I have a big dilemma ... I am building a rig and I found a R9-290 card from Asus (the blower type, not direct CU2)(this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121807 ) obvously it's SH and on the other hand at the same price I could buy a Saphire r9-280x almost new, but it's toxic edition with all the possible enhancements
I could use the help in choosing one of the two ....
Thanks
If you want to save sum cash and get a 280x I'd ditch the toxic and get the 280x windforce or MSI Gaming
The advantage of the toxic is an arguable better cooler and vrm IIRC, is that worth the extra cash? idk
also that link you put shows it discontinued
Personally I'd wait for some more cash to flow through and get a tri-x 290 It's the one I have right now and Its performs VERY well, maxes out every game at 1440p while staying under 80C overclocked
But whatever you do, if you care about sound- do not get a blower style card
yeah the 290 is discontinued and that is one of the alarms that keep me away from it, also the reference cooling
the rig will have to play the new games, but I am not really picky and max settings is not necesary ... for me ....
as far as I could see the windforce is 870Mhz base clock and the saphire is 1100Mhz base clock ..... for me the price on the windforce is only 30$ less than the other ...
good to see refference 290s going our- stock blower coolers on the amd side need to go away
The wind force will have no problem getting up to 1Ghz if you decide to overclock it. Every tahiti and hawaii chip I've touched has been able to hit 1125 on the core (the 290 needs a little bit more voltage though)
Not sure what the prices are like to you but for me it's about $50 difference. It up to you whether that extra Mhz stock it worth it.
Well in the end I got myself a 290X reference cooling ... (new) and I am now waiting for my MB to arrive to assemble the system :D
the reason I bought the reference is because it was really cheap ~290$ and new ...
I'll be back with the results and a "review" after the system is on and working :D
anyway thanks NJM for the help :D
There's rumors of AMD Getting their Shit together with the Reference Coolers.
http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=14379&graphics=Radeon%20R9%20390X&title=Leaked%20R9%20390X%20Image%20Suggests%20AMD%20Readying%20Liquid-Cooled%20Reference%20Design
280x, never buy used video cards!
yes you are right ... used (probably mining) si a big no no ... for amd cards these days
so I got the 290x new/stock cooling and later this year, maybe early next year I'll install some liquid cooling on the card and add one more (if I will find one) :D