Talk me out of buying a 290x Lightning

Given that VSR came out later than DSR, I would fully expect that.
 
chenw said:
Given that VSR came out later than DSR, I would fully expect that.
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What advantage is that? Seems like if anything that nVidia would have had more time to refine their's.

I assume the post you responded to believes that AMD's advantage at HiRes will help them here.
 
The way I see it is that AMD would have seen the DSR tech and analysed it somewhat, and gave them an idea of how to improve upon the idea in their own implementation, especially if they were already working on it when DSR hit the market.

Now that VSR has hit the market, I am hoping to see that nVidia will start improving on the said tech (it's also been a while since the last driver update), so I am hoping for something big from the green team.

I won't lie, it is starting to feel that going with the green team for me is just a matter of timing rather than the merits of nVidia, EG AMD card price cuts are not applied here, hence it makes little financial sense to go with AMD currently (970 is priced at the same cost as 290, not 290x), and I have a tendency to prefer newer tech due to the certainty of buying a physically newer product. 970 is a good card, but rest of it? Seeing AMD now stepping up their game (at least appearing to), nVidia is starting to lose its appeal now, at least driver wise.
 
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MacLeod said:
Thats a rule I live by in this hobby. No matter how long you wait, no matter what strategy you work out, the instant you buy something, something newer, faster, better and maybe even cheaper will come out.

The GTX 770 came out about a month after I bought my GTX 670. LOL!!

I just buy what I want/need when I want/need it. This much GPU horsepower for $350 shipped with this top of the line build quality is too good to pass up and exactly what I want and need right now and its a great value. Its probably overkill right now for 1080 but the way new games are looking with Dragon Age Inquisition and Assassins Creed Unity barely playable on my 670 at max settings, that overkill will come in mighty handy in the next year or two. Hell it will come in handy now. Crysis 3 had to use FXAA and low Shadows to use Very High textures and Tomb Raider couldn't do TressFX with my 670 without dipping into the 20 FPS range. Metro 2033 will also surely benefit from the extra horsepower as well. I even had to turn down a couple things in Hitman Absolution which was weird.
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Good man! Enjoy!
 
OK so Ive had this beauty for a couple days now and I am in love!! This thing is absolutely magnificent!! Crysis 3 with ALL settings to Very High and 4x SMAA and Im getting frame rates in the 40's to 50's! This game is breathtaking visually and I can finally play it in all its glory. Metro 2033 gets frame rates in the 50's fully maxed out with Depth of Field enabled! Dead Space 3 Im getting over 400 fps! HA!! Ive never seen FRAPS reading 400.

Noise was initially an issue with everything set to default. However I went into Afterburner and tinkered with the fan profile a lot today and at 99-100% load on Crysis 3 I hit 72C for temps with the fans at 48% and it is much quieter than my old GTX 670 FTW, by a mile! Now granted this is the middle of winter and my PC room is in my basement so ambient temps are a little cooler. Hopefully Ill have equally good results in the summer.

Heat doesnt seem to be an issue either. I mean this aint a cool running card but I notice no extra heat in my room even after several hours of gaming than I was getting with my old 670.

So yeah guys, this was a fucking grand slam home run for me. I picked up Sleeping Dogs, Alien: Isolation, Sniper Elite 3 and Civilization for free as well all for $350 shipped and Ive still got a $30 mail in rebate if I ever get around to filling all that out.
 
MacLeod:
Ya Man Grand Slam AMD!!
you see how well the card is made, the back plate...
no body has this stuff like what we have, that will last you for years, im just waiting for the 390X, im not even a gamer like you guys,Merry Christmas Borther, I'm very Happy for you MacLeod

:)
 
MacLeod said:
OK so Ive had this beauty for a couple days now and I am in love!! This thing is absolutely magnificent!! Crysis 3 with ALL settings to Very High and 4x SMAA and Im getting frame rates in the 40's to 50's! This game is breathtaking visually and I can finally play it in all its glory. Metro 2033 gets frame rates in the 50's fully maxed out with Depth of Field enabled! Dead Space 3 Im getting over 400 fps! HA!! Ive never seen FRAPS reading 400.

