Switching from NVIDIA to AMD..some questions.

[marsha11]

1) Reference Vs reference card AMD isn't as good but reference design 290's are hard to come by and 3rd party designs like the one from XFX are very quiet even at at 100% load.

2) It's 2015 not 2002 both set of drivers from both companies are very capable.

3) A 750 watt PSU is pushing it but you should be ok.

4) Microstutter is always a problem with multiple card setups regardless of who's cards you use but they do tend to get fixed in driver updates and it's a lot better then it has been historically.

5) You should see a performance improvement. As you have already stated your 970's are already hitting 4Gb in some games which is an issue for the GTX970 in particular. You may have seen news articles that the only has 3.5Gb of ram that runs at the advertised speeds the remaining 0.5Gb runs a lot slower which could potentially impact performance you don't get that BS on a 290.

Thanks mate.

I know this ones very difficult to answer but whats the likley hood of the new 300 series single card giving more than the 8gb 290x's in crossfire?

 

[Sencha]

290X 8GB are great cards. The R9 290X Vapor-X from Sapphire isn't loud at all, quality cards and well set for the future with all that VRAM.

Yep just got one and shoved it in to a case way to small (upgrading tomorrow) it still idles mid 40s and haven't seen it go over 68c in game and that's with pretty poor air flow. (1x 120mm intake 1x 120mm exhaust)

 

[Legend]

Yep just got one and shoved it in to a case way to small (upgrading tomorrow) it still idles mid 40s and haven't seen it go over 68c in game and that's with pretty poor air flow. (1x 120mm intake 1x 120mm exhaust)

What card did you have before and how does it compare? What kind of VRAM usage are you seeing in games?

 

[TNA]

Thanks mate.

I know this ones very difficult to answer but whats the likley hood of the new 300 series single card giving more than the 8gb 290x's in crossfire?

Little to none I would say. Likely they won't be 8gb on release either. That said even if it is 75-80% the performance of crossfire 290X, it would be the better choice in my humble opinion.

In your position I would get only one 8gb 290X and in 6 months time or so sell it and use the extra money saved to go to a 380X or 390X if that is around by then.

Otherwise I say go 8gb 290X Crossfire now. Just use them on stock though, if you want to oc, I would get a beefier power supply.

 

[marsha11]

Little to none I would say. Likely they won't be 8gb on release either. That said even if it is 75-80% the performance of crossfire 290X, it would be the better choice in my humble opinion.

In your position I would get only one 8gb 290X and in 6 months time or so sell it and use the extra money saved to go to a 380X or 390X if that is around by then.

Otherwise I say go 8gb 290X Crossfire now. Just use them on stock though, if you want to oc, I would get a beefier power supply.

What happens if my powersupply isnt upto it and struggles with the 290's. Does it have a saftey cut off or something? Again Xfx gold black edition.

Should i go Sapphire model with ref cooler or either the MSI twin frozer or Powercolor. X fire.

 

[Legend]

In your position I would get only one 8gb 290X and in 6 months time or so sell it and use the extra money saved to go to a 380X or 390X if that is around by then.

I'm starting to think I should do this myself, not least because of the heat x2 of these will pump in to my H440 case. The more I think about it, it is a pretty great opportunity to get full value back on my 970 before the end of this month, and the hit I'll take on it in 6 months time is likely more than what I'd take on an 8GB 290X... which I'd probably keep for longer anyway and may even consider XFire if I got a different case, and also depending what the 3xx series looks like. Seems the days are more numbered for the 970 though, especially with SLI being a bad move now.

 

[old gamer]

I bought a pair of second hand 290's to tied me over until the 3 series appear

 

[SiDeards73]

Sticking with my single 290 Tri-X until the 380X series comes out then im going to buy a pair of them and a 27" freesync screen and live the dream!