I'm looking into doing an upgrade for my GPU and I'm wondering which one to get. I just don't really know the nitty gritty of the cards and would like to know if either one has a better price/performance ratio or has any tangible benefits over the other. Any other advice on other good cards around the 500-700 dollar range would be nice.
If you're willing to up to $700, get a 780 Ti. It's the most powerful single GPU card available (other than the Titan Black, but they're basically the same). If you're going to be gaming at high resolutions above 1440p though, the 290x would be better than the 780 Ti.
Personally, between the 780 and 290x, I would go with a 290x. You'd have to make sure you get a model with a good aftermarket cooler (Sapphire Tri-x for example).
If you're looking for really, really good price-performance card, the R9 290 is the best. You can get non reference models for upper $300s to lower $400s, and they compete with the 780 and are not that much slower than a 290x.
If you want some benchmark comparisons:
780 Ti vs 290x: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1072?vs=1059
780 vs 290x: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1036?vs=1059
780 vs 290: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1036?vs=1068
290 vs 290x: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1059?vs=1068
The card that you are looking for that has Unbeatable Price-to-Performance is the R9-290.
The Difference in Performance between the R9-290 to the R9-290x is Next to nothing, with the R9-290x having one or 2 frames ahead of the R9-290 in all games.
for about $420 with the R9-290 you get GTX 780-like Performance. 3 Free Games, Mantle Support which right now 40 games are coming with Mantle, this includes GTA V (if you care for that) and True-Audio.
and for argument sake, most of the Stuff Nvidia is "Offering" by Getting their card has strong potential to be Future "Dead Proprietary Stuff". Phys-X Really doesn't do anything, G-Sync is going to be dead once AMD's Free-Sync comes and makes what G-Sync is offering a STANDARD. and Nvidia Game-stream, Valve already put them in the dirt with their In-Home-Streaming.
What do you guys think would be a good model to get? I'm looking to make a clean and silent set up but I'm kind of unsure as to what I should look for in a GPU as well. Based on what you guys told me I think I might just go with the 290 but I'm just unsure if it's going to sound like a vacuum or not.
Yeah, definitely consider the R9 290 first. Best price/performance in the upper tier.
It very much depends on what cooler you get. Avoid reference models like the plague. Other than that, I couldn't really tell you much on which coolers perform the best and are fairly quiet.
Sapphire's Vapor-X version of the 290 is the best IMO, it has the best cooler and can OC insanely well and because of how nice the cooler is it should run pretty quietly
I've been looking at the XFX 290. It looks nice but I'm unsure about the cooling capabilities of it. I was thinking about getting a reference model and maybe slapping an NZXT G10 on there but I'm pretty unsure about that. Last time I had a push pull configuration it was a tad too loud for my taste.
I've also had my mind set on the MSI 290x Lightning card but I don't really know if the extra 100 dollars is really worth it. I love the design a lot but for 600 dollars? I don't really know.
I'm honestly perfectly okay with a card that's loud under load but if it's loud while idle that's not really something I'd like.
I would be careful with XFX, they have a bad habit of locking voltages so in the even you want to try overclocking you won't get very far.
MSI Lightning is a waste of money unless you're doing LN2 cooling, half of the damn card is over engineered for LN2 cooling. Just get a damn 780ti if you're willing to spend that kind of money.
Any 290 made by Sapphire. While other coolers are good, they have had a few bad batches/ heatsink problems. They may be fixed with later revisions.
Alright, I think I'll pick up a sapphire 290 sometime soon. I really appreciate the help, guys.
Sapphire R9-290 Vapor X
I found the xfx r9 290 was a nice value proposition back when it was 380 dollars and the trix was 420. Now that they both are 400 the r9 290 tri-x is the card to get.
Agreed when it comes to the 290 or 290x Sapphire is the way to go for best cooling, build quality, quality vram and overclocking ability. Most other brands have standard or poor power phasing, vram and unbalanced cooling far as cooling vs sound levels. Sapphire 290 is the winner. Good luck and enjoy!
Gonna echo this. You can't beat r9 290(non-x) bang/buck, and 2 in crossfire really kick ass.
Check out this article, they OC'd a 7950 (r9 280) to match the 7970 (r9 280x) clock speeds and got virtually the same performance: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/34761-amd-hd-7950-vs-hd-7970-clocks/
I recently acquired an MSI R9 290X Gaming Edition, brand new, for $349.99 (no tax + free shipping). From my own benchmarks, I've seen little to no differences compared to the Sapphires and Tri-X's. Non references are the way to go for temperatures though.
The performance at 1080p is superb but not at the same level of a 780 Ti or even a 780. However, the 290X is more futureproof in higher resolutions. I personally would not get the 290 or the Ti. At 2k, 3k, and 4k the 290X is the way to go. The Ti sees little to no boosts at 4k and has come into walls with the lower ram already. At a single card it has playable framerates of 30 and up. Nothing reaches 60, but if 60 is a necessity the 290X, at least my scenario, would xfire at the same price of a 780 Ti and give that 60 fps sweet spot. Source: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/11/geforce_gtx_780_ti_vs_radeon_r9_290x_4k_gaming/1
If you only plan on gaming at 1080p and do not plan on going for a higher resolution before upgrading to a next generation card then get a 780, or the 290 - ONLY IF you can find them cheaper than the 290X as they have comparable performance at 1080p.
My advice would be to look on ebay and amazon for their used sections. They will have reference 290X cards for $300 (manufacture refurb has MSI 290X gaming for $399.00 with 90 day warranty - http://www.ebay.com/itm/271463610376). I recently saw a Tri-X for $400 as well. Making the argument for anything else just meh.
To each his own, but the benchmarks are available. Choose the one that fits your needs and what you plan to do with the card.