GTX 970 vs R9 290X

[HR_Luka]

Ok, guys! This one is really tough on me. Both cards are Gigabyte's. I waged all of the cons and pros for both cards but still have problem choosing. I need both opinions. PLEASE NO AMD and NVIDIA FANBOYS. I want straight and objective reasons. I am interested into PERFORMANCE, TEMPARATURES AND NOISE. I know for Mantle and FreeSync and G-Synch as well. I know it into depth more than most. So again:
GIGABYTE R9 290X vs GIGABYTE GTX 970

 

[Jdogz427]

r9 290x will perform better, but at higher temps, higher wattage, and will as a result be louder in keeping the card cool, but again it will perform better, by how much like 5%-maybe 10% better is up to you to see if it is worth it. if you can get the 290x for 250-300 get that otherwise get the 970, or if you are willing to wait till around FEB, do that because AMD should be releasing their new 300 series GPUS, which are rumored to be even more powerful and using the same pricing scheme as the new nvidia 900 series cards. bottom line, if i were you, i would wait, because the prices would be lower in feb anyway

 

[Dunlop0078]

Personally i would go with the gtx 970 its a hell of a lot cooler so it will be a bit quieter although the gigabyte windforce is one of the loudest, it uses less power, mantle wont really help you much unless you have a weak cpu, i suppose g sync would be nice if you want to spend the money on a g sync monitor. Shadowplay on nividia is very good if you want to record gameplay. The 290x and gtx 970 trade blows game for game they are pretty evenly matched when it comes to performance.

 

[dish_moose]

Do you already have a psu? The 290x requires more power. The 970 is way more efficient which also means it produces less heat & noise. The two cards trade blow in gaming so if there is one game that you play the most maybe that will sway you to green or red.
-Bruce
Edit: Dunlop0078 - get out of my brain!(Dinner for Schmucks) ;-)

 

[deusimpervius]

lol at the ones saying gtx 970 is performing better than 290x, 290x has better performance period, but it uses more wattage and produce more heat. I heard some of the hawaii gigabytes get defects though, check newegg for reviews

 

[HR_Luka]

jdog thank you, i know for the upcoming R9 300 series. I just forgot about it when i got the money (was saving for it few months). Why not wait for them, i just hope they wont add extra hundred bucks on their price tags, that would just disappoint me. Thank you all guys.
Regards, Luka

 

[Dunlop0078]

lol at the ones saying gtx 970 is performing better than 290x, 290x has better performance period, but it uses more wattage and produce more heat. I heard some of the hawaii gigabytes get defects though, check newegg for reviews

Here are just a few benchmarks proving you wrong i can get more if you like. They trade blows in some games the 970 wins in others the 290x wins.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-10.html

 

[dish_moose]

Also - do not go to Newegg for reviews - find some trusted reviews like anandtech, bit-tech, Tom's.
-Bruce

 

[Jdogz427]

jdog thank you, i know for the upcoming R9 300 series. I just forgot about it when i got the money (was saving for it few months). Why not wait for them, i just hope they wont add extra hundred bucks on their price tags, that would just disappoint me. Thank you all guys.
Regards, Luka

Why did Stephan unselect mine as the solution, didn't you HD luka select it as the solution?

 

[dish_moose]

Well maybe because it wasn't entirely true?
-Bruce

 

[Jdogz427]

Well maybe because it wasn't entirely true?
-Bruce

What about it is not true? others have posted benchmarks showing doubts that others had.

 

[Jdogz427]

I even said that the 290x was better, but not by a significant amount, and may and is probably not worth the increased heat, noise and power.

 

[BBradley]

I recently went through this same question for my own build and did quite a bit of research on the subject.

In the majority of cases, the 970 and 290x will perform roughly the same. (Maybe fighting over 5 FPS.)

Some titles will favor the 970, while others will favor the 290x, however, the 290x will always consume more power and create more heat.

I personally would recommend the 970 as I think its a great card, especially for the price it can be purchased at, however, if you are a little short on money or just want to spend less, don't count the 290x out, it's still a heck of a card!

 

[nikoli707]

for me since i would overclock the card to a general spec on whatever air cooler the card is shipped with, if were talking 75c max gpu temps in 3dmark/unigine/crysis 3, the 970 will hammer the 290x, even a 780 is as fast or faster than the 290x at 75c. come to think of it, i dont know if you can even overclock the 290x much, maybe 1150mhz, while keep a max of 80c. there is just no thermal headroom for overclocking the hawaii cards.

thats not to say hawaii doesn't perform well. since ive seen a few deals on tri-x and twin frozr regular 290 non x card for around $240, its a screaming deal and if i was building a budget machine, they would be very high on the list next to a basic i5, bang for buck. i haven't seen many good deals on the 290x considering the 290 is so close in performance anyways and has a little more thermal headroom to overclock so it will match the 290x anyways.

but comparing hawaii to gm204 is not fair at all; gm204 is up to 25% faster at <75c