Need the best amd gpu for 1440p at about the same price as a 970

Hardware Hub GPU
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Okay so here is the deal, I had a windforce oc version of 970 but due to drivers clogging up my pc, I was literally unusable. I had bugs like missing windows textures http://postimg.org/image/zbdomw0tz/ and after a while any new opening window would just be black.

After some tinkering (including a fresh install of windows with a HDD wipe) I had no results, so I ended up returning the card. After also hearing Logan complain about nvidia's support for linux I decide to for AMD.

Since the R9 and R7 series came out I sorta lost track of cards on the AMD side. I was thinking about the r9 290 or 290x and I need some advise on price to performance on both of those, plus some actual card recommendations (I don't need anything too fancy, just good performance/overclock-ability). Oh and I also need it to perform decently on 1440p (I will probably be playing mostly csgo and bf4/3 and some other pc friendly titles) and about the same price as a 970.

If you have any better ideas in mind I would greatly appreciate them.

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I have a sapphire r9 290 tri-x oc arriving tomorrow I'll let you know my first impressions

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The R9 290 will be fine. Pick one up that's been used by miners- they're cheap, and still reliable enough. Do try to get one with an aftermarket cooler though- my reference 290 at 100% is literally louder than the vacuum cleaner.

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Gigabyte R9 290X (windforce) or sapphire tri-x are propably the best 290X's out there around the same price with 970. Sapphire vapor-x would be even better but it's usually more expensive too.

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Thanks for the warning XD

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I used to have one of these. Its a fantastic GPU, powerful, cool and silent! You will not be disappointed..

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I did some 1440p benchmarks with my 290 and here are the results

https://teksyndicate.com/users/njm1112/blog/2014/12/24/r9-290-vs-gtx980-fx635045ghz-1440p-benchmarks

If you have a better CPU you'll see even better results

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I have a single r9 290 trix OC by sapphire,  I game at 1440, and do not see many issues with games. So far the only game I have seen any kind of bad performance in was Mirrors edge, Screen tearing, but i turned it down to 1080 and then no probs. I have an i5 4690k @ 4.4 GHz though, so Im not bottlenecking at all. Make sure youre doing somehting similar. Also, I believe Sapphire ships out thier pre OC'ed cards at higher OC than the others, so if you dont want to Oc them yourself then getting a pre OCed card could benefit you.

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Is there any difference between saphire r9 290 tri x and vapour x..... Found vapour x £10 cheaper. 

By the way thanks for all of the feedback guys :D

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short answer the vapour X is the better cooler. difference my be minute but it is better.

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Just got mine up and running. I'm a fan, so far so good. That being said it is super long, I measured, but it just barely fits.

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sexy

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R9 290 will handle most games at 1440p ultra, some like BF4 you might need high instead

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Sapphire 290X TriX OC or Vapor X

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yeah i thought about that but ended up going with tri-x because i found it on a big almost £50 on amazon

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Oh and one more thing, I've got an 550W PSU, I know it might be a bit of a stretch but can i run with it at least for now??


I also have a fx 6300 on a asrock 970 extreme 4 motherboard and a couple HDDs

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if your psu is a decent one, then there wont be any problem with that.

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I have an XFX Pro 550W Core Edition 80 Plus Bronze, that should be a decent one, right?

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yeah thats fine.

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i have the msi r9 290x lightning, its a beast of a card and i can recommend it completely