Having buyer's remorse on 780

[Deleted]

I bought the EVGA 780 SC AXC cooler for $510 at Micro Center (using their card for 6 months no interest). After a more bit of research, the R9 290 seems to be a much better deal. However, Micro Center does not carry them currently, and they only have the reference cooler model out in the market.

Should I just stick with the 780 or wait til Micro Center to start carrying the non reference R9 290? I will be stuck with a GT 9600 (my only backup card left) for God knows how long if I choose to wait. When do you guys think that the non reference R9 290 will hit the market?

[chazus]

That's a bit of a pickle... I'm not sure when R9-290s are getting non-ref or when they will be out on market. It may be your only other option is to get a reference card. Newegg has it for $400. It's a better card for $100 cheaper... But I'm not sure how loud/hot it gets.

[Sicarius87]

My friend got a 290X and had nothing but problems with it. He was having issues in every game he was playing even after updating to the latest video card drivers. This was also on day 1 release and he had it for a few days after. He went to a 780 Ti (which out performs the 290x) and he couldn't be happier.

When we would play BF4 together and use skype, i could hear his 290x's fan over skype. That's how loud it is and it runs extremely hot. Id personally suggest to avoid the 290x and keep the 780 or upgrade to the 780Ti and sell the 780 to recup some of the loss.

[deathjester]

My friend got a 290X and had nothing but problems with it. He was having issues in every game he was playing even after updating to the latest video card drivers. This was also on day 1 release and he had it for a few days after. He went to a 780 Ti (which out performs the 290x) and he couldn't be happier.

When we would play BF4 together and use skype, i could hear his 290x's fan over skype. That's how loud it is and it runs extremely hot. Id personally suggest to avoid the 290x and keep the 780 or upgrade to the 780Ti and sell the 780 to recup some of the loss.

There is no problem with the 290x chipset. It is fantastic. The problem is, when AMD releases a new chip set you have "AMD reference coolers" which are the equivalent of intel cpu stock coolers. People have complained about this for a long time. That is why the OP was talking about waiting for the third party cooler cards to come out. Saying that the 290x sucks is like saying the 4770k sucks because the stock cooler literally can't handle 8 thread gaming. The temps are outrageous on the stock cooler.

Tell your friend to do this to his 290x.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-290,3671.html

Grats. Now he has a rock solid 290x that is = to the third party cooler cards that are coming. Also about drivers? Nvidia cards were junk in BF4 day one. That doesn't mean Nvidia is garbage. The 290's will be awesome when the third party coolers hit. Mantle will give them an even bigger bump in performance. BTW EVGA coolers are also complete crap.

AMD CPU's? Yeah they suck. High voltage (not gon last), slow speed per clock, and they require overkill on motherboard phases to overclock compared to Haswell (which you can oc on a freakin budget z87 mini itx board), which makes the price close.

[chazus]

The 780ti is even a worse purchase. It's barely any better than the 290 or 290x (granted it IS better, but barely), and a ton more expensive. Definitely not worth it for price/performance.

I'd stick with the 780, or get the r9-290.. But definitely don't shell out another $200 for a measly performance increase.

[Deleted]

I would try to replace the reference cooler with an after market one, but unfortunately it will void my warranty on the R9.

I may be stuck with this 780 (at least it's ACX, not the blower one) because I hate AMD reference cooler. The only good thing about that cooler is that it matches the color theme of my rig.

[Fascinate]

People get too hung up on benchmarks, that's not the entirety of an experience with a graphics card. Im not claiming amd has driver problems still because i have heard many people say there are still issues, and many people say there arent. But a fact of the matter is nvidia has a much larger team of people that continually work on drivers as well as the nvidia experience (i absolutely adore this program, if only for the fact of seamless driver updates without PC restarts).

That said there is no denying a 290 is the price/performance leader in the high end gpu market, but for me ive had such great luck with nvidia im willing to pay a price premium and upcoming tech (gsync, mainly).

If i were you i wouldnt feel remorse at all, 780 is actually a relative bargain after the price drops if you compare it to a 770/760. But like chazus said above the 780ti has really poor price/performance and is only marketed to people who dont care about that and just demand the best.

[chazus]

Eh. "Easy driver update" and "A technology that isn't retail yet, and may be an utter flop, and requires you to buy a new monitor anyway" is not worth the extra $100-$300

[Fascinate]

I was simply giving my opinions about why i accept to pay a price premium for nvidia, i even stated if pure fps were your main purchasing point the 290 is hands down the price/performance leader. You disagree and thats fine : )

Just know one thing about me, when i purchased my PC 2.5 years ago i waited for every single part to come on a sale before i pulled the trigger (every part in my newegg cart was either with a promo code, bundle with another part, AND had free shipping) i am extremely frugal, and i still accept nvidias price premium.

