Pre-Christmas upgrade

H

[H]aggis

n00b
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Jul 1, 2004
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Hi All,

I had thought my pre-Christmas upgrade was going to be a simple one - a non-reference 290X. I want to upgrade before the Christmas break to get the maximum amount of gaming in whilst off work and I can't believe the non-reference 290X cards won't be arriving until January now; I'm gutted!

So question is should I pull the trigger on a reference 290X or am I seriously going to regret that in the New Year? Other options around the same price (I'm a UK buyer) are an OC'd 780 or 2x 4Gb 760s in SLI, a 780Ti is over-budget unfortunately. I play BF4 online the most, so will Mantle benefits offset the annoying reference cooler? Are there other options I should consider in the same price range?

Any and all advice appreciated.
Cheers!

Edited to add: I have a 30" display and want to play at native 2560x1600
 
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i think 290x is a good choice, the only reason you would regret it is if you don't like normal high temps and fan noise at uber settings. Although it is winter and that means a warm room :)
 
290x is waste of money anyone who buys a 290x over a 290 either has money to burn or has no idea what they are doing. Clock for clock (just like every amd generation) there is very minimal difference. Ill ad that you WILL regret it. Non reference cards are coming soon that will be setup way better than an accelero or icy vision thats vrm and vram sinks will fall off in a few months after you enevitably buy it due to jealousy when you read reviews of non reference cards :p. Seriously buy a nice oc edition 780 or wait for non reference 290/x.
 
HOODedDutchman said:
290x is waste of money anyone who buys a 290x over a 290 either has money to burn or has no idea what they are doing. Clock for clock (just like every amd generation) there is very minimal difference. Ill ad that you WILL regret it. Non reference cards are coming soon that will be setup way better than an accelero or icy vision thats vrm and vram sinks will fall off in a few months after you enevitably buy it due to jealousy when you read reviews of non reference cards :p. Seriously buy a nice oc edition 780 or wait for non reference 290/x.
Click to expand...

yeah because waiting months for a video card is brilliant.

Buy top of the line card... months into its life cycle... /eyeroll.
 
Thanks for the replies. I guess after I posted I realised that opinions would be mixed. The problem with "non-reference cards are coming soon" is that it's definitely going to be New Year and at this point there hasn't even been a sighting (other than the bare board of the MSI lightning) so nobody can say when and I'm now very impatient!! :)

290 vs 290x is a fair point, but there are some murmurings online that there is "something strange" with the 290 results as even AMD are surprised at how close it is to the X. No idea if any of it is true, but I tend to upgrade once every 2 years or so with a top of the range card and would rather spend the money once than have to upgrade in between - basically, I have a budget and I want the best card I can get within that budget, I'm not particularly worried about saving 100 if the card is a better performer (I guess I have a little money to burn! ;))

I'm still swaying towards the 290X, more or less because of (unproven) Mantle and the fact I play predominantly BF4, so it's now really fan noise that's holding me back. Those with a 290X, how bad is the fan noise required to avoid throttling? I don't mind the heat so much as the noise and it's difficult to tell from YouTube videos how bad it is without some kind of reference because it ultimately depends on how loud your speakers are.

Thanks again!
 
My 290x didn't throttle with fan speed set max to 55%. It was loud, though if you're playing a game with a lot of gunfire and explosions like BF4 you probably won't hear it. However when I played a quieter game, like Witcher 2, I easily heard the fan over the game sounds and that really annoyed me.

Ultimately I ended up shipping it back and went 780 SLI, originally intended to go 290x CF if the one worked for me, but it didn't. These cards are whisper quiet in comparison even two of them is a great deal quieter than a single 290x.

I probably could've have dealt with the fan noise, not saying it's intolerable. But I expect more after paying $400+ for a product... would have been nice if the whole package was more fleshed out. If I had the extra budget though I would have kept the cards and put them on water.
 
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Just get a GTX 780 and overclock the living shiznits out of it. Will be faster than a 290X, a Titan and stock GTX 780 Ti and you will only be out about 500 bucks. If you get the one with games, you can sell the games for 50 and net cost will be $450 for an excellent card.

Waiting for the non-reference R9 290/X will be a PITA and your vacations will be lost.
 
Thanks guys! You've really helped me make my decision (honestly :)). I'm going to get one of these bad boys:

Inno3D GeForce GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra DHS Edition

It's the same price as the 290x (give or take) and the out of the box clocks are:

- Core Base Clock: 1046 MHz
- Core Boost Clock: 1085 MHz
- Memory Clock: 6212 MHz
- Shader Clock: 2092 MHz

The GPU binning is apparently double selected; first of all they're selected to be used on the X3 Ultra card and then from those selected, the best are cherry picked again for the DHS edition. This means that despite the out of the box clocks, they go even higher and the cooler is a monster, but still quiet!

I have to keep my fingers crossed that Mantle doesn't give 20fps extra on the 290x now :D

Thanks again!
 
That is an amazing card. Remember, if your card is boosting to 1085 MHz on stock you already have the 290X beat. If you manage 1300 on the core, you are as fast as a highly overclocked 290X :).
 
Dude... Where does a guy get one of those Inno3D cards???

Hello from the great white north..

*edit* it appears I'm a fool. UK exclusive, looks like?
 
Just wait for a decent non-reference 290.

290x is such a waste of money.
 
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