Which R9 290 (non X) Would Be the Best?

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rhodesgamer

rhodesgamer

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Jul 7, 2012
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So I've been seriously considering the 280X for a long time now, but had to hold off because of the ridiculous price fluctuations that the bitcoin miners caused. Now that the prices have stabilized again I was all set to get the Asus 280X DirectCUII, but then someone told me to seriously consider the 290 (non X), considering that the 280X is just a beefed up 7970 and probably not as "future proof" as i would like.

So I start researching the R9 290s and have come down to two choices. In my opinion if I get a 290 it will be between the MSI Gaming R9 290 or the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X. Now, while everyone has been ranting and raving about the Tri-X for noise and temperature, I just can't get over the size of the thing. I have a pretty decent size mid tower case, but if I wanted to get the Tri-X I would have to take out like half of my drive bays. Then I look at the MSI version and it seems to be pretty good to be honest. The temepratures seem to reach the high 70's while under load and it doesn't seem that loud, and it's not 12 inches, which is a definite plus.

So I would like to ask you fine gentlemen (and ladies), out of these two which would you opt for, taking into consideration my limitations on space. Feel free to suggest other 290s but I found that these two will probably be my best bet. And please don't just say, get a 780 bro! So much better NVIDIA rocks huur hurr! That thing is like 70+ more dollars, I ain't having none of that.

Oh and the cooling in my case right now is one 140mm front intake, one 140mm back exhaust, one 140mm top exhaust, and I also have my PSU fan inside the case so it's also sucking air out of the case. I'm probably going to get another 140mm to put on the front for another intake to even things out a little as well. So with all this air flow the temperatures on the 290 should not be a problem right?

Specs:
Intel i5-3570k
Asus P8Z77 V-Pro
Corsair AX860 80+ Platinum
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB
Sapphire 7850 1 GB
Fractal Arc Midi R2 Case <--------this is why size is an issue, but its cooling is sooo good
 
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Just go for it and get the best board out there. Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290. May have to remove half your drive bays, but the silent, cool, massive overclocking will be worth it. That vapor chamber drops the temp of the TRI-X by 5 to 10 degrees.
 
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I'm trying to find the differences between the Tri-X and Vapor-X. There's a $30 difference between the two so there should be some noticeable differences right?
 
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Really? I haven't seen any reviews that have said that. Would you be able to point me to the ones you are referencing?
 
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I think he is referencing to people buying AMD card for mining which the mining has caused the fan failures. Not the card itself but the user who bought them and left them at 100% fan speed mining....
 
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There were some scattered reviews from the various r7 / r9 series Twin Frozr cards on newegg, also ran across a couple random posts while trying to decide what 290 card to buy for myself.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=178153.0 -read down the page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auz-hRo4x54
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1x1ovc/msi_r9_280x_cant_maintain_a_good_temperature_even/
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=385278
 
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If the post on the msi forum can be believed, then it looks like msi has fixed the problem. Or I could get really unlucky and get one of the older 290s that still had that problem.
 
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But in all seriousness, if I told you guys that I really didn't like the idea of having to remove half of my hard drive bays to fit in a monster GPU, then would it be safe to assume that the MSI R9 290 Gaming is one of the best in the bunch?
 
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the R9 290 and GTX 780 are arguably better to different people, comes down to who do you like, but both perform quite the same at 1080p, above that, the R9 290 does do better at higher resolutions due to the extra Vram and also has the better chance to suffice ultra gaming for longer.
 
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I believe the major differences are in the heatpipes and the heatsink materials. The Vapor-X uses better materials for heat transfer.
 
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Now let me just run something by you guys before I pull the trigger on this. I was originally going to get a 280X, so do you think that for $130 more the performance of the 290 is worth it over the 280X?
 
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And what if (god forbid) I get a defective card? Will Newegg give me a return or will I have to keep doing RMA after RMA until I get one that works. Newegg has always been pretty stingy with their return policies as far as I'm aware. Amazon has a much better return policy, but the Vapor-X on their site is $30 more expensive than Newegg, so I'm not sure if that's worth it.
 
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It depends on the game and resolution you are at. With 1920X1080, the R9 290 may be about 10% faster, but with a 4K display, it will be about 25% faster.
 
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Alright I decided to get the R9 290 Vapor-X. Hopefully this bad boy keeps me going for at least two years, fingers crossed. Thanks for all the help. I might even come back once I get it to do a status update.
 
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