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R9 290 4GB or GTX 780 3GB ?

Associate
Joined
10 Oct 2012
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57
Hi all.
I hope you guys can help me to make the right choice :)

I am building a mATX PC for LAN purposes and it consists of Cooler Master N200 case, Asrock H61M DGS R2.0, 8GB Crucial BallistiX 1600MHz, Intel Core i5 3570K, Cooler Master Hyper 212 cooler, Enermax MaxPro 600watt.

I have in my possession a Sapphire R9 290 4GB reference card
sapphire_r9290_8.jpg


and a Zotac GTX 780 OC 3GB card
780AMP-1b.jpg


I am unsure which card to use for the longest possible time ? I want the best performance of but also not a jet plane noise like PC.
I like that the R9 290 is a bit faster and with 4GB vram, but I dislike the potential heat and noise. The GTX 780 I know is a bit slower and only has 3GB vram with may not be enough - but I like that it's cooler and quieter. :confused:

"The winner" I keep and the "looser" I sell ;)
 
Soldato
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28 May 2007
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10,049
The problem here is there is no clear winner due to it being a reference card. Performance wise the 290 is going to be faster and in the future be faster again still due to it being better in dx12. Cooling and noise wise the gtx780 has it beaten as you know. Cooling wise you may benefit from the 290 being reference as it will exhaust the heat out the back unlike the gtx780 which may help in a small case.

If you are confident enough buying an aftermarket cooler for the 290 would solve the cooling/noise issues and you would have a better card going forward.

It all comes down to noise really as to get the full performance that 290 will be pretty loud. This is not really a decision anyone can make for you as you pretty much summed up the pro's and cons of both cards.

If it were me though i would go with the 290 as i would prefer the extra ram and performance. I game with a headset so it would be less of an issue for me.
 
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Caporegime
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With that case being a smaller case, you will have the faster 290 which will be noisy or the slightly slower 780 but will be quiter. You need to choose what suits your purposes best really.
 
Associate
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The difference will be ~10% iirc. I don't think its a performance gap worth worrying about personally. My own choice would chose the quieter of the 2. I don't know if noise is a priority for a lan machine though.

I should think that 1080p ought to be fine with 3GB, but others might be better placed to say as I have not played any recently releases games. Although, if its a Lan gaming pc wouldn't you want to be using medium-high rather than ultra gfx settings to maintain framerate and fluidity anyway, which will limit the ram requirements somewhat.
 
Associate
OP
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Sell both, go Fury/980Ti ;).

Actually Fury Nano might look pretty sweet in a small build...

That would be nice, but is too expensive even after selling both cards;)
The only reason why I have both cards is because I got each for a great price - much cheaper than a new GTX 970/R9 390.;)

The difference will be ~10% iirc. I don't think its a performance gap worth worrying about personally. My own choice would chose the quieter of the 2. I don't know if noise is a priority for a lan machine though.

I should think that 1080p ought to be fine with 3GB, but others might be better placed to say as I have not played any recently releases games. Although, if its a Lan gaming pc wouldn't you want to be using medium-high rather than ultra gfx settings to maintain framerate and fluidity anyway, which will limit the ram requirements somewhat.

It's a LAN machine but I'm also planning on double it as my HTPC/media center in the living room when I'm not out for LAN. And here a quiet machine would be nice - at least I'm sure my fiancee would agree :p

Either way it could be I have to try out both cards and see which solution will be right for me.
 
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i have both a 290x and a 780ti, and at stock speeds when running 3d mark tests they both score the same.

if its in a small lan you want an card the exhausts outside the case.
I use both cards to game at 1440 and both again play the same and feel the same, bo get around the same FPS.
Right now in BF4 the cards use 1.75gb of Vram at 1440 all setting on ultra, so the 3gb of ram on the 780 will not be a problem.

Both of may cards are ref cooled, and if i have to bin one and keep only one i would be keeping the 780ti and dropping the 290x so....

i do find the my 290 to hit 85c watching 1080p movies and the fan will ramp to 40%, its not a card to be used in an htpc, the 780ti plays films at 33c

with the experience i have had if i was you i would be using the 780ti in the lad.
 
Soldato
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290 with a hybrid cooler kraken thing on there. Would solve all your issues and a faster, more overclockable card :)

How about a swap, i've got a lovely 750Ti here that will be great for your HTPC ;)
 
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Associate
OP
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i have both a 290x and a 780ti, and at stock speeds when running 3d mark tests they both score the same.

if its in a small lan you want an card the exhausts outside the case.
I use both cards to game at 1440 and both again play the same and feel the same, bo get around the same FPS.
Right now in BF4 the cards use 1.75gb of Vram at 1440 all setting on ultra, so the 3gb of ram on the 780 will not be a problem.

Both of may cards are ref cooled, and if i have to bin one and keep only one i would be keeping the 780ti and dropping the 290x so....

i do find the my 290 to hit 85c watching 1080p movies and the fan will ramp to 40%, its not a card to be used in an htpc, the 780ti plays films at 33c

with the experience i have had if i was you i would be using the 780ti in the lad.

Thank you for the indepth answer ! That really gives me something to consider.
The case I'm using is the Cooler Master N200 mATX. It's a reasonable sized case with good airflow.
N200-2.jpg
 
Associate
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That would be nice, but is too expensive even after selling both cards;)
The only reason why I have both cards is because I got each for a great price - much cheaper than a new GTX 970/R9 390.;)



It's a LAN machine but I'm also planning on double it as my HTPC/media center in the living room when I'm not out for LAN. And here a quiet machine would be nice - at least I'm sure my fiancee would agree :p

Either way it could be I have to try out both cards and see which solution will be right for me.

If you also want to use it as an HTPC I think that largely settles it! 780 imo.

Having said that, the 290 ref blowers did have that quite mode, but I imagine you lose a fair bit of performance? Might be worth checking out.
 
Soldato
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The problem with the gtx780 is it's beaten in some games by the 280x never mind the 290 and i can only see this getting worse going forward. Quieter card but a massive downgrade in performance in some games. If you plan on keeping either of these 2 cards for a decent amount of time take this into consideration.

Point in case around 30% faster in Far Cry 4

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_380X_Strix/12.html

There is a few other games to check out in this review as well. Overall at 1080p the gap is 14% but in newer games this would probably be larger. I am assuming this is for 1080p.
 
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Associate
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I'd definitely go with the 290. The 780 is a good card but as TheRealDeal points out the 290 is outstripping it clearly in newer releases, a trend that will surely only continue. Couple that with the extra VRAM and I'd tolerate the extra noise and heat.
 
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