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G1 970 to 290X lightning :)

sprite1275 said:
Well ive had the 970 for a couple of months now and although i think there good cards ive been feeling a little underwhelmed by it. For a while ive been posting about low usage, slight micro stuttering, sometimes having to restart pc on the odd occasion as the fps is just half what it should have been.

There have been loads of people posting about the same issues on the geforce driver forum and this was way before the vram issue came out.

Anyway i managed to bag the 290X Lightning with Gold reward & sid myers for £259 before it went up. Ive had it sat here for a while in the box while contemplating whether to send the 970 back or not.

Tonight i thought stuff it and whacked it in. First of all what an awesome looking card. The one thing thats been playing on my mind about the 290x is the Power consumption, heat & noise.

After gaming a little tonight i find it no more nosier than the 970. I think if the fans go over 50% then it will start getting slightly audible but the fans have not got to 50% yet while keeping the temps the same as the 970 between 60/70c in gaming conditions.

The other thing i was concerned about was the power consumption. I have one of these ** No hotlinked images **
So i did a few reading with the 970 and the 290x. Heres what i got;

970 first column, 290x second column (Total System Power)

Idle (Desktop) 84w - 85w
Fire Strike Bench 295w - 330w
TR Bench 270w - 340w
Sniper E III Bench 290w - 350w
1 game of WoT 250w - 285w

Not sure if your suprised by them results but im quite shocked. i was expecting quite a bit more from what the general consensus is regarding the 290x being power hungary.

The main thing ive noticed though and the most important is the games seem to play a Lot smoother. I tried ARMA III which with the 970 i had to turn all AA off with settings set to high and even then it wasnt smooth. With the Lightning i can up the settings with it playing a lot smoother.

All in All im well pleased with this big chunk of quality metal in my case, 970 is packed and waiting to be shipped. Like i said there good cards but im not sure if maybe the power saving side of it effects performance, Im not sure as im no expert but there you go.

Hope this helps others thinking of the switch :)
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Glad your happy with your card.

As you can see you'll get many angry/jealous 970 users posting here saying that the 290x uses double the 970s power - though as you've proven it's all complete BS.
 
savagesam117 said:
Hahah!

This nVidia/AMD thing just makes me laugh to be honest. I've owned both, AMD and Nvidia. For a normal gamer there's barely a difference between the two. Unless you're going into serious clock speeds and all that sort of stuff.

When playing, having a 970 and a 290x next to each other i doubt you'd be able to see a difference.

But, the AMD guys can rub it in about having the full 4GB i suppose ;)
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There's so little in it that when i decided to upgrade my 7950 i had to create a poll here because i couldn't decide between a 970 infinity black and a lightning - they are both great cards.

Dave2150 said:
As you can see you'll get many angry/jealous 970 users posting here saying that the 290x uses double the 970s power - though as you've proven it's all complete BS.
Click to expand...

Right..... AMDMatt proved the cards can have a voracious appetite. over 400w per card, that's a 1/3rd more then my entire PC, at the wall, with an overclocked 970 in it.

dismissing facts as 'jealousy' is petty, can't you come up with anything better?

perhaps somebody else with an overclocked 290x and a power meter can chime in - looks like the OP doesnt want to.
 
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james.miller said:
There's so little in it that when i decided to upgrade my 7950 i had to create a poll here because i couldn't decide between a 970 infinity black and a lightning - they are both great cards.



Right..... AMDMatt proved the cards can have a voracious appetite. over 400w per card, that's a 1/3rd more then my entire PC, at the wall, with an overclocked 970 in it.

dismissing facts as 'jealousy' is petty, can't you come up with anything better?

perhaps somebody else with an overclocked 290x and a power meter can chime in - looks like the OP doesnt want to.
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What do you want me to chime in with?
 
james.miller said:
There's so little in it that when i decided to upgrade my 7950 i had to create a poll here because i couldn't decide between a 970 infinity black and a lightning - they are both great cards.



