• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

My 7990 failed, need something comprable

elJarmen

elJarmen

elJarmen

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2013
Posts
276
So my £399 7990 failed and I was refunded by OcUK today after 1 month in RMA. I knew snatching that beast at that price was too good to be true, unfortunately the card had CF issues and I missed on what was the bargain of the year for me :(

Anyhow, I am looking for a new card now and I don't know what would be the smartest course of action to take for my situation. I will be gaming at 1080 with a 120Hz monitor. 4670K @ 4.5 and a GA-Z87X-D3H mobo. I know this isn't a high resolution but I'm kinda of an FPS freak.

Plan is to go powerful single card now and pair it with another later down the road. But what should I go for? 780 or 290 (and which model in particular). Budget is 400-500 but obviously the lower the better.

What would you do if you were me? I'd rather avoid AMD because of the 7990 debacle tbh, and not sure that Mantle would have a huge performance improvement on higher-end cards (correct me if I'm wrong). Also I won't be buying BF4 anyway.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Hmm, not too sure about that 290. From what I gather reference cards have heat/noise issues, and considering I'll be going CF at some point, I would rather avoid the hassle.
 
You risk the black screen issue with the 290's if you go AMD again. A guy in the thread about it said he went 780 instead after getting money back and is very happy.
 
Last edited:
Surely you'd be mad not to go for a 780?
The Ti just isn't worth the premium and the 290 whilst yeah it benches OK, they run hot and loud and they're AMD :p

Jokes apart, in my previous experiences nVidia have been less troublesome :)
 
May I ask what the CF issues with the 7990 were? Mines started heavily juddering with CF enabled on some games, wondered if it was similar. Sorry to bring it slightly off topic.
 
Thanks all for your suggestion. I believe it's a matter of 290 vs 780 for me now. You are right the premium doesn't justify the marginal increase in FPS.

Yes I am leaning towards the 780 more, especially since the only AMD card I had owned was that troublesome 7990. But I just don't want to miss on a decent performance boost if Mantle indeed turns out to be a success.. guess I could wait until hopefully some benchs come soon!

weewyum: Mine had trouble acknowledging its a dual GPU in the first place, so wan't able to enable CF all together.
 
Don't let a faulty card put you off mate. The 7990 was a fantastic graphics card and was not far off my 290 crossfire setup in terms of fps.
 
I know mate. I'd have preferred to get a replacement as it is a beast of a card but I should have had my expectations set right in light of this mining madness. So you're running 290 CF? What brand?
 
elJarmen said:
I know mate. I'd have preferred to get a replacement as it is a beast of a card but I should have had my expectations set right in light of this mining madness. So you're running 290 CF? What brand?
Click to expand...

VTX 290 crossfire £560. :)

9th highest dual gpu score on the firestrike thread, on the reference cooler. :D

Would have no trouble passing 25k+ if my psu was better.
 
LtMatt said:
VTX 290 crossfire £560. :)

9th highest dual gpu score on the firestrike thread, on the reference cooler. :D

Would have no trouble passing 25k+ if my psu was better.
Click to expand...

Is the heat/noise level OK? I'm generally not overly fussed by that, but wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for reference cooling (the Sapphire Tri-X looks like a good candidate) if it would allow a bit more room for OC not to mention sanity.
 
elJarmen said:
Is the heat/noise level OK? I'm generally not overly fussed by that, but wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for reference cooling (the Sapphire Tri-X looks like a good candidate) if it would allow a bit more room for OC not to mention sanity.
Click to expand...

It does run warm and the reference cooler is loud past 55-60%. Its perfectly fine though and i can run with good overclocks on the reference cooler. Expect temps mid 80's to low 90's unless you run the fan higher than 55-60%. However the performance you get for your £ is amazingly good. If you're not fussed by that (like me) and you enjoy a bargain get it. Nothing annoys our rival gpu friends more than a cheap ass card beating their expensive fancy pants gpu's lol.
 
elJarmen said:
weewyum: Mine had trouble acknowledging its a dual GPU in the first place, so wan't able to enable CF all together.
Click to expand...

Ah quite different then! Thanks though and I hope you find a suitable replacement, quite hard considering the pure brute power of the 7990. Think mine may find itself on a certain auction site soon though. I can hear crossfire 290's calling :p
 
weewyum said:
Ah quite different then! Thanks though and I hope you find a suitable replacement, quite hard considering the pure brute power of the 7990. Think mine may find itself on a certain auction site soon though. I can hear crossfire 290's calling :p
Click to expand...

Glad to see more people thinking of 290 CF. I hope this bloody Mantle is released soon so I could make a decision soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom