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R9290 upgrade options

theaterix

theaterix

theaterix

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3 Nov 2014
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Newcastle, England
I am currently looking to upgrade my R9290 because finally some funds have freed up and I am finally able to consider an upgrade. I have a reference 290 so it sounds like a huge F off hairdryer when out under any kind of load which is beyond annoying, so I am busy considering upgrade options for it. I can get a great deal on a 980 which is tempting but I am just trying to work out if it is a worthy upgrade for the extra cost.
My resolution is 2560x1080 and I play WoW, CSGO, FIFA and Battlefield.
Not demanding games but the noise is awful and beginning to really do my head in and the heat is unbearable.

Any recommendations are appreciated and very welcome

Cheers, Jake
 
Don't have a clue about WoW and CSGO, but aren't they high fps titles?

FIFA I believe is capped so there will be no difference in performance, Battlefield doubt there'll be much in it either.

For an upgrade, imo 980 isn't going to be much, I'd be looking for more than that or I'd just rip the cooler off and custom air cool or aio it for not much money.
 
For those games you wouldn't need to go beyond a GTX 1060 or an RX 480. Maybe even an RX 470. They're not really much of an upgrade on the R9 290 in terms of raw power, but they do use a lot less electricity and obviously have quiet custom models available. A GTX 980 might be another option if you can find one cheap.

There are some pretty decent deals in the clearance section right now for 470s/480s/1060s if you don't mind an open box.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/clearance/graphics-cards
 
tommybhoy said:
Don't have a clue about WoW and CSGO, but aren't they high fps titles?

FIFA I believe is capped so there will be no difference in performance, Battlefield doubt there'll be much in it either.

For an upgrade, imo 980 isn't going to be much, I'd be looking for more than that or I'd just rip the cooler off and custom air cool or aio it for not much money.
Click to expand...

See I was considering this or a full water loop but for the extra pennies I will be spending I could put that cost into a slightly better card, I do however know the new AMD cards are due either next month or January so whether that is worth the wait I really do not know.

I value silence above electrical cost as I still live at home so it is paid for by my dad.

I spotted the clearance section has some really nice deals with me buying my current monitor from there and it being utterly perfect so I believe in the section.

I am considering saving some money up and buying the new AMD flagship upon release aslong as it performs as good value the 480 is.

I am still stuck haha
 
There are some good deals to be had in the clearance section ATM.

I'm in a similar boat to you as I'm looking to upgrade my 2 290xs to either a high end card or ski/crossfire set up but the lack of any real AMD option makes it prohibitively expensive.

For the games you play I'd probably just chuck the 290 on eBay and get a 980, a 1060 or an rx 480.

They won't be huge upgrades, but they will be quieter.
 
AMD haven't really got an upgrade path available yet, Anything under a GTX 1070 is more of a side grade that isn't worth doing, I run 2560x1080 with a Fury Tri-x and it does so very well but as an ex Hawaii owner I do not consider the move to be a worthwhile upgrade move, For me it was a good move because I had an MSI 290x gaming that ran in the 90's with a 90% fan speed at load and I hated it for that.
If I was you I'd try and hang on until Vega but if not go with a 1070. A Fury/Fury X will do a good job but if you don't upgrade very often it's not the option to choose in my opinion..
 
On AMD, 290 and up, need to upgrade, then Nvidia is your only option, 1070 minimum, AMDs shifted into the VR market now, as they can't compete with Nvidia, they just doing low/mid range cards for headset wearers, or soon to be.
 
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LoadsaMoney said:
On AMD, 290 and up, need to upgrade, then Nvidia is your only option, 1070 minimum, AMDs shifted into the VR market now, as they can't compete with Nvidia, they just doing low/mid range cards for headset wearers, or soon to be.
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I take it Vega is low/mid then :D:D:D

JediFragger said:
I'll put this in the right thread this time :D

290 vs 1060;

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1772?vs=1771

290 vs 1070;

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1772?vs=1731
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To be honest mate that Anand compare does the 290 a dis-service. Check out the Guru review done 2 days ago on the latest drivers and games. It's much closer and not really an upgrade or what i would consider an upgrade. The 1070 is worthy of being called an upgrade imo.

He is using a 290 reference though so it could be a major upgrade for his ears.
 
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Aio cooler and a bracket maybe as an option? Anything below a 1070 really seems like a sidegrade with better noise/heat but at £200+ seems a lot to pay for that
 
TheRealDeal said:
I take it Vega is low/mid then :D:D:D



To be honest mate that Anand compare does the 290 a dis-service. Check out the Guru review done 2 days ago on the latest drivers and games. It's much closer and not really an upgrade or what i would consider an upgrade. The 1070 is worthy of being called an upgrade imo.

He is using a 290 reference though so it could be a major upgrade for his ears.
Click to expand...

Personally I'd still consider the 1060 6GB an upgrade, esp when factoring in the big WoW improvements too. They're generally v quiet cards and overclock a bunch too :cool:

But yes, the 1070 and he would see some BIG gains :eek:
 
TheRealDeal said:
I take it Vega is low/mid then :D:D:D



To be honest mate that Anand compare does the 290 a dis-service. Check out the Guru review done 2 days ago on the latest drivers and games. It's much closer and not really an upgrade or what i would consider an upgrade. The 1070 is worthy of being called an upgrade imo.

He is using a 290 reference though so it could be a major upgrade for his ears.
Click to expand...

Could you post a link to that?

As a 290x user I'd be keen to see the real performance change over the years as a result of drivers and see how close it comes to the 390x.

Cheers
 
Tacitus said:
Could you post a link to that?

As a 290x user I'd be keen to see the real performance change over the years as a result of drivers and see how close it comes to the 390x.

Cheers
Click to expand...

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_radeon_rx_480_g1_gaming_review,1.html

The 290x is not in to many of the benches for some reason but it's not much slower than the 390x. They are basically the same chip with the main difference being that the 390x has 1050 core and 1500 memory where as the 290x has 1000 core and 1250 memory. The other main difference is the 390x has 8gb vram compared to a standard 4gb on the 290x. This leads to around a 5-10% performance difference overall according to techpowerup's summary over 20 or so games.
 
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From a 290 I wouldn't consider a 480 or 1060, I had a 780 and was advised I need at least a 1070/980ti, I tried a 480 and was very dissappointed, I got a fury nitro in the end, I'm now gaming at 1440 with freesync though and it does fine, I still wonder if I should have gone 980ti or 1070.
 
I think AMD is roughly a generation behind nVidia, and I'm not expecting big Vega to eclipse 1080 performance tbh. Hope I'm wrong and it tonks the TXP tbh, but their's already rumors of Volta coming next Summer and being roughly equal to 1080 SLi performance!
 
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