I think the R9 290X doom was premature.

[CaptainTom]

So the 980 and 970 came out and everyone acted like the sky was falling. However I think a few things need to be pointed out:

1) The 290 series is around a year old at this point. They went a full year with no price drops (Which is unheard of). Of course the 900 series would look good!
-Before you shout "BUT LITECOIN MINING" remember that the $700 780 Ti wasn't exactly putting pressure on AMD to lower prices either lol.

2) Further analysis is showing that Maxwell isn't really dominating anything in 4K, which is the market the 290 series is aimed at. Here is an interesting article that shows 290 CF = 970 SLI for less money:
http://www.techspot.com/review/898-geforce-gtx-970-sli-4k-gaming/

3) I don't think we have the full story yet. At first the 980 seemed to dominate in every game, but more and more games are coming out that prove the 290X does indeed trade blows with the 980 fairly often. Yes, the 980 uses 30% less energy (In gaming) but it also costs 40% more.
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Ryse-PC-259308/Specials/Test-Technik-1138543/
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Sniper-Elite-3-Performance-Maxwell-vs-Hawaii-DX11-vs-Mantle
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Middle-earth-Shadow-Mordor-Performance-Testing/4K-Testing-and-Closing-Thought?page=1
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_980_STRIX_OC/12.html

I guess what I am saying is that with the inevitable price-cuts made to the Rx 200 line, AMD is in my opinion still totally competitive with the Nvidia's latest series. Yes in 1080p the 900 series will always win, but who in their right mind gets an ultra high end GPU for 1080p these days?! PLEASE keep in mind that I am not trying to prove the 200 series dominance in any way. I am just saying that it really isn't as bad as most initially thought.

 

[abCasPeRR]

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

 

[renz496]

Just let people pick which ever card they think worth their money. Instead worrying about 290X/290 maybe you should worry about AMD in general.

You said no one buying ultra high end GPU to use it with 1080p monitors but in reality many did so.

 

[cst1992]

GPUs aren't really ready for 4k yet. Framerates are fairly low at 4k for most games.

 

[TheAterix]

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I by far agree with you on that apple compared to nvidia statement, but personally, im a bit of an AMD fanboy, and will stick by them... but i agree with you, nvidia have no need to kill AMD, they may aswell earn a few extra ££ per card and keep their fans and AMD can keep theirs....
But I think AMD have no reason to do pricecuts on the 290(x) because it dosent matter... £300 for the power output it gives, is an incredible deal, especially 1 year ago when i got my 290, which btw was £310 and beat the 980 which was over £140 more...
Overall, i like things the way they are, BUT when amd release their next series i personally think they will tank nvidia into the sky, piss on them, and go bye bye... just like they did with the 780... fair enough, the 780ti came out and AMD had no real answer... BUT i think it was too close and therefore pointless, but i think if they came out with something to target them i think it would of been better for us all...

 

[CaptainTom]

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I by far agree with you on that apple compared to nvidia statement, but personally, im a bit of an AMD fanboy, and will stick by them... but i agree with you, nvidia have no need to kill AMD, they may aswell earn a few extra ££ per card and keep their fans and AMD can keep theirs....
But I think AMD have no reason to do pricecuts on the 290(x) because it dosent matter... £300 for the power output it gives, is an incredible deal, especially 1 year ago when i got my 290, which btw was £310 and beat the 980 which was over £140 more...
Overall, i like things the way they are, BUT when amd release their next series i personally think they will tank nvidia into the sky, piss on them, and go bye bye... just like they did with the 780... fair enough, the 780ti came out and AMD had no real answer... BUT i think it was too close and therefore pointless, but i think if they came out with something to target them i think it would of been better for us all...

Yeah it's pretty clear by how Nvidia priced their new cards that they were scared by how capable the 290X was. Nvidia honestly thought they could become the Intel of GPU's and started charging $1000 for their cards. However I don't get why they thought AMD couldn't reach their performance levels. I mean:

-5000 series dominated for a year and a half to only get beaten by a card that is only 20% stronger for WAYYY more money and power usage (480).

-The 7970 seemed easy to beat until a higher clocked version and a driver update allowed AMD to clean house until finally a $1000 card beat it.

But yeah I honestly think the 390X will double the 290X's framerates. HBM, 20nm, 4224 SP's, and liquid cooling to give it crazy high stock clocks. No Prisoners.

 

[CaptainTom]

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I wasn't trying to start a flame war FYI. The 980 seriously impressed me, but things have changed pretty quickly in under a month. I just hope people double check the facts before they make any purchases recommendations.

