290/X or 7990

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 19:56

Which would you choose and why? The decision has to be made now (or within the next day or so, hypothetically of course) so no waiting for AIB 290X's. No water cooling. I welcome all opinions. AMD reference card haters and multi gpu haters. Assume nothing by this post!

BaDBoY_uK · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:00

290X... my first instinct was 7990 but heat and being old(!) tech

Kaapstad · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:11

LtMatt said:
Which would you choose and why? The decision has to be made now (or within the next day or so, hypothetically of course) so no waiting for AIB 290X's. No water cooling. I welcome all opinions. AMD reference card haters and multi gpu haters. Assume nothing by this post!

You are already using two HD 7950s, there will be very little performance difference getting a HD 7990.

If you are looking at 290/290Xs unless you get two (plus a free set of ear plugs

) it is going to be a downgrade.

If you are happy with the CF performance of the games you play, I don't think there is any point in changing.

uksoldierboy · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:11

290x gets my vote bud,

Amazing performance, great overclocking imo, max so far is 1250/1625 on air.
Heat and noise issues I think are completely overblown, in-fact, I use a db meter and with it a few inches from my case, with the fan @55 it read 28-30 db.
Max temps I've seen are 85c after a few hours of bf4.

Anything else I can help you with, benchmarks etc just ask.

thefogo · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:14

290X. You could crossfire in the future

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:20

Thanks BB and Soldier, both noted.

Kaapstad said:
You are already using two HD 7950s, there will be very little performance difference getting a HD 7990.

If you are looking at 290/290Xs unless you get two (plus a free set of ear plugs ) it is going to be a downgrade.

If you are happy with the CF performance of the games you play, I don't think there is any point in changing.

I know what you're saying makes sense, but i need a change. My 7950's are great, but i need something new to play with. I believe i own the fastest 7950's on show in most of the bench threads. However i need a change to keep me interested.

thefogo said:
290X. You could crossfire in the future

This is true. However im on pci-e 2.0 atm so not sure how that would affect things with 290 crossfire being bridgeless.

thefogo · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:23

LtMatt said:
This is true. However im on pci-e 2.0 atm so not sure how that would affect things with 290 crossfire being bridgeless.

Same problem here mate. I'm still considering 290 XFire but I think I'd have to upgrade my CPU and Mobo too.
Plus it's not really useful for a 60Hz peasant like me

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:25

thefogo said:
Same problem here mate. I'm still considering 290 XFire but I think I'd have to upgrade my CPU and Mobo too.
Plus it's not really useful for a 60Hz peasant like me

I'm sure we can find a use for it. With my budget in mind if i go 290/X route i can only afford one now and would have to add another one sometime in the future. As well as the pci-e 2.0 issue i only have a 750w psu so that is something else to consider. My psu can go up to around 850W-900W though it seems.

Kaapstad · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:31

LtMatt said:
This is true. However im on pci-e 2.0 atm so not sure how that would affect things with 290 crossfire being bridgeless.

Give me half an hour and I will test for you, I am off to Heaven.

thefogo · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:32

Kaapstad said:
Give me half an hour and I will test for you, I am off to Heaven.

Tell me it's crap and doesn't work. Then I don't have to spend more money

Gregster · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:33

Why no Nvidia option?

RanxZy · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:34

Really thinking of Xfire 290/X with the reference coolers? Is noise a problem for you? You would need a case with really good airflow or I would worry they could throttle quite a bit.

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:37

Kaapstad said:
Give me half an hour and I will test for you, I am off to Heaven.

Thanks Kaap, much appreciated.

Gregster said:
Why no Nvidia option?

As always the price vs performance on Nvidia cards means i won't consider them. However the main factor is Battlefield 4. I will put a thousand hours or more into this game and to get the most performance possible from it ill need an AMD card and Mantle.

RanxZy said:
Really thinking of Xfire 290/X with the reference coolers? Is noise a problem for you? You would need a case with really good airflow or I would worry they could throttle quite a bit.

I have good airflow and generally reference coolers are best for crossfire in my experience. Excluding my current His Ice-Q 7950's which are excellent together because of their quiet blower type cooler.

jkb · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:39

I went for 290X so that has to be my answer. As for the noise, I had a 6990 before so I'm enjoying the (relative) quiet

Boomstick777 · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:41

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:43

Is no one going to press a claim for a 7990? Come on 7990 users make a claim for your card. I've been looking at reviews and at 1440p it trumps every card out there, including a 690 which is also a great card.

jimhaumman · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:52

LtMatt said:
I know what you're saying makes sense, but i need a change. My 7950's are great, but i need something new to play with. I believe i own the fastest 7950's on show in most of the bench threads. However i need a change to keep me interested.

I suffer from the same "disease",to much time spent on forums reading about new tech.I'm not even playing games
I want to buy hd7990,(upgrade from gtx 670) but in your case I would just wait for next generation of gpu.

RanxZy · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:52

7990 does not really make sense if you've got two great 7950s. I think the scaling of 7990+7970 or quadfire is very questionable too so you won't get a major boost in games with 3 or 4 GPU's.

Uncle Petey · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:54

You're already getting more fps than your monitor can display in BF4, so apart from wanting to play with new toys...?

LtMatt · 10 Nov 2013 at 20:55

jimhaumman said:
I suffer from the same "disease",to much time spent on forums reading about new tech.I'm not even playing games
I want to buy hd7990,(upgrade from gtx 670) but in your case I would just wait for next generation of gpu.

You should definitely upgrade seeing as you only have one 670. You'll get more than double the fps!

RanxZy said:
7990 does not really make sense if you've got two great 7950s. I think the scaling of 7990+7970 or quadfire is very questionable too so you won't get a major boost in games with 3 or 4 GPU's.

I know but i need a change. Its hard to explain but i need a new toy to play with, to benchmark etc. I also quite like the idea of only using one PCI-E slot on my motherboard.

Uncle Petey said:
You're already getting more fps than your monitor can display in BF4, so apart from wanting to play with new toys...?

No good trying to talk me out of it mate.

Pick a card, any card. (from the ones listed above that is)