Should I sell my 290's and upgrade to 970's or toss water blocks on the 290's?

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Makeroflostsouls

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I'm about to build a new case and water cool it all again. The 290's are of course loud as crap on air. On water the noise will be a mute point. The 290's play everything I have fine. I'm running 2560x1080p 29inch lg monitor. My system is dual 290's refrence, [email protected], 16 gigs of ram, 1300 watt evga psu. Do you all think it's worth selling the 290's to pick up some 970's or just toss water blocks on the 290's OC them to 1150 and call it a day? Hell with the prices dropping maybe toss a 3rd 290 in the mix :D Not that it will probably net me much at the res i'm gaming at. Your thought's? Thanks
 
Get rid of the 290s.. I did the same with my dual 290Xs.

Faster, cooler and quieter are the words I want to use. The room temperature is down too :D
 
Since you already have them, I would slap some full cover blocks on the 290s and OC them to the moon..My 290 (which is getting a mate in the next week) does 1.275Ghz core/1.375Ghz memory in everything I throw at it..I am currently downloading Shadows of Mordor to get in on some Orc killing action!
 
I don't see any reason to upgrade at the res you're running at. Toss the waterblocks on and it will be a quiet system. Save money for the next go around with the 980Ti or whatever else is in the pipeline.
 
I would recommend the water blocks too but it depends on a few factors. You would lose too much money on the 290s at this point since the prices have pretty much plummeted.

Overclocked and on Water R290s can do pretty well compared to the new stuff. It wont get you at the performance the new stuff is giving when it's overclocked but it should be able to hold you over until the new stuff comes out.

Best Bet

Calculate;
1. How much the blocks will cost
2. How much you can get if you sell the 290s
3. How much a pair of 970s will cost you

If you can sell the 290s and use that money to pay for the 970s and have to pay a difference that in less than the price of the full cover blocks then the 970 SLi is the way to go.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Yea it would be close I think I can get around 200 for each the 290 right now and the blocks are 120 per card...So around 320 total , same price as a 970. But then I would want to water cool the 970's lol.
 
The amount of performance you would get overclocking on water isn't worth the money and hassle. Sell the 290s, buy faster cards.
 
Performance would probably be about the same.

IMO unless you plan on using Nvidia features like sgssaa or transparency aa that actually works it wouldn't be worth it. Those are two of the main reasons that I use Nvidia cards. That and overall better compatibility with smaller titles.

Lord_Exodia said:
I would recommend the water blocks too but it depends on a few factors. You would lose too much money on the 290s at this point since the prices have pretty much plummeted.

Overclocked and on Water R290s can do pretty well compared to the new stuff. It wont get you at the performance the new stuff is giving when it's overclocked but it should be able to hold you over until the new stuff comes out.

Best Bet

Calculate;
1. How much the blocks will cost
2. How much you can get if you sell the 290s
3. How much a pair of 970s will cost you

If you can sell the 290s and use that money to pay for the 970s and have to pay a difference that in less than the price of the full cover blocks then the 970 SLi is the way to go.

Hope that makes sense.
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Very good advice
 
I just upgrades my 290's to 970's, but that's just because I hate AMD cards. I had 280x's and 290's, and they were nothing but trouble. If you don't mind all the bullshit that comes with running AMD cards though, its a pretty senseless upgrade IMO. Though I will say, I'm loving the lower power usage and the lower temps, and so is the rest of my rig.
 
Definitely wait for the 390x. Its going to be faster than the GTX980.
 
doz said:
Definitely wait for the 390x. Its going to be faster than the GTX980.
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You have absolutely nothing to base that assessment on and the 390X is still 6+ months away. Why are you even posting this?

There is always a better product 6 months out. This will still be true 6 months from now - then you'll just be saying "well wait and see what the GTX 1080 brings in 6 months..." At some point you have to decide to make a purchase and now is a pretty good time all things considered.
 
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Sell the 290's before secondhand prices drop even further.

It's practically a fire-sale at this point....

Ditch red, go green. AND, watch out for coil-whine apparently.
 
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_bordeaux_strategy&num=2

300 series might be somewhat closer than you think. The new Linux driver that is being released in stages this Fall only works on 300 series+ :)

"No Catalyst code is being open-sourced but all the new driver code is based on the existing Radeon code-base. AMD's new Linux driver code is expected to start coming out in stages this fall. Given that this monumental shift of their Linux driver strategy is for new hardware not yet released, I'd assume the first products to be supported by this new AMD kernel driver will almost certainly be the AMD Radeon Rx 300 series with the codenamed "Pirate Islands" GPUs. AMD's Pirate Islands graphics cards are rolling out in 2015 to succeed the Southern/Sea/Volcanic Islands."

