I think the problem is somewhere else not hardware. Maybe an addon or something. The cpu you got is more than enough overclocked and the 290 is alot more powerful than needed. You are playing at what resolution? 1080p@60hz? I have/had no problems whatsover in hc HFC.
Can't say I have any addons which cause this, dropped from mostly high to mostly medium.
Benchmarks do show the 970 20-30% faster at 1440p in WoW - other games it's about equal (certainly because my 290 has good cooling while the reference throttles)
Ok 1440p is a different thing. A 290 is not bad for that resolution but usually nvidia card run better in Blizzard games than amd. I guess at 1440p the difference is more noticeable. The deal is i am not sure a gtx970 over R9 290 justifies the upgrade performance difference for the money. I would be more inclined towards a gtx980 for 1440p considering that you got a 290 tho for wow in particular a gtx970 might be enough. Reason is that its more cpu heavy than gpu, in other more gpu heavy games that won't be the case. Obviously depends if you can afford it or how much you wanna spend on it.
i'm not sure either - getting a 970 would be a sidegrade for all except WoW. A 980 seems quite expensive for what it offers (vs 970) and the next option is a 980 TI already which does cost quite a lot of money
Hoping someone has some experience with these cards/resolution!