290x worth $50 more than 290?

O

outers

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 10, 2013
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317
Hey guys, I was just wondering if you guys thought the 290x was worth 50 bucks more than a regular 290? I'm about to run to the store and pick one up and was just curious.
 
it depends....

what versions of the cards are you looking at? What price can you get it for?

AMD's 300 series should be out by summer....dont you think its a little late to be considering a 290/290x now?
 
With everything being equal (Same cooler, build quality, brand, etc) and if you OC, then not really. The performance delta between the two clock for clock is rather small and generally does not equal letting you use higher in game settings.
 
They are both the gigabyte wind force. The 290 is the non oc model and the 290x is the oc model
 
I'd lean towards waiting for the 390 series or the 290 if you want something now.
 
blackacidevil said:
it depends....

what versions of the cards are you looking at? What price can you get it for?

AMD's 300 series should be out by summer....dont you think its a little late to be considering a 290/290x now?
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AMD 390 series is probably going to be $400+ when they get released
 
and?

Gigabyte Windforce 290x on newegg is $540 (out of stock though)
Windforce 290 is $390

Even if the 290x was $440 ($50 difference as OP stated), its still a little late to be considering 290's when 380s/390s will be out in 3-5 months (hopefully)
 
blackacidevil said:
and?

Gigabyte Windforce 290x on newegg is $540 (out of stock though)
Windforce 290 is $390

Even if the 290x was $440 ($50 difference as OP stated), its still a little late to be considering 290's when 380s/390s will be out in 3-5 months (hopefully)
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The 290 I'm looking at is 210 and the 290x is 260. My 7970 isn't cutting it at 1080p anymore and there are tons of games that i want to play between now and June. The other option is a 300 dollar msi/windforce 970
 
The 290 is better value. You can O/C it and get near identical performance.
 
290 is the better value but personally I would go 290X if you are going to stay 1080p for a while.
I would wait for the next gen if you plan on upping the resolution, while getting a temporary 290 for the meanwhile.
 
What do you mean by your 7970 can't cut it anymore at 1080P? At that resolution the 7970 can handle just about any game. I know because I have it running at that resolution and have thrown many recent titles at it with no hit in performance.
 
celwin said:
What do you mean by your 7970 can't cut it anymore at 1080P? At that resolution the 7970 can handle just about any game. I know because I have it running at that resolution and have thrown many recent titles at it with no hit in performance.
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The hard-line beta was constantly dipping below 60 fps with settings turned down
 
Get the 290. Then when the 3xx series comes out and if you want to upgrade, you won't take as much of a loss selling it.
 
This is the smallest performance difference for AMD's #1 and #2 card since the 9700Pro and the 9700.
 
Personally, if your motherboard and PSU can handle it, I would get a second 7970 and CF it.
 
Given those choices, I would go with the 290 if you are looking for a new card. The performance gain of the 290X is not worth the additional cost of $50. The 290 should provide a bit of a performance boost over the 7970 and you'll gain some additional VRAM.

Getting a second 7970 for CF might also be a good idea. I'm not sure how bad the pricing is now that the mining craze is more or less over, but the last time I checked they were only $40 or so less than new 290s after rebate. I also own a Gigabyte Windforce 290, which is what I settled on after doing the research you are doing now.

blackacidevil said:
and?

Gigabyte Windforce 290x on newegg is $540 (out of stock though)
Windforce 290 is $390

Even if the 290x was $440 ($50 difference as OP stated), its still a little late to be considering 290's when 380s/390s will be out in 3-5 months (hopefully)
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Or now is the perfect time because the pricing is probably close to as low as it will go before the new cards launch. Assuming that the new cards launch at previous MSRP levels, then the immediate savings look even better.
 
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I would do a 290. Could even resell it later for the 300 series for not much of a loss considering how low it is already.

My 980 barely cuts it at 1080P if you're into DSR/VSR and AA. Barely cuts it means different things to different people I suppose. :)
 
Dayaks said:
My 980 barely cuts it at 1080P if you're into DSR/VSR and AA. Barely cuts it means different things to different people I suppose. :)
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DSR/VSR means you're not really running at 1080p you know.
 
What games have suddenly come out that you want to play on a 7970 that won't play well at 1080P? If you are worried about $50 then I would say turn down your settings and save up you money for the R3xx series. You will lose more than $50 when you go to sell it because most likely there will be a flood of R2xx cards for sale when the R3xx cards hit the market. I was running HD5870's in Crossfire until the R9 290X came out. I then just played all the games I loved over again at higher settings.

