GTX 780 vs 7990 vs R9 290

smsmasters · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:31

Coming from a GTX 470 which would you choose and why?

Kei · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:49

GTX 780 if you want the most efficient and want nvidia only features, plus a large range of potential coolers (potentially limited overclocking headroom without flashing the bios, only evga offer a bios switch no some models, still quite expensive)

7990 if you want the most performance (reliant on crossfire support, high power consumption)

290 if you want the most performance for the least outlay (hot & noisy, throttling, limited to stock cooler, high power consumption)

As to me, I moved from a radeon HD6970 to a gtx 780 mainly because of the idle power consumption being magnitudes lower with multiple monitors vs anything amd offers at present. (13W vs 70W) If this was a moot point, i would have opted for the 290 in an instant as you can't ignore the performance on offer for that price.

Alkalinepro5 · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:50

290 seems the best one for the money. 7990 is a beat, but you are exposed to the problems of micro stuttering, coil whine, and you need a beasty PSU to run it.

uksoldierboy · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:53

What Res are you gaming at?

7990: It's the fastest of the bunch as long as the games your playing support crossfire (Almost all games AFAIK do, although some not as well as others)

290: Incredible performance for the price, good overclocking performance with the downsides being that they run hotter and are noisy when pushed above 55-65% fan speed. (Subjective)

780: Excellent performance and cool and quiet, good overclocking performance, get Physx if that's important to you.

if it was my money, i'd get a Preflashed 290-290X.

Boomstick777 · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:55

Unlocked R9 290, all the performance for less money.

LtMatt · 27 Nov 2013 at 12:00

7990 pwns all. It really is a superb piece of kit, with caveats. High chance of coil whine, but also a high chance it wears off completely after some usage. Need a good airflow in your case with ideally a side exhaust fan or two. If you have both of these then its streets ahead of every other card out there currently. You will get about 10-15% more performance from it from overclocking on air. Any higher and you'll need water cooling.

Gregster · 27 Nov 2013 at 13:06

If buying now, I would be going for a 780. My reasons are:

290 is too hot and loud, as is the 290X
780Ti is expensive and not giving the performance I was expecting (could change with better optimizations)
7990 is dual 7970's on one PCB and reading around, most seem to confirm that heat and noise (coil whine especially) is the biggest problem. Also CF issues could be problematic.

SiDeards73 · 27 Nov 2013 at 13:28

290, no other card offers the performance per pound spent, the rumors of hot and noisy are just that, rumors mainly, most people run customised fan profiles which sort all of that out, also the potential for some of the cards to unlock to 290x makes them even more desirable.

Catanonia · 27 Nov 2013 at 13:31

7990 easily. £400 for a dual 7970 card that kills the opposition.

Heat, it is ok for gaming as long as good airflow case and noise is no worse than other cards. Crossfire issues all but disapeared now and rapidly becoming an urban legend.

uksoldierboy · 27 Nov 2013 at 13:58

Gregster said:
If buying now, I would be going for a 780. My reasons are:

290 is too hot and loud, as is the 290X.

You make me sad Greg

LtMatt · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:01

The people that don't own the card always know best here Solider.

uksoldierboy · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:03

LtMatt said:
The people that don't own the card always know best here Solider.

I'm gonna call on some army favours and get an SF team to switch out his TITan for a 290X, see if the increase in FPS will help with his scores on BF4...

Rusty0611 · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:06

uksoldierboy said:
I'm gonna call on some army favours and get an SF team to switch out his TITan for a 290X, see if the increase in FPS will help with his scores on BF4...

Nothing will help Greg into the realms of positive k/d

.

In his favour, he does at least cap points and revive/drop med packs. The amount of people who don't revive in BF4 is ridiculous.

Tute · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:12

If I could afford it, and had the case/PSU for it, the 7990.

If not, the R290.

I wouldn't consider the 780 given the 290's current price point.

LtMatt · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:17

Rusty0611 said:
Nothing will help Greg into the realms of positive k/d .

In his favour, he does at least cap points and revive/drop med packs. The amount of people who don't revive in BF4 is ridiculous.

I'm really crap at BF4 this year. It pains me to say it but Rusty is probably better than me, at least on foot. Reactions are slowing down. Not helped by the fact spotting enemies is harder than its ever been without dorito's.

Gregster · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:18

uksoldierboy said:
You make me sad Greg

LtMatt said:
The people that don't own the card always know best here Solider.

Hey, cmon guys, I said if I was choosing and that doesn't make the choice for everyone. I couldn't stand the noise of the Titan cooler or the Lightning cooler and find even water cooling to be slightly too loud for my liking.

If people don't mind the noise, go for it

Rusty0611 · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:21

LtMatt said:
I'm really crap at BF4 this year. It pains me to say it but Rusty is probably better than me, at least on foot. Reactions are slowing down. Not helped by the fact spotting enemies is harder than its ever been without dorito's.

I'm tragic in vehicles so it balances out. I'm good in chopper but never have a band of nerds strapped in to chain repair on me so I don't bother

.

gpuerrilla · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:25

SiDeards73 said:
290, no other card offers the performance per pound spent

Interesting you mention this. At £315 say for the cheapest one, and the 7990's being sold for £399 is it really the better "performance per pound"?

LtMatt · 27 Nov 2013 at 14:43

Gregster said:
7990 is dual 7970's on one PCB and reading around, most seem to confirm that heat and noise (coil whine especially) is the biggest problem. Also CF issues could be problematic.

Gregster said:
Hey, cmon guys, I said if I was choosing and that doesn't make the choice for everyone. I couldn't stand the noise of the Titan cooler or the Lightning cooler and find even water cooling to be slightly too loud for my liking.

If people don't mind the noise, go for it

The 7990 is silent at stock though, infact its quieter than a 780/titan/780ti. Its silent and it keeps two gpu's around 75-82c at full whack depending on case cooling, clocks used and voltage settings. This is with high fps and vsync off. Using vsync will see temps a fair bit lower. So to say it runs hot and is noisy (aside from potential coil whine which i mentioned but often cleans up completely after some usage) is misinformation. It operates at a similar temp as a titan/780 and does so while being quieter with a slower fan speed whilst being considerably more powerful. Perhaps you should not recommend a 780 because of heat/noise as well.