Right..... AMDMatt proved the cards can have a voracious appetite. over 400w per card, that's a 1/3rd more then my entire PC, at the wall, with an overclocked 970 in it.

dismissing facts as 'jealousy' is petty, can't you come up with anything better?

perhaps somebody else with an overclocked 290x and a power meter can chime in - looks like the OP doesnt want to.
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Jealousy over a Graphics card "ROFL"

I own a Lightning. If I get time over the weekend i'll grab a power meter and test what it can draw overclocked.
 
My PC draws just under 400W at the wall with a 290x LE and 4770k.
With all the voltage sliders maxed it can push it towards 600W.
 
james.miller said:
Dave2150 said:
As you can see you'll get many angry/jealous 970 users posting here saying that the 290x uses double the 970s power - though as you've proven it's all complete BS.
Click to expand...

Right..... AMDMatt proved the cards can have a voracious appetite. over 400w per card, that's a 1/3rd more then my entire PC, at the wall, with an overclocked 970 in it.

dismissing facts as 'jealousy' is petty, can't you come up with anything better?
Click to expand...

Well you probably could yourself if you had read the thread:


ubersonic said:
Just a note in case some don't know, almost all third party 290/290 cards run at lower power usage than AMD reference (by design).

The mental power usage you see in a review of a launch card in uber mode isn't what you will see from a factory undervolted card with better cooling (and thus lower leakage).
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I asked for overclocked figures - your post doesnt answer that in any way. If we are going to compare power consumption, let's do so under the conditions we actually run our cards. ie, not stock. I did ask twice.

Geeman, thanks :)
 
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sprite1275 said:
Got a bit to do yet before I even start gaming on it. I want to get a decent OC on my CPU first and I've never done it before.
Then after I've got a stable OC I want to do a fresh OS install to completely get rid of all the lies and deceit, eeerm I mean nvidea stuff.
Then I just want to game a bit.

Like I said I don't get much PC time so it'll take me a bit.
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SHOGUNXSHINOBI said:
How far have you been able to push the card?
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james.miller said:
I asked for overclocked figures - your post doesnt answer that in any way. If we are going to compare power consumption, let's do so under the conditions we actually run our cards. ie, not stock. I did ask twice.

Geeman, thanks :)
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Got a Power meter and will run a couple of tests. Anything specific you want testing?
 
Anyone know if there is a Fan Control software for the lightning? I've seen it in a review, I've looked on the CD that came with the card but can't find it.
 
his MSI Lightning isn't overclocked, so it'll draw far more power if it is...because the Lightning is famous for drawing high power and temp when OC like crazy.

there is no point buying a Lightning if you're not going to OC it like crazy..it's a waste of money.............esp 6 months ago, when it was damned expensive.....560 QUID come on man it's ridiculous !!!!!!!

the GTX 970 SLI is coolish even with a large OC.........and 6 months ago miles cheaper than the Lightning, it's a no brainer....noise? no comparison, because you wait till you OC that Lightning :eek:

it's a great card for sure, but at the end of the day it's just another AMD Stereotypical card..........too hot, too noisy, too much power, too big :p
 
Mal X said:
his MSI Lightning isn't overclocked, so it'll draw far more power if it is...because the Lightning is famous for drawing high power and temp when OC like crazy.

there is no point buying a Lightning if you're not going to OC it like crazy..it's a waste of money.............esp 6 months ago, when it was damned expensive.....560 QUID come on man it's ridiculous !!!!!!!

the GTX 970 SLI is coolish even with a large OC.........and 6 months ago miles cheaper than the Lightning, it's a no brainer....noise? no comparison, because you wait till you OC that Lightning :eek:

it's a great card for sure, but at the end of the day it's just another AMD Stereotypical card..........too hot, too noisy, too much power, too big :p
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Just to add the Steriotipical Nvidia fan hating in this as it hasn't reached here yet, eh?
 
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