Red team fan had to go Green. :D

ManofGod

ManofGod

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
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Welp, let me start by saying it was time for my to upgrade my video card, to me anyways. I have a reference R9 290x from XFX and it works pretty good at 4k. (Not great but, pretty good.) I also have a i7 6700k in a Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 7 board.

So, I decided to start with a R9 390x 8G card from XFX over at Best Buy. Unfortunately, except for some pretty good jumps in benchmarks, I did not notice any difference in games. Therefore, I just returned it and stuck with my 290. Then, on Monday, I found that I could crossfire the 290 and 390 together so I purchased a XFX R9 390 from Bestbuy and installed it. Well, I was very impressed and it seem to work quite well except that the fan noise was loud and both cards were getting very hot.

I figured 3 day later, why not install 2 x R9 390's instead so I picked more of them up and installed it. However, I found that the GPU temps were getting to 94C and the fans were running very fast still so I went ahead and returned them both. (My Define r3 case just does not have sufficient cooling performance, I guess.)

Alright, Friday is here and I thought, I will buy an R9 Fury air cooled unit from XFX well it is at a good price. Well, I then found out after the purchase that the card is almost 315mm long but my case will only fit a 290mm card and nothing more. I chatted with newegg and they voided the purchase for me since I could not cancel it online anymore.

Now, that left only the 980ti of the Fury X. Since I have no place to fit the Fury X radiator, that left just the 980Ti. Ok, first to check is the $599 Gigabyte unit which claims a certain size online but when I finally got through to Gigabyte support, they said the card is 291mm. :( Then, I looked some more and found that the EVGA cards are short enough, called them, got through immediately and they verified the information.

Well, I checked one more card, and MSI one. Tried calling them twice, was put on hold twice and never got through to them. (Remember, I had to verify the card length since Newegg does not take returns for refunds on video cards.) Because EVGA was quick with their support, I went with them and ordered this card.

Basically, I am now on team green for at least the next 2 years since AMD had nothing I could use. Hopefully, I will not run into any issues since I am on Windows 10. :D Looks like EVGA is the winner to me and I even called them back and thanked them for the help. (Got through immediately again and got the same gentleman as well.)
 
Good shit. EVGA is tops in service (though I still prefer other manufacturers' performance).
 
I had a 290 for since it came out and was waiting for the Fury X to upgrade. After the disappointment that was the Fury X, I decided to go team Green as well and got the MSI 980ti gaming. I was team red for quite a few years but after this debacle, I couldn't support them anymore.
 
Man, you are going to burn in hell.. switched entirely from AMD CPU to Intel CPU and AMD GPU to Nvidia GPU.. hahahaha.. jokes apart.. great choice, you will enjoy the performance of that card. don't forget some benchies.. =)
 
Hard to imagine many cases with out room for those cards....especially not even room for a small rad...but i guess it happens:)
 
Araxie said:
Man, you are going to burn in hell.. switched entirely from AMD CPU to Intel CPU and AMD GPU to Nvidia GPU.. hahahaha.. jokes apart.. great choice, you will enjoy the performance of that card. don't forget some benchies.. =)
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I agree, about enjoying the performance. :D I love my AMD hardware but, there was nothing to upgrade to in the CPU department from what I had. Also, I think an R9 Fury would have been up good upgrade but, a new R Define r5 case would have negated the cost savings of the card itself.

Going to miss my AMD setup at home but, not too much. :) Besides, I am still using a FX 8350 and HD7770 at work and there, they are stupid fast for what I do everyday. (The SSD's help a lot as well.)

primetime said:
Hard to imagine many cases with out room for those cards....especially not even room for a small rad...but i guess it happens:)
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I think without the D15, I probably could have fit a Fury X. I love my Define r3 case so I do not want to replace it until I have too. I was surprised as well that I could not fit the R9 Fury but, like you said, it happens. :)
 
Kemerd said:
I ended up returning my R9 390 for a GTX 970-- ended up buying a refurbished GTX 980 for ~350 instead, but it's still a better choice.

My family has been team red since before I was born-- and I don't see myself going back to it unless they get their drivers on track.
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Ok what driver issues exactly? Too many posters say it but apparently have no clue what issues.
 
JustReason said:
Ok what driver issues exactly? Too many posters say it but apparently have no clue what issues.
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I was going to ask what driver issues as well. I am very fortunate to never have any AMD driver issues, just that the best single card option right now for 4k was the 980 ti. Going to actually miss using the new Crimson control panel, I think it is really good.
 
