R9 290 or a GTX 780 ??

[shaazzaarr]

Hey peeps.

 

I am planning to buy a new graphics card. I am still undecided whether I want to go with AMD or NVIDIA.

My budget is £400 which makes the decision slightly hard to make.

 

Custom R9 290's are available to pre-order and will start shipping in mid January.

 

 

I want your help on this...

Should I wait for the 290's or take the plunge on a GTX 780?

Is mantle going to seriously increase gaming performance on majority of the games?

Is the extra 1GB or VRAM giving the R9 290 a slight advantage. 

 

Which one would you go for and why?

 

Again thanks a lot guys.

I look forward to your replys.

[thedigitalmilk]

If your big on Nvidia's features get the 780 If you just want pure performance get the 290

[N3D9ed]

290 if you need the VRAM. 780 if you need Nvidia's features (ShadowPlay, PhysX etc.)

Is Mantle that game changing? In my opinion, no. But we're gonna have to wait to find out.

I would go with 780 as it's personal preference.

[david cassar]

The gtx 780 is slightly faster than the r9 290. If the r9 290 is cheaper by a significant margin get it but if the price is similar get the gtx 780.

[wng_kingsley7]

The gtx 780 is slightly faster than the r9 290. If the r9 290 is cheaper by a significant margin get it but if the price is similar get the gtx 780.

In BF4 the R9 290 is slightly faster

[david cassar]

In BF4 the R9 290 is slightly faster

because bf4 runs better on amd

[david cassar]

In BF4 the R9 290 is slightly faster

which brings us to another subject what games will the op play.

@wng_kingsley7 sorry

[LBJ]

Both are strong cards, you can't go too wrong with either. There haven't been any real numbers yet and the BF4 Mantle patch has been pushed back so we really don't know what difference it will make. It it possible that there will be a reasonable performance increase, or it is also possible that Mantle won't be that successful and/or used in many games. 

 

The extra VRAM is nice as well as the faster memory bus but unless you're planning on multi-card and/or very high resolutions it won't have that much effect.

 

It also depends if you feel you would get use out of Shadowplay, and possibly G-Sync (once there are some reasonably priced monitors perhaps).

 

The performance is very similar, in some games the R9 290 comes out on top, in others the GTX 780 does. For example, if the main game you wanted to play currently was BF4 then it would be tempting to go for the R9 290 given it outperforms the GTX780 in BF4 and may see an increase from Mantle.

 

For the record, I just bought a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X, because it was the card that suited my needs/budget the best. 

[wng_kingsley7]

Oops...@shaazzaarr Welcome to the forum I'm Kingsley

@david cassar dude no need to repost my name just edit the same post

Hey peeps.

 

I am planning to buy a new graphics card. I am still undecided whether I want to go with AMD or NVIDIA.

My budget is £400 which makes the decision slightly hard to make.

 

Custom R9 290's are available to pre-order and will start shipping in mid January.

 

 

I want your help on this.0

Should I wait for the 290's or take the plunge on a GTX 780?

Is mantle going to seriously increase gaming performance on majority of the games?

Is the extra 1GB or VRAM giving the R9 290 a slight advantage. 

 

Which one would you go for and why?

 

Again thanks a lot guys.

I look forward to your replys.

When the cards we first launched the AMD had the R9 290 was cut down $100 dollars internationally less than the 780 which at the time costs $500. With mantle coming soon...

Nvidia released the 780 back in...july or something with support for the nvidia streaming (like a console), twitch streaming for kepler based graphic cards 650 Ti boost and up, shadowplay and upgradeablility for the upcoming G-Sync technology.

Right now I believe for features nvidia has blown AMD out of the water entirely. AMD is kinda struggling in my opinion on getting gamers what they want.

[wng_kingsley7]

Other than that can I have a model number of your monitor, resolution and if you're playing eyefinity/surround?

[GeneralBear]

also rmember if ur gonan tripple monitor the 290 can do it over dvi dvi hdmi 780 requires dvi dvi display port

[GamerDude]

Right now I believe for features nvidia has blown AMD out of the water entirely. AMD is kinda struggling in my opinion on getting gamers what they want.

That's right, that's just your opinion which I don't happen to share....at all, and yes, just my opinion as well.

[wng_kingsley7]

That's right, that's just your opinion which I don't happen to share....at all, and yes, just my opinion as well.

Wait...what. My brain is strugglin to you need to clarify with simple words

You're disagreeing to agree WTF dude ...gamer gimme your proper opinion.

All I can read is that your so called opinion is being hypocritical.

[Dragonzeanse]

GTX 780. Until R9 290s are released with manufacturer's own coolers, I will never recommend the 290 cards. They run too hot or too fast depending on your fan setting. The 780 has an arguably stronger game bundle, and you're guaranteed to get it anyway. I don't usually use bundles as incentive to buy a card, but if you don't have the games, it's a nice extra. If Litecoin miners hadn't caused inflation, I might recommend the R9 290 with a big asterisk, but it makes absolutely no sense to buy one of them right now. All AMD really has going for them - graphics notwithstanding - is Mantle and TrueAudio, which hardly look like they warrant the price of admission.

[shaazzaarr]

Other than that can I have a model number of your monitor, resolution and if you're playing eyefinity/surround?

I am just planning to play most recent games BF4, MW3 and just the classic popular games. My monitor is an acer S243Lbmi 24inch 1080p. Here is a picture and model number.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

That's right, that's just your opinion which I don't happen to share....at all, and yes, just my opinion as well.