As far as the OP goes, if the 290's suit you fine then stay with them. If not upgrade to the new Nvidia cards. You don't lose regardless of decision. :)
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
The 290's play everything I have fine.
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Keep the 290's. Unless you want to upgrade for the sake of upgrading, they should hold you over for a while.

Ppcs tends to once a month, send coupon codes that can give you discounts on items like waterblocks.
 
Keep the 290's.

You won't get much if anything in the way of performance improvement with SLi'd 970's on average and 290's resale value has plummeted massively twice. Once since the mining craze died down and again since the nV 9xx series came out. Both SLi and CF have their issues when running games, the difference won't be big enough to justify spending hundreds to switch unless you're rich already.

Waterblocks for the 290 are bidding out for around $80-100 on ebay but if you're willing to wait a month or 2 I bet you'll see them drop quite a bit in price as 9xx waterblocks suddenly become the 'new hotness'. Until then point a 120mm fan at your 290's and temps/noise should drop quite a bit.
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
I'm about to build a new case and water cool it all again. The 290's are of course loud as crap on air. On water the noise will be a mute point. The 290's play everything I have fine. I'm running 2560x1080p 29inch lg monitor. My system is dual 290's refrence, [email protected], 16 gigs of ram, 1300 watt evga psu. Do you all think it's worth selling the 290's to pick up some 970's or just toss water blocks on the 290's OC them to 1150 and call it a day? Hell with the prices dropping maybe toss a 3rd 290 in the mix :D Not that it will probably net me much at the res i'm gaming at. Your thought's? Thanks
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Have you considered air coolers, something like the gelid icy? If your case has space they will reduce the noise and temps a lot without costing a lot and less trouble than water coolers.
 
Even if it costs slightly more for the 970s, get those.
They will be a lot less hassle, have a longer warranty, wont be slower, should clock better, use a lot less power (especially when going for high clocks), are a newer part, will have better resale value and will be easier to sell when you want to upgrade next.
 
It's funny to see everyone acting like suddenly their cards turned toxic or whatnot. The release of the gtx980/970 didn't change anything for you if you already own the cards.

The question you need to ask, is why the effin hell would you want to sidegrade to a card that basically does what yours do? Unless you want to be extremely green and power consumption is really important to you. Why spend money for the same performance? That's crazy.
 
Buying PC parts for resale value is generally a bad idea and pretty much never works out. Today's high end is tomorrow's bargain bin 'trash' and always will be. Note how both 290/x and 780 resale value has tanked with the release of the 9xx cards.

The only real advantages the 9xx series has over the 290/x is lower power usage and less heat. The 9xx series is a great upgrade if you have older hardware (ie. nV 6xx or AMD 6xxx or older) but if you have a high end card from the last generation (ie. 290/x or 780/ti) from either major OEM it doesn't make much sense to buy. Even 2 gen back (ie. 7970 era) it might not make a whole lot of sense since those cards still play most games @ 1080p-1440p resolutions with moderate reductions in IQ.

You really only need 290/x or 970/980's or even 780Ti's if you want to play at 1440p or 4k resolutions with most everything maxed @ 60fps or better. Really for 4k resolution maxed @ 60fps+ you're going to need either SLi or CF and both are a mixed bag at best.
 
Nenu said:
Even if it costs slightly more for the 970s, get those.
They will be a lot less hassle, have a longer warranty, wont be slower, .
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Lot less hassle? The cards already in my rig working seem a lot less hassle to me, than trying to sell those, buy new ones, and replace them, re-install, spend money. Compared to doing nothing? How is that less hassle?

Have longer warranty? Of course they have, but anything you buy new have longer warranty than what you bought yesterday, by this logic you could replace everything every day to always have the full warranty :D

won't be slower, so go ahead spend money for nothing :eek:
 
mesyn191 said:
You really only need 290/x or 970/980's or even 780Ti's if you want to play at 1440p or 4k resolutions with most everything maxed @ 60fps or better. Really for 4k resolution maxed @ 60fps+ you're going to need either SLi or CF and both are a mixed bag at best.
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FYI 290x CF at 4K is barely enough to break 30fps in some games. A few less demanding ones might run at 60fps, but for some I even have to drop back to 2560x1440 to be playable.
 
M76 said:
Lot less hassle? The cards already in my rig working seem a lot less hassle to me, than trying to sell those, buy new ones, and replace them, re-install, spend money. Compared to doing nothing? How is that less hassle?

Have longer warranty? Of course they have, but anything you buy new have longer warranty than what you bought yesterday, by this logic you could replace everything every day to always have the full warranty :D

won't be slower, so go ahead spend money for nothing :eek:
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In the op he says his system is too loud so he will either have to water cool or change gfx cards.
This incurs a cost so a balance of costs and features between upgrades is pertinent
 
M76 said:
It's funny to see everyone acting like suddenly their cards turned toxic or whatnot.
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Yeaaah. I get its nice to have the latest + greatest but some people here have totally lost their rationality in their enthusiasm to get the latest and greatest. Even if you're rich it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to sell a 290/x for maybe $200 on ebay and then to go buy a 970 for ~$350 which gets you maaaaybe ~10% faster in some games. You'll be lucky to notice the difference in game even if you've got magic golden eyes.