Noise was initially an issue with everything set to default. However I went into Afterburner and tinkered with the fan profile a lot today and at 99-100% load on Crysis 3 I hit 72C for temps with the fans at 48% and it is much quieter than my old GTX 670 FTW, by a mile! Now granted this is the middle of winter and my PC room is in my basement so ambient temps are a little cooler. Hopefully Ill have equally good results in the summer.

Heat doesnt seem to be an issue either. I mean this aint a cool running card but I notice no extra heat in my room even after several hours of gaming than I was getting with my old 670.

So yeah guys, this was a fucking grand slam home run for me. I picked up Sleeping Dogs, Alien: Isolation, Sniper Elite 3 and Civilization for free as well all for $350 shipped and Ive still got a $30 mail in rebate if I ever get around to filling all that out.
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Try backing off AA a notch and a little bit of VSR. For me with DSR it looks MUCH better and about the same performance if I do 2xAA instead of 4x and 1.25x resolution scaling (or 1.5x if I can handle it)

I'm thrilled AMD has VSR, makes it a solid choice for me again. Maybe my next rig in a year will be AMD.... if it makes sense.
 
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That is definitely on my list to try. This card is so overkill for most of the games I play that I should have enough headroom to do some res scaling.
 
It's nice getting near 980 performance for $200 less (and arguably the same gaming experience), yeah?
 
the remarks on 290x can only get more excited for the 390X, I will be getting the MSI 390X lightning when comes out!

:)
 
As an owner of a 290X Lightning I can't say a bad thing about it lol... I love mine and will likely still hold onto it when I move up to a 980 on that rig
 
TheGoat Eater said:
As an owner of a 290X Lightning I can't say a bad thing about it lol... I love mine and will likely still hold onto it when I move up to a 980 on that rig
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That's what actually swayed me. I could find plenty of FUD about heat and noise and the usual but not from anybody that actually owned one. All the feedback I found in other forums from actual Lightning owners (hell any 290x owner actually) was always very positive.

Have to admit I miss Nvidia Control Panel tho. It was a little more polished and a little easier to us IMO.
 
MacLeod said:
That's what actually swayed me. I could find plenty of FUD about heat and noise and the usual but not from anybody that actually owned one. All the feedback I found in other forums from actual Lightning owners (hell any 290x owner actually) was always very positive.

Have to admit I miss Nvidia Control Panel tho. It was a little more polished and a little easier to us IMO.
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Yeah I am a big fan of the Nvidia Control Panel as well and that Is the main thing that I miss. I wish AMD could get their app into a place that would rival the Nvidia offering.
 
Well they dropped the game offers so I may wait now for the 380X as my R9-280 is looking good with the new driver and 1100/1500 clocks .. so I can wait.
 
Yeah the Lightning is supposed to be the best possible 290x with the best possible components, memory, cooling and all that. Most of the review sites seem to agree which was what made me want the thing back in April and May when it was $700+!
 
SonDa5 said:
Overall design of lightning is better for durability, cooling....higher quality over all...highest 290x.
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MacLeod said:
Yeah the Lightning is supposed to be the best possible 290x with the best possible components, memory, cooling and all that. Most of the review sites seem to agree which was what made me want the thing back in April and May when it was $700+!
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Thanks.

I guess I am in the same boat as you are, MacLeod - looking to get talked out. Except I have already owned the R9 290X Lightning, lol. The price is just so good and I'm all green team right now so I'm looking for an AMD card to play with (would sell my beloved 780 Lightning). I know it's likely AMD will drop their next round of cards in early 2015, but it's unlikely a Lightning variant will be available until a couple months after.

The R9 295X is very tempting...the Sapphire and XFX 8GB R9 290X are somewhat tempting...but it comes back to the insane value here. I feel that an investment in an R9 290X Lightning is just that - at this price you'll almost get your money back when you eBay it later, ha.
 
