GTX 970 G1 VS R9 290x TRI-OC

[overlordofdoom1]

I'm building my first pc and can't decide which one

R9 290x tri-oc: http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202079&cm_re=r9_290x-_-14-202-079-_-Product or http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127787&cm_re=r9_290x-_-14-127-787-_-Product

or

gtx 970 g1 :http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684&cm_re=gtx_970_g1-_-14-125-684-_-Product

I would like to know which one is more future proof and will perform better in the furture and will be better in crossfire/sli and since if i get a 970 i will get the maximus v1 hero which has 3 way sli so would it be worth it in the future will it give me 2x the performance of a single 970 also eurogamer shows the 970 to be better: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review

my processor is the i5 4690k and the psu is the evga 750 watt 80 gold

 

[VincentP]

Which one of these is faster depends very much on the game. Have a look at benchmarks for the particular game you are interested in.
Your power supply may also be a factor. The GTX 970 is rated at 145W while the R9 290X is rated at 250W.
As a rough estimate with 3-way SLI or Crossfire, that is an 850W supply for 3 x GTX 970s or a 1300W supply for 3 x R9 290X cards.
For a single card, minimum 450W with the GTX 970 or 600W with the R9 290X.
SLI generally has more consistent performance than Crossfire, but again it will depend on the game.

 

[Gaidax]

Well I have 290X Tri-X and it's a wonderful card. I am pretty sure 970 is also a good card.

I do wonder what would you need 3-way SLI/Crossfire for exactly?

At any rate, unless you are in some sort of rush and can't wait, I suggest you wait a bit for AMD to whip out their 300 series, which is pretty much imminent now and will obliterate all.

EDIT - 1 important thing! 290X Tri-X is not a 2 slot card... it's more like 2.1 slot card... seemingly a minor detail, but it can be a huge headache for Crossfire or may block other expansion slots.

For example in my motherboard it blocks a PCI-E x1 slot, which kinda sucks.

 

[Undying89]

Dont forget that 970 is a 208 bit card with 3.5GB Vram. It uses less power but those specs isnt very appealing to me.

 

[plywrlw]

If you're going for multiple gpu's i.e sli or crossfire I'd advise against the 970

This is because it only has 3.5gb of useful vRAM. This isn't a problem in most games at 1080p BUT will be a problem with the sort of high resolution big texture setups multiple gpu's are required for

 

[overlordofdoom1]

Well I have 290X Tri-X and it's a wonderful card. I am pretty sure 970 is also a good card.

I do wonder what would you need 3-way SLI/Crossfire for exactly?

At any rate, unless you are in some sort of rush and can't wait, I suggest you wait a bit for AMD to whip out their 300 series, which is pretty much imminent now and will obliterate all.

EDIT - 1 important thing! 290X Tri-X is not a 2 slot card... it's more like 2.1 slot card... seemingly a minor detail, but it can be a huge headache for Crossfire or may block other expansion slots.

For example in my motherboard it blocks a PCI-E x1 slot, which kinda sucks.

well it's more of a future proof thing because im most likely not going to upgrade in the future

 

[overlordofdoom1]

If you're going for multiple gpu's i.e sli or crossfire I'd advise against the 970

This is because it only has 3.5gb of useful vRAM. This isn't a problem in most games at 1080p BUT will be a problem with the sort of high resolution big texture setups multiple gpu's are required for

alright thanks im going with the up coming 300 series cards as long as they're not expensive

 

[Gaidax]

Dont forget that 970 is a 208 bit card with 3.5GB Vram. It uses less power but those specs isnt very appealing to me.

And this matters because?

As a proud owner of R9 290X (and thus can't be accused of some sort of Nvidia fanboism) the whole thing with 970 is just a bunch of misunderstandings that got blown out of proportion and have little to do with real world applications. People can't even replicate the 3.5GB thing 100%.

 

[VincentP]

Well I have 290X Tri-X and it's a wonderful card. I am pretty sure 970 is also a good card.

I do wonder what would you need 3-way SLI/Crossfire for exactly?

At any rate, unless you are in some sort of rush and can't wait, I suggest you wait a bit for AMD to whip out their 300 series, which is pretty much imminent now and will obliterate all.

EDIT - 1 important thing! 290X Tri-X is not a 2 slot card... it's more like 2.1 slot card... seemingly a minor detail, but it can be a huge headache for Crossfire or may block other expansion slots.

For example in my motherboard it blocks a PCI-E x1 slot, which kinda sucks.

well it's more of a future proof thing because im most likely not going to upgrade in the future

I don't think adding additional cards in Crossfire or SLI has ever been a good way to improve performance when your PC starts to get a bit old.
The latest graphics cards double in performance every three years or so. Games increase their requirements in roughly the same time to make use of the available resources. These cards also have increased video memory.
Some people may like to call the GTX 970 a 3.5 GB card. 3.5 GB or 4 GB isn't going to matter.
Once you start using Crossfire or SLI though, each card uses its own memory and hence your effective video memory is still 3.5 GB or 4 GB.
At the same time new cards will be coming out with 6 GB or 8 GB and games will start to use it.
You also get much more reliable performance out of a single faster card than SLI or Crossfire.

The only way I see a place for SLI or Crossfire is where you are building a system that needs that sort of GPU power today. An example right now would be 4K gaming.

The AMD RX 300 series should be good when it gets here. What delayed both Nvidia and AMD in releasing new cards at the end of last year was problems with the manufacturing process below 28nm. Nvidia decided it was better to release Maxwell on 28 nm than wait for the new process, and this has produced the GTX 750, 750 Ti, 970 and 980.
I don't think anyone outside of AMD and their suppliers knows when these cards will really be released, or if they will be on a 20nm or 16nm process.
Equally, I don't think anyone outside of Nvidia and their suppliers knows when their next gen cards will be released, or if these will be a die shrink of Maxwell or the new Pascal architecture.

What you can always count on is that any graphics card you buy today will be disappointing compared to new cards in two years time. If you are not in a hurry, we can expect some pretty major improvements in the next 6 to 12 months even.
When you buy, get the best card to suit your budget and the performance you want and plan to upgrade the card in two to three years if you want to still be able to have the same level of performance from newer games.