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Thinking about getting a r9 290x is it right for me?

dandrewd

dandrewd

dandrewd

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Joined
14 May 2014
Posts
4
Hi all

I will be upgrading my graphics card in the next 1-2 weeks, I am thinking about getting this card (The Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC)

I have not bought an ati/amd card since I had a £400 ati x850xt platinum edition fail on me about 1 week outside of warranty 10 odd years ago now (yes i know how to hold a grudge).
Since then i have been an nvida guy.

But all the signs seem to be that that r9 290x performs better than the nvidia gtx 780 for around the same price or cheaper and I am ready to trust again :).

I have around £400 (can stretch to £500 max for a good reason) to spend on my upgrade from my current gtx 580 that is getting long in the tooth, is there any reason not to get the linked r9 290x. is there a better way for me to spend my money to get more performance.

extra info:

the new card will be going into my current MoBo which only has a 2.0 pci-e port but from reading up a little this should not produce any performance issues, at least not more than 1-3% if any over the 3.0 port in a new MoBo. also as a stop gap would it be worth me getting another gtx 580 for sli and waiting until the new gtx 800 series comes out with the new architecture
changes.

All I am looking for is to be able to play the latest games (watch dogs, the division) and so on at the highest settings on a 1080p 60hz monitor until I get around to making a new full build next year. if i was to get the r9 290x or other recommended card from this thread I would just pop that into the new build (so i would hope it will last me a while,until the 900 series or equivalent cards come out). Or if you think the sli option is even an option then I will wait for the new 800 series cards and buy a new high end card when I do the full build next year. although it seems that gtx 580s are still quite expensive but I would be happy with a 2nd hand one I think for now, again only if it is a viable option.

feel free to ask for any more info you might need to give a full answer I will monitor this thread and reply asap.
 
Last edited:
You need to remove the competitor link in your post.

A custom cooled R9 290 would be a better choice than the 290x. Cheaper yet offers 90-95% of the performance at the same clocks.

Alternatively you can't go wrong with a GTX 780 either.

In summary, spend £350 and get great performance from either the R9 290 or GTX 780.
 
Thanks, changed the link to a description.

So I take it you don't think sli and waiting is an option. I was not sure myself as the price of the 580's is still pretty high. I see that msi do a twin frozr version of the r9 290 that you recommended. I currently have their version for my 580 and have had no problems with it in all this time.

seeing as how I can get almost the same performance for 75% of the cost this is looking like a really nice option and will give me more flexibility down the line as I wont feel so invested in the card at this price.

Does anyone reading know of a good reason not to go for the msi one? anyone seen any problems with the card.
 
dandrewd said:
Thanks, changed the link to a description.

So I take it you don't think sli and waiting is an option. I was not sure myself as the price of the 580's is still pretty high. I see that msi do a twin frozr version of the r9 290 that you recommended. I currently have their version for my 580 and have had no problems with it in all this time.

seeing as how I can get almost the same performance for 75% of the cost this is looking like a really nice option and will give me more flexibility down the line as I wont feel so invested in the card at this price.

Does anyone reading know of a good reason not to go for the msi one? anyone seen any problems with the card.
Click to expand...
Unless your GTX580 was the 3GB version instead of of 1.5GB version, I wouldn't bother. Also, you'd need a decent 850W at the minimum (might even need a higher one) for a SLI GTX580 system.
 
oweneades said:
You need to remove the competitor link in your post.

A custom cooled R9 290 would be a better choice than the 290x. Cheaper yet offers 90-95% of the performance at the same clocks.

Alternatively you can't go wrong with a GTX 780 either.

In summary, spend £350 and get great performance from either the R9 290 or GTX 780.
Click to expand...

triss said:
290's are on the whole nice cards and should give you a nice performance boost
Click to expand...

Buy a 290 and flash the BIOS to a 290x!
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Unless your GTX580 was the 3GB version instead of of 1.5GB version, I wouldn't bother. Also, you'd need a decent 850W at the minimum (might even need a higher one) for a SLI GTX580 system.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is only the 1.5GB version, thanks for the reply, I did not think this was going to be the way people said to go but I thought it best to ask, just to cover all my options.

Thanks to everyone for the quick replies. I think I will be going with some form of a standard r9 290 with a custom cooler so I have some wiggle room with OC, and now I will go look into flashing the bios to a 290x honestly did not know that was a thing :)
 
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