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R9 290 upgrade

J

James Dean

n00b
Joined
Oct 9, 2016
Messages
4
Hi everyone, long time lurker but first time poster here.

Usually a little Google research settles my appetite but this time the main course just isn't doing it for me. I have an R9 290 and came from an HD 7970. The 7970 was a killer deal at Micro Center 3 years ago and my R9 290 is the replacement card I was given when my 7970 died (their store warranty is awesome). It is under store warranty until April 1st of 2017 and I'm looking at options to see what my upgrade path should be should this one do the same. I don't think it will but I do like to be prepared. I've never had a green team card but have read nothing but good things about the GTX 1060. The 1070 is out of my budget by far, as my budget would be 269, which is what I have tied up in the 290. The only thing I question is the ram speed at 192bit vs my 290 at 512bit. They have several 980ti G1 cards for 296 and below. Just looking for ideas. Thank you for reading.

TL/DR: Have R9 290, store warranty expires in April, looking for possible upgrade path.

Rest of system:

2500k at 4.2 ghz 1.19v
8gb DDR3-1333 PNY
256gb/60/60 SSD's. 1TB WD Blue
Ultra LSP650 psu
HAF922 case
Asus GENE-Z board
 
There are good deals on fury/fury x at the moment. If you don't expect to take the VR plunge anytime soon those could also be a good options if they fit your budget.
 
980ti is a solid card and i would imagine you could get a few years of use out of it before needing to upgrade. A Rx 480 might be another good option for you. it's around 250$ and it is a solid card for the price. Another thing to consider is are you running 1080p or trying to go 1440? If you are pushing towards 1440 then I would lean towards getting a 980ti instead.
 
The 480 isn't really an upgrade at all to the 290. So unless you can get it for next to nothing, may as well hold onto the 290. Anything less than a 980ti/FuryX is a small sidegrade. Yeah it sucks that GPU's are stagnating now, I was running 290x until very recently when I couldnt ignore the upgrade itch. I run aFreesync display so have to stick with AMD, FuryX was the only card stronger thats not a dual gpu card. 300 series is the same thing as 200 for most part.

I'd run that 290 until FuryX/980ti drop below $300 and grab one of those.
 
Rx 480 and R290 performance for most games are not that much different. GTX 1060 is not much better or would it be worth the bucks for the performance gains. If you really want an upgrade then a Fury would definitely see an improvement but the GTX 1070 would be my recommendation, even over a 980Ti unless you can get one in the low $300. Newegg for a little while had a Gigabyte 1070 G1 after rebate for $389 (almost picked one up to SLI with). The 290, even after all this time is still a potent and usable card at the end of the day.
 
I suggest you run the R9 290 until the Volta/Vega GPUs come out next year to make a decision (unless the magic smoke is let out of your R9 290, then all bets are off).

Both will benefit from being second-gen 16/14nm products and will drive down prices of older GPUs like the Fury and even the 1070 closer to your budget.
 
Find a second cheap 290 and crossfire them and then see how bad you want to upgrade.
 
Didn't notice that. I dunno..maybe...Not positive what the draw is on those bad boys.
 
RAutrey said:
There are good deals on fury/fury x at the moment. If you don't expect to take the VR plunge anytime soon those could also be a good options if they fit your budget.
Click to expand...

Their VRAM limitation is kicking in fast tho. I would rather have a 8GB 390/390X/470/480 then or a 6GB 1060. Also I doubt GCN 1.2 cards will age well with their tiny volume.
 
Wow you guys reply quick. Lots of useful info and I thank you all for it.

My 290 has been one of the best cards I've ever used. I do play at 1080p, and games range anywhere from the new RollerCoaster Tycoon installment to Planet Coaster to BF4. It was an upgrade going from my 6850 to x fire 6870s, then from those to my 7970. But the biggest upgrade was from my 7970 to my 290. Everything plays buttery smooth and it's so quiet. That being said, Micro Center does still have some 980ti G1 cards for just under 300, however they're open box...which I don't mind as I can drive to the store to return if there's an issue.

This really is a great forum. You all are a wealth of information.
 
James Dean said:
Wow you guys reply quick. Lots of useful info and I thank you all for it.

My 290 has been one of the best cards I've ever used. I do play at 1080p, and games range anywhere from the new RollerCoaster Tycoon installment to Planet Coaster to BF4. It was an upgrade going from my 6850 to x fire 6870s, then from those to my 7970. But the biggest upgrade was from my 7970 to my 290. Everything plays buttery smooth and it's so quiet. That being said, Micro Center does still have some 980ti G1 cards for just under 300, however they're open box...which I don't mind as I can drive to the store to return if there's an issue.

This really is a great forum. You all are a wealth of information.
Click to expand...

The danger with a 980ti is that it being a Maxwell product you might find nVidia driver support killed off pretty fast now that Pascal is out - check out what happened to Kepler owners after Maxwell was released. This is doubly important because Volta isn't too far away.

Since you don't have any complaints right now regarding performance my suggestion still stands: Wait for Volta/Vegas.
 
rtangwai said:
The danger with a 980ti is that it being a Maxwell product you might find nVidia driver support killed off pretty fast now that Pascal is out - check out what happened to Kepler owners after Maxwell was released. This is doubly important because Volta isn't too far away.

Since you don't have any complaints right now regarding performance my suggestion still stands: Wait for Volta/Vegas.
Click to expand...

The driver support is a myth. Its about game support. The result is somewhat the same tho.

GOW4 for example runs fine on Kepler. So does other titles.
 
If 1080p is the max your current monitor will go, I'd stick with it for the time being.
 
I was able to both undervolt, and overclock my r9 290 when I had it. This made it pretty competitive with a gtx 970 both in terms of performance, and in power draw.

That said, at this point in time, I would not "Upgrade" to a 480x, as I do not think the price would justify the increase in performance. If you hit 1050Mhz or so core, you will be flying though 1080p in 90% + of games, and for a 3 year old card, that isn't too bad. I would personally advise waiting. Unless you are able to sell your card for a killer deal, then by all means dump it and get a rx 480 or a gtx 1060 or something like that.
 
There is no real solid upgrade path from a R9-290. Sure there is the Fury, and Fury X, but with the vram limitations being 4gb, I'd probably skip over those two. On Team Green you have a few more choices, albeit much more expensive choices, being the 1070, 1080, or Titan XP

The RX-480 is not an upgrade to a 290, its more of a side grade, unless your are counting power consumption. The RX-480 is much more power efficient than the 290. Same thing with the GTX 1060.

Don't bother with 290 crossfire as you would need to upgrade your PSU, and probably add case fans to keep it all cool. Sell the 290 and get two RX-480's if you want to go the crossfire route wouldn't need to upgrade the PSU, or cooling to handle it.

I'd personally hold off for awhile, the 290 will slay any game at 1080p.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Find a second cheap 290 and crossfire them and then see how bad you want to upgrade.
Click to expand...

Winter is coming, so a huge space heater will be very accommodating! jesus, I wouldnt recommend xfire 290's to even my worst enemy!
 
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