Yes gsync could be a bust, but im putting my cards out that it isnt. I even stated in another thread if gsync wasnt a thing id have a 7950 in my pc right now (7950 for 165.00 bucks was really hard not to purchase, deal of the year) but i have such high hopes for gsync that i couldnt do it.

- - - Updated - - -

Let me just add, i am really disappointed in nvidia this black friday/cyber monday. The only decent deals were a 670 for 200 but there was a caveat being a 50.00 MIR, also there was a 760 for 200 without rebates BUT it had a reference cooler, something im not willing to buy. On AMD side of things there was a 7850 for 99.00 after mir and a 7870 for 129.00, nothing from nvidia came close to these deals : (

[glo]

The 780ti is even a worse purchase. It's barely any better than the 290 or 290x (granted it IS better, but barely), and a ton more expensive. Definitely not worth it for price/performance.

I'd stick with the 780, or get the r9-290.. But definitely don't shell out another $200 for a measly performance increase.

Well, there is a sizable difference in performance with the 780 Ti over the 290x stock vs stock. When aftermarket coolers release that could change. 15 to 20% performance jumps from the vanilla 780 is also nothing to sneeze at.

Then we have Mantle... Who knows? Too many unknowns at the moment.

[yurano]

The problem is, when AMD releases a new chip set you have "AMD reference coolers" which are the equivalent of intel cpu stock coolers. People have complained about this for a long time.

I think you mean "AMD stock cooler". The Intel stock cooler is alright, I've gamed on it with a stock i7-4770K.

AMD stock coolers are the ones that are terrible, ask any Phenom owner.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-290,3671.html

Lets void the warranty and drop an additional $100 to get what the 780 Ti offers out of the box. Sounds like a great idea!

[Faithh]

I even stated in another thread if gsync wasnt a thing id have a 7950 in my pc right now (7950 for 165.00 bucks was really hard not to purchase, deal of the year) but i have such high hopes for gsync that i couldnt do it.

It's not going to fix your rendering latency spikes of 30-100ms. If it could bring the rendering time to 1ms everyone would have gone crazy

[Fascinate]

I dont claim to be an expert on the technical aspects of gsync, im only going off of every review site that has reviewed it saying you have to see it in person to truly appreciate gsync, thats what im hanging my hat on.

I plan to demo gsync in person before i purchase it. If im not absolutely blown away i will not buy it because this upgrade is going to cost me 650 bucks total unless i find a 760 on sale.

[Majesticii]

they require overkill on motherboard phases to overclock compared to Haswell

You can never overclock a 8350 to match a haswell i5/i7. The IPC gap is over 50%.

granted it IS better, but barely

When has this never been the case with the fastest gpu available. I mean, Titan?
There is no superior, meaning you get to set the price. And trust me, people will buy it.

@OP, just stick with the 780. The minimal increase in performance is not worth the hassle.
Everyone having bought a new GPU recently has issues with the dramatic pricedrop.

[Toffie]

But a fact of the matter is nvidia has a much larger team of people that continually work on drivers as well as the nvidia experience (i absolutely adore this program, if only for the fact of seamless driver updates without PC restarts).
.

Honestly I think geforce experience is pretty useless.
I have about 30-35 games installed on steam/origin/uplay and only 5 games are supported. Even then you need to enter & exit the game for geforce experience to find settings for you, at that time you could just set the settings yourself.

nVidia might have a bigger driver team but that doesn't solve anything, their "optimized" games like COD Ghost, Black Flag & Batman Origins are horribly optimized and requires tweaking before being playable.

Also g-sync is marketing hype, they set a demo of something that runs 20-30 fps and doesn't even enable tripple buffering so the screen would tear like hell is just pathetic. If they improve frame latency and make games smoother then I'm all for it, for now I'll wait and see before spending money on a new screen, it better be worth it then.

[Cystacae]

I think you mean "AMD stock cooler". The Intel stock cooler is alright, I've gamed on it with a stock i7-4770K.

AMD stock coolers are the ones that are terrible, ask any Phenom owner.



Lets void the warranty and drop an additional $100 to get what the 780 Ti offers out of the box. Sounds like a great idea!

