Need help deciding which 290 to add into crossfire.

[Kespaa]

I currently have a sapphire 290 tri-x and am looking to grab a 2nd in crossfire. In Australia prices have currently come down a lot. I am playing mostly battlefield 4 at 1440p. My options are

(1) Grab a 2nd hand reference card (ex miner) and slap on a kraken g10 & h55 as well as some extra vrm heat sinks. Between $400 & $430 USD

(2) Grab a retail Gigabyte windforcex3 (non oc) currently on sale for $437 USD

(3) Grab another sapphire tri-x for $500

My priorities in order are performance --> noise --> temps

Any input would be amazing. The only reason I haven't already got the cheap Windforce is because I've read it's loud compared to the tri-x.

 

[ewok93]

If you have the cooler already, get the reference card. They're all the same chip.

 

[Kespaa]

If you have the cooler already, get the reference card. They're all the same chip.

Thanks bud, I don't have the cooler but it is included in the price I threw in my OP.

 

[ewok93]

Yeah, that's going to cool it a whole lot better than the other ones, and the cooler is the only difference between the three. Do make sure the card works and everything, used components are always a risk and you don't want to get screwed out of that much money.

 

[GuatoNoP01]

If you get the water cooling setup included with the used card then go that route. If not then I wouldn't go with an ex-mining GPU since they are rode hard and put up wet.

 

[ewok93]

I wouldn't be too concerned about a mining card, sure they get a lot of usage, but they can generally handle it.

 

[Kespaa]

If you get the water cooling setup included with the used card then go that route. If not then I wouldn't go with an ex-mining GPU since they are rode hard and put up wet.

I can get a 2nd hand card for $280 USD and a new g10 + h55 for ~$150 USD. I should have clarified that in the OP but I'm having trouble updating it for some reason.

 

[ewok93]

That seems like a really good deal to me, personally. If it were new it would be the best by far, so it really depends on how much trust you have in a used card.

 

[Kespaa]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to grab a cheap reference card and throw the g10 on it. Depending on how that goes I might even get rid off the air cooler on the tri-x.