Can't decide between a GTX 780 and a R9 290x

I'm building a new PC for a friend and I'm having a hard time deciding between a GTX 780 or a R9 290x. They both cost around the same and both have their strong points.

My friend will be gaming at 1080p and doesn't plan on upgrading to 1440p etc.

Please help me decide how to spend his money.

 

EDIT: Wow! Thank you for all of the responses! I'll definitely talk things over with my friend. The R9 290 is looking more desirable after reading comments and watching videos, but ultimately, it's his wallet. I'll be showing him the thread and we'll see what he decides. Again, thank you for all of the responses!

290x hands down - unless you are talking about the 780ti - then they are closer

get the cheapest one.

Will he have multiple monitors? Will he do anything else other then gaming? 

 

As it stands now I would get the cheapest one as both can runs games great at 1080p.

Neither.  If your friend is only playing at 1080p with a single monitor, then it would be a waste of money to get either the GTX 780 or R9-290X.


Instead I would recommend the R9-290.  It's essentially an R9-290X with some Stream Processors disabled, but it should play any game at Ultra/Max settings.

Wouldn't help if he had a 780/R9-290x to help him from upgrading during a later date? Like future proofing in a way.

My friend will be gaming at 1080p and doesn't plan on upgrading to 1440p etc

I totally see and respect your point about having something left in reserve for the future, but where do you draw the line?

The R9-290 or even R9-280 will easily do do the job of single monitor 1080 ultra high settings, and the saving could go to something that is more likely need to be be upgraded, like storage. 

The highest enthusiast cards devaluate faster than the ones one step below (r9 280 and gtx 770, both can run max settings games on HD res). I bet a 780 will sell for more than a r9 290 2 years from now, especially if next year the new cards will be good.

For 1080p a gtx 780 should max out any game.

An r9 290 is slightly better, r9 290x is needlessly expensive and just a bit faster than the 290 non x. It's the best card at the moment, and it's even better than gtx 780ti on higher resolutions.

I'd flip a coin, to be honest, both have similar featuresets and are very capable gaming cards, at 1080p the observable performance would be identical.

i would say grab a R9-290, it perform arround the same as the R9-290X, for alot less money. In most gaming benchmarks that ive saw online the R9-290 was the winner over a GTX780, but the diffrence is not that big.

But a R9-290 is cheaper then both the 290x and 780, and that makes kinda sense. In my opinnion the R9-290 is just the best bang for buck .

Also not to mention that the R9-290 and R9-290x are not that much slower then the rediculous high priced GTX780Ti, okay at 1080p, the 780Ti is a clear winner, but at 1440P the diffrence is alot smaler between those cards.

So yeah my personal opinnion, the Sapphire R9-290 TriX oc

Grtz Angel ☺

Dude what?!? Your friend is gonna spend $550 dollars on a gpu, but wont spend over $250-$300 for the thing it is powering? IDK if it's just me but that sounds silly right? I mean imagine buying a $500 amp and a $200 guitar, or a $500 dac and $200 headphones, or a $2000 set of rims on my beat up 2001 cavalier. Doesn't seem like the right way to do it does it?

 

Tell your friend to take his gpu budget down to $400-$440ish, get an r9 290, and add the difference to his monitor budget and go 1440p