From Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X 3gb to 780 Ti or R9 290x?

the X

the X

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 2, 2005
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Looking at EVGA, Sapphire, MSI, or XFX brands: 780 Ti or R9 290x

Does anyone know how these two cards compare to a Sapphire HD 7950/7970 Vapor-X 3gb? It's what I've been using for about a year (6 months at 1080p and 4 months at 1440p) ever since I got the 1440p 27" monitor I've noticed a lot more tearing or stutters and I am getting around 35FPS compared to 1080p where I was getting 75 FPS on ultra settings in games like Battlefield 4.

Is upgrading to one of these cards worth it or should I wait for something newer in the 500 to $600 range?
 
You can get some good deals on 290x's these days, they are what I use myself. If the 780ti wasn't so expensive i'd probably use that instead as they don't run as hot and I prefer nvidia drivers. But if you're a BF4 player the 290x would give you better results.
 
I wouldnt wait.. in fact I didnt. You want to play games now at 1440p and I just got a 780 Classified (non-Ti) that manhandles 1440p. I took a gamble with EVGA Bstock for not much more than a 290 Vapor-X and couldnt be happier.
 
I went from a gtx780 back to a 7970, and haven't really noticed much. Does your 7950 over clock at all ? If you can get it up around 1100mhz core I'd do that and wait for new cards. Or you could always pick up a used 7950 for ~150$ and go crossfire.... My 7970 at 1050/6000 is about 10% behind my gtx780, not worth the 250$ price difference.
 
geforce man said:
I went from a gtx780 back to a 7970, and haven't really noticed much. Does your 7950 over clock at all ? If you can get it up around 1100mhz core I'd do that and wait for new cards. Or you could always pick up a used 7950 for ~150$ and go crossfire.... My 7970 at 1050/6000 is about 10% behind my gtx780, not worth the 250$ price difference.
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Yeah there are good deals right now on used 79xx cards. Crossfiring them certainly will give better frame rate even at 1440p. I know most around here prefer and recommend a single high end card versus two middle end cards. But it doesn't take much googling to see the advantage of crossfire 79xx over a single 290 or 780. Not to mention it's cheaper too
 
Ok, so two say don't wait and go for a newer card and two say go for a second 7950. Any one else recommend either or?
If I crossfire two 7950s do I need to get the exact same model I have or can I go with a higher 79xx or would that even be worth it? I haven't had duel video cards for over 8 years and back then I had some issues with Nvidia. How often will I have to fine tune each game for dual cards?
 
If BF4 is your focus then a second 7950 is an excellent choice for the time being considering price. I'd try to keep the cards as evenly matched as possible, but you can pair a 7950 with a 7970 if you choose to. The 7970 will basically downclock to a 7950 until you match speeds through overclocking if possible.
 
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I just added a Sapphire HD7950 today paired with a Sapphire R9-280 for CX and it works great as I tired BF 4 and it is blazing fast under DX 11.1 as I don't think Mantle is supported in CX yet for HD79XX..

I have owned a R9-290 and played BF 4 with it and I never seen FPS like CX 7950's lay down.
 
convexion said:
If BF4 is your focus then a second 7950 is an excellent choice for the time being considering price. I'd try to keep the cards as evenly matched as possible, but you can pair a 7950 with a 7970 if you choose to. The 7970 will basically downclock to a 7950 until you match speeds through overclocking if possible.
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i think i installed the 7970 bios into my 7950 a few months ago. it was my first time doing something like that so i'm not positive it even worked
 
Shortly after I made this thread I ended up going for the second 7950 Vapor-X. I was happy with the outcome of crossfiring those two with all the games I play except for
Battlefield 4. I was still seeing things like tearing that I can only assume is a bottleneck at my 1440p ASUS monitor.
Just recently, I sold both 7950s and bought two R9 290's (one installed in my wife's PC which is almost exactly the same specs and brands of my PC now) Anyways, I also bought a Corsair H55 and am overclocking now. Below this sentence is a copy paste of a comment I made on Google+ to save my thumbs (mobile at the moment).

My current score with a single XFX R9 290 (reference) on a 1440p monitor is 8707 (Fire Strike)

Couple weeks before that I had crossfired dual Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-x's and my score was 9459 (Fire Strike) (also on a 1440p monitor) 

*One thing I'm not sure happens or not is if the Fire Strike 3DMark test runs at 1080p or 1440p

Other PC specs worth mentioning:

CPU i5 3570k - OC @ 4.2
Asrock Z77 Extreme4
16gb Corsair Vengeance 1600

(CPU was not overclocked during 3DMark test when testing crossfire 7950s, as I hadn't owned my Corsair H55 yet)

 
Personally I wouldn`t bother with a dual card setup. Best choice is really between a 290x or GTX970. Both are very well priced and performance is close. Just depends on if you want ATI or Nvidia.
 
Maddness said:
Personally I wouldn`t bother with a dual card setup. Best choice is really between a 290x or GTX970. Both are very well priced and performance is close. Just depends on if you want ATI or Nvidia.
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How much better is an 290X over the reference 290 I have now? Can I change the bios to an "x" model?
Also please note I am getting a better 3DMark score with the dual 7950s

Since this is an old thread please view my last message above yours
 
The 290X is roughly 10%-20% faster depending on the game. You can overclock your 290 and get fairly close to a stock 290X but you can't "unlock" a 290. Your old crossfire setup is going to outperform a single 290 setup.


I have a pair of 6970s and I've been on the fence about a 290x or a 370GT for a while now.
 
strikerP4 said:
The 290X is roughly 10%-20% faster depending on the game. You can overclock your 290 and get fairly close to a stock 290X but you can't "unlock" a 290. Your old crossfire setup is going to outperform a single 290 setup.


I have a pair of 6970s and I've been on the fence about a 290x or a 370GT for a while now.
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As far I know, some R9 290 models can be BIOS flashed to 290X and "unlock it", so i think you are kinda wrong.
 
the X said:
How much better is an 290X over the reference 290 I have now? Can I change the bios to an "x" model?
Also please note I am getting a better 3DMark score with the dual 7950s

Since this is an old thread please view my last message above yours
Click to expand...

290 is a great card and unless you wanted an 8Gb model, there's no real point to upgrading to the 290x. Just save your money until early next year for an upgrade.
 
If you are curious some 290 chips are unlockable to 290x's, but it depends on the core that is in your card. If you look over on the overclockers.net forum you can find some tools like hawaii core checker or something to see if you have an unlockable chip. Most likely you do not as there was a small production run with the chips, but always worth a shot.
 
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