One AMD R9 295x2 vs Two AMD R9 390x’s (crossfire) vs Two Nvidia GTX 980’s (SLI) – help me decide

[Volxen]

I’m having quite a difficult time trying to choose the most optimal graphic card(s) for a 4K gaming PC that I am in the process of building. I want to be able to game at 4K resolution on high/ultra settings and maintain 60+ FPS as much as possible. I’m willing to spend up to $1,000 on graphic cards, but I also want a solution that is truly going to be the best bang for my buck.

So far, I’m considering three options (but I am certainly open to other suggestions!) for graphics:
1) One AMD R9 295x2 (automatically crossfire) (cost: ~$750)
2) Two AMD R9 390x’s (crossfire) (cost: ~$880)
3) Two Nvidia GTX 980’s (SLI) (cost: ~$1,000)

My first question is, is there even any difference between one 295x2 and two 390x’s? My understanding is that the 390x is just a rehash of the 290x with more memory, and the 295x2 is two 290x’s on one card. Would two 390x’s in crossfire outperform the 295x2, or would the performance be about the same? If there is no performance gain, I would prefer the 295x2 for two reasons 1) its cheaper and 2) it already comes with a radiator, fan, and a closed-loop liquid cooling solution, whereas the 390x does not.

And this brings me to my next question. Is it true that, in general, an AMD card will run much hotter and use a lot more power than its equivalent Nvidia counterpart? If I did end up going with two 390x’s, would I need to purchase a separate liquid cooling solution for both of the cards to keep their temperatures at a reasonable level?

On the Nvidia side, would two 980’s in SLI be worth it? I know two 980’s in SLI are extremely powerful, but given the cost of this option compared to the two AMD options, would the cost of this solution truly be worth it? Would this solution outperform the AMD solutions? Would these two cards require the purchase of a separate liquid cooling solution to manage their temperatures?

Finally, how many watts will my power supply need to support all of these options?

Also, feel free to suggest and recommend graphic card solutions other than those I listed (but please explain why you are recommending it).

 

[Dragos Manea]

r9 295 wont be able to be game 4k 60 fps+ all games on high, safest choice to game how do you want is 2x980 ti, not even 2 980 wont be able to game 60+ at 4k. If u cant afford 2 980 ti, best next choice is 2 980.

 

[2ez4SlayZ]

I’m having quite a difficult time trying to choose the most optimal graphic card(s) for a 4K gaming PC that I am in the process of building. I want to be able to game at 4K resolution on high/ultra settings and maintain 60+ FPS as much as possible. I’m willing to spend up to $1,000 on graphic cards, but I also want a solution that is truly going to be the best bang for my buck.

So far, I’m considering three options (but I am certainly open to other suggestions!) for graphics:
1) One AMD R9 295x2 (automatically crossfire) (cost: ~$750)
2) Two AMD R9 390x’s (crossfire) (cost: ~$880)
3) Two Nvidia GTX 980’s (SLI) (cost: ~$1,000)

My first question is, is there even any difference between one 295x2 and two 390x’s? My understanding is that the 390x is just a rehash of the 290x with more memory, and the 295x2 is two 290x’s on one card. Would two 390x’s in crossfire outperform the 295x2, or would the performance be about the same? If there is no performance gain, I would prefer the 295x2 for two reasons 1) its cheaper and 2) it already comes with a radiator, fan, and a closed-loop liquid cooling solution, whereas the 390x does not.

And this brings me to my next question. Is it true that, in general, an AMD card will run much hotter and use a lot more power than its equivalent Nvidia counterpart? If I did end up going with two 390x’s, would I need to purchase a separate liquid cooling solution for both of the cards to keep their temperatures at a reasonable level?

On the Nvidia side, would two 980’s in SLI be worth it? I know two 980’s in SLI are extremely powerful, but given the cost of this option compared to the two AMD options, would the cost of this solution truly be worth it? Would this solution outperform the AMD solutions? Would these two cards require the purchase of a separate liquid cooling solution to manage their temperatures?

Finally, how many watts will my power supply need to support all of these options?

Also, feel free to suggest and recommend graphic card solutions other than those I listed (but please explain why you are recommending it).

390x crossfire, don't even consider the 980, if you can buy 2 980ti then go for it but if not, get the 2 390x.