 

Well what does AMD in reality offer you other than a bundle of games? Ehhh, just about nothing. We haven't seen anything real when it comes to Mantle yet and as much as we can choose to believe that it will be game changing there really is no way to know and it offers nothing, zero, nada as of right now.

 

On the other hand NVIDIA has a pretty nice feature set. Right now you get Assassin's Creed IV, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Batman: Arkham Origins with any 780, and I'd say that's either equivalent or superior to Never Settle. On top of that you get Shadowplay which while it still has some problems is absolutely awesome. Again on top of that you get G-Sync which some may want to use, others may not, and you get GeForce Experience which honestly is vastly superior to CCC. To top it all off the 780 does overclock better than the reference 290, however we are yet to see how well non-reference 290's OC, so we can't really take that into consideration as of now.

 

From a features point of view NVIDIA is ahead of AMD by far. But then the 780 is a tad more expensive and the performance of the 290 is pretty much on par with it. I would choose NVIDIA any day, but if you don't care about the features spending the extra money on a 780 doesn't make much sense.

[LBJ]

To top it all off the 780 does overclock better than the reference 290, however we are yet to see how well non-reference 290's OC, so we can't really take that into consideration as of now.

 

 

We have seen some overclocking results already. 

 

Anandtech got their R9 290 Tri-X to 1125Mhz and these were the benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/5

 

PCper got their 290X Tri-X to 1225Mhz. Keeping in mind the Sapphire card is a reference PCB with a custom cooler it's largely silicon lottery.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Sapphire-Radeon-R9-290X-Tri-X-4GB-Graphics-Card-Review/Overclocking-and-Concl

 

Guru3D got their ASUS 290X card to 1150Mhz, but I don't believe the non-X ASUS card has been released yet. 

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_290x_directcuii_oc_review,28.html

 

 

 

I'll be interested to see what performance Linus can get out of the non-reference R9 290/X cards and if Mantle ends up being any good.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

We have seen some overclocking results already. 

 

Anandtech got their R9 290 Tri-X to 1125Mhz and these were the benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/5

 

PCper got their 290X Tri-X to 1225Mhz. Keeping in mind the Sapphire card is a reference PCB with a custom cooler it's largely silicon lottery.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Sapphire-Radeon-R9-290X-Tri-X-4GB-Graphics-Card-Review/Overclocking-and-Concl

 

Guru3D got their ASUS 290X card to 1150Mhz, but I don't believe the non-X ASUS card has been released yet. 

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_290x_directcuii_oc_review,28.html

 

 

 

I'll be interested to see what performance Linus can get out of the non-reference R9 290/X cards and if Mantle ends up being any good.

 

Is the R9 290 Tri-X not a reference PCB though? It sure as hell looks like it.

[LBJ]

Is the R9 290 Tri-X not a reference PCB though? It sure as hell looks like it.

According to the  reviews I've read, unlike the Direct CU II, the Tri-X is still a reference PCB (as I said originally) 

 

According to Anand tech "As for the board itself, as was previously mentioned this is a semi-custom card, so Sapphire is melding their custom cooler to AMD’s reference board – complete with the AMD logo."

[Guest]

Willing to OC? Go 789 it's faster once OCed

And Gsync is awesome

[Hans Christian | Teri]

According to the  reviews I've read, unlike the Direct CU II, the Tri-X is still a reference PCB (as I said originally) 

 

According to Anand tech "As for the board itself, as was previously mentioned this is a semi-custom card, so Sapphire is melding their custom cooler to AMD’s reference board – complete with the AMD logo."

 

Well then my point stands uncorrected. What I meant was non-reference PCB, as we have already seen how the reference PCB performs "under water". I expect that ASUS will deliver a card with significantly improved power delivery that should let them push the clocks further than what Slick and Linus managed.

[SkyLassie]

Greeeen

[LBJ]

Well then my point stands uncorrected. What I meant was non-reference PCB, as we have already seen how the reference PCB performs "under water". I expect that ASUS will deliver a card with significantly improved power delivery that should let them push the clocks further than what Slick and Linus managed.

The Direct CU II card I posted is a custom PCB and it managed 1150Mhz. 25Mhz more than the Sapphire 290 (non-X) and 75Mhz less than the Sapphire 290X. As I said, sounded like silicon lottery to me. 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

The Direct CU II card I posted is a custom PCB and it managed 1150Mhz. 25Mhz more than the Sapphire 290 (non-X) and 75Mhz less than the Sapphire 290X. As I said, sounded like silicon lottery to me. 

 

That is a 290X and not a 290 though. Of course one can assume that the design will be more or less the same, however assuming is all we can do, which is why I left it out of the equation.

[Mao_Zedong]

Is mantle going to seriously increase gaming performance on majority of the games?

The short answer is yes, it will significantly increase performance in the games that support it. The number of games supported will probably not be extremely high, but battlefield games will support it for sure.

 

Is the extra 1GB of VRAM giving the R9 290 a slight advantage?

No, unless you are using 4k or a surround setup it will not.

 

Should I wait for the 290's or take the plunge on a GTX 780? 

Personally i would go for the 780, i like Nvidia's features including g-sync. Another thing is that the 780 overclocks better, so if you overclock it, it will give better performance on most games. The third thing is the 780 is available in many more places than the 290 due to bitcoin mining.