This is turning into an AMD INTEL AMD NVIDIA flame war. TBH I have never run into any problems with AMD hardware that wasn't my own doing. The Phenom coolers were fine, I ran them and have a stock one on my second system. The system is not having issues and as not crashed once. So your validity for AMD stock coolers problem is debunked right there as I had 3 different varieties of Phenoms/Phenom II and never had a problem and know plenty more than me without any either. I would rather void the warranty on the AMD as I get what I want out of it. This would allow for a much higher top end with tweaking and more stability. Besides who wants to spend 200 more over it and get another card if your preference is not to. Instead of telling someone to toss something or get something else, which never solves a problem, focus on the question and give a straight answer for the same price or cheaper than the next level. Of course spending more naturally gives you more of a piece of hardware even if it is an inflated price, this is basic info.

To the topic creator:

You play what you want and there will all ways be people somewhere to aide you in finding the issues should you have any.

My personal experience is that nearly NO current AMD 7700 series+ or nVidia 660 series+ gets challenged enough to keep them from maxing out in 95% of the games out there as long as your CPU is powerful enough and you have enough ram and a good solid state drive. If you have these then perhaps you could hold out even longer for a much more pronounced upgrade. Example I am overclocking my AMD FX 8120 from 3.1 Ghz disabling turbo and overclocking to 4.7 Ghz with an Antec Kuhler 620 as the cpu cooler. I also made sure my RAM is running its base speed advertised. All though you are not into overclocking what is going to happen to those parts once you upgrade? Are they going to be garbage to you? If so.. perhaps taking a chance at overclocking to buy you more time might be an idea... again MIGHT.

[deathjester]

This is turning into an AMD INTEL AMD NVIDIA flame war. TBH I have never run into any problems with AMD hardware that wasn't my own doing. The Phenom coolers were fine, I ran them and have a stock one on my second system. The system is not having issues and as not crashed once. So your validity for AMD stock coolers problem is debunked right there as I had 3 different varieties of Phenoms/Phenom II and never had a problem and know plenty more than me without any either. I would rather void the warranty on the AMD as I get what I want out of it. This would allow for a much higher top end with tweaking and more stability. Besides who wants to spend 200 more over it and get another card if your preference is not to. Instead of telling someone to toss something or get something else, which never solves a problem, focus on the question and give a straight answer for the same price or cheaper than the next level. Of course spending more naturally gives you more of a piece of hardware even if it is an inflated price, this is basic info.

To the topic creator:

You play what you want and there will all ways be people somewhere to aide you in finding the issues should you have any.

My personal experience is that nearly NO current AMD 7700 series+ or nVidia 660 series+ gets challenged enough to keep them from maxing out in 95% of the games out there as long as your CPU is powerful enough and you have enough ram and a good solid state drive. If you have these then perhaps you could hold out even longer for a much more pronounced upgrade. Example I am overclocking my AMD FX 8120 from 3.1 Ghz disabling turbo and overclocking to 4.7 Ghz with an Antec Kuhler 620 as the cpu cooler. I also made sure my RAM is running its base speed advertised. All though you are not into overclocking what is going to happen to those parts once you upgrade? Are they going to be garbage to you? If so.. perhaps taking a chance at overclocking to buy you more time might be an idea... again MIGHT.

Well I think his cred went out the window when he said the intel stock cooler could cool a 4770k for gaming. That is true if you play a 2 or a 3 core game. I undervolted my 4770k when I first got it (mb set CPU voltage to 1.038) and the thing still went over 75C in a 8 core game and that is in a brand new Haf 912 which is notorious for having great airflow. The only reason I put the stock cooler in, was my evo 212 was a few days from being delivered. Gw2 which is a 4 core game (really only 3), was hitting 73-74 in WvW and this is with an UNDERVOLT.

Forget about running prime on 8 cores with the stock cooler. You will asplode the damn thing.

Then again people actually think over 75 degrees for 24/7 is a good thing. They think intel magically made these new chips better. Over 75 is never good and will never be good on silicon. Not on a GPU and not on a CPU. If it breaks it on a stress test that is one thing. If you are playing a 8 thread game like BF4 and at 75 degrees or passing it? Your chip is not happy. Lower your overclock unless you can afford to replace it in a couple years.

The AMD and Intel stock cooler are both kind of bad. The only reason the AMD one is hated even more, is because people unpark their cores and are actually using 8 cores. The Intel wasn't until BF4 and the Frostbite 3 engine. Now? The stockcooler is causing half the official BF4 forum to claim the game is broken lol.

The I5 stock cooler on Haswell? BARELY good enough. I wouldn't stress test at all with it, but it should be ok for 4 core games, as long as you have great airflow and it never gets dirty. Add some dust and that think isn't up to the challenge.

Anyone who tells you stock cooler on a 4770k is good enough for gaming? Is full of @#*%. They shouldn't even sell the damn things with a stock cooler.

[yurano]

Well I think his cred went out the window when he said the intel stock cooler could cool a 4770k for gaming.

