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290/X or 7990

Both the cards in question are 28nm and fully support DX11.2. Tech is as latest as it gets.

Mantle is supported by both with the edge to 290.
Trueaudio for those games that support it down the line.
thief, some space game etc..
290 edge out in higher resolutions and for myself if I upgrade I never go crossfire/sli as its always the next generation (Picard aside).

The 290 to become better when drivers mature which might add a few procent up. its a tweaked design so wouldnt suprise me if they pull out a superb driver once they are used to the arc tech.

its all just for myself enough reason to go 290.
 
True but you rather be closer to the moving target than further away and buying a 7990 over either 290's is further away.

i know what you mean but im not so sure on the 290's i think i need to see what there like with non reference coolers to be convinced they are a good buy or not, and matts in the same boat as me, to buy one is a downgrade so buying two ups the price, heat and power consumption by quite a bit
 
7990.

Why? because I'm being completely honest here, I can't even hear mine. I continually have to stick my fingers in the fans to make sure they're even running.

It works amazingly in BF4, so if you're going to be on that game for the foreseeable then tbh? it's all that would matter in a decision really. It's also faster than every top end solution out there, which leads it back to what the 7990 is worse at. Power consumption (50w) more and the fact it needs Crossfire to work.

However if you buy a 290 or 290x now then you're going to have to live with that noise. Well, that or take off the cooler and invalidate your warranty. I just don't see the point, given the 7990 is so quiet. I mean honestly, it's so quiet I can't hear it over my 120mm Cougar fans which are the noisiest fans in my rig. And they're supposedly pretty quiet.
 
People who say the 7990 is loud and hot either have never owned one, had faulty board or have poor airflow.

Keep one of your cards and trifire it and wack the resolution scale upto 200%.

I can currently run BF4 on my 7990 on ultra, resolution scale set to 130%, constant 60 fps, 1440p.
 
I see all those comments about noise but how close are you guys to your computers? My 290 i cant hear when playing games like BF4. Only heard my 4870's and 6970's in crossfire when they span up and back down during boot up.
 
Thanks Kaap, much appreciated.



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.



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.

To be fair if you are going to playing B4 that much and airflow isn't an issue then a cheap 7990 is the only option for you ;)

Crossfire as you'll know is not an issue as such any more and microstuttering just isn't much of an issue if at all, especially in more recent titles. Performance as ever is top class and is smooth as anything fully ultra'd up.

For the price vs performance difference the 7990 is the way to go...however you have 7950's so I would say just stick with them!
 
However if you buy a 290 or 290x now then you're going to have to live with that noise. Well, that or take off the cooler and invalidate your warranty. I just don't see the point, given the 7990 is so quiet. I mean honestly, it's so quiet I can't hear it over my 120mm Cougar fans which are the noisiest fans in my rig. And they're supposedly pretty quiet.

What noise? At 55% they aren't loud, 30db with the Reader positioned where i sit,, no louder than the His 6950 it replaced, at that speed the card idles @35c and max load temp i've seen is 85c, after hours of BF4.

I agree though the 7990 is the faster card no doubt, but as mentioned earlier, he sounds like he wants something new, why buy a card that's pretty much identical to what he's been using for a year or so.

Yes the 290/X is a downgraded, would you notice it in games, i highly doubt it tbh.

Matt you seem to like benchmarking too and i can't help but feel if you got the 7990 it would just feel like more of the same.

For me, my money would go on a 290 pro or X with the view to add another later.
 
uksoldierboy, what rpm does your fan spin at?
After seeing Kaapstad's PCI-E testing I'm a bit more tempted to go with 290 XFire, but I'm not sure about the noise.
I had 7970 crossfire a while back and I could hear it halfway down the stairs :P
 
uksoldierboy, what rpm does your fan spin at?
After seeing Kaapstad's PCI-E testing I'm a bit more tempted to go with 290 XFire, but I'm not sure about the noise.
I had 7970 crossfire a while back and I could hear it halfway down the stairs :P

Around 2900rpm pal. That's only when gaming though, if i'm just browsing on here, or maybe watching a movie, i have the fan @20%.
 
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