 

[Nathanael Freihart]

390x Crossfire, defenetly.
A single 390x already oushes the 980 at higher resolutions, and with double the vram it will also be able to scale better in Crossfire than the 980 can withits 4gb shared Vram, besides that you also could think about FuryX CF instead of 980Ti SLI,because it scales far better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUY32Mq4dlY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9BZ_3SMfs
http://www.hardware.fr/focus/111/crossfire-radeon-r9-fury-x-fiji-vs-gm200-round-2.html

390x cf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-qRwJn_RdA

 

[Nazrial]

I’m having quite a difficult time trying to choose the most optimal graphic card(s) for a 4K gaming PC that I am in the process of building. I want to be able to game at 4K resolution on high/ultra settings and maintain 60+ FPS as much as possible. I’m willing to spend up to $1,000 on graphic cards, but I also want a solution that is truly going to be the best bang for my buck.

So far, I’m considering three options (but I am certainly open to other suggestions!) for graphics:
1) One AMD R9 295x2 (automatically crossfire) (cost: ~$750)
2) Two AMD R9 390x’s (crossfire) (cost: ~$880)
3) Two Nvidia GTX 980’s (SLI) (cost: ~$1,000)

My first question is, is there even any difference between one 295x2 and two 390x’s? My understanding is that the 390x is just a rehash of the 290x with more memory, and the 295x2 is two 290x’s on one card. Would two 390x’s in crossfire outperform the 295x2, or would the performance be about the same? If there is no performance gain, I would prefer the 295x2 for two reasons 1) its cheaper and 2) it already comes with a radiator, fan, and a closed-loop liquid cooling solution, whereas the 390x does not.

And this brings me to my next question. Is it true that, in general, an AMD card will run much hotter and use a lot more power than its equivalent Nvidia counterpart? If I did end up going with two 390x’s, would I need to purchase a separate liquid cooling solution for both of the cards to keep their temperatures at a reasonable level?

On the Nvidia side, would two 980’s in SLI be worth it? I know two 980’s in SLI are extremely powerful, but given the cost of this option compared to the two AMD options, would the cost of this solution truly be worth it? Would this solution outperform the AMD solutions? Would these two cards require the purchase of a separate liquid cooling solution to manage their temperatures?

Finally, how many watts will my power supply need to support all of these options?

Also, feel free to suggest and recommend graphic card solutions other than those I listed (but please explain why you are recommending it).

 

[rcald2000]

If you opt for two 295x2's in CF then you'll definitely need a 1500-1600 watt power supply. I'd either opt for Corsair AX1500i, EVGA 1600 G2 or EVGA 1600 P2. The first and third options are platinum rated, which I think is the better bet. The reason is because higher efficiency is important when you're dealing with that much wattage on a home's single circuit. 50 watt input could be the difference bet tripping a breaker or not.

If you opt for two 980 Ti's then I'd go for the EVGA 1300 G2; I own these. Even though 850 would technically fulfill the requirement, I want to know that I can overclock the CPU and GPU's, and not worry about pulling too much power.


*** power requirements for graphics cards ***

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

 

[rcald2000]

Turns out that I misspoke about the Corsair AX1500i. It's titanium rated, not platinum. Corsair has that cool software that tells you the power usage, but has the old school ribbon motherboard power cable, which I find annoying. I love the idea of that software, but I prefer EVGA power supplies. You'd be set with either option though. Watch the review below. I just want you to know what you're in for, as far as massive power requirement for two 295X2's.

OverKILL3D 295X2 Crossfire Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPZe244Ufv0

 

[bystander]

He's not planning to buy two of those, so that doesn't even matter. It's 1 295x2, or 2 of the other choices.

I'd likely go with the 390x CF.

 

[rcald2000]

Ah, so he is. Guess I was more tired last night than I realized. Well the OverKILL3D article is very interesting just the same. Thanks for catching my oversight.

 

[rcald2000]

@Volven

Addendum: I remembered this review I saw last month from Jay. He was comparing high-end Nvidia cards. For 4K gaming, for your budget of $1,000, he recommended two 980 (not Ti) in SLI for 4K gaming. I've pasted the link below and given you the precise time index to jump to, if you don't care to watch the entire review.

