My GTX480 just took a poop, what to get next...

H

hdgamer

Gawd
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Sep 28, 2009
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Right now I have 2 GTX480's, a 2500k powering a 60" led and a 30" 1600p monitor. It was either a power outage that killed the card, or the fact that I had the power cable to one of the cards really tight and it shorted out. Confirmed card was dead today and I'm looking to move forward.

So basically in a nutshell, what is the best single solution card that will run a HTPC, 60" when needed, and switch to a 30" high res monitor to game? I have a feeling many people are going to be saying the R9 290 is the best card due to price. If so would this card be quiet and cool enough in a Silverstone FT02 case or should I wait it out for aftermarket cooling? Also would one card run as fast or faster than GTX480 sli?
 
R9 290 seems to be the best bang for buck and gets my vote. If you can wait a couple weeks the after market cooling models should be introduced and would be the way to go.

The 290 should be faster than the 480 sli and produce a hell of a lot less heat. Not too mention use a lot less power.
 
You'd want a GTX 780 Ti if you wanted a quiet reference cooler, to make it seem faster than your 480 SLI. Or the 290X but for HTPC it would probably be a bad idea unless you have enough airflow.

I picked the 780 Ti since the OP didn't specify a budget.
 
In my opinion the best value in the 500$ and under market is the GTX 780 overclocked edition. The 290 is a good value, but keep in mind that it has significant issues with throttling and inconsistent performance with "quiet" fan speeds - it can lose up to 25% performance (per anandtech) when you lower the fan speed to a quiet level. I personally think that's bullshit, so i'd advise avoiding the 290 altogether unless you're using water and/or wait for aftermarket. There are graphs in the AT review showing absolutely ridiculous performance losses for the 290 over time when normalizing the fan speed to kepler levels, so yeah, it's bullshit. Of course, you may be completely okay with the fan noise but I can say that i'm not. I used the 7970 at 55% fanspeed and I know what it sounds like. And it's a fuck ton louder than any kepler card, and isn't comfortable (I use a cosmos II case which sits 3 feet away from me).

Meanwhile, I think the GTX 780 OC is a better product. You get 3 free games which you can sell to recovery costs, and after doing that it will be like 40$ more than the 290. Which, IMO, is well worth it for the superior product. And you get to stay within the nvidia ecosystem with all of the NV specific features and what not. An overclocked 780, by the way, easily passes the Titan by 10-15% or more if you get a custom PCB card. That makes the choice easy in my mind, if you have 500$ to spend - it's just a higher quality product than the 290. Of course aftermarket cooling can change everything for the 290 and improve it a fuck ton, so i'll wait and see on that - but as things are, I don't like the 290 all that much.

Just my opinion. I would not consider the 290 at all until the cooling situation is improved, UNLESS you plan on using a custom loop for it. Both cards should be faster than 480 SLI even in a single card configuration, if i'm not mistaken. Again, though, if you're okay with loud fans you can buy the 290 and be completely happy. Just expect it to be slightly louder than the GTX 480 you're replacing for maximum performance, and you aren't able to lower the fan speed unless you want to lose performance.
 
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The 780 is a better value but the 290 is the best value and in a couple weeks with the new coolers will, by far, be the best choice per the money.

That said though, it is really down to personal preference. I have tried cards from both, but the only cards I have ever had issues with are Nvidia so I stick to AMD now, which I have never had any issues with (Drivers or otherwise).

I had a BFG card and got screwed as they went out of business and it failed. Also my TNT 2 failed, but never had any failures on an AMD cards.

That said, the 780 is a great card and the TI is just expensive for no reason.
 
I will say this. The chip on the 290 itself, Hawaii, has so much potential. I really feel like AMD mucked their big opportunity up, I mean I just don't like the compromises with it you know? Even though the chip itself is pretty damn amazing. I've bought the past 3 generations of cards from AMD so i'm not like one of those guys batting for NV and NV only, but damn man, AMD fix yo shit. Make the 290/290X more compelling with a GTX 780-esque reference cooler and we would never discuss these things. ;)

But if someone is okay with the loud fans (and yes I think it's loud at 55%/47%), then it's a fucking amazing card. You just can't lower the fan speed which i'm not a fan of (without a performance loss, I mean).
 
xoleras said:
I will say this. The chip on the 290 itself, Hawaii, has so much potential. I really feel like AMD mucked their big opportunity up, I mean I just don't like the compromises with it you know? Even though the chip itself is pretty damn amazing. I've bought the past 3 generations of cards from AMD so i'm not like one of those guys batting for NV and NV only, but damn man, AMD fix yo shit. Make the 290/290X more compelling with a GTX 780-esque reference cooler and we would never discuss these things. ;)

But if someone is okay with the loud fans (and yes I think it's loud at 55%/47%), then it's a fucking amazing card. You just can't lower the fan speed which i'm not a fan of (without a performance loss, I mean).
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AMD is leaving a lot left because they knew what target to hit with performance and money to take the crown from nvidia. Wait for a die shrink and or a refresh.