'Sidegrade' is dead on description of a switch from a 290/x to a 970/980.

If you've got older hardware then yea it can make a lot of sense to get a 970/980. Though AMD's recent price drops on the 290/x + game bundles make even that a mixed bag IMO. With the better coolers they come with now the heat and noise complaints are mostly BS too.
 
Nenu said:
In the op he says his system is too loud so he will either have to water cool or change gfx cards.
This incurs a cost so a balance of costs and features between upgrades is pertinent
Click to expand...

Then he added later, that he'd water cool the 970s too.
 
M76 said:
FYI 290x CF at 4K is barely enough to break 30fps in some games. A few less demanding ones might run at 60fps, but for some I even have to drop back to 2560x1440 to be playable.
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There are always some games that just never seem to scale well with the hardware for whatever reason. Crysis was notorious for this for instance. There are quite a lot of games that will get 60fps+ with CF or SLI'd 290's, 780's, or 970's @ 4k in recent years.

Nenu said:
In the op he says his system is too loud so he will either have to water cool or change gfx cards.
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An enthusiast site like hardocp is the wrong place to be if you really think that buying a whole new video card is necessary to reduce noise and heat. Especially since he'd have to spend around $150+ per card to do so even after selling his current cards vs. the cost of some extra fans or current waterblocks. Keep in mind he'd said he might just watercool the 970's anyways.
 
Difference is that he wont need to water cool the 970s to keep the noise down.

I think he wants to do more with his PC, so maybe he will just watercool whatever he has.
I gave my opinion, its up to him if its what he wants.
 
Watercooling isn't required to keep the noise down with 290/x's either though.

Silent is a different story but then that is true of the 970's while gaming too.
 
mesyn191 said:
Watercooling isn't required to keep the noise down with 290/x's either though.

Silent is a different story but then that is true of the 970's while gaming too.
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Perhaps you should help him with that then?
In the op he says they are too loud.

I run a 290x with Xtreme III cooler on it because it was bloody loud! He has 2 of them !!
Now its great and I recommend this cooler (or the Xtreme IV perhaps), but its not such an easy solution for Crossfire.
The cooler takes a LOT of space and dumps all the heat into the case.
My Xtreme III needs 4 rear slots, 3 for the card+cooler and 1 slot to allow it to breath.
It will be worse with back to back cards, they will need 2 slots between them to prevent feeding warmed air from the back of the second card into the first.

For the 290 series crossfire is a lot of heat, even more when the focus is on overclocking them.
I cannot recommend aftermarket air coolers.
 
I did. I suggested he point a 120mm fan at his cards and wait a month or 2 for the bottom to fall out of waterblock pricing for the 290/x.

Unless you're one of those people where the sound of a mechanical hard drive running is enough to drive you up the wall just pointing a 120mm fan at your video card will let it run cool enough that the fans won't spin up much if ever.

And that is with the reference HSF 290/x. If you have a 290/x that came with a good 2 or 3 fan HSF by default there is no noise or heat issue at all.
 
mesyn191 said:
I did. I suggested he point a 120mm fan at his cards and wait a month or 2 for the bottom to fall out of waterblock pricing for the 290/x.
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A 120mm fan is not very effective for reducing card fan speeds on one card let alone 2, it may make the fans ramp up 5 or 10 mins later.
It isnt a bad idea to see if waterblock prices drop, but again there is the extra investment for the WC system and extra maintenance.
The investment can be diluted over the years if he continues to use it, but that means potentially new waterblocks for each change of gfx card which ups the cost again.

Unless you're one of those people where the sound of a mechanical hard drive running is enough to drive you up the wall just pointing a 120mm fan at your video card will let it run cool enough that the fans won't spin up much if ever.
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I'm not that anal, I run an Antec 900 case which while pretty quiet on lowest fan settings, it isnt silent. I dont care if my hard drives are running.
You are wrong about the 120mm fan helping much though.
I tried exactly that and it made almost no difference.

And that is with the reference HSF 290/x. If you have a 290/x that came with a good 2 or 3 fan HSF by default there is no noise or heat issue at all.
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You would have a point if he hadnt said in the op that his cards are "loud as crap".
 
