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When Are They Worth It?

S

Sovereign

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
3,098
I know that as far as "value for money" the custom R9 290s depend heavily on price. I've always been under the impression that if they are at MSRP, a custom 290 is going to blow the doors off a 780 value-wise.

If I'm wrong, I'd like to know.

I have $130 in Amazon (Discover Card) cash-back to use so that is where the card will come from, no ifs, ands, or buts. I don't need it now (so the 3-5 week wait on the Amazon MSI is okay).

If that is thought of as a discount, it knocks the 290 down to $340. But it could also knock the same amount off a 780-series card.

I have a Dell U3014 attached to a GTX470, so that's where I'm coming from.
 
Unless you can find one at a reasonable price, then any argument for an R9 unit is effectively invalid imho. If you can pull off acquisition at MSRP, then I'd say roll with it.

Otherwise, I can tell you I've been damn happy with my 780.
 
At MSRP the 290 is awesome. At the same price as a 780, not so much. Also, you realize you can apply that cashback to your discover balance right?
 
I was going to buy an R9 290/x card myself when the aftermarket cards came out. Then the prices went up beyond MSRP because of the mining craze. I ended up with an aftermarket 780Ti for the same amount as the aftermarket 290x. If you have more patience than me then you might wait for the pricing to come back down on the AMD cards, but right now the 290/x are at best an equal value to the 780/Ti. In some games they are slightly behind.
 
cortexodus said:
Unless you can find one at a reasonable price, then any argument for an R9 unit is effectively invalid imho. If you can pull off acquisition at MSRP, then I'd say roll with it.

Otherwise, I can tell you I've been damn happy with my 780.
Click to expand...

The 290 is effectively $340 and it's custom-cooled, but I will have to wait for it to arrive. The least-expensive 780 I can find is effectively $373 (a cheaper one exists, but it's not sold by Amazon so no cash back).

veedubfreak said:
At MSRP the 290 is awesome. At the same price as a 780, not so much. Also, you realize you can apply that cashback to your discover balance right?
Click to expand...

I believe that application has to be in blocks of $50--if you use Amazon you can use whatever odd amount you want.

As of right now, it looks like even accounting for cash back, I can get a 290 for significantly less than a 780.

That said, I'm likely going to wait a month so things may change by then. I will, however, remember this formula. When both are effectively below MSRP due to cash back, I figure for 2560x1600 the bigger buffer is better (if I'm wrong, say so).
 
You can't really say it's $130 off because of all the OTHER stuff you could buy with that $130 instead.
 
When I think of good places to buy video cards -- Amazon isn't one of them unless you are just super set on their lax return policy. You can find top of the line cards cheaper elsewhere usually.

With discover -- yes if you want a straight cash deposit into your account it has to be in blocks of $50. What I would do is find the best price somewhere else ,see if amazon matches if they don't, still buy it for the good price, push your cashback up to 150 and then redeem into your bank account.

I do love my discover card - got their $150 bonus cashback for spending 750 in 3 months :)
 
EDIT: I've decided, based partially on a [H]ard review (here) to go with the card mentioned in said review--the GeForce GTX 780 OC from Gigabyte.
 
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collegeboy69us said:
When I think of good places to buy video cards -- Amazon isn't one of them unless you are just super set on their lax return policy. You can find top of the line cards cheaper elsewhere usually.

With discover -- yes if you want a straight cash deposit into your account it has to be in blocks of $50. What I would do is find the best price somewhere else ,see if amazon matches if they don't, still buy it for the good price, push your cashback up to 150 and then redeem into your bank account.

I do love my discover card - got their $150 bonus cashback for spending 750 in 3 months :)
Click to expand...

Same, last year I bought 3 27" monitors during the 5% back for online purchases. This year I bought video cards. Discover is the only card I really use. I probably get 250-300 bucks a year in cash back because almost all of my recurring bills are paid through Discover.
 
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