Whats up with the R9 290

[Mojoe134]

Hello i'm picking out parts for a build and i saw the r9 290 at 230$ and i was dumbstruck
I looked on new egg and saw that it wasn't dropping from the 340$ price range it was previously at.
Whats also weird is that the R9 280x isn't dropping at all.
Will the price stay there or move up? I know that this is because of the competition with the GTX 970 so will the GTX 970 price drop as well? I need to know quick before this sale ends and if the GTX970 is going to drop.

 

[Andres de Groot]

The GTX970 is NOT going to drop in price because everyone wants that card and it`s new.

BUT on the other hand the R9 290 is almost as fast (sometimes even faster with amd games) and is a great buy (cheap) at the moment😀

So if money is inportend to you I go for the R9 290 BUT if you can miss the cash I choose the Gtx970 because It needs less power en is not so hot as the R9 290.

But you are 100% happy with both cards.

 

[Mojoe134]

The GTX970 is NOT going to drop in price because everyone wants that card and it`s new.

BUT on the other hand the R9 290 is almost as fast (sometimes even faster with amd games) and is a great buy (cheap) at the moment😀

So if money is inportend to you I go for the R9 290 BUT if you can miss the cash I choose the Gtx970 because It needs less power en is not so hot as the R9 290.

But you are 100% happy with both cards.

oh i also saw something interesting, on pcpartpicker everyone seemed fine with the powercolor cards under the 240$ price range. But on Newegg the reviews were terrible. The R9 290 seems unreliable and unpolished from 20! 1 egg reviews on the site. Do you think i should go with a GTX 970 or try the r9 290 but also either way i'm not going to put together the parts until around Christmas time.

 

[iron8orn]

A lot of the r9 290 tend to run pretty warm and the Sapphire tri-x seems to be the best at staying cool. The temps are really not so worrying when you consider the 95c max.

 

[Mojoe134]

A lot of the r9 290 tend to run pretty warm and the Sapphire tri-x seems to be the best at staying cool. The temps are really not so worrying when you consider the 95c max.

I'm not overclocking or doing anything to care about the heat i just care about how long it'll last me before breaking down and/or it hitting jumps or turbulence in the game.

 

[iron8orn]

I would say if you can get a Gigabyte Windforce or Sapphire Tri-X for a good price go for it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728.html

 

[aztec_scribe]

I just bought a stock cooler equipped R9 290 for 190 euros (so around 230 dollars), I haven't had chance to game with it but I was suppressed by the lack of fan noise coming from my rig when I tested it this morning (just windows boot up and driver install).

I'm hoping driver updates have improved the stock coolers acoustics but for that price (Europe is more expensive for GFX cards) even if I have to by an arctic cooling fan it's a great competitor to the GTX 970.

I'll get back to you on the acoustics during game play tonight.

 

[iron8orn]

reference?

 

[Carl Blance]

If you do get a r9 290 tri-x temps go upto 80 celcius for me, but I have EATX case, and a lot of fans (plus fan controller which is pretty shit xD) so you gotta figure out if you have a good cooling system for it.

 

[aztec_scribe]

So I just had a quick half hour game (COD AW maxed out) with my new 290 and the fan noise was a little high even in my Define R2 case which is padded to lower acoustics. It wasn't a deal breaker though.

As for heat: during that (admittedly short) session it didn't go over 70c according to HWMonitor. I'm going to really push it tonight though when I play my seriously heavily modded Skyrim so that will be the real test.

@iron8orn: are you asking me for references? I didn't reference anything other than my own experiences.

 

[aztec_scribe]

The card is great even if it's a little loud (Though I couldn't really hear it with my game sounds coming out of the speakers). It did reach the top end of 95c though which means it must have throttled back the clock as some points but it didn't cause any noticeable difference in game.

I'm please with my purchase but the real test will be GTA 5 in January.

 

[iron8orn]

You must have got the reference model if you hit 95c should get a aftermarket cooler for it.

 

[aztec_scribe]

Yeah just bought the Arctic cooling aftermarket cooler for it and will be installing it this weekend in preparation for GTA 5.

Far Cry 4 is also playing nicely on very high with some ultra settings, unfortunately at ultra settings it played seemingly well but after about 20 minutes I got so serious artefacts on screen. Here's hoping the new coolers prevents this from happening again.

 

[Mojoe134]

Yeah just bought the Arctic cooling aftermarket cooler for it and will be installing it this weekend in preparation for GTA 5.

Far Cry 4 is also playing nicely on very high with some ultra settings, unfortunately at ultra settings it played seemingly well but after about 20 minutes I got so serious artefacts on screen. Here's hoping the new coolers prevents this from happening again.

im so bad at responding at a timely fashion, sorry but what do you mean by an artifact?

 

[aztec_scribe]

Yeah just bought the Arctic cooling aftermarket cooler for it and will be installing it this weekend in preparation for GTA 5.

Far Cry 4 is also playing nicely on very high with some ultra settings, unfortunately at ultra settings it played seemingly well but after about 20 minutes I got so serious artefacts on screen. Here's hoping the new coolers prevents this from happening again.

im so bad at responding at a timely fashion, sorry but what do you mean by an artifact?

Artefacts (in the PC gaming scene) are when you get images on the screen that clearly shouldn't be there. Often they can be stretched out textures (out of the boundary of the object they are meant to be on) or straight red, green or/and blue lines that shoot out from objects in the game.

Since that last post I've turned off "ambient occlusion" and "god rays" (two settings in game) and haven't had the problem again. Still it sucks to have to turn off graphical features with an expensive rig like mine 🙁