dual 780-Ti option.  Since he wants to play at 3x1920x1080 and there are still frame pacing issues with Eyefinity, a dual 780-Ti config would rock.  And it would probably perform about 15-20% better than dual 290s anyway.

 

VRAM won't be an issue; you'd have to crank antialiasing up through the roof to exceed 3GB VRAM, and doing that wouldn't give you decent framerates anyway.

[ViruZ_HUN]

DUAL 780 TI. NOW:D

[TERAFLOP]

and there are still frame pacing issues with Eyefinity, a dual 780-Ti config would rock.

No there aren't, R9 290X and 290 have hardware frame pacing that works in eyefinity up to 1440p X3 the new XDMA engine is why the cards lack crossfire fingers.

[MdX MaxX]

No there aren't, R9 290X and 290 have hardware frame pacing that works in eyefinity up to 1440p X3 the new XDMA engine is why the cards lack crossfire fingers.

My bad, I was thinking 280X.

Even so, 780-Ti SLI for maximum performance. I say if you're willing to shell out the extra cash, then why not?

[-rascal-]

Does anyone on this forum have 4K? Most are at 1440P or 1600P. 

 

There are a few here with 1 or 2  1440p or 1600p monitors...but I don't know anyone with a single (or multiple) 4K display.

C'mon we don't have money trees in our back yards   .

[Xander McN]

I wish I had a money tree..   And I would go 780ti until we see some non reference coolers we don't know how amazing the 290 could be. Or is the Kraken a good enough solution for somebody that money is no object??

[Sandzsteedt]

My question is basically:

Since in the past, two way AMD cards have performed better at higher resolutions (his friend wants to play at 5760x1080) then Nvidia cards, would you suggest going with crossfire AMD R9 290x or SLI GTX 780ti? And this is just about the Performance, apparently price doesn't matter.

 

 

Since the question is about multi monitor resolutions and SLI/Crossfire then the choice comes down to features between AMD and Nvidia rather than outright performance.

 

Both Nvidia Surround and AMD Eyefinity have their own perks that can be either good or bad for the intended application. So I would suggest reading up on the different features or possible problems before rushing into buying anything.

Few things to consider include software and feature differences in controlling the multi monitor setup, possible hardware or software limitations or irritations...

[Portgrey]

Not to necro an old thread.

My setup is one 780 ti. I am waiting for the second

The wife has dual 290 that we will be water cooling.

We have the sony xbr 65 4k that got updated to 4k hdmi 60hz. I am going to see if I can make it work with our computers. If not when the dell 28in 4k comes out I May pick that up..