 

[TheAterix]

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I by far agree with you on that apple compared to nvidia statement, but personally, im a bit of an AMD fanboy, and will stick by them... but i agree with you, nvidia have no need to kill AMD, they may aswell earn a few extra ££ per card and keep their fans and AMD can keep theirs....
But I think AMD have no reason to do pricecuts on the 290(x) because it dosent matter... £300 for the power output it gives, is an incredible deal, especially 1 year ago when i got my 290, which btw was £310 and beat the 980 which was over £140 more...
Overall, i like things the way they are, BUT when amd release their next series i personally think they will tank nvidia into the sky, piss on them, and go bye bye... just like they did with the 780... fair enough, the 780ti came out and AMD had no real answer... BUT i think it was too close and therefore pointless, but i think if they came out with something to target them i think it would of been better for us all...

Yeah it's pretty clear by how Nvidia priced their new cards that they were scared by how capable the 290X was. Nvidia honestly thought they could become the Intel of GPU's and started charging $1000 for their cards. However I don't get why they thought AMD couldn't reach their performance levels. I mean:

-5000 series dominated for a year and a half to only get beaten by a card that is only 20% stronger for WAYYY more money and power usage (480).

-The 7970 seemed easy to beat until a higher clocked version and a driver update allowed AMD to clean house until finally a $1000 card beat it.

But yeah I honestly think the 390X will double the 290X's framerates. HBM, 20nm, 4224 SP's, and liquid cooling to give it crazy high stock clocks. No Prisoners.

Believe me, its about 5 messages away.... 'But... But... Nvidia are cooler 😛... just no... 😉
But yeah, i think they are keeping us waiting for the 390x for a reason, and thats because its a beasttttt

 

[TheAterix]

http://wccftech.com/amd-20nm-r9-390x-feautres-20nm-hbm-9x-faster-than-gddr5/

Just going to leave that there 😉

 

[renz496]

And that's only rumor. There were talks about the next radeon will use HBM. well yeah the 7k series also got hyped to use rambus XDR2 (to the point even amd marketing make a post on it on twitter) but in the end XDR2 never happen. So far wccftech only picked up all the rumor and make their own speculation just to have an article to post. Personally I trust VCZ more. And unlike wccftech VCZ did not make speculation based on older speculation just to generate site click.

 

[abCasPeRR]

Just let people pick which ever card they think worth their money. Instead worrying about 290X/290 maybe you should worry about AMD in general.

You said no one buying ultra high end GPU to use it with 1080p monitors but in reality many did so.

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I by far agree with you on that apple compared to nvidia statement, but personally, im a bit of an AMD fanboy, and will stick by them... but i agree with you, nvidia have no need to kill AMD, they may aswell earn a few extra ££ per card and keep their fans and AMD can keep theirs....
But I think AMD have no reason to do pricecuts on the 290(x) because it dosent matter... £300 for the power output it gives, is an incredible deal, especially 1 year ago when i got my 290, which btw was £310 and beat the 980 which was over £140 more...
Overall, i like things the way they are, BUT when amd release their next series i personally think they will tank nvidia into the sky, piss on them, and go bye bye... just like they did with the 780... fair enough, the 780ti came out and AMD had no real answer... BUT i think it was too close and therefore pointless, but i think if they came out with something to target them i think it would of been better for us all...

To be honest. AMD cards are very good, money wise, price/performance wise too. But imo, I think video cards are more of a personal opinion. I know there are cards better than my 780's I know I could have saved more going with 2 amd cards and gotten better performance, but I like NVIDIA. I dont like AMD. And I think that's how its always going to be. Just like how apple is WAY overpriced, I mean WAYYYY overpriced. But a lot of people just like apple, regardless of how much they're over paying. Now, this has been brought up a ton, and I will fully stand behind it, not just because I use only NVIDIA cards. But NVIDIA could definitely make they're cards the same price as AMD, even probably less and then what would happen, AMD would be done. But they dont want that, they're the only competitors in the market. So I personally think the whole "amd is cheaper and better than nvidia" discussions are a little old because I know, and tons of other people as well, all know that its true, but I will still stick with nvidia regardless of how much more they cost.

I wasn't trying to start a flame war FYI. The 980 seriously impressed me, but things have changed pretty quickly in under a month. I just hope people double check the facts before they make any purchases recommendations.

There's no flame war or anything starting? What do you mean?