R9 290's Still a good value? or Wait?

suiken_2mieu

suiken_2mieu

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So I'm thinking of picking up 1 to 2 Vapor-X 290's, is it worth it, or should I wait?
I've also been eyeing 970's / 980's, but I play at 7680x1600 and it doesn't look like they are doing that well at higher resolutions.
 
If the price is right, go for it. If you can get those cards for under $230, I would say it's definitely worth it. Just bear in mind that you'll be paying extra on your power bill vs 970/980s.
 
290x are a good deal for those resolutions.
its then a 980 if you want to go nvidia as 970 dont cut it.
 
I'm waiting for the 290 to drop below $200 to add a second card to my eyefinity setup.
 
m3ta1head said:
Just bear in mind that you'll be paying extra on your power bill vs 970/980s.
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The added impact on your power bill is probably not worth considering unless you're running the cards at 100% 24/7.

I just picked up a second 290X off ebay for $250. Seems like a good deal to me. Why wait and spend $500+ on a next-gen card with unknown specs while used 290s are cheap and overkill for 1080p gaming as it is?
 
DeathFromBelow said:
The added impact on your power bill is probably not worth considering unless you're running the cards at 100% 24/7.

I just picked up a second 290X off ebay for $250. Seems like a good deal to me. Why wait and spend $500+ on a next-gen card with unknown specs while used 290s are cheap and overkill for 1080p gaming as it is?
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Agreed about the power bill
 
m3ta1head said:
If the price is right, go for it. If you can get those cards for under $230, I would say it's definitely worth it. Just bear in mind that you'll be paying extra on your power bill vs 970/980s.
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Youre joking right? Its fractions of a dollar at most...
 
m3ta1head said:
If the price is right, go for it. If you can get those cards for under $230, I would say it's definitely worth it. Just bear in mind that you'll be paying extra on your power bill vs 970/980s.
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power cost is insignificant. A better argument would be that it is easier to OC on the 970/980s, especially in multi-GPU configurations, due to less heat.
 
The only thing worth considering about power is my PSU, I have a 750 watt. Is that enough to drive 2 x 290's/290x's?
 
suiken_2mieu said:
The only thing worth considering about power is my PSU, I have a 750 watt. Is that enough to drive 2 x 290's/290x's?
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Depends on the power supply and if you are overclocking. However, I would say with the 290's, yes, with the 290x's, no.
 
I ran 4 290x's on a 1200W Coolermaster Gold at 100% (mining), so I would think that you would most likely be alright with 2 290's on a 750.
 
I would also say that for the right price the 290 and 290x are great cards, and these cards still have the bigger memory bus than the 900 series.

But you have to put in the consideration of how you are going to power and cool these cards, since they do throttle a lot, and they do suck up a ton of power.
 
m3ta1head said:
If the price is right, go for it. If you can get those cards for under $230, I would say it's definitely worth it. Just bear in mind that you'll be paying extra on your power bill vs 970/980s.
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What is with people and this power comment. Do you guys really think 80 watts more draw will reflect on your power bill?

Anyway, I see someone selling retail 290s for $200 on ebay. So tempted to jump on it but I really don't game anything that would require anything more than a 280x.
 
gordon151 said:
What is with people and this power comment. Do you guys really think 80 watts more draw will reflect on your power bill?
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It's what Nvidia fanboys use to contest their offerings. I see it everywhere I go. For example, when my friend was looking to purchase the fastest single slot card for his portable/ITX rig, he linked me some discussion where someone had the audacity to say that the 295X2 was a WORSE purchase than a TITAN Z. Fortunately, someone took the time to dissect it for him and was even generous enough to tack on another 295X2.

Here I actually did the math for you......I hate it when people throw out nonsense that's just blatantly incorrect.
I have compiled 2 systems in pcpartpicker that are identical EXCEPT for the graphics cards listed below, also note that the current price for the Titan Z is $3,199.99 and the R9 295x2 is currently $1,167.04, I know these prices are ever fluctuating but this does serve as an accurate reference. This same caveat also goes for the price of electricity in your area and over time.

You'll notice that the estimated wattage for the dual R9 295x2 system is 1,241 watts whereas the Titan Z comes in at 616 watts.

This brings me to my next point which is how much will it cost to run both systems for the 3 hour per day time-frame (that you decided might I add) over the course of a year. Luckily I found this sight which literally calculates just that: http://www.electricity-usage.c...

For the Crossfired R9 295x2 rig the annual electricity cost @ 10 cents per kWh was $135.52, the link to that is listed below:
http://www.electricity-usage.com/El...95x2&Watts=1241&CostPerKWH=0.10&HoursPerDay=3

For the Titan Z rig the same calculation comes out to $67.27 per year, the link is listed below as well:
http://www.electricity-usage.com/El...tan+Z&Watts=616&CostPerKWH=0.10&HoursPerDay=3

What this means is that annually you'd have to pay an additional $68.25 more to run the R9 295x2s over the Titan Z rig. However at that current pricing the Titan Z comes in at $3,199.99 whereas the two R9 295x2s come in at $2,334.08 so you're paying $865.91 less to purchase the 2 R9 295x2s. So in order to "break even" on the cost to purchasing the Titan Z you'd have to run the Crossfired R9 295x2 rig at 3 hours per day for 12.687 YEARS in order to eat up the added price premium for the Titan Z in merely electrical costs.
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290X atm is priced rally nicely where I live.
I am even thinking to sell my 290 to update it slightly to a 290x.
 
I picked up the Gigabyte R9 290 that was on sale at the 'Egg earlier in the week. While the power usage is higher than the 970 (closest in terms of price and arguably performance), it really isn't that bad. My system draws less from the wall than it did with the GTX 480 that I previously had installed. I'm not sure if Afterburner was reporting GPU usage correctly, but if it was, while playing Max Payne 3 I was seeing 98-100% usage, yet the temperature never went above the mid 60s. To accomplish the same thermals with the 480 I had to use an AC Accelero Hybrid CLC cooler.

I would say that if you can get the cards at the right price (~$250 or less) you will likely not find anything wrong with the performance, though I will be able to make a more accurate comparison in the not-too-distant future, as I finally managed to snag a GTX 970 which should be arriving any day now...
 
290's are still a great video card.

price is everything though. If you can find a good 290 for under 280$ then go for it. If its going to cost you more than that then the 970's are a better deal.

Performance wise 290 is as fast as the 970's. For what it is worth I've yet to see a 970 beat my 290 3dmark scores, but that's just one benchmark.
 
i could see it possible if the cards were not overclocked at all, and even then the non x model has a better chance for sure...it cutting it very close...maybe to close
 
jojo69 said:
wait...


who doesn't run their system 100% 24/7? what is the point of having it?
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I think he means under load. I don't game all the time, maybe a couple of hours a day, sometimes not at all. I don't think I'm alone on this. Even though my computer is on 24/7.
 
290 is an amazing value at the moment. I expect it to get even cheaper.
 
so you guys don't run distributed computing tasks when you aren't gaming? weird

I would never spend thousands on a high end system and then let it not work
 
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