Actually not the same price, it was like $40 more, but still.
Why would anybody do this? He had a 1200W Plat rated PSU as well, so it's not like he couldn't run it.
He gets mad when I call him an Nvidia fanboy as well due to that decision.
Well that argument would make you seem like an AMD Fanboy as well, so there's not much of a discussion that should be had. There's an old saying "Don't argue with fools, Because people from a distance can't tell who's who." Personally i would of choose the R9-295x2 just so i wouldn't have to upgrade for a LONG while. but if he doesn't want to deal with the Power consumption and heat then i don't see why someone wouldn't grab "the Newest Tech" but there are many reasons to grab Nvidia over, AMD, similarly with AMD, there are many reasons to grab AMD over Nvidia, what you have to understand is what YOU believe is the best for you. and in this case if he wants to have low-power consumption, less heat, and insane performance, who are you to demand what someone should do with their money. all you can do is just say "here's why you should get this" if someone disagrees you can't get mad. just move on.
Power had nothing to do with it, and he asked for my opinion.
He was upgrading from a 680 and I told him it would be better if he got a 970 instead of a 980. But he wanted the most powerful out right now. Which is undoubtedly the 295x2 by far and just had a $800 price drop.
If he has a compatible PSU, and he is going for the most powerful single card... how does a 980 make any sense? It's like not even in the same league, the single 290x seems to be gaining on the 980 in recent games.
Also, the 295x2 runs way cooler than the 980 and the 980 doesn't provide "insane" performance. It's barely faster than a 780Ti.
Because the GTX 980 is new and Powerful that's why. Not everyone wants to deal with Crossfire, which yes it has gotten a lot better than SLI but still there are issues with it and not everyone want's to deal with that. including the power-consumption of a 500w GPU. it doesn't matter how cool the card runs. once again, why are you so upset with your friend's decision. it's not YOUR MONEY. all you can do is say "here's why i believe you should get this" if he doesn't want to listen, MOVE ON.
wow 800 dollars do they ship internationally ??here i can only find it at 1700 euros !!!!
To be clear, you aren't talking about the gtx 295 are you? Because that is the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe he just doesn't like crossfire/sli. Multiple gpu's are great when the work together, but you will always experience problems with them at some point.
I did the same thing - and here is why
I hate amd drivers
I dont want a space heater
I dont have room for another radiator in my case
I dont like the looks of the 295x2
The other factor for me was that the vast majority of games I play are optimized for nVidia not amd. I dont have anything against amd ( I used to have a pair of hd6950's in xfire) but the 980 was the better card for my needs.
What do you hate about the drivers? Because I understand if you hate the driver GUI. I'd argue that it's objectively worse than nVidia's GUI. However, with the 14.12 drivers, in terms of features AMD and nVidia are almost identical, and in terms of performance they're very good.
I haven't used an AMD card in 1.5 years (HD 6870's in crossfire), but as of that point their crossfire support was dog sh*t. When you've invested $400+ into gpu's and get poor performance because of the sorry state of the drivers, it takes some time to get that taste out of your mouth.
http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Graphics-Card/AMD-Graphics-Card/RADEON-R9-295X2-Series/Sapphire-Radeon-R9-295X2-8192-MB-GDDR5::27080.html
762€
there are even cheaper on other sites
Well now it's as easy as SLI , comparing a gtx 670 sli vs R9 290 , the only problems I had where heat , no actual driver issues .
I prefer AMD drivers, but opinion is opinion. So that is valid.
295x2 runs way cooler than the 980.
The radiator point is 100% valid and I understand your choice there.
I don't see why looks are worth around 2x the performance.
And even gameworks games still run way better on the 295x2, just go look at any benchmarks.
If the 980 is powerful, than the 295x2 is god. Even if you get a game with zero crossfire support, you are still playing the game with an OC'd 290x which has actually beat the 980 on recent games at 4k.
Like I said earlier, power was an issue at all. And you give me a point that the 980 runs cooler, and I retort and you say it doesn't matter now? wat.
I personally would have chosen the R9 295x2, but that's just me. Many people shy away from CF or SLI but from my recent experience there's no real reason to. As long as it scales reasonably well it's definitely worth the upgrade. A single R9 290x is already a great card and a decent competitor to the 980, 2 of them destroy the 980 in pure performance. The only non-fanboy reasons (if you want to call it that) to get the 980 in your friends' case would be: strong dislike against water cooling, invested in the Nvidia eco-system (owning a shield and a g-sync monitor, for example), needs specific Nvidia-features, lives in a really hot region, doesn't have an appropriate PSU. But that's about it if you ask me. What were his reasons for choosing it?
He didn't have a single reason.
first off you need to check your sources.
A 290x does NOT beat an GTX 980 in 4K benchmarks. its really close though. if it truly did beat the 980, AMD wouldn't have needed to drop the prices of the Hawaii GPU's twice now would they? and you really must be incapable of understanding that Temperature IS an issue..
an R9-295x2 has to be water-cooled to keep the damn card cool. not Everyone has a Massive PSU in their disposal. some of us use a 650w or an 850w. and also NOT everyone likes to use a massive case. and once again NOT EVERYONE likes to deal with Crossfire. there is no other way to slice this cake. if someone doesn't like having a Dual-GPU that is water-cooled. and would rather want a Single GPU card that runs on air, uses less power, and is powerful, THEY ARE GOING TO GO with a GTX 980. that is it.
again for the final time, stop being upset with your friends decision, its not your money. if he likes Nvidia better why are you complaining about it? he asked for your opinion and decided not to listen. then just move on. you are blowing this issue way out of proportion.
They have awesome bundles thank you .
well its his money.... if he feels more comfortable with an Nvidia card, then yeah why not?
I dont realy see a reason to discuss about that uphere. ☺
I've had no problems with AMD drivers either. But remember:
295x2 TDP is much higher - it runs cooler, but the heat is still dumped out of the case, into your room. Some people don't want a heater.
What a noob!@