R9 290 4GB or GTX 780 3GB ?

[Geeman1979]

You were warned what a noisy pile they are.

 

[Nexus18]

Tried undervolting the 290? You should be able to get at least -25mv. It has made a huge difference on my MSI 290 GE with -37mv

Personally I wouldn't put up with a worse performing card and by quite a bit in new titles now, it is only going to get worse with future games, especially DX 12 and even more so when nvidia's new GPUs come out Not to mention 4GB vram is a big bonus now.

 

[Nadleeh]

Tried undervolting the 290? You should be able to get at least -25mv. It has made a huge difference on my MSI 290 GE with -37mv

Personally I wouldn't put up with a worse performing card and by quite a bit in new titles now, it is only going to get worse with future games, especially DX 12 and even more so when nvidia's new GPUs come out Not to mention 4GB vram is a big bonus now.

Well I have seen quite a few reviews of newer cards where the R9 290 and GTX 780 appear also and performance wise they don't see too far from eachother. When looking at the gtx 780ti it also stacks up pretty good vs the r9 290x & gtx 970/980 as far I've seen, so the gk110 performance should still be acceptable.

I tried undercoating but the cards crashes when just going - 18mw and it doesn't make a hughe difference noise wise.
Getting a 3rd party air cooler on it isn't really an option either since it takes up 3 pcie slots and hereby it will cover the only 4 SATA ports on the motherboard .
I've been trying to figure out if it could be ghetto modded with a big 1cm tall 100m fan on the heatsink block, but it realized it has a flot upper surface so air can't be blown into it.
While I would have liked the r9 290 I think I'll have to let it go and the upgrade further down the line.

 

[Nexus18]

Depends what game but in some of the newer titles there is a decent enough difference, you can see a decent comparison in various titles here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_390_Nitro/1.html

And then the new tomb raider game:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1128-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-benchmarks/page2.html

In highly tessellated games, the 780 should perform better though since it has much better tess. performance.

I was looking at the 780 back in June 2014 and it was ahead "overall" compared to the 290 and back then I was having second thoughts with the 290 purchase but with the VRAM hungry games nowadays plus dx 12 around the corner, I'm glad I didn't go with the 780 now

Not sure if you answered it before but honestly, you would be far better of just selling both and getting a 970.

 

[Nadleeh]

Depends what game but in some of the newer titles there is a decent enough difference, you can see a decent comparison in various titles here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_390_Nitro/1.html

And then the new tomb raider game:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1128-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-benchmarks/page2.html

In highly tessellated games, the 780 should perform better though since it has much better tess. performance.

I was looking at the 780 back in June 2014 and it was ahead "overall" compared to the 290 and back then I was having second thoughts with the 290 purchase but with the VRAM hungry games nowadays plus dx 12 around the corner, I'm glad I didn't go with the 780 now

Not sure if you answered it before but honestly, you would be far better of just selling both and getting a 970.

Selling both to get a gtx 970 is more than I can afford. I am already in minus on my bank account because I won both cards instead of just one of them (betting on two horses etc). Also selling both wouldn't even cover the cost of a gtx 970. Also the gtx 970 is also 3.5gb + 0.5gb and we have seen Witcher 3 causing hiccups due to that. I would have gone with a r9 390 4gb if I could.
I think I'll sell the r9 290 and go with the gtx 780 untill I can afford a better card down the line.
I have the 780 installed now and overclocked it from 941@1120mhz core and Vram from 6ghz to 6.5ghz, and it runs cool and quiet enough and performance wise it's running a bit faster than the r9 290 due to the OC (I didn't dare oc the r9 290 since it ran so hot).

 

[Nexus18]

Ah I see, fair enough

I think nvidia have fixed the issue with the 3.5GB + 0.5GB and stutters in certain games now, not 100% sure though.... and yup, I rather go with the 390 too although iirc, the 970 still runs cooler and quieter.

Oh well, it sounds like the 780 OC is working out nicely for you anyway

 

[Rroff]

Ah I see, fair enough

I think nvidia have fixed the issue with the 3.5GB + 0.5GB and stutters in certain games now, not 100% sure though.... and yup, I rather go with the 390 too although iirc, the 970 still runs cooler and quieter.

Oh well, it sounds like the 780 OC is working out nicely for you anyway

Though I can't say for sure without a true 4+GB to test against - I've been messing with some Skyrim mods (with both a 970 and 780) that can at times push actual VRAM loads using ultra high resolution past 4GB and seen no signs of any stutter til above 4GB of data is loaded - strange thing is though I see the exact same thing from my 780 - performance is pretty much identical on both cards (aside from taking a bit longer on the 780 to load a new area after fast travelling) and just as smooth with no noticeable difference in IQ until the VRAM load goes past 4GB then it turns into a slideshow on both.

EDIT: Most games at 1440p ultra settings sit at 3.4-3.6GB peak VRAM used on the 970 so you probably wouldn't run into any issues in that regard unless you were using 4K type resolutions - in which case you aren't going to get ideal performance anyhow.

 

[kiel367]

i actually have that same 290, but i pulled the cooler off and went aio wc on it, the standard cooler is very very loud just so you know, and it is well known some can run at about 90 degrees

 

[Geeman1979]

Selling both to get a gtx 970 is more than I can afford. I am already in minus on my bank account because I won both cards instead of just one of them (betting on two horses etc). Also selling both wouldn't even cover the cost of a gtx 970. Also the gtx 970 is also 3.5gb + 0.5gb and we have seen Witcher 3 causing hiccups due to that. I would have gone with a r9 390 4gb if I could.
I think I'll sell the r9 290 and go with the gtx 780 untill I can afford a better card down the line.
I have the 780 installed now and overclocked it from 941@1120mhz core and Vram from 6ghz to 6.5ghz, and it runs cool and quiet enough and performance wise it's running a bit faster than the r9 290 due to the OC (I didn't dare oc the r9 290 since it ran so hot).

The 780's are a good card and still have the legs.

You'll be fine with it.