To the OP, IMO that case can run hot with high end video cards. During gaming to you care about noise? If not a 290 or 780 is your best bet ATM. Should give an overall similar performance as 2 480 in SLI, but you will get smoother and more consistent gameplay from 1 card IMO.
 
2x 480s would equal about a 680 overclocked. For any noticeable improvement you'd need to go 670 SLI or above.

On the AMD side, there are a lot of R9 280x cards with aftermarket coolers. Two of them would kick out a ton of performance compared to your 480s.
 
Vengance_01 said:
AMD is leaving a lot left because they knew what target to hit with performance and money to take the crown from nvidia. Wait for a die shrink and or a refresh.

To the OP, IMO that case can run hot with high end video cards. During gaming to you care about noise? If not a 290 or 780 is your best bet ATM. Should give an overall similar performance as 2 480 in SLI, but you will get smoother and more consistent gameplay from 1 card IMO.
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I disagree that there's a lot left. I think the 290 was pushed to it's outer limits to barely compete with nvidia's high end, which wouldn't be a problem EXCEPT the chip ties cooling performance to actual performance. Like I said, when the chip loses 25% of it's performance for a quiet fan profile? AMD are retards for letting that shit happen. Should not have been released in that state, period.
 
xoleras said:
I disagree that there's a lot left. I think the 290 was pushed to it's outer limits to barely compete with nvidia's high end, which wouldn't be a problem EXCEPT the chip ties cooling performance to actual performance. Like I said, when the chip loses 25% of it's performance for a quiet fan profile? AMD are retards for letting that shit happen. Should not have been released in that state, period.
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I disagree. I think AMD did that on purpose in order to give Nvidia a false sense of superiority prior to the release of the custom partner boards. The 290 and 290x overclocking reports are all showing they are very easy to overclock depending on cooling. AMD made a choice to limit the card and when the partner boards come out with custom coolers I think you will see the AMD cards taking a distinct advantage.

AMD change the narrative with this release and dictated the terms to Nvidia, finally. No matter if you are an AMD or Nvidia fan, this release was a success as it brought prices down dramatically. On top of that, AMD clearly was playing release games with Nvidia and the number of 290's with a 290X chip in them just goes to show the chip has very high yields, giving the 290 more value as you could potentially get a native 290x chip in it.

Obviously though, the fact remains everything parts down party lines. This has become more about politics than the pure pursuit of performance. All the cards available are great right now and you really cannot loose in the high-end, well, other than the titan.
 
OP get a R9 290. but as suggested above the custom cooler versions are 2 weeks away. the asus dcii top is a top notch design with excellent cooler and high quality PCB

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1791552

as far as the noise is concerned the opinion varies from person to person. some like brent of hardocp and scott of techreport do not find 55% fan speed disturbing while others find it. so check out what works for you 55% fan speed at 0:19 - 0:27 .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhqOKKAq7o

but if you want to overclock this card to 1150+ mhz your options are cooler mod like accelero xtreme iii or wait for custom versions like asus dcii, his iceq x2

http://www.techspot.com/review/736-amd-radeon-r9-290/page8.html

"Update: Based on your feedback, I took the IceQ X2 cooler off the HIS Radeon R9 280X and stuck it on our R9 290 sample. Cooling was dramatically improved. The FurMark stress test maxed out at 76 degrees while the card never exceeded 63 degrees in Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4. So it seems as expected the board partners will be able to solve the heat issues of the reference card."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1RYjETWR7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwwfb99UoK4
 
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very excited to see how high I can take my crossfire 290's here in the coming weeks (both with the stock reference cooling) and perhaps something more exotic as time and budget will allow.
 
I've used 3 generations of AMD cards. I know what they sound like, as AMD's reference shroud has not changed in 3 years or so. That shit is not quiet at 47% especially compared to any Kepler card. It is ESPECIALLY not quiet at 55%, it sounds like a goddamn dust buster at 55%.

