Should I get the gtx 970 for £239 or the and r9 290x for £209?
Tough call, especially if you game at 1080p. If you're looking at higher resolutions (1440p and especially 2160p) then the 290x wins easily. For 1080p I'd just stick with whatever has the more attractive features for you. Mantle, True Audio, freesync, etc. for the 290x, or PhysX, shield streaming, G-sync, etc. for the 970. The 970 will also consume less power, if that is a factor for you.
Alternatively you could see if you find an R9 290 for a lower price. It's usually the best price/performance card at the high-end segment and is very close to the 970 (or even beats it) in terms of performance.
Personally I'd go with the 290. It is over $100 cheaper than the 970 and is still fast as hell. Plus you get four free games.
If you can afford the extra 100 for the 970 just do it because skimping out in this stuff can be regretful as i combined a r9 290 with my 6300 that originally had a 7850 and ran 3d mark rank and got 8000 points when others got much more with AMD 3850 processors.
I like my rig but knowing i could be getting a tad more performance when i could has became a pain.
or wait for the next drop by either Nvidia or AMD ... I like it when they do that.
Firstly thanks for the help I really appreciate it, I already have an a10 7850k a fatality motherboard and a corsair 750watt power supply and I could get a1000watt power supply and if I went for the nvidea option I would need a new course and motherboard which would cost an extra £140 and I whunt to go with sli or crossfire so what do you think?
I agree with Norhellas the 970 will consume less power compared to the 290X with comparable performance, but the 300 series from AMD.......
http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=14565&graphics=Radeon%20R9%20390X
In my limited knowledge (via the slow leaks) so far it will offer 9series power consumption with a far greater efficiency/clock potential.
And as the World slowly heads towards more Open Source AMD is the more intelligent choice. *Disclaimer* this may not happen in the next couple of years though