Should I go for the AMD Radeon 290x or the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780?

[zelfax]

I have read conflicting reviews on both the 290x and the 780. The 290x is slightly cheaper and apparently smashes the 780 performance wise but I'm curious about the quality of the AMD cards. I am building a £2000 water cooled gaming rig so any suggestions you have would be very welcome.

Build:
Intel Core i7-4790K Socket 1150 'Devils Canyon' Processor
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Dual Bios Classified Hydro Copper/ 290x of some kind
MSI Z97 XPOWER AC
Corsair Memory Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Corsair CP-9020078-UK CS750M 750W Hybrid Modular Power Supply

 

[Scampi]

R9 290X is comparable to the GTX 780ti.

R9 290 (non-X) is comparable to the GTX 780.

Get a better quality PSU, Seasonic (G or X series), XFX (XTR), Coolermaster (V or VS) or EVGA (Supernova G2).

 

[BleedingEdgeTek]

The 290x is right in between a 780 and 780 Ti, so it's definitely something to look at when priced similarly. If you're looking at a crazy high budget like that, I would go dual 290x, but you'll want a great power supply to do that, as an overclocked system with a pair of 290x in Crossfire will top out around 700w+, with peaks even higher. The new EVGA SuperNova 1000G2 is perfect for your situation:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $149.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-04 15:56 EDT-0400)

Great price, and superb quality built by Super Flower.

 

[zelfax]

The 290x is right in between a 780 and 780 Ti, so it's definitely something to look at when priced similarly. If you're looking at a crazy high budget like that, I would go dual 290x, but you'll want a great power supply to do that, as an overclocked system with a pair of 290x in Crossfire will top out around 700w+, with peaks even higher. The new EVGA SuperNova 1000G2 is perfect for your situation:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $149.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-04 15:56 EDT-0400)

Great price, and superb quality built by Super Flower.

Thanks for the help. If I were to stick to one GPU would you still recommend the 290x or would you go Nvidia?

 

[BleedingEdgeTek]

It's honestly a toss up. NVIDIA has been historically more stable/reliable in terms of performance, whereas AMD cards vary (sometimes wildly) in performance based on drivers and games. A pair of 780 Ti's is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and so are a pair of 290x lol

**Personally** I prefer NVIDIA, and would **personally** get a pair of 780 Ti's, but it's up to you. Both will give you very impressive performance, and a setup with a pair of either of them is able to run High/Ultra in 4k around 50-60 FPS.

Also, if this is strictly for gaming, save yourself a ton of money and skip the 16GB of Dominator RAM, it's a huge waste of money. You can get 1600 or 1866 CAS9 G.Skill or Corsair RAM for half the price, and even cheaper if you get 8GB, as 16GB is overkill for gaming already.

If you do stick with NVIDIA, an 850w is perfect:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£233.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£112.60 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.91 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£91.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.93 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£529.94 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£529.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£92.73 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.88 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1880.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-04 22:07 BST+0100)

 

[sora]

The 290x is right in between a 780 and 780 Ti, so it's definitely something to look at when priced similarly. If you're looking at a crazy high budget like that, I would go dual 290x, but you'll want a great power supply to do that, as an overclocked system with a pair of 290x in Crossfire will top out around 700w+, with peaks even higher. The new EVGA SuperNova 1000G2 is perfect for your situation:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $149.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-04 15:56 EDT-0400)

Great price, and superb quality built by Super Flower.

Thanks for the help. If I were to stick to one GPU would you still recommend the 290x or would you go Nvidia?

Personal preference really... If you want to save money go ahead and get the 290X; the quality isn't bad.

 

[zelfax]

It's honestly a toss up. NVIDIA has been historically more stable/reliable in terms of performance, whereas AMD cards vary (sometimes wildly) in performance based on drivers and games. A pair of 780 Ti's is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and so are a pair of 290x lol

**Personally** I prefer NVIDIA, and would **personally** get a pair of 780 Ti's, but it's up to you. Both will give you very impressive performance, and a setup with a pair of either of them is able to run High/Ultra in 4k around 50-60 FPS.

Also, if this is strictly for gaming, save yourself a ton of money and skip the 16GB of Dominator RAM, it's a huge waste of money. You can get 1600 or 1866 CAS9 G.Skill or Corsair RAM for half the price, and even cheaper if you get 8GB, as 16GB is overkill for gaming already.

If you do stick with NVIDIA, an 850w is perfect:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£233.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£112.60 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.91 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£91.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.93 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£529.94 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£529.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£92.73 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.88 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1880.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-04 22:07 BST+0100)

Cheers Is the Mobo you selected suitable for my needs?

 

[BleedingEdgeTek]

Definitely. It's a solid board that will overclock well with a good cooler. I like that board, as it's not crazy over priced with a bunch of features you'll never use, but still has plenty of features and quality to justify the price point. You could easily save probably a couple hundred quid from the above parts list, but all of those parts are very high quality, and at this budget, I would recommend sticking with high quality parts as well. I wouldn't want something this expensive to be rendered useless for any amount of time due to an RMA lol