290X Or 780 Ti ?

Dicehunter · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:43

So my cousin wants to make a gaming rig and his choice is these 2 cards, He only plays BF4 on my rig which has a 780 Ti and now thankfully that he's getting his own I finally get my rig back

Which would be a better choice for him ? I know the 780 Ti is generally the better performer but with mantle out this could change, Especially for BF4.

Thoughts ?

SiDeards73 · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:46

depends on cash really? if he has a tight budget, id go for a 290 instead of 290x anyhow as performance is negiligable compared to the price difference, if he has a good budget i'd go for the 780ti, even with Mantle into the equasion, the 780ti will offer him top performance in all other games.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:52

Dicehunter said:
So my cousin wants to make a gaming rig and his choice is these 2 cards, He only plays BF4 on my rig which has a 780 Ti and now thankfully that he's getting his own I finally get my rig back

Which would be a better choice for him ? I know the 780 Ti is generally the better performer but with mantle out this could change, Especially for BF4.

Thoughts ?

290X if its for BF4. Once you've experienced the smoothness of Mantle VS DX there is no comparison.

SiDeards73 · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:53

Sorry Matt how can you justify 290x over a 290 for the price difference? me i just cant justify that extra cash for so little gains, adding in Mantle makes the gains even smaller too.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:59

SiDeards73 said:
Sorry Matt how can you justify 290x over a 290 for the price difference? me i just cant justify that extra cash for so little gains, adding in Mantle makes the gains even smaller too.

I was just picking from the two cards the OP asked about. If i was going single card and not going Xfire id probably go for the fastest single card, so a 290X/780TI. If going multi gpu id go with the 290 Pro Xfire or 780 SLI. That's just me though and this is not my money so.

nicnik · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:10

Until mantle is perfectly playable I wouldn't really put that into the equation.
Which cards depends on the rest of the rig and the display resolution i think. Then apart from BF4 which games would be played i future.

Hard to pick between the 2.

Boomstick777 · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:12

Tried them all, imho the GTX 780Ti is worth the extra over the 290X. Mantle although great isn't well enough established yet to create a real incentive over an Nvidia card. The Ti is still beating the 290X, as well as the majority of DX games, then factor in the cooler quieter running of the card, things like Physx, G-Sync, top dual card support etc. In another 12 months things will be different again, but right now Nvidia still have the performance and cooler quieter card.

Take from - http://techreport.com/review/25995/first-look-amd-mantle-cpu-performance-in-battlefield-4/2

Silent_Scone · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:16

The Ti is the superior card but it's also priced accordingly. If you're looking at reference 290Xs with your budget, I know what I'd choose. That said if Battlefield is your game of choice I can see the incentive as I'm sure Mantle will iron itself out. I just find it extremely difficult to recommend a card based on one game.

Rusty0611 · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:19

Oh no - now we're going to have pages of back and forth 'my graph is bigger than yours' spam.

I would get a 290X if it was me. Not because the 780Ti is worse but because of Mantle. Both cards are good enough on their own in DX to run most games so 110 FPS vs 120 FPS (or whatever) is unlikely to make much difference. Obviously it's currently unreliable but who knows what it will be in 6 months time?

Worse happens is that he runs the game in DX still with comparable performance to the 780Ti.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:22

Boomstick777 said:
Tried them all, imho the GTX 780Ti is worth the extra over the 290X. Mantle although great isn't well enough established yet to create a real incentive over an Nvidia card. The Ti is still beating the 290X, as well as the majority of DX games, then factor in the cooler quieter running of the card, things like Physx, G-Sync, top dual card support etc. In another 12 months things will be different again, but right now Nvidia still have the performance and cooler quieter card.

Take from - http://techreport.com/review/25995/first-look-amd-mantle-cpu-performance-in-battlefield-4/2

This review is about a week old, so using the latest drivers. 290X is faster in BF4 but the 780TI is faster overall. Once Mantle is established 290X will be comfortably faster in BF4.

Source
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_290x_gaming_oc_review,18.html

MSI 290X has a 4% core overclock out of the box in case anyone is wondering.

