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290 vs 290x Tri-x - Worth the £120 difference?

chivs688

chivs688

chivs688

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Joined
27 Nov 2010
Posts
706
Currently looking at the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-x OC and the Sapphire R9 290x Tri-x OC, as an upgrade to my 7970 (been considering getting another to Crossfire but might just sell it and get a new single card, less hassle).

Can get the 290 for £120 less than the 290x.

Is the 290x really worth that much more in terms of gaming performance?

P.S. Is there another card which I should be considering as well? (Found the 290 for £280). Have been leaning towards AMD due to Mantle as I've only got an i5 2500k so could do with all the CPU help I could get.

Thanks.
 
chivs688 said:
Currently looking at the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-x OC and the Sapphire R9 290x Tri-x OC, as an upgrade to my 7970 (been considering getting another to Crossfire but might just sell it and get a new single card, less hassle).

Can get the 290 for £120 less than the 290x.

Is the 290x really worth that much more in terms of gaming performance?

P.S. Is there another card which I should be considering as well? (Found the 290 for £280). Have been leaning towards AMD due to Mantle as I've only got an i5 2500k so could do with all the CPU help I could get.

Thanks.
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It's not worth the extra £120 in my opinion, however if you're only getting one card and don't mind paying the extra then you will get 7.5-10% extra performance from the 290X.
 
LtMatt said:
It's not worth the extra £120 in my opinion, however if you're only getting one card and don't mind paying the extra then you will get 7.5-10% extra performance from the 290X.
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I'll only be getting the one card for now, and then probably will grab another sometime in the future. Which is kind of the reason why I'm thinking of getting a new single card rather than another 7970 as looking to the future at least then I'll have the option of getting another to Crossfire with.

But I just think £120 is a big amount of money to me, and for me I'm not sure that 7.5-10% would be worth it for me. Especially as I've only got a 2500k atm, not sure how much of a bottleneck that'll end up being but it won't be far off for a lot of games coming out now..
 
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chivs688 said:
I'll only be getting the one card for now, and then probably will grab another sometime in the future. Which is kind of the reason why I'm thinking of getting a new single card rather than another 7970 as looking to the future at least then I'll have the option of getting another to Crossfire with.

But I just think £120 is a big amount of money to me, and for me I'm not sure that 7.5-10% would be worth it for me. Especially as I've only got a 2500k atm, not sure how much of a bottleneck that'll end up being but it won't be far off for a lot of games coming out now..
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Agreed. Go for the 290 then.
 
chivs688 said:
Thanks, 290 seems to be what I'll go for then.

Will I need to upgrade my PSU? Currently got a XFX Pro 650W Core Edition.

And if so, which one would you recommend? Is the SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 850W worth the extra cash over the Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 850W? (Both were recommended to me the other day). Or is there another I should be considering?
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The 650W should be fine for that card, but either of those you picked out would be good. If you add another 290 at a later date id go with a 1000W Superflower Plat. :)
 
LtMatt said:
The 650W should be fine for that card, but either of those you picked out would be good. If you add another 290 at a later date id go with a 1000W Superflower Plat. :)
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That's okay then. Might grab a new PSU soon anyway, but nice to know it should be fine with my current one for now.

So just before I go ahead and order it, is this 290 Tri-x OC a good upgrade to my 7970 Matrix Platinum?

Struggling to find direct comparisons, and due to the release dates of the cards a lot of the benchmarks are with different games..

EDIT: Actually just found a good comparison in the AnandTech review of the 290. Seems to be around 15fps difference in most games at 1080p.
 
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chivs688 said:
That's okay then. Might grab a new PSU soon anyway, but nice to know it should be fine with my current one for now.

So just before I go ahead and order it, is this 290 Tri-x OC a good upgrade to my 7970 Matrix Platinum?

Struggling to find direct comparisons, and due to the release dates of the cards a lot of the benchmarks are with different games..
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Yes will be a nice upgrade in the region of 20-25% id imagine.
 
Sounds good, think I'll go ahead and buy it then :)

Just a final check, will work fine with all my components right?
i5 2500k @4.4GHz
Gigabyte Z77-D3H
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB 1600MHz RAM
Corsair 600T Case
 
Yeah it is, only bought it a few weeks ago and updated it to the latest bios.

Is there a specific reason that it needed to be the latest bios?
 
chivs688 said:
Yeah it is, only bought it a few weeks ago and updated it to the latest bios.

Is there a specific reason that it needed to be the latest bios?
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Always advisable when installing a new gpu as sometimes they have problems with old bios on some motherboards.
 
LtMatt said:
Always advisable when installing a new gpu as sometimes they have problems with old bios on some motherboards.
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Yeah, was just wondering if it was some specific reason with my Mobo and this GPU, so all good.

Thanks for your help, going to buy it now and look forward to it arriving and giving it a spin :)
 
chivs688 said:
Yeah, was just wondering if it was some specific reason with my Mobo and this GPU, so all good.

Thanks for your help, going to buy it now and look forward to it arriving and giving it a spin :)
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Not that im aware of. Let us know how you get on. :)
 
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