Old Nvidia GTX280 > AMD Asus ROG 290x

[chickadee]

So I was thinking of power usage while thinking of upgrading my GPU.

I have an old GTX280 currently and its struggling. While playing Kerbal Space Program earlier I noticed my GPU hitting 85c and the fan growling like mad and was wondering if I got an Asus ROG 290x would the power usage and heat go down due to the massively newer tech?

I was thinking of a 970 due to its lower power and temps but since I currently have a very hot and power hungry card I thought maybe a 290x might actually be more efficient and cooler than I have now?

 

[Pulseammo]

TDP of a GTX 280 is 236 watts, a 290 is somewhere in the region of 300 I think. The 970 is only 165, so the 970 should be best for heat and power.

 

[Dicehunter]

I had the ROG 290X Matrix and I cannot recommend it at all, The temps are horrendous.

Asus literally put the 780 Ti Matrix cooler on to the 290X and never bothered to modify it.

If you want to go AMD I highly recommend the 290 X Sapphire Vapor X or if you are wanting Nvidia, The Asus Strix 970 is also an immense card for the money.

 

[ALXAndy]

There's a 73w difference between the two.

 

[BluD]

The cards take what power they need, so if the game your playing is old and not very demanding, then your old graphics card still probably has to use all 236w to run it at top settings, where as a 290 would probably only need to run at 20% of its power to run the same settings providing your limiting your fps with vsync, other wise youll just get hundreds of FPS and high power use still.

Like the guys said, for efficiency go for the 970.

 

[opethdisciple]

If your concern is power and heat, then the 970 is the card for you.

 

[chickadee]

What I was thinking about was since my GTX280 is so old and it really struggles with even some indie games now it is being hammered (80% fan, 90c temps). If I got a 290x since its so much more powerful it wont have to work as hard to play the simple games than the 280 has a hard time playing.

Would that result in a lower power usage since the 290x wouldn't be taxed anywhere near the same amount as the GTX280.

 

[new boy]

What I was thinking about was since my GTX280 is so old and it really struggles with even some indie games now it is being hammered (80% fan, 90c temps). If I got a 290x since its so much more powerful it wont have to work as hard to play the simple games than the 280 has a hard time playing.

Would that result in a lower power usage since the 290x wouldn't be taxed anywhere near the same amount as the GTX280.

As long as you are not playing @ 99999 fps, then yes.

 

[kaku]

You may need a frame limiter or vsync for some games though, since they might try to run as fast as possible.

 

[P.B]

Just use vsync and you'll have much lower temps and power usage even compared to the 280x.

it probably wont even need to go to full 3d clocks. you could always downclock it aswell or lower the voltage

 

[Meladath]

If I run a single one of my 290's it never gets above 80c, and thats with quite a slow fan speed ~ 45 and a 10% overclock.

 

[Ian Evey]

What psu are you planning on using as if it's an old 500watt psu you'd need to get a better one with either card imo.