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Buying a GPU now

ReCoN1989

ReCoN1989

ReCoN1989

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Joined
16 Jul 2011
Posts
196
So I am looking to purchase a GPU for gaming on a 1080p right now. Having seen the recent troubles with the 970 I am concerned that this card may not be suitable. I am currently a postgraduate student and my room is fairly small so naturally I am concerned that a 290/290x may turn it into a sauna! What other options do I have for ultra gaming at 1080p without needing air conditioning?
 
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The 290's use around the same power and there in put out the same heat as the GTX780/TI series cards.

I run a 290 with a 25% overclock, it does not get past 70c, it is not lound nor does it turn the room into a sauna. :) its just a Graphics Card. not a Thermal Nuclear Reactor.
 
setter said:
With good case cooling a 290/290x will be fine.
Click to expand...

Why would good case cooling keep my room from getting too hot? Thing is I feel a bit silly buying a 290X now when it is about to be replaced :( Although they are fantastic cards. 4GB of ram really is required :( I'm concerned that the 970 may never be fixed
 
I was under the impression a 290 used more power than a 290X. Wondering if I should have picked up that lightning when it was £239.

To people with a 970, is the stuttering due to trying to use the last 0.5gb of vram which has terrible bandwidth rather than only attempt to use 3.5gb?
 
ReCoN1989 said:
I was under the impression a 290 used more power than a 290X. Wondering if I should have picked up that lightning when it was £239.

To people with a 970, is the stuttering due to trying to use the last 0.5gb of vram which has terrible bandwidth rather than only attempt to use 3.5gb?
Click to expand...

Power Consumption. :)

7970 GE = 238 Watts
R9 290 = 245 Watts
GTX 780TI = 269 Watts
R9 290X = 271 Watts

Thats peak ^^^ (Gaming) for Maximum they use Furmark, Nvidia GPU's throttle more than the AMD ones under Furmark, it's why the AMD cards score much higher in that.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_780_Ti/25.html
 
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ReCoN1989 said:
Wow that's actually maybe not so bad. Would 2 290s scale better than 2 970s due to 4gb vs 3.5gb fast vram?
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They will have more V-Ram available, so you're not going to get that slowdown until you hit 4GB, the wider bus (512Bit) usualy also means they hold performance better at higher resolution and / or more AA.
 
humbug said:
The 290's use around the same power and there in put out the same heat as the GTX780/TI series cards.

I run a 290 with a 25% overclock, it does not get past 70c, it is not lound nor does it turn the room into a sauna. :) its just a Graphics Card. not a Thermal Nuclear Reactor.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this. Stock 780ti in an H440 max temps are 75-80 reported. R9 290x 8gb stock in an H440 max temps are 70-75.
 
ReCoN1989 said:
So I am looking to purchase a GPU for gaming on a 1080p right now. Having seen the recent troubles with the 970 I am concerned that this card may not be suitable. I am currently a postgraduate student and my room is fairly small so naturally I am concerned that a 290/290x may turn it into a sauna! What other options do I have for ultra gaming at 1080p without needing air conditioning?
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding of the 970 issue is that the card does have 4gb ram, but only 3.5gb is the full speed. The last 0.5gb has been segmented off at a lower speed. Issues such as stuttering only occur when people are reaching into the last 0.5gb. I can't imagine this would be an issue at 1080p (well for most games) so therefore a 970 would be fine.

I'm looking for an upgrade too for 1080p but I'm going to wait for the fabled 960Ti but who knows when if or when it's coming. Failing that think it's a 970 for me.
 
I don't see any issue with the non-reference 290/290x 's if you have a suitable psu. They are a bargain new and a steal second hand at the moment.

I have a 290 tri-x and it isn't a room heater
 
jasonf12014 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding of the 970 issue is that the card does have 4gb ram, but only 3.5gb is the full speed. The last 0.5gb has been segmented off at a lower speed. Issues such as stuttering only occur when people are reaching into the last 0.5gb. I can't imagine this would be an issue at 1080p (well for most games) so therefore a 970 would be fine.
Click to expand...

Essentially yes, there is now talk of a driver update to optimise memory allocation so that element which do not need continuous or fast access will not be allocated to the slower segment. This could be a potential game changer as in most cases it would allow the full 4GB to be used.
 
humbug said:
its just a Graphics Card. not a Thermal Nuclear Reactor.
Click to expand...

Picture of me removing my old 7870 five minutes after shutdown:

Blast-furnace-at-a-steelw-010.jpg
 
I'm in the same boat, cancelled a pre-order of the reference 970 because I can't justify £300 on something that wont last into the future.

So I've picked up a Asus 290 for £200. Seemed the best balance for me, and it shouldn't run "too" hot.
 
I can run all new games at 1080p and high/ultra details with a 7970 overclocked. A 290 / 290x will be a lot faster than what I have, so you will be fine.

They are not that hot, it's just the stock cooler which was not adequate for cooling them. Since AIB partners stepped in, then things got much better.

Make sure you have a good PSU to go along with a card like that.
 
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