Have r9 280x.... Debating going r9 290 or gtx 970:

G

geforce man

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have no brand preference.

my r9 280x is @ 1070/1500 @ 1.142 volts, and performs pretty darn well most of the time.

Debating going for an r9 290 if I can find one in the price bracket I want (~200$ used).

Gtx 970's aren't really available used yet, but can be had for 330$. Would it be worth the extra 130$ over the r9 290? (probably not, but maybe). and would the r9 290 be worth it over the r9 280x?

Tough choice. I play diablo 3, bf4, bioshock infinite right now, looking towards: Witcher 3, LOTR SoM, any future BF games etc.

What would you do?
 
sell your 280X and buy a 970... the 280X its still a pretty capable card but nothing compared to any recent card.. i have a 280X and a gtx 780 and the difference from one card to other its very remarkable specially when overclocking as the 280X have little to none headroom for overclock.. i can do easy 1180mhz/1700mhz (sadly no voltage control) and its still far away to be comparable to the performance of my GTX 780 which can do 1228mhz out of the box... as the 970 offer a good bump in performance over the 780 and 290.. i think the obvious choice its to sell your card and go with the GTX 970 as the difference in performance can be even more noticeable yet..
 
I'm testing out the bottom barrel Zotac 970 right now and I have to say I'm very impressed with its performance. At load overclocked to 1450/7800 it's topping at 67 C with a custom fan profile in AB and I can't hear the card over my case and radiator fans. Coming from the heat generated by my 290x cards this was a really nice surprise especially considering the price of the card at $330, I don't think I'll be buying waterblocks for the 970 series as it just doesn't seem to be necessary. I don't think you can go wrong with even the lower end 970s, phenomenal cards.
 
idk, I'm currently in the process of tweaking my 280x, and my last stable before tweaking voltages was 1235/1550 GPU/Memory (MHz).

I wouldn't go to anything amd is putting out right now simply because the cards are old, and will soon be updating. but only consider the 2##x version of cards
 
themisfitjoe said:
idk, I'm currently in the process of tweaking my 280x, and my last stable before tweaking voltages was 1235/1550 GPU/Memory (MHz).

I wouldn't go to anything amd is putting out right now simply because the cards are old, and will soon be updating. but only consider the 2##x version of cards
Click to expand...

I would consider AMD after they correct their pricing. With the GTX970 out the 290x has no reason to cost more than $300, and the 290 should at absolute most be $250. AMD correcting their prices to the following would make it much easier to recommend them.

R9-290x - $270-$300
R9-290 - $230-$250
R9-280x - $190-$220
R9-280 - $150-$180
R9-285 - $150-$180
R9-270x - $130-$150
R9-270 - $110-$120
R7-265 - $90-$100

Those ranges of price are what reasonable to me. What I realized is that AMD may have to discontinue some cards, because the price really compresses as you go down the line. The 290 will likely be the first to go once the similar performing (and cooler, less power hungry and cheaper to manufacture) R9-285x comes out. Next is obviously the Hawaii Twins the 280 and 280x. And finally the 270 may see discontinuation.

So, when AMD does complete the price correction the line-up will likely look like this:

R9-290x - $270
R9-285x - $230
R9-285 - $200
R9-270x - $150
R7-265 - $130

With AMD, it's best to wait, unless they have no problems letting product rot on shelves, these prices have to be corrected sooner rather than later.
 
Looking on Amazon the only 280X I find for purchase costs $315 New :eek: and $185 used (that's more like it)

A second 280X will net you more performance and be the cheaper route.

They will also keep you warm in the next 3 winter months :p:D

The 980 will cost you more and you'll be forced to have a blanket to cover you during your gaming sessions LOL :D

If you don't want a dual card setup, don't mind a cooler, quieter, more future proof, more power efficient setup, sell the 280X and get the 970.
 
If your PSU can take it, I'd get a second cheap 280x and ride them until the 20nm cards arrive. The 290 & 970 are ok interim steps, but if you prefer a bigger step up (I do) not worth upgrading now.
 
Q: Does your current card not play everything on highest settings well or something? :confused:

I'd be willing to bet it does.
 
Buy the 970 and get the difference back in the power bill over the next few months. :p
 
I'd personally just stick with the 280 for a while (and not in Crossfire). The 970 would be a good upgrade, the 290 obviously less so, but neither would be Earth-shattering.

If AMD's next generation and/or the impending 980 Ti end up shifting the pricing landscape around a bit, I might have a different opinion.
 
Meh, guess i'll stick with the 280x for awhile. I thought it'd be a decent idea to grab the r9 290 for about 60$ over my current card, but perhaps not.
 
sell your current 280x for around $200 or so, then use that plus a little extra to buy a 970. it's about $70 cheaper than buying a second 280x for $200-ish (cheapest GTX 970 on newegg is $330), and you won't need to beef up your power supply or pay for the extra power that a second video card would run you. in fact, you'd be lowering the amount of power needed by going to the 970 from even a single 280x. the decrease in electric bill will eventually make the upgrade even less costly.
 
Wait until your R9 280X no longer performs "pretty darn well most of the time". I know, that's no fun.
 
Getting another r9 280x would be cheaper but I've heard bad things about temps. Sell your 280x and buy a gtx 970.
 
The r9 280x is worth about 150$ not 200$ the r9 290 is about 200$ so it would be 180$ to jump to cheapest gtx970 and 60$ ish after shipping to a r9 290. The 120$ difference would take about 2.5 years of electricity to pay off .

At this point I'm at either keep the 280x or go for the 290.
 
geforce man said:
The r9 280x is worth about 150$ not 200$ the r9 290 is about 200$ so it would be 180$ to jump to cheapest gtx970 and 60$ ish after shipping to a r9 290. The 120$ difference would take about 2.5 years of electricity to pay off .

At this point I'm at either keep the 280x or go for the 290.
Click to expand...

Is that 2.5 years of running the cards flat out? Not a common use case :)
 
geforce man said:
I have no brand preference.

my r9 280x is @ 1070/1500 @ 1.142 volts, and performs pretty darn well most of the time.

Debating going for an r9 290 if I can find one in the price bracket I want (~200$ used).

Gtx 970's aren't really available used yet, but can be had for 330$. Would it be worth the extra 130$ over the r9 290? (probably not, but maybe). and would the r9 290 be worth it over the r9 280x?

Tough choice. I play diablo 3, bf4, bioshock infinite right now, looking towards: Witcher 3, LOTR SoM, any future BF games etc.

What would you do?
Click to expand...

This is what I did on my spare system, I originally had a Titan in it and downsized from that to a 770 (sc acx), then got a r9 290 (non x), and finally settled on a 970.

I would get the 970, the 290 i had was reference and was loud as fuck.
 
Sitting on mine until the magical "380X" or whatever AMD is planning.
No point buying yet another 28nm card and then getting blown out of the water by AMD in a few months.
 
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