Which R9 290X shall i get?

Samiul Islam

Honorable
Dec 20, 2013
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I am planning to get an R9 290X but i know that are are many and more more being released such as the MSI twinfrozr version. which shall i get?
 
My choice would be (if you are not on a particular budget) the Sapphire Vapor-X. It is the coolest running 290X and also the quietest, and it over clocks like crazy. It is a custom PCB and 10 phase VRM and is built with all premium parts to either allow a lot of extra voltage to overclock safely, or to help the card last a very long time at stock clocks. The GPU chips they used are the highest binned chips you can get on a Sapphire card sold in the U.S. (They have a very limited edition Toxic version not available in the U.S. which is the highest end card they make and these chips are one bin down from that) I would recommend a Google search of a few reviews, as it seems all the sites I've read rave about this card. It also seems there are 2 different SKU versions, one with 1030mhz stock clocks which is what you will find on Newegg, and a 1080mhz stock clock that can be found on Amazon. I personally am getting the R9 290 version of this same card for an upcoming build. It has equal performance to a reference 290X for a lot less money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202110&cm_re=r9_290x_vapor_x-_-14-202-110-_-Product

Another option you could consider is to get the cheapest reference 290X you can find and go with the Corsair HG10 bracket (not available until August) and watercool it with an AIO like the H80.
 
wow, I apologize, as I had not read about that card yet. That card looks to be a madman! Just going by the first review I looked up, it seems like it runs a couple of degrees cooler and is a few db quieter than the Sapphire at factory clocks, but the Lightning looks like it was never intended to run a factory clocks... that thing is begging for a waterblock and some ungodly OC's. Again, I only saw the one review since you mentioned it, but on the factory air I saw that they hit 1180mhz on the core and I have seen the Sapphire swing anywhere between 1140-1200 depending on the website. But thank you for pointing it out! I'm going to do some more reading for sure!