* Personally, if I was upgrading to 4K gaming, I'd seriously consider two 980 Ti's. I presume that this has already occurred to you but I recognize that this is prohibitively expensive at a $1,300 cost for two reference cards. Jay is a very well known source and he has almost 375,000 subscribers on YouTube, so it's worth hearing what he has to say.

! Skip to 9:35 (min:sec)
JayzTwoCents - 970 SLI Benchmarked vs 980Ti and Titan X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RyNNlKbJw

 

[K_George]

390x CF is way more better sli 980's at least at 2k or higher...just imagine the vram is a reservoir and the bandwidth is the pipe and the clock speed is u pushing water(information) thru the pipe and the 390x has almost double the size of the pipe (512 vs 256, which in crossfire doubles but the size of the reservoir stays the same) and the reservoir is double the size...so you would end up filling the 4GB reservoir a lot faster with the 390x "pipe" than the 980's "pipe" so you would be able to process more information in less time...and the 390x CF would be more futureproff cuz it has a lot more vram so...in my opinion this is the best option here and u just have to set the fan curve, so the fans start earlier cuz they are set to start when the gpu hits I'm not sure but I think 40/50 Celsius so u set it to start a lil faster end solved they wont go upper than 70 under benchmarking and games don't stress them so much

 

[K_George]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2730077/390-crossfire-gtx-980.html
At the end of this post is a guy who said that he played 4k a lot of games with 390x CF and hit average more than 60 FPS

 

[JasonL265]

out of the ones you listed i would say:

390X crossfire > 980 SLI > 295x2

But if you can do 980ti SLI that would be the best choice.

 

[K_George]

But he said he can't afford two 980ti...so I think the best solution if he can wait is to buy a 980ti and wait 3months or 6 til he can gather enough money for another 980 ti which would be surprisingly fast 4k gaming pc but one 980ti is able to handle the job with near results close to 60 fps average... :/

 

[rcald2000]

Two things:

(1) @Volxen, did you already make a choice and purchase? I ask because this message thread is six months old. And also

(2) This is a very different conversation now. Why? Because You can now purchase an open box Asus GTX 980 Ti for $589.99 on NewEgg. A new MSI GTX 980 Ti LE can be purchased for $619.99. So while buying two of these cards still cost a lot of money, it's not quite the financial burden it was a half year ago.

 

[17seconds]

This quote from HardOCP is going to apply to any Crossfire setup.

Quote:
"AMD Radeon R9 Fury and Fury X have all this great scaling and efficiency going for it in terms of hardware but have two things holding them back. The first is software and CrossFire profiling. Simply put, CrossFire support isn't as good from AMD as it is with NVIDIA in regards to SLI. Where there is a lack of CrossFire profile updates through driver releases there is also broken CrossFire in games that are a year old and bad frame stuttering in other games."
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/10/06/amd_radeon_r9_fury_x_crossfire_at_4k_review/10#.VoyG0xUrKUk

 

[carlosriosness]

just want to give my opinion on this. i use to have 660sli and moved to a 295x2 card. one fact off the bat, everyone says you need a 1000+w for a 295x2. NOT TRUE. i power an OC'd 4770k, OC'd 295x2, multiple drives and fans all with a hx850i psu. now it is a platinum rated power supply. but corsair link says my psu usually brings in about 750w under load.

i was in between 970sli or the 295x2. they are pretty much the same thing. i just happened to get a 3 month old 295x2 for $550, so i bit.

295x2 Pros:
the 295x2 is really efficient for what it is. i replaced the thermal pads and paste (with kryonaut). i OC'd the card and my temps are around 65c
the all in one cooler is awesome
mini dp to hdmi 2.0 adapter has been released. i bought it, it works!
i get 60fps with high settings on GTA V
new crimson amd software is good (amd promises 6 major updates this year, along with game release minor updates)

295x2 Cons:
some games dont like CF, so just cause 3 sucks a lot. fallout 4 sucks a little

980sli Pros:
more powerful then 295x2
takes less power then a 295x2

980sli cons:
the price to performance ratio is bad

390x pros:
most powerful option of your 3 possiblities

390x cons:
a lot of power
cooling will be an issue
some games dont like cf
requires a separate adapter from club3d to get 4k 60hz on a 4k tv (unless you are using a monitor or your tv has a dp port)


so if your main goal is performance for your dollar and best performance. the 390x is the best choice. but you will want a quality psu and a good case with good fans to push the air out.

