GTX970 or R9 290X at the same Price Point

[Erous]

With Black Friday deals and AMD's willingness to finally drop prices on the R9 lineup, I've been hit with a dilemma and am looking for insight. I'm finalizing a build and these 2 cards have both fallen into my price point. Let me start by saying I've been an AMD fan for a long time with GPUs, but I've warmed up to NVIDIA with my recent laptop purchase. I may also plan to dual card at some point which would probably put NVIDIA slightly ahead but wanted some further input.

Below is my understanding from a pros and cons for these:

290X - Marginally better frames on most games, runs hot, manufacturers can be hit/miss with build quality, higher power draw

GTX970 - Marginally lower frames, overclockable depending on cooler and manufacturer (also raises price point), app suite is marginally better, difficult to find

[kingpinuk880]

if you plan to sli/xfire, I would go 970, uses WAY less power, 2x290x maxed out would be the best part off 800w. Drop been a fan of amd v nvidia, and buy whats best for you regardless of firm. I frequently switch between the two, never limit your options.

forgot to add, 970 have lower temp and noise if that's important to you

[Erous]

if you plan to sli/xfire, I would go 970, uses WAY less power, 2x290x maxed out would be the best part off 800w. Drop been a fan of amd v nvidia, and buy whats best for you regardless of firm. I frequently switch between the two, never limit your options.

I get what you're saying, but sometimes habits are hard to break when things have worked well consistently for a while. I agree with you statement about the power draw. I'll be OCing a 5820K, which is already power hungry and the 2 R9290x's may need a 1k supply to accommodate everything, but I couldn't pass up weighing the 2 card options. Appreciate the feedback

[Deleted]

Difficult choice.

I do think 290x performs better on higher resolutions. And crossfire is better at the moment than SLI.

This is an important topic when talking about SLI and CrossFire. In the past, AMD was the one in the hot seat with terrible CrossFire scaling, performance and smoothness. A lot has changed over the last couple of years, AMD now has a frame pacing technology as well as its new XDMA technology. These technologies combined have turned the tables and now CrossFire feels smoother than SLI. It still feels smoother even when compared to NVIDIA's new GTX 980 cards in SLI. While overclocked GTX 980 SLI is faster in framerate, the actual feeling and smoothness in games feels better on AMD Radeon R9 290X. AMD currently has the upper hand in this arena.

http://hardocp.com/article/2014/11/1...7#.VHXjO4uG-So

They also have a SLI 970 review.

I dont think you can go wrong with either of the two cards.

[Erous]

Difficult choice.

I do think 290x performs better on higher resolutions. And crossfire is better at the moment than SLI.



http://hardocp.com/article/2014/11/1...7#.VHXjO4uG-So

They also have a SLI 970 review.

I dont think you can go wrong with either of the two cards.

This is very good feedback, thanks. This has me swaying the other way now again. I would typically just as easily go with the R9, but the power reviews and high heat reports had me originally skeptical. If I do go with a 290x, I would just need to hope that the price point doesn't bounce back up when I'm ready to crossfire

[Deleted]

Power draw is a lot higher of course. I wouldnt worry to much about heat. You will get a custom cooled model I assume anyway. With proper airflow there shouldnt be a problem.

[Erous]

Power draw is a lot higher of course. I wouldnt worry to much about heat. You will get a custom cooled model I assume anyway. With proper airflow there shouldnt be a problem.

Yeah, read the article on the 290x crossfire and the guy was very specific to note that the heat exhaust was pushing 150F...reading reviews of the custom cooled cards, some of them also report that they run hot. My main concern is not spending too much just for after market cooling; however, the articles were quick to point out that with mail-in rebates, some of the 290x's are going for $299.99, which makes the purchase sort of a no brainer