The other thing is I use to think getting a card at the end of life was the thing to do. I have changed my mind on that. Getting it at the beginning is best because you get all the benefit of the cards throughout the life of the card AND it turns out to be more cost effective.

In the long run, you will be happier if you wait, imo.
 
hcforde said:
What games have suddenly come out that you want to play on a 7970 that won't play well at 1080P? If you are worried about $50 then I would say turn down your settings and save up you money for the R3xx series. You will lose more than $50 when you go to sell it because most likely there will be a flood of R2xx cards for sale when the R3xx cards hit the market. I was running HD5870's in Crossfire until the R9 290X came out. I then just played all the games I loved over again at higher settings.

The other thing is I use to think getting a card at the end of life was the thing to do. I have changed my mind on that. Getting it at the beginning is best because you get all the benefit of the cards throughout the life of the card AND it turns out to be more cost effective.

In the long run, you will be happier if you wait, imo.
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I sort of disagree with your last point.

If you pick up a 290 or 290x today, it'll hold up fairly well at least until the next console generation hits and raises the bar again. And you had 5870's before, so you weren't exactly missing out on *that much*.

But then I lag a bit and tend to buy things on steam sale so having a year or two lag on my GPU's doesn't impact me much.
 
For 260$ I would say that the 290x is a steal of a deal. I mean the only real competition to that card is a gtx 970 and those are still way north of $300. And if/when the 390x or 390's / 380s start coming out you will probably see them with the same types of pricing as the last AMD release as a guess $549, 499, 450 types of prices.
 
celwin said:
What do you mean by your 7970 can't cut it anymore at 1080P? At that resolution the 7970 can handle just about any game. I know because I have it running at that resolution and have thrown many recent titles at it with no hit in performance.
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Yeah I agree with you on this one.
My 7970 is still kicking ass at this resolution.
 
omega-x said:
I sort of disagree with your last point.

If you pick up a 290 or 290x today, it'll hold up fairly well at least until the next console generation hits and raises the bar again. And you had 5870's before, so you weren't exactly missing out on *that much*.

But then I lag a bit and tend to buy things on steam sale so having a year or two lag on my GPU's doesn't impact me much.
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The new cards will have new silicon 'GCN 1.2' . AMD said they wer going to have a 4k downsample fix in the Jan/Feb timeframe. Tomorrow is March1! If they get it to work I think it woll take a bigger hit on framerates. I thoughts on my last statement was lookkng at the whole package of goodies. He can sell his current card rather than have 2 older cards.

My dual 5870 Eyefinity6 setup was a fluke in that I got both cards for less than the price of 1. The retail was $650 EACH (msrp $550) I got them both for $$560 because HP told the company that bought one of their computers that installing those cards would void the warranty. I also am not a run & gun player, I like stealth and being a sniper so my settings were lower than most people's were. That is how I got by for 4 years. When the R9's came out I immediately bought some and then the mining craze hit.

For what he is doing a single 390 may be better for him in the long run when you consider PSU and energy usage, latest tech in the chip, etc. Just my opinion though.
 
Udgnim said:
AMD 390 series is probably going to be $400+ when they get released
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Yup.

I think the prices will end up like this for a June launch, with availability in the summer:

390x $500-$550 ($650CDN)
390 $400 ($550CDN)
380x (rebadged 290x) $350 ($400CDN)
380 (rebadged 290) $300 ($350CDN)

So if you see a great deal on a 290x or 290 grab it!

I just grabbed an ASUS R9 290 DCUII OC for $300CDN. There was a VisionTek 2 fan 290x that was $370CDN. I didn't think that the minor differences were worth the $70. This 290 is one crazy awesome card for the money. Considering that card was selling at over $500 6 months ago, it's awesome. It blows the doors of 1080p gaming and should be ok for 1440p if I ever get a new monitor.

I don't' believe that waiting for the 300 series will get me any performance or price advantage. It would just keep me on my old GTX 760 for longer.

I also don't see anything competitive from nvidia between the 960 ($250CDN) and the 970 ($420CDN). My 290 was roughly the same speed but $120 cheaper than the 970. The 290(x) may also do better with future games due to the memory mess on the 970.

AMD may be making up some ground against nvidia with some clever price cutting and a new generation of cards coming out. Good luck to them, they've got some ground to make up. I totally expect to see a 960Ti to fill the whole in nvidia's product range. They already released the new Titan to put new cards on the table at the high end.
 
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