I'm a fan of the 290 and 290x, however with power consumption and heat I went for 970 this time around. So far i've been impressed. When the 3xx cards or whatever else AMD releases in the future comes out, they will definitely get a good look from me.
 
How are the VRM temps at load on this card? I'm having a hard time finding details on that via a Google search (other than that there is active cooling on the VRM).

EDIT: found it! Wow, 68C at load!! That's spectacular.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_290x_lightning_review,13.html

EDIT2: Bought. :)

EDIT3: Ended up getting it for $389.99 minus $30 MIR, plus they dropped it to $369.99 so I am receiving a NewEgg GC for the price difference...and yesterday I caught that they were offering the AMD Gold gift and Civ: Beyond Earth - so I called and they're sending me that too. Woo!
 
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Batman origins, lol 2560x1440 DSR AND 4X MSAA still gets over 60 fps minimum frame....
 
This is a heck of a card for that price. Unless I was hugely concerned with power usage, I'd take this at this price over a 970 any day.
 
Just bought this card today on newegg , 349 plus 30 Mir plus 20 newegg gift card. I've always wanted a lightning card, and I'm tired of my watercooled system.

Merry Christmas to me!
 
Enjoy it! Overclocking is kind of boring tho. I just raised the core and memory clock up to what seemed to be the average highs but kept the voltage stock and it's running just fine and still staying below 70C with the fans at 45% (under 45% and the fans are quieter than my case fans)! Maybe I'll tinker around with it later and see how high it'll go but I'm pretty happy with it at current settings in terms of heat and performance.
 
MacLeod said:
Enjoy it! Overclocking is kind of boring tho. I just raised the core and memory clock up to what seemed to be the average highs but kept the voltage stock and it's running just fine and still staying below 70C with the fans at 45% (under 45% and the fans are quieter than my case fans)! Maybe I'll tinker around with it later and see how high it'll go but I'm pretty happy with it at current settings in terms of heat and performance.
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Can you tell me what your load voltage is in GPU-Z at those clocks? How are your VRM1 temperatures after an hour or so of a taxing game? (FC3/4, Crysis 3, DA:I etc level)
 
378 with tax for me. 348 after rebate. I'm ignoring the $20 gift card however. Not sure what to do, with the possibility of the 3xx series coming out next year.
 
I had to return mine because the heatsink rattled like a tin can over 45% fan speed. Seems like a general problem with these triple slot coolers because my old asus 680 triple slot did the same. Power consumption was also scary high with it consuming 600w alone overclocked running occt error test.

I'm holding out for the 390x for now.
 
UPS delivered today and it is quite a piece of hardware. Excited to throw it into my rig over the holiday break and see what it can do!
 
harmattan said:
This is a heck of a card for that price. Unless I was hugely concerned with power usage, I'd take this at this price over a 970 any day.
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I sure wouldn't (I've had both and now have a 970).

The lightning is HUGE, heavy, louder, sucks more power --- and performs very much the same as a 970.

The lightning absolutely feels last gen compared to the 970 to me (which feels efficient and powerful and modern).
 
turbineseaplane said:
I sure wouldn't (I've had both and now have a 970).

The lightning is HUGE, heavy, louder, sucks more power --- and performs very much the same as a 970.

The lightning absolutely feels last gen compared to the 970 to me (which feels efficient and powerful and modern).
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Agreed. Although I haven't used a 970 - just 980s. I'm sure it's very similar. Love the R9 290X Lightning though.
 
ccityinstaller said:
Can you tell me what your load voltage is in GPU-Z at those clocks? How are your VRM1 temperatures after an hour or so of a taxing game? (FC3/4, Crysis 3, DA:I etc level)
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I actually played a couple hours of Crysis 3 today and with Afterburner running on my 2nd monitor. My load voltage was usually between 1.20 and 1.24. Temp for the GPU was 70-73 at max but the fans were at 45% and very quiet. The VRM temp held pretty steady at 66C.

That was with fully maxed settings and 4X SMAA. Frame rates were from 45-80. Yeah, I love this card. :D
 
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