Krait · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:25

As good as the 290x can be, I'd still get the 780ti - at least it is more stable than the temperamental 290x with it's black screens

rolypolyman · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:26

Looks pretty nip and tuck according to this anandtech chart. Either card really though no mantle involvement which may swing it Amd's way.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:29

rolypolyman said:
Looks pretty nip and tuck according to this anandtech chart. Either card really though no mantle involvement which may swing it Amd's way.

About even there and that will be with a throttling 290X reference i bet.

If BF4 is your game though, you'd be foolish to go anywhere else. The performance is already there via DX11. Once Mantle is established, you'll never want to experience BF4 on DX ever again i can promise you that.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:30

Rusty0611 said:
Oh no - now we're going to have pages of back and forth 'my graph is bigger than yours' spam.

I would get a 290X if it was me. Not because the 780Ti is worse but because of Mantle. Both cards are good enough on their own in DX to run most games so 110 FPS vs 120 FPS (or whatever) is unlikely to make much difference. Obviously it's currently unreliable but who knows what it will be in 6 months time?

Worse happens is that he runs the game in DX still with comparable performance to the 780Ti.

Agree with Rusters for once lol. Sorry for the graph spam Rusty, but Broom needed to be shown that even with DX you should still consider the AMD cards for this particular title.

Rusty0611 · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:31

LtMatt said:
Agree with Rusters for once lol. Sorry for the graph spam Rusty, but Broom needed to be shown.

I'm at least objective unlike you lot

. Therefore I'm always right!

Boomstick777 · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:37

LtMatt said:
Agree with Rusters for once lol. Sorry for the graph spam Rusty, but Broom needed to be shown that even with DX you should still consider the AMD cards for this particular title.

You are aware that other places have the 780Ti beating the 290X in Mantle and Direct X? You can't just cherry pick mate, it's you that needs to see the other results, has to be a balanced view..

I tell you what it's hard being neutral here sometimes, people have to much vested interest in either side.

I have personally tried all the cards, have water cooled a 290X to run at it's full potential , no throttling. My opinion isn't one of bias, but one of first hand experience. The GTX 780Ti is the better card.

Whether the OP prefers a neutral point of a view, from someone who has first hand experience with the cards.. Or an opinion coming from a viewpoint of bias, with no experience of the other cards being mentioned is up to him.

LtMatt · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:39

Rusty0611 said:
I'm at least objective unlike you lot . Therefore I'm always right!

Something definitely odd about those TechReport graphs. A 780TI being 23% faster than a 290X in D3D and 12% faster when using Mantle?

jayenh · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:41

I was in the same situation. I opted for the 290X. I can't tell you if that was a good decision just yet, I won't see the card until I get home from work, but for me I made the decision based on cost : performance (the ti didn't seem to offer enough extra for the cost), the fact I'm upgrading from existing AMD cards (2x6950) which I've had zero problems with and Mantle. With AMD owning the console space and producing Mantle I'm gambling a little on games performing better on AMD hardware this generation. It's not much of a gamble though when the card apparently performs great anyway. It doesn't really look like you can go too wrong with either.

rolypolyman · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:41

If it comes down to cash, given how close these cards are in performance, cheapest 780Ti = £539.99 cheapest 290X = £395.99. £144 difference, is the 780Ti worth the extra, not even factoring in what mantle may\may not bring, not for me value for money every time.

K1LaW8tt5 · 5 Feb 2014 at 11:42

Boomstick777 said:
You are aware that other places have the 780Ti beating the 290X in Mantle and Direct X? You can't just cherry pick mate, it's you that needs to see the other results, has to be a balanced view..

I tell you what it's hard being neutral here sometimes, people have to much vested interest in either side.

I have personally tried all the cards, have water cooled a 290X to run at it's full potential , no throttling. My opinion isn't one of bias, but one of first hand experience. The GTX 780Ti is the better card.

Whether the OP prefers a neutral point of a view, from someone who has first hand experience with the cards.. Or an opinion coming from a viewpoint of bias, with no experience of the other cards being mentioned is up to him.

the charts you posted are in "HIGH" settings with no AA