Video Card Upgrade Path

A

Anime_Fan

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 1, 2004
Messages
1,207
I'm planning to upgrade my GPU within the next month. I just finished building my new gaming PC last week. I had recently purchased a GTX 760 before that to try and upgrade my old budget build but I was just unsatisfied as a whole with it. Now that I have a good job again (was unemployed for awhile) and some jingle in my pocket I am getting back into my PC Gaming Hobby. I can't decide which way I should go....

I definitely want to commit to a higher end GPU such as GTX 780 or R9 290 and hope it will last me at least 2 years to play most games on max settings @ 1080P 60+ FPS. I've typically gone with Nvidia over the last several years as I feel their drivers and features just seem to be better. I recall some games in the past I used to enjoy having some graphical weirdness running under Radeon cards. I've also read some articles lately about some people getting bad memory chips and other stuff that causes their games to crash on a regular basis with current Radeon cards.

From a pricing standpoint it looks like you can step into a R9 290X for the same price as a factory OCd GTX 780 with non reference cooling. Or you can step into a reference R9 290 for $100+ less than a reference 780. I know that the Radeon seems to perform better in some game titles and the GeForce tend to perform better in others but at the end of the day both cards are within a few FPS of each other it seems when I read benchmark reviews.

I am not trying to start a fanboy war or anything here but what do you guys think? Are Radeon cards running better these days or are they having problems? Should I stick to my Nvidia guns?

If it helps... some upcoming titles I am looking to play this year are Watch Dogs, Wild Star and Dragon Age Origins. I'm currently enjoying D3 - RoS at the moment.
 
Either way you can't go wrong really. If you do go the r9 290X/290 route, make sure you get one with an aftermarket cooler unless you plan on watercooling.
 
To push the 290x, you will need to get the aqua computer active backplate. It will control the vrm temps so you can oc that card like a beast.
 
NZXT started selling a bracket, Kraken g10, that lets you use most Asetek AIO coolers.

https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10-gpu-bracket.html

Whether that is good for R9 290X, I do not know. I wouldn't think it would help much over regular aftermarket non-reference cooler. The core temp will be cooler, but the VRMS would be the same, if not more hot I would imagine, so I don't think it would allow you additional OC gains.
 
290x, enable overdrive, set target tempt at 86c, fan max at 100. Won't have issues running whatever you want.

Plenty of after market cooling options there if you feel you need them.
 
I have two of the reference R9 290X cards.
They ran hotter than hell and loud.
Now that they are watercooled they are awesome.

If you buy a 290X I'd spend the extra money and get one of the AIB partner's design with a good quiet cooler. The MSI gaming or the Lightning would be excellent. The Lightning if you have the money!:D
 
ThunderDan said:
NZXT started selling a bracket, Kraken g10, that lets you use most Asetek AIO coolers.

https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10-gpu-bracket.html

Whether that is good for R9 290X, I do not know. I wouldn't think it would help much over regular aftermarket non-reference cooler. The core temp will be cooler, but the VRMS would be the same, if not more hot I would imagine, so I don't think it would allow you additional OC gains.
Click to expand...
From the benchmarks I've seen for the Kraken G10, it seems to do a pretty good job at cooling compared to stock cooling.

http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-kr...oler-review-on-an-amd-radeon-r9-290x_130344/4

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NZXT-Kraken-G10-Review-527/#Introduction

It's too bad that the VRMs suffer, I'd have to know if copper stick-on heatsinks would be better than the stock cooling before purchasing the G10.
 
Thanks guys, with the current pricing I am seeing I am leaning towards a 290 or 290x depending on sale prices in the next few weeks. The Kraken G10 looks interesting, so its basically a mount that you use to hook up an AIO Liquid cooler to the GPU? It's an expensive cooling upgrade but I suppose it can be used again down the road if I upgrade the card to something else assuming they offer mounting hardware for it.
 
I would wait little longer fot R9 290. Prices still higher than what tjey should be. But minning craziness is over thanks chinese btcspeculations dropping tje prices down. I see used r9 290 deals down to $270 on for sale. I would wait till they go down to $250 which should have been the brand new price by now already, if no mining drove the prices high.
 
I don't think I want to trust a used R9 290 off Ebay or whatever that was probably running 24/7 in some crazy bitcoin operation.
 
Yeah I don't think he is suggesting you buy a used card, he is saying that the new price was/is inflated due to cryptocurrency mining.
 
If you like cooler and more power efficient cards stick with nvidia. I wouldnt buy a reference amd card they run too hot imo. But either way the cards are pretty close to each other in performance and your just mostly nit picking depending on the game.
 
I just evaluated a 290 and a 290x and both tended to run really hot. Also several after-market cooler models have issues with high VRM temperatures. Additionally, this time, and often through the years, I've had issues with AMD's Radeon drivers. I wasn't impressed and opted to stay with NVIDIA. With 290/290x prices continuing to fall, it doesn't make much sense to buy one right now.
 
I'll echo what starbuck stated above, although I used 7970s and not the 290. After using both, I prefer nvidia for their software ecosystem personally. Nvidia tends to add a lot of features in their driver sets all the time like downsampling and driver AO, whereas AMD has stayed more static in that respect. Additionally, while some will argue otherwise, I went through hell with 7970s and eyefinity - those issues are well documented by even Brent Justice. I just found fewer hair pulling issues with NV than AMD, hence the switch to 780s. But admittedly, that was the 7970 and not the 290X. I understand the 290X was improved a lot in this respect, so there's that.

Performance wise you can't go wrong either way. What you're paying for, essentially, are features and software that matter more to you. All of these cards perform similarly, but the GK110 does do a bit better than AMD at max overclocks; nonetheless they all perform great.

So i'd just research and look at what software features matter most to you, or performance per buck. Like I said performance wise you can't go wrong either way, although my *personal* preference software wise is nvidia by a mile. That's me though and not you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top