Notice that most generic blanket driver issue statements are from people that post one time and are gone.
 
cageymaru said:
Notice that most generic blanket driver issue statements are from people that post one time and are gone.
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Yeah, and that is one thing I hate. I do not have an issue if someone has driver issues with AMD hardware. But what is the question. After all, with all the myriad combinations of hardware out there, someone is bound to have AMD driver issues once in a while.
 
You just made a good choice for where you were GPU wise. I would have sat on the 290X personally as next year is shaping up to be a great year for GPUs. I also consider myself more of an ATi/AMD fan. But you have to go where the performance is for that dollar amount you are looking to spend. Thats why my GFs rig has a 390X and I have a 980Ti :)
 
yeah kinda what I was getting at. I have never had a single driver issue with my CF setups or single GPUs either. Now I get there will be the occasional, like those using 2 monitors not in eyefinity but game on one with something on other. That seems to be a REAL issue, and for those users they get the right to complain. But these blanket statements are getting old.
 
I don't get the point of upgrading at this point when it's only months away from Pascal and Northern Isles being released.
 
Enjoy the 980 Ti its a very solid card, especially given your case restrictions it won't overheat.
 
variant said:
I don't get the point of upgrading at this point when it's only months away from Pascal and Northern Isles being released.
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3 months? 6 months? 9 months? 12 months? Do we have any solid information other than maybe sometime next year? Nope. Heck, we do not even know how much of a performance increase we will get since it will be a first generation 14 /16 nm process. Now, if we had solid information and facts, then maybe I would agree with you but, we have nothing at the moment.

5150Joker said:
Enjoy the 980 Ti its a very solid card, especially given your case restrictions it won't overheat.
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Thanks. The crazy thing is, I was not going to upgrade because of the cost but, guess it was the only upgrade option from my 290x. (Especially considering that the Fury and Fury X would not fit in my case and setup.)
 
I recently switched from Red to Green as well since I needed HDMI 2.0 to drive a new 4K monitor/TV at 60Hz. AMD - please take note!

Managed to snatch a MSI GTX 980 4G for $350 AR during BF week, and sold my Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC on the same day. :D

PS. I NEVER had ANY issue with AMD driver either, and I don't want frequent driver updates. More changes, more clutter usually...
 
I thought about buying a new card.

but I figure I rather just wait for whatever is next :-D. My 290 works just fine for now.
 
ebduncan said:
I thought about buying a new card.

but I figure I rather just wait for whatever is next :-D. My 290 works just fine for now.
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I have to admit, if i had your setup I would be waiting as well. (The water cooling and overclock you got going on there, I mean.) However, I have had this R9 290 reference, unlocked to a 290x, since release of November, 2013 and it has been air cooled the whole time. That plus the fact that I am on 4k now is why I choose to upgrade at this time. :)

Since we have no idea what is coming next year or even when, I just did not feel like waiting anymore. I am still very disappointed that I could not use the R9 Fury air cooled card but, that is the way it goes.
 
Pascal or Arctic Islands with 8-16GB HBM2 should be tasty next year. I may upgrade again shortly after launch if either can tame the 4K beast without having to SLI or XF. Been a while since I splurged on a gpu without heavy discounts...not since 8800 GTX. :D

Then the 980 becomes my 4K HTPC gpu... :)
 
Currently driving my 4Kp60 panel with a 970 but would love a 980 Ti. Enjoy your new card man!
 
I think I'll be upgrading from the R9 290 to the 980 Ti during tax return season. I also have an issue about there being no concrete release dates & performance data for the new GPUs. This is my main reasoning for eventually upgrading to the 980 Ti instead of holding out for who knows how long. I won't go through with it IF more data floods through with positive value for ROI.
 
Im also a long time ATI/AMD user looking to upgrade my aging reference 7970. Been looking at all high end options 390x, 980, FuryX and 980ti. My last Nvidia product was a GTX285 and it was a great card. Now I'm not sure what to get. Usually I just buy whats the fastest available card but this time around I'm hesitant as I really like the FuryX even if it lags behind the 980ti.
 
I went green not REALLY by choice, and beleive it or not, I've experienced MORE troubles (stability wise) with my current setup than I've had with any AMD setup. It doesn't really bother me, as I'm a tinkerer by nature, and the power I have to play with now is simply not available from the red team, but really: the flawless Nvidia garden is a myth. Both companies have faults. Right now, if you want to spend big money, your only option is Nvidia.
 
