290 or 970?

lovelyhead · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:32

Assuming the r290 gets a price drop to £200 in the next week or two what would you rather go with and why?

stulid · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:34

GTX970.

Less power consumption, newer, more features, overclock well.

Ayahuasca · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:36

gee tee ex nine seventy

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:44

If the R9 290 is £200,it would make it £60 cheaper than the cheapest GTX970 on OcUK and if comes with the game bundle worth another £25(or a bit more) too,then I would probably go for the R9 290. The power consumption difference would be not enough between the two at that kind of price difference to really add up IMHO.

Looking at the TPU figures for the various GTX970 cards they tested,at 18P a kWh,playing 30 hours of games each week for 52 weeks of the year,it was around £15 to £20 less in electricity IIRC.

Within two years both AMD and Nvidia will be on 20NM/16NM meaning the current 28NM cards will look rather meh anyway.

lovelyhead · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:45

Is the power consumption really a big deal though? I read the difference over a year would be something like £15 in electricity versus a 970.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:48

Yep,I updated my post and that was for every week of the year.

The GTX970 is around GTX680/GTX770/HD7970 level power consumption and can get close to the GTX780. TPU measures card power consumption.

Gregster · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:50

I would rather go for a 970. Greater feature set would be my lure and running much cooler, which results in quieter running and less of a power draw should you want to SLI in the future.

almighty15 · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:51

It doesn't get lose to the 780, it beats the 780.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:51

almighty15 said:
It doesn't get lose to the 780, it beats the 780.

Power consumption I was talking about! :confused:

Gregster said:
I would rather go for a 970. Greater feature set would be my lure and running much cooler, which results in quieter running and less of a power draw should you want to SLI in the future.

Sorry but if the R9 290 is reduced to £200,that is £60 less than the cheapest GTX970.

Plus the game bundle has games which sell in total for at least £25,or more.

£85 is a massive difference.

Gregster · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:54

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Power consumption I was talking about!

Sorry but if the R9 290 is reduced to £200,that is £60 less than the cheapest GTX970.

Plus the game bundle has games which sell in total for at least £25,or more.

£85 is a massive difference.

He asked what I would rather go for and why. I told him.

Rusty0611 · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:56

GTX 970. Better card IMO. More fun to play with. I prefer nVidia to AMD in an all things even contest.

And I'm a happy 290 owner as well (except for the heat which will probably be nice soon!).

lovelyhead · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:58

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Yep,I updated my post and that was for every week of the year.

The GTX970 is around GTX680/GTX770/HD7970 level power consumption and can get close to the GTX780. TPU measures card power consumption.

So just to be clear it would cost £15 more per week to play games using a 290 versus a 970?

Rusty0611 · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:59

lol no - per year.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 8 Oct 2014 at 22:59

The GTX970 is better than a R9 290 but not if it comes to £60 more in direct price,plus the 3 game bundle includes Alien:Isolation which sells for £20 to £24 on the OcUK members market alone and two other games which will net you at least a tenner more.

That is if the R9 290 is £200 and the GTX970 does not dip under £260.

shankly1985 · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:00

Gregster said:
I would rather go for a 970. Greater feature set would be my lure and running much cooler, which results in quieter running and less of a power draw should you want to SLI in the future.

It doesn't run cooler, it just uses less power. I have seen reviews of the 970 hitting 80c much hotter than my 290.

@op

Look at what both offer and go with what one offers you the most enjoyment.

Rusty0611 · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:01

shankly1985 said:
It doesn't run cooler, it just uses less power. I have seen reviews of the 970 hitting 80c much hotter than my 290.

@op

Look at what both offer and go with what one offers you the most enjoyment.

Yeah but the running temperature of two entirely different cards with different coolers is a pointless comparison. Compare the temperature of your room after gaming for a couple of hours on both.

There's only one winner.

My Radeon made me go from shivering to sweating in a couple of hours

.

lovelyhead · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:02

Rusty0611 said:
lol no - per year.

I knew the 290 was power hungry but I thought £15 extra per week sounded a lot!

lovelyhead · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:02

So in the grand scheme of things power consumption is not really an issue.

Gregster · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:02

shankly1985 said:
It doesn't run cooler, it just uses less power. I have seen reviews of the 970 hitting 80c much hotter than my 290.

@op

Look at what both offer and go with what one offers you the most enjoyment.

You do understand how TDP works?

Rusty0611 · 8 Oct 2014 at 23:04

lovelyhead said:
So in the grand scheme of things power consumption is not really an issue.

Not really no. The 290 will kick out IMO a noticeable amount more heat to your room over time than the 970 but that can either be a blessing or a curse depending on your situation

.