also some card manufactures allow you to take apart the cards and retain warranty. you might consider replacing thermal paste and pads on day one (though that will set you back another $50 or so)

if you want the setup that will perform very well but with even less worry (regarding heat or power). the 980 sli is the best choice. (though you will still want good airflow with any sli/cf setup)

 

[The Zealot]

just want to give my opinion on this. i use to have 660sli and moved to a 295x2 card. one fact off the bat, everyone says you need a 1000+w for a 295x2. NOT TRUE. i power an OC'd 4770k, OC'd 295x2, multiple drives and fans all with a hx850i psu. now it is a platinum rated power supply. but corsair link says my psu usually brings in about 750w under load.

i was in between 970sli or the 295x2. they are pretty much the same thing. i just happened to get a 3 month old 295x2 for $550, so i bit.

295x2 Pros:
the 295x2 is really efficient for what it is. i replaced the thermal pads and paste (with kryonaut). i OC'd the card and my temps are around 65c
the all in one cooler is awesome
mini dp to hdmi 2.0 adapter has been released. i bought it, it works!
i get 60fps with high settings on GTA V
new crimson amd software is good (amd promises 6 major updates this year, along with game release minor updates)

295x2 Cons:
some games dont like CF, so just cause 3 sucks a lot. fallout 4 sucks a little

980sli Pros:
more powerful then 295x2
takes less power then a 295x2

980sli cons:
the price to performance ratio is bad

390x pros:
most powerful option of your 3 possiblities

390x cons:
a lot of power
cooling will be an issue
some games dont like cf
requires a separate adapter from club3d to get 4k 60hz on a 4k tv (unless you are using a monitor or your tv has a dp port)


so if your main goal is performance for your dollar and best performance. the 390x is the best choice. but you will want a quality psu and a good case with good fans to push the air out.

also some card manufactures allow you to take apart the cards and retain warranty. you might consider replacing thermal paste and pads on day one (though that will set you back another $50 or so)

if you want the setup that will perform very well but with even less worry (regarding heat or power). the 980 sli is the best choice. (though you will still want good airflow with any sli/cf setup)

Great post, thank you Carlos.

 

[johndnn]

You know for a pair of r9 390x cards ranging in price from 710 to 800 on newegg you can not really go wrong, yes the 295x2 is better then one 390, it is not better then 2 390's and in some bench marks the 390 out performed the 295, so if I had the money I would go with 2 r9 390's you can not really go wrong, yes I would by water blocks at 150 each and water cool them, but not something you have to do, nor do right away, so I would say cheaper better option for you, and the 295 does have a built in water cooler, but if it fails you are out a lot, and life expectancy is 5 years on it, but warranty is 2 years, so if you have not decided yet, there is a very good option for you, also, maybe come on back and let us know what you decided and how everything worked out for you. Good luck

 

[johndnn]

And one last note for you, the new amd 395 is rumored to launch in early April with 16gb's so if you have not purchased anything as of yet I would say wait, let's see what comes out and how well it all works together

 

[johndnn]

Also look at the amd 295x2, yes a great card no I can not even afford half of this card, but you can and so many did or will buy one, understand in the end this is for the most part 2 r9 290 gpu's in crossfire. Nothing really more, because of the way it is designed it will run slightly faster then the 2 cards, but not noticeable speed. But the cost of such is nearly 3 times what 2 r9 290 cards will cost. And the new 395x2 is nothing more then a r9 390 gpu's in crossfire, but I am sure it to will sell for I would think 1200 to 1600 when released, if there is a demand resalers will mark it even higher, so do your self a favor and everyone do the same, just get the 2 r9 390 cards and you will not go wrong

 

[TheGlenlivet]

I just purchased 2 of the ASUS R9 390x cards From Fry's for $359 each ($20 rebate). I just bought them last night so I haven't tested them yet. I am only running 1440p, so should I expect to get 60 FPS+ at Ultra settings with AA full on most games? I am kind of fearing that I only have PCIe 2.0 and with bridgeless crossfire, although I am able to run both slots at full 16x at the same time and they are spaced apart so the heat issue should be better since its a non reference blower.