At 40%, the 290 is still louder than the reference GTX 780:

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To get down to the 34%-38% fan speed range, the 290 has to shed an average of 22% of its performance, peaking under a few titles at 25%. To be sure this makes the card much quieter – though not as quiet as a GTX 780 – but it also sacrifices much of the 290’s performance advantage in the process. At this point we’ve essentially reduced it to a 280X.
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Let's summarize, shall we? Here, it is stated that at 34% fanspeed the 290 is STILL louder than the reference GTX 780 - Yet at 35% fanspeed, it hilariously is only as fast as the 280X / 7970 and sheds 25% performance. You must have missed the part where I said quiet fan speeds. Unless your standards are really goddamn low, and i've used 3 generations of AMD reference cards - 47% and 55% are not quiet. If you use quiet fan speeds, boom, 25% performance gone. AMD are fucking retards to release a product in this shape. Period. This could have been THE gpu to get this year. Right now, IMO, it is far too flawed to even consider until aftermarket editions are out.

Basically, if you want a quiet card? Your card will perform like a 7970. If you want good performance, you need a card that sounds like a dust buster. And yes, I used a 7970 and I know what that reference fan sounds like. That shit is not quiet at 47 or 55%. Anyone accustomed to a Kepler card will do a double take at what the 290/7970 sound like at that fanspeed...
 
290 if you can make yourself wait until better cooling solutions come out... if not and you gotta have something today GTX 780 ti.
 
xoleras said:
That shit is not quiet at 47%....it sounds like a goddamn dust buster at 55%.
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I didn't say it was quiet. I was proving you wrong about the clock throttling/performance issue. Which was why I quoted that particular portion of your previous post related to clock/performance throttling and not noise.

You're whacking on a straw man and shifting goal posts at the same time. Pretty obviously too. Good luck convincing anyone of anything posting like that.

But since you brought up the noise level issue: Its well known that the 290 reference cooler isn't as good or quiet as the reference 780GTX cooler but you're being hyperbolic. At 47% cap its louder but not bad at all and at 55% isn't anything like a dust buster. At 70% or higher yea it sounds like a dust buster. But there isn't any need to run the reference cooler at that speed unless you're OC'ing.

OP or anyone worried about noise: if the FUD about the noise has you worried about noise just wait for the AIB cards with better HSF's to come out in a couple of weeks or so to get a R9 290. Just remember that it is FUD and if you got a card with a reference HSF now it'll be louder than a 780GTX but not bad either.
 
I replaced the TIM on my card and decided to try my first overclock .. I set board power to +50 and temp target to 95c with the fan uncapped to 100% .. gpu-z reported my clocks to be 1004/1287 and I ran a total Firestike with all the demo's.

Highest temp was 91c and highest fan speed was 51% but both recorded at different times and not together.. gpu never really stayed at 91c as it would drop off as did the fan% and never reached the temp target or fan% with stock cooler as the gpu reacted to gpu load and never throttled as temp would drop off if load did.

1003.8 , 1287.5 , 91.0 , 46 , 2414 , 100
Gpu memory temp fan% fan speed gpu load
 
Sometimes new 7970's pop up in the $275 region. When they do, that's the card.

Other than that the GTX 670's are right in that area too.

Either one will smoke a 480 without breaking the bank.
 
Anything from a 660Ti and up is an upgrade. May want to consider say a couple of 760Ti in SLI. If you want to go AMD nothing can beat the value of a R9 290
 
upgrading from 460x2 to watercooled 290 myself... just gonna wait for either good BF/Christmas deal or a good non-ref card..
 
I love how people are putting noise as a con when the dude is running a 480. The 290X at 55% is NOT louder then my 480. End of discussion.
 
I know, dead horse, but just to correct you: are you sure about that?

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The 290X is at 40% quiet mode in this chart, 290 is 47%. At 55% it will be even louder. I wouldn't consider being as loud as the 480 a badge of honor either. It's 4 years later - GPUs are supposed to improve over time in terms of acoustics, not regress.
 
I've used both, and by my ear, the 290X is not as loud as my 480. It's just not. Maybe it's because the 480 is constantly loud, and the 290X is kind of "peaky", but I repeat, the 290X is NOT as loud as my 480.
 
What is the budget. If you have 400 to spare then your only option is R9 290. If you have 500-550 to spare then I would recommend a GTX 780 OC over a R9 290X. If you have about a 800 to spare then R9 290 CFX is the option over GTX 780 Ti. If you have about a 1000 then I recommend a GTX 780 SLi solution. Anything beyond that (e.g., R9 290X CFX) is going to require you to add more cooling or higher powered PSU.

I also would not go for spending more than a 1000 bucks since Maxwell is around the corner (about 5 months away) and there is no game coming between now and Maxwell arrival that will push a 780 SLi setup to the wall hence the reason why I did not get GTX 780 Ti SLi since I am going to use that money to buy both an XBOX ONE and a PS4. lol

P.S. One R9 290 or GTX 780 will run faster than a GTX 480 SLi.
 
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