giving AMD a try..

[Brandon Holden]

I've been an Nvidia fanboy for awhile now, but now I find myself venturing into unknown territory; a territory that once left a bad taste. I haven't owned an ATI branded card for awhile now, I mean years!

I have a pretty good offering for a Xfx r9 290, the double dissipation model. It's so aesthetically pleasing compared to Nvidia's current reference and non reference cards. But does it function as well as it looks? I've been searching for hours for benchmarks but it doesn't appear to have many.

My question to you guys is, is it worth it for msrp price? My friend is pretty rich and has one that was intended for that crypto mining bullcrap but never used it. It's gotten to the point where I ask him for it everyday that he's now about to give it to me, and with the price gouging as of late it's almost free!

In this current state of technology, will I lose out on anything switching over to the red from the green? I don't intend to use gsync, nor do I care for shadow play because I really never make videos.

My setup includes
i5 4670k
8 gigs ddr3 1866
Asus gene
Xfx XTR 650W PSU

the specifications say I need a 750W psu, can I handle this btw?

I will be gaming on a 29" monitor, at a resolution of 2560 x 1080p.


Also does anyone own this card? How does it perform and what's the difference between it and a 280x??

 

[Bad_Kitty13]

you can calculate what you have in your system here

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

here is benchmarks for the dd 290

http://benchmarkreviews.com/11725/xfx-radeon-r9-290-double-dissipation-review/2/

here is benches for a giga 280x

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/R9_280X_OC/

i dont have one personally but dude if he is going to give it to you, hell yea its worth it. I heard there are some headaches with the drivers(its amd) but for a gift yes take it, you wont regret. plus amd has mantle and i forget what the audio software is but once they get it perfected it is supposed to boost the GPUs performance.

 

[FotiGames]

Although I'm a diehard NVidia fanboy, my buddy swears by ATI up and down. He has an xfx r9 290 and he loves it. Though he did complain a bit about some screen tearing that was just some driver incompatibility when he first got it.

That all being said, I wouldn't try to skate by on the PSU. At least I wouldn't risk it if there was a 100W difference against my chances. But that's just me lol.

 

[smeezekitty]

XFX is not the first choice for AMD cards, but it isn't bad either.

650w should be enough although it doesn't give you a whole lot of headroom.

That is a funny resolution you have

 

[Brandon Holden]

I don't think one needs an 850/1000 Watt psu to run one video card. That means by itself it would need to pull 600 watts a lone which is a stretch. Iirc it uses around the same power as an 780 ti. I don't plan to overclock it cause of the known issues with overheating.

 

[Bad_Kitty13]

I've been an Nvidia fanboy for awhile now, but now I find myself venturing into unknown territory; a territory that once left a bad taste. I haven't owned an ATI branded card for awhile now, I mean years!

I have a pretty good offering for a Xfx r9 290, the double dissipation model. It's so aesthetically pleasing compared to Nvidia's current reference and non reference cards. But does it function as well as it looks? I've been searching for hours for benchmarks but it doesn't appear to have many.

My question to you guys is, is it worth it for msrp price? My friend is pretty rich and has one that was intended for that crypto mining bullcrap but never used it. It's gotten to the point where I ask him for it everyday that he's now about to give it to me, and with the price gouging as of late it's almost free!

In this current state of technology, will I lose out on anything switching over to the red from the green? I don't intend to use gsync, nor do I care for shadow play because I really never make videos.

My setup includes
i5 4670k
8 gigs ddr3 1866
Asus gene
Xfx XTR 650W PSU

the specifications say I need a 750W psu, can I handle this btw?

I will be gaming on a 29" monitor, at a resolution of 2560 x 1080p.


Also does anyone own this card? How does it perform and what's the difference between it and a 280x??

I don't think one needs an 850/1000 Watt psu to run one video card. That means by itself it would need to pull 600 watts a lone which is a stretch. Iirc it uses around the same power as an 780 ti. I don't plan to overclock it cause of the known issues with overheating.

your PSU should be fine and most of the heat issues with the 290s came with the reference cooler models. the DD is a non-reference that should alleviate most of that issue. and i would be sure your case has good airflow just to be on the safe side

 

[TriBeard]

You'll be fine with that PSU. I have an R9 290 myself, and I think XFX is one of the better brands of AMD cards for sure, at least in my opinion. Mine is a reference card, which makes it a little loud sometimes, but I don't mind too much and I can always change the cooler later if it gets annoying.

I really have been happy with the card, and it's every bit as good as a 780 in most games, and better in some.