Yea I'm completely redoing my Rig. Everything is going in a new case with ridged tubing and external rad. It will probably be down for a few weeks while I do this build. I already have all the water cooling parts but the blocks for the video cards. Going in a Nzxt h440 case and will be cooled with and external 9x140mm rad. System should be damn near silent. Even the x79 MB will be water cooled. Since I was going to have everything in pieces anyway I was thinking of a new card. I think i will stick with the 290's. More I think about it the less it's worth the hassle of selling them and shipping them an all that.. Hell I might pick up a 3rd for shits and giggles , would be the same as me upgrading to the dual 970's with blocks and be faster. Then I "probably" won't have to touch my rig for at least 2 years since i'm only playing at 2560x1080. I really don't care about power draw lol I have a full 6 foot rack in my house lol with full server and my wifes rig , everything for my theater ...Power bill is never under 150 a month lol . Thanks for all the input.
 
Get rid of those AMD cards as fast as you can. I had dual 290Xs, but both my failed, so I am switching to a GTX 580 until Big Maxwell comes out. Never settle for AMD GPUs.
 
Anecdote time eh? That much extra air moving over the HSF or even just pointed at the back of the video card is obviously going to have a major impact on temps which will of course effect fan speed.

Bear in mind I have a old CM 690 case that has a mount point for a 120mm directly over where a video card or 2 would sit. Neither my 4890's, 7970, nor my R9 290 ever ran loud or hot with the fan in that position. Nor were they ever noisy. Even the 4890's which were an XFX model that were 'notorious' for running hot and loud and they were in CF close together and used a 'blower' model HSF so the air from the 120mm mostly ended up just flowing around the card instead of through the HSF properly.

'Loud as crap' is OP's perception. Which is fine. Some are more sensitive to noise. Bear in mind though that Kyle tested CF 290's and had no trouble with the noise so noise perception does work both ways. The noise issue about these cards, even with the reference HSF, has been overblown to the point of being FUD.
 
Putting waterblocks onto 290's = throwing good money after bad.

970. No brainer. Card is a monster.
 
mesyn191 said:
Buying PC parts for resale value is generally a bad idea and pretty much never works out. Today's high end is tomorrow's bargain bin 'trash' and always will be. Note how both 290/x and 780 resale value has tanked with the release of the 9xx cards.

The only real advantages the 9xx series has over the 290/x is lower power usage and less heat. The 9xx series is a great upgrade if you have older hardware (ie. nV 6xx or AMD 6xxx or older) but if you have a high end card from the last generation (ie. 290/x or 780/ti) from either major OEM it doesn't make much sense to buy. Even 2 gen back (ie. 7970 era) it might not make a whole lot of sense since those cards still play most games @ 1080p-1440p resolutions with moderate reductions in IQ.
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I'm in agreement with this. Actually I have a 7870Ghz (120 off Ebay a while ago) in my secondary rig paired with an i5 750. That combo actually did competently when playing FF14 at 1440p. Kept good framerate even at higher settings, iirc. Not quite 60fps at high high settings, but it did fine.

At best a 290/X or 780/Ti to 970/980 is a very minor upgrade, there is little reason for it unless you feel the itch. Heck, if you have anything that's a 7870Ghz (or 7950) and up, I'd recommend just sticking with it. It'll probably do competently with some adjustment of game settings. When I went to 780 SLI, it was from a 5850 and because I got good open box deals on them at Microcenter.


Anyway, a minor breakdown:
- Current sale price of 290 (not X) on Ebay: umm... sadly around 150-170 from the looks of it. Though for people buying, steals to be had!
- The price of your "upgrade" to a pair of 970's: 300-350-ish.

Not much reason for it. You don't gain VRAM even. You just gain a minor (read: tiny) boost in power and a lowering of wattage.

This is what I'd suggest: 2 Kraken G10's + 2 cheap AIO units. It'll likely run you about 100-150 with some good deals (maybe cheaper than waterblocks alone), it'll perform plenty competently, and it'll be pretty quiet (might have to tweak fan settings). You won't have to do a full loop and won't spend as much money. Depending on your case, should be easier to set up.
 
Personally... I'd do absolutely nothing. 290's are plenty powerful enough and for me personally, investing in the time, effort and money to put water blocks on them to quite them down isn't worth it. It would also undoubtedly devalue the card later on.
 
DPI said:
Putting waterblocks onto 290's = throwing good money after bad.

970. No brainer. Card is a monster.
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Since you are hardcore Nvidia, that pretty much makes your opinion not relevant. You would push Nvidia even if the AMD card was twice as powerful for half the cost and half the power usage. (At least you are consistent. :D )

On the other hand, OP, let us know how it turns out please, thanks.
 
RamonGTP said:
Personally... I'd do absolutely nothing. 290's are plenty powerful enough and for me personally, investing in the time, effort and money to put water blocks on them to quite them down isn't worth it. It would also undoubtedly devalue the card later on.
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Yeah but, the OP is not happy with the noise they are making. Since he is doing a complete rebuild with water cooling, going with the water blocks makes sense.
 
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