I truly did love the 390 crossfire setup, it was very fast. However, Batman: Arkham Knight and other games do not support Multi gpu setups from either camp. At that point, I was no better off than before. Now, the games run anywhere from 60 to 100% faster than the 290x. Strange thing is, I am just not as excited with this purchase as I was back when I had purchased the R9 290 in November of 2013.
 
well the performance deltas were much higher for the 290x to the 7970 than the 290x to the 980 ti (~10% difference).
 
After buying the top end Radeon card every generation since the Crossfire 4870's I had, I was looking to upgrade from my latest card, the 290x. When I compared the 980ti to the Radeon Fury, it was just obvious that the 980 was the better choice. Better performance, less heat, same price, and a conventional card design, oh, and its nice and quiet too! I really enjoy AMD products and they tend to offer good bang for the buck, but the 980ti was just the better card. Now my FPS are pegged at 60 in fallout 4 and I'm very happy.
 
I'm sort of in the same boat as the OP. I've been running xfire 290X (another vote for ZERO driver issues) and am getting a 4k monitor in the next week. I was looking at doing 390 xfire for the extra vram but am worried about the heat and noise. I have a Phanteks Enthoo Pro and have been considering doing a custom loop to take care of the heat and noise, but that would be a ways off. This had me eyeing the 980ti instead, but when thinking that it's less performance for more money it just bothers me. The only game I've had any issue with xfire is GTA V and it's really not even that bad. I've heard Witcher 3 has issues too, but I haven't played it that much.

Before anyone says to wait for Pascal, when is that again? And what am I waiting for again? To my knowledge there isn't any solid information regarding release date or performance. Also, price. I have no need to overspend just to have the latest and greatest.

I'd hate to spend the premium on the 980 ti when I know I can get xfire 390 for roughly $100 less, but I also want to be able to fully utilize the cards for all games I play. Decisions decisions.
 
Kalmado said:
I'm sort of in the same boat as the OP. I've been running xfire 290X (another vote for ZERO driver issues) and am getting a 4k monitor in the next week. I was looking at doing 390 xfire for the extra vram but am worried about the heat and noise. I have a Phanteks Enthoo Pro and have been considering doing a custom loop to take care of the heat and noise, but that would be a ways off. This had me eyeing the 980ti instead, but when thinking that it's less performance for more money it just bothers me. The only game I've had any issue with xfire is GTA V and it's really not even that bad. I've heard Witcher 3 has issues too, but I haven't played it that much.

Before anyone says to wait for Pascal, when is that again? And what am I waiting for again? To my knowledge there isn't any solid information regarding release date or performance. Also, price. I have no need to overspend just to have the latest and greatest.

I'd hate to spend the premium on the 980 ti when I know I can get xfire 390 for roughly $100 less, but I also want to be able to fully utilize the cards for all games I play. Decisions decisions.
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Personally, I would just stick with that 290x crossfire setup since you already own it. However, how are you cooling those 290x's? Also, how long have you had them just out of curiosity? I would just wait and see how the cards do at 4k and go from there. For me, my setup would never have properly cooled that crossfire setup although they were fast.
 
ManofGod said:
Personally, I would just stick with that 290x crossfire setup since you already own it. However, how are you cooling those 290x's? Also, how long have you had them just out of curiosity? I would just wait and see how the cards do at 4k and go from there. For me, my setup would never have properly cooled that crossfire setup although they were fast.
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non reference and they get hot. 90c+. I've owned them for about seven months. My local Micro Center has a XFX R9 390X open box for about $300 out the door. Seems like a hell of a value. http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/91/amd-radeon-r9-390x-crossfire-4k/index.html

I'd like to do a custom loop but on the other hand if I got the 980ti I wouldn't have a true need as I'm not trying to break OC records or anything. Too bad those 290xs run so hot.
 
A 980 Ti is good for ~500K PPD in F@H. That would put you in the Top 10 for the [H]ardOCP team.

Just sayin'
 
Feel lucky you chose now to get go green. A few months ago you would have been pulling your hair out with the driver issues that were going on. One day I had about 20 driver crashes on my 980ti. Hopefully they don't make new drivers unstable again.
 
Each one net around 400K PPD I think. So you'd be looking at ~800K PPD for your setup which will put you, as of this post in the top 10 at least.
 
ManofGod said:
Personally, I would just stick with that 290x crossfire setup since you already own it. However, how are you cooling those 290x's? Also, how long have you had them just out of curiosity? I would just wait and see how the cards do at 4k and go from there. For me, my setup would never have properly cooled that crossfire setup although they were fast.
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Forgot to mention, after selling my 290xs I would only be out of pocket roughly $40 for crossfire 390s. That's a big reason why I would like to change and to get more vram.
 
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