McDuncun :
Why you dont buy a R9 290?
Because the 970 is better than the 290, if want to compete with the 970 you have to get a 290X...
The R9 290 ist nearly simmilar to the R9 290X, the problem ist, that in benchmarks people take the refernce design, but if you overclock your R9 290 it is as good as the R9 290X. The GTX 970 ist more expensive and has this 3.5GB VRAM...
Dude in every tread there`s a fanboy who does no research... Yes the AMD`s can overclock and no the non-x versions do not overclock to their x version counterparts because that is stupid and makes no sense. Then all x versions are null and void and should be taken off the market...
The 970 does not only have 3.5Gb of VRAM, you only read the title of the article you were supposed to read.It has 4gb of VRAM with 512mb of that just being slower than the rest but that does not change the fact that even if you OC a 290 to 5Ghz clock speed it wont be better than the 970, if you want a 970 competitor get the 290X...
I thank you, and bid you farewell...