Your cred went out the window when you said the HAF 912 is notorious for having great airflow. With what? Its two 120mm fans?

I undervolted my 4770k when I first got it (mb set CPU voltage to 1.038) and the thing still went over 75C in a 8 core game and that is in a brand new Haf 912 which is notorious for having great airflow. The only reason I put the stock cooler in, was my evo 212 was a few days from being delivered. Gw2 which is a 4 core game (really only 3), was hitting 73-74 in WvW and this is with an UNDERVOLT.

Ever think that maybe you didn't mount the Intel stock cooler properly?

Then again people actually think over 75 degrees for 24/7 is a good thing. They think intel magically made these new chips better. Over 75 is never good and will never be good on silicon. Not on a GPU and not on a CPU.

Aren't you the one that says the R9-290 and R9-290X are good GPUs, GPUs that are manufacturer specced to hit 95C?

The only reason the AMD one is hated even more, is because people unpark their cores and are actually using 8 cores.

The AMD stock cooler is bad because the heatsink is small and the fan is tiny. The AMD stock cooler breaks 3000 RPM, even on 4-core systems. My Intel stock cooler never broke 2000 RPM in normal use.

Anyone who tells you stock cooler on a 4770k is good enough for gaming? Is full of @#*%. They shouldn't even sell the damn things with a stock cooler.

Someone is full of @#$% and its not me.

[Fascinate]

Honestly I think geforce experience is pretty useless.
I have about 30-35 games installed on steam/origin/uplay and only 5 games are supported. Even then you need to enter & exit the game for geforce experience to find settings for you, at that time you could just set the settings yourself.

nVidia might have a bigger driver team but that doesn't solve anything, their "optimized" games like COD Ghost, Black Flag & Batman Origins are horribly optimized and requires tweaking before being playable.

Also g-sync is marketing hype, they set a demo of something that runs 20-30 fps and doesn't even enable tripple buffering so the screen would tear like hell is just pathetic. If they improve frame latency and make games smoother then I'm all for it, for now I'll wait and see before spending money on a new screen, it better be worth it then.

You are the biggest AMD fanboy ive ever met on an online forum, and that is saying something. Yes, i see the 780ti in your sig, that just means you have more money than sense. I was civil in my post giving amd credit where it was due, you have nothing but bad things to say about nvidia in your post yet you bought a 780ti?

I didn't say i liked geforce experience for the game settings part of it, i just find it extremely handy for updating drivers, this is fairly clear if you read my post. I have not played any of the games you listed, what i do know is every single game i do play i have never had a driver crash with my card, that says SOMETHING for their driver team (2.5 years now, not a single driver crash).

Gsync makes three claims:

The Solution: NVIDIA G-SYNC

Enter NVIDIA G-SYNC, which eliminates screen tearing, VSync input lag, and stutter. To achieve this revolutionary feat, we build a G-SYNC module into monitors, allowing G-SYNC to synchronize the monitor to the output of the GPU, instead of the GPU to the monitor, resulting in a tear-free, faster, smoother experience that redefines gaming.

How could they make that claim if the monitors had even a chance of tearing?

I find it astonishing you are willing to spend 700 dollars on a graphics card with one of the worst price/performance ratios in history, but when we are talking about a monitor (something you stare at all day, integral part of the gaming experience) technology that makes such massive claims and could possibly be the next big thing in in PC industry you say "for now I'll wait and see before spending money on a new screen, it better be worth it then". You act as if the 400 dollar price tag is absurd, when in reality the 144hz panels they are being installed on are almost 300 bucks by themselves, and are pretty nice monitors to begin with.

Literally every review i have read has told me i need to see this monitor in person, that is what i am going to do. They said to truly appreciate what gsync is you need to see what no input lag means with a properly done "lightboost". Like i said if im not completely blown away i will simply pass on the tech, its a lot of money for me.

[yurano]

I have about 30-35 games installed on steam/origin/uplay and only 5 games are supported. Even then you need to enter & exit the game for geforce experience to find settings for you, at that time you could just set the settings yourself.

Vast majority of my games are supported.

When GeForce experience first came out, I was a skeptic. But having to spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out which settings will have the most dramatic impact on FPS is just not worth my time.

The difference between your experience and mine is that you have a 780 SLI and just set everything on max. Everyone with less than 780 SLI needs spend the time fine tuning settings to hit their target frame rate (solid 60 FPS for me). Does turning down Ambient Occlusion or Shadows in Batman Origins have the largest impact on performance with a minimum impact on quality? How about for BattleField 4?

GeForce Experience's one stop shop strategy is very convenient.