R9 290 vs gtx 780

[jamisan601]

So I was dead set on getting a 780 in my gaming build until I noticed that the r9 290 has dropped from $500 - $380 which is AMAZING , so now I don't know if the 780 is worth it anymore due to the very similar performance and the very large price difference. Which would you recommend?

 

[Sakkura]

Get an R9 290 with a good cooler. Nvidia needs to respond with a price adjusment on the GTX 780, until/unless that happens the 290 is going to be a better buy.

 

[laviniuc]

if that radeon is the reference design it's probably a bad idea. if it's custom cooler then go for it.

 

[ChrisR83]

I would say stick with the 780, as a previous AMD owner I was not very impressed with their drivers and other small issues. I recently upgraded my hd 7970 to a 780 ti dual classified, and I couldn’t be happier. I never used to record my game play, but now with shadowplay I have been doing allot of recording. I like that you can set it up to where say something awesome happens, you can hit one button and the last (xx minutes you have set will be saved). IMO NVIDIA does allot better job with their drivers, keeping them updated and fixing issues. There are other reasons why I like NVIDIA but I don’t want to start an argument. Good luck!

They are both powerful cards that will provide great FPS in games. So it just comes down to your budget and personal preference.

 

[joselo025]

I would say go for the r9 290 is cheaper and performance the same as the gtx 780

 

[jamisan601]

I would say stick with the 780, as a previous AMD owner I was not very impressed with their drivers and other small issues. I recently upgraded my hd 7970 to a 780 ti dual classified, and I couldn’t be happier. I never used to record my game play, but now with shadowplay I have been doing allot of recording. I like that you can set it up to where say something awesome happens, you can hit one button and the last (xx minutes you have set will be saved). IMO NVIDIA does allot better job with their drivers, keeping them updated and fixing issues. There are other reasons why I like NVIDIA but I don’t want to start an argument. Good luck!

They are both powerful cards that will provide great FPS in games. So it just comes down to your budget and personal preference.

Thanks! Good to hear from a previous AMD user. I plan to do some recording as well, so I think I'll stick with the 780 and hope for a price drop to match the 290.

 

[yodeiu]

I'd go for whatever's cheaper, both cards have similar performance. The way I see it, the advantages of AMD are: 4GB VRAM and 512-bit bus width, Mantle API. While the advantages of Nvidia are: Shadowplay and, supposedly, better driver support.

The 4GB VRAM on AMD might not matter now, but in the future, who knows? Battlefield 4 is sometimes using 2100+ MB VRAM on my R9 290, 780 has 3GB VRAM. It's good to have 4GB, especially if you intend to keep this GPU a while longer, like myself.
Mantle API, only a small FPS increase for me, because I have an Intel i5 CPU, this is an advantage with lower-end AMD/Intel CPUs. Then again, this might come in handy in the future, when my i5 is going to get older, Mantle is going to squeeze more FPS from a game, as it removes CPU Bottleneck.
Shadowplay is good if you want to record you gameplay, although you can have something simillar with AMD, as it has an encoding chip like Nvidia's NVCE. With MSI Afterburner, you can use the AMD VCE or, with a Intel CPU, you can use Intel QuickSync, which, considering Afterburner's benchmark, is faster at encoding than NVCE, AMD VCE beign the slowest, for now.
For the driver support, yes, Nvidia has more features within Nvidia Control Panel, like custom resolution etc, but that's about it, I've never had any issues with AMD drivers, and I've been only using the betas.

 

[jamisan601]

I'd go for whatever's cheaper, both cards have similar performance. The way I see it, the advantages of AMD are: 4GB VRAM and 512-bit bus width, Mantle API. While the advantages of Nvidia are: Shadowplay and, supposedly, better driver support.

The 4GB VRAM on AMD might not matter now, but in the future, who knows? Battlefield 4 is sometimes using 2100+ MB VRAM on my R9 290, 780 has 3GB VRAM. It's good to have 4GB, especially if you intend to keep this GPU a while longer, like myself.
Mantle API, only a small FPS increase for me, because I have an Intel i5 CPU, this is an advantage with lower-end AMD/Intel CPUs. Then again, this might come in handy in the future, when my i5 is going to get older, Mantle is going to squeeze more FPS from a game, as it removes CPU Bottleneck.
Shadowplay is good if you want to record you gameplay, although you can have something simillar with AMD, as it has an encoding chip like Nvidia's NVCE. With MSI Afterburner, you can use the AMD VCE or, with a Intel CPU, you can use Intel QuickSync, which, considering Afterburner's benchmark, is faster at encoding than NVCE, AMD VCE beign the slowest, for now.
For the driver support, yes, Nvidia has more features within Nvidia Control Panel, like custom resolution etc, but that's about it, I've never had any issues with AMD drivers, and I've been only using the betas.

What cooler is on your 290 and what temps do you get, I've heard the temps are pretty hot, so if I get one I'd want a decent cooler with good temps.

 

[ConfuciusSayyy]

I would say stick with the 780, as a previous AMD owner I was not very impressed with their drivers and other small issues. I recently upgraded my hd 7970 to a 780 ti dual classified, and I couldn’t be happier. I never used to record my game play, but now with shadowplay I have been doing allot of recording. I like that you can set it up to where say something awesome happens, you can hit one button and the last (xx minutes you have set will be saved). IMO NVIDIA does allot better job with their drivers, keeping them updated and fixing issues. There are other reasons why I like NVIDIA but I don’t want to start an argument. Good luck!

They are both powerful cards that will provide great FPS in games. So it just comes down to your budget and personal preference.

Hopefully the price drops before the Watch Dogs offer ends. That game looks sick