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

[rhodesgamer]

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

 

[babernet_1]

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.

Yes, please do give us an update. I hope to get a pair of them in the near future.

 

[unknownofprob]

better materials?, they use most of the time the same, it's the way they are designed and placed that make the difference.

Some use copper and some alumininum.

for R9 290 series, all use the same materials.

 

[nyxanna]

Hey,

I was actually in the exactly same boat as you just one week ago.
The R9 290 is an extremely good choice and the most price efficient graphics card right now. Also don't worry about the GTX 780 since the R9 290 is actually faster than the GTX 780.

You are right that the Twin Frozr and Sapphire card are the 2 best 290 cards.

However the Sapphire R9 290 Tri X OC is slightly better due to it being the coolest. Don't listen to people who want to tell you that the Twin Frozr is "nearly" as good at cooling because it's simply not true. If you really care about the card being as cool as possible buy the Sapphire one. It is true that it is noisier but I honestly don't find it noisy at all.
Either one of these cards are a good choice so if you don't want to worry about the space or "noise" then go with the MSI one.
My card never goes above 70 C even at 100% GPU usage.

 

[babernet_1]

Hey,

I was actually in the exactly same boat as you just one week ago.
The R9 290 is an extremely good choice and the most price efficient graphics card right now. Also don't worry about the GTX 780 since the R9 290 is actually faster than the GTX 780.

You are right that the Twin Frozr and Sapphire card are the 2 best 290 cards.

However the Sapphire R9 290 Tri X OC is slightly better due to it being the coolest. Don't listen to people who want to tell you that the Twin Frozr is "nearly" as good at cooling because it's simply not true. If you really care about the card being as cool as possible buy the Sapphire one. It is true that it is noisier but I honestly don't find it noisy at all.
Either one of these cards are a good choice so if you don't want to worry about the space or "noise" then go with the MSI one.
My card never goes above 70 C even at 100% GPU usage.

Keep in mind there is the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290. It has a vapor chamber above the GPU making the cooling even better. It runs 5 to 10 degrees cooler at a given fan speed. So, this would be quieter than anything else. The rest of the Vapor-X is the same as the Tri-X, same three fans, same huge fins etc.

 

[joselo025]

powercolor pcs+

 

[rhodesgamer]

Alright so I just got the card in today and ran a few benchmarks with it. On both Uningine's Heaven and Valley benchamarks I was getting a minimum of 25 fps and a maximum of up to 120 fps with all of the settings turned up as high as it would go. From those two benchmarks the card didn't seem to pass 74 degrees Celsius, which for a card this powerful is pretty good, yeah?

There is one thing, however. When the card was idling before I ran the benchmarks the temperature seemed to stay around the mid 30's, but afterwards when the card went back to idling I had a heck of a time trying to get the temperature down below 45. I'm not positive about this but I'm guessing it's because this card goes down to 1 fan being used when it's not doing anything, which would lead to the temps not going down as fast as I would like. Hopefully this is the case, because with 4 fans (not including the PSU), my case should in theory have plenty of air flow.

So all-in-all everything seems to be within acceptable ranges, we'll just have to see where the temperatures go in the future. I have yet to run Crysis 3, that will be the REAL test.

 

[terry4536]

You should be able to customize the cooling to your liking.

How is the noise?

 

[rhodesgamer]

You should be able to customize the cooling to your liking.

How is the noise?

To be honest I couldn't even hear the thing during the benchmarks. Super quiet.