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Which R9 290 to get??

kronos13

kronos13

kronos13

Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2013
Posts
126
Hi all,
I'm looking to upgrade from my Gigabyte 7950 WF3 to a 290 but not sure which one to get.
I would naturally go for the Gigabyte WF as I've never had issues with my Gigabyte card but I've read a review that showed the Sapphire 290 Tri-X to run a lot (10 degrees C) cooler than the Gigabyte.
The obvious draw back there is the 1 year shorter warranty on the Sapphire..

The Asus is also up there but to be honest I'd prefer the Gigabyte over that.

So the question, which card would the smart money buy?
Gigabyte:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Sapphire:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Asus:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-334-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Cheers
 
Personally, I would go for the Asus edition. If I recall, ASUS have not only slapped the DirectCUII cooler on it, but they've also re-designed the PCB, unlike the Sapphire version (I'm not sure about the card from Gigabyte).
 
Sapphire, if its anything like its big brother the 290x then the sapphire cooler handles being in a case the best.

Asus and gigabyte are about on par for cooling
 
kronos13 said:
Cheers guys, anyone have an idea on what the reliability/returns service on the Sapphire cards are like?
Click to expand...

Usually not too bad from what I can tell. Their closest RMA base is in Hungary though however OCUK usually deal with them and they get the job done. But this can take up to 30 days until your rma is delt with.
 
I'm in the same boat. For me it's either the Twin Frozr or the Sapphire.

I'm going 100% for silence, and the Sapphire *looks* like it might perform a bit better, but I've got no experience with either of those two brands so I've got no idea really. To make matters worse, Powercolor has just announced their PCS+ models too.

My last Radeon card was a Powercolor 6950 PCS++, and I freaking loved it.
 
Sapphire Tri-x 290 installed couple of days ago.

Very impressed. Runs cool (full load in a (case) warm room = gpu@ 79deg : fans at 50% = barely audible).
Games running superbly , full details etc, great FPS.

I am sure all the major brands 290s are great, I plumped for the Sapphire mainly due to having three fans (no idea why) and "looking" like it would work well. Reviewed well. (and BF4 came free - so thats a big bonus).
 
thing thats putting me off the sapphire is the 2 year warranty whereas asus/msi have 3 year and after paying £380 i wouldnt like to think id be changing my card soon!
plus i had a twin frozr 6950 and it was the best card i have had
 
I'm looking at the Sapphire, Gigabyte and Asus in that order. I'm concerned about the cooling on the Asus and the Gigabyte. Also the Asus cards are normally pretty big (580 was three slots), but not sure what the dimensions on the 290 is, it looks like they might all be the same.

The Sapphire comes with BF4 as well, so could sell that on to make a few back.
 
another thing about the sapphire is reviews are saying it is just a reference 290 with a custom cooler stuck on, thats it...and the others asus msi etc. have upgraded components and custom pcb etc and better cooling design
 
OvEr_KiLL said:
another thing about the sapphire is reviews are saying it is just a reference 290 with a custom cooler stuck on, thats it...and the others asus msi etc. have upgraded components and custom pcb etc and better cooling design
Click to expand...

This may be true, yet the Sapphire still performs with the Asus on benchmark tests and also runs cooler. Not forgetting the Gigabyte of course, setting the Gigabyte's fan profile to be more aggressive will also bring down the card temperature to what the Sapphire is running at.
 
I'm going to RMA the card on monday, will have to see how long it takes to get it tested.
I've done some reading to decide what my next 290 should be and found the following.

Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X:
Reference PCB, Custom SK Hynix memory modules

MSI 290 Gaming Edition:
Custom PCB, Non reference memory - MSI uses SK Hynix memory chips (thus not Elpida)

Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce:
Custom PCB, Not Sure if the Vram are the reference type? Think this is the Elpida chips.

Asus Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II:
Customer PCB, Not Sure if the Vram are the reference type? Think this is the Elpida chips.


Based on this the MSI looks like the best card to go for with the custom